Parable of the

Talents & Pre-earth Decisions

The New Testament

Matthew 25, Alma 13“Teach Of Me”

February 15, 2009

Quiz

1. Alma 13— “…being called and prepared from the _________ __ ___ ____.”

2. What 3 parables are in Matt 25? 3. How many talents was the first

man given? 4. How many “foolish virgins”? 5. Matt 25:34, who is the king? 6. (ec) Who is Alma speaking to?

Keys to Understanding the Parables

1. Parables often conceal rather than reveal the doctrine

2. Parables often teach the doctrine of the Atonement

3. Parables are best understood when their context is understood

4. Parables are often a microcosm of the plan of Salvation

Dfggfdg

Our understanding

God’s understanding

Elder Neal A. MaxwellTrying to comprehend the trials and meaning of this life without understanding Heavenly Father’s marvelously encompassing plan of salvation is like trying to understand a three-act play while seeing only the second act. Fortunately, our knowledge of the Savior, Jesus Christ, and His Atonement helps us to endure our trials and to see purpose in suffering and to trust God for what we cannot comprehend.

Neal A. Maxwell, “Enduring Well,” Ensign, Apr. 1997, 7

Matthew 25:14-30

Context? vs 14--“Kingdom of heaven is as…”

Symbols: Lord of the servants = God Servants = all of us Talents = gifts and abilities

What is a talent worth? $ 2.5 millionTalents: we get more than we realize

Parable of Talents

Matthew 25:14-30

Verse 21, 23 Maxwell: Enduring to the end

God does not ask our ability, but our availability. If we improve our dependability, He will increase our capability.

Parable of Talents

Bruce R. McConkie

It is an eternal law of life that men either progress or retrogress; they either increase their talents and abilities, or those they have wither and die. No one stands still; there is no such thing as pure neutrality.

DNTC 1:689 Alma 12:9-11What about apostates?

Joseph SmithAt the conclusion of the Prophet’s remarks, Isaac Behunnin, a member of the Church stated: “If I should leave this Church, I would not do as those men have done - I would go to some remote place where Mormonism had never been heard of settle down, and no one would ever learn that I knew anything about it.”

To which Joseph Smith replied: “Brother Behunnin, you don’t know what you would do. No doubt these men once thought as you do. Before you joined this Church you stood on neutral ground. When the gospel was preached good and evil were set before you. You could choose either or neither.

There were two opposite masters inviting you to serve them. When you joined this Church you enlisted to serve God. When you did that you left the neutral ground, and you never can get back on to it. Should you forsake the Master you enlisted to serve, it will be by the instigation of the evil one, and you will follow his dictation and be his servant.”The Juvenile Instructor, Vol. XXVII, 1892, p. 492Does that mean we can’t

change?

Matthew 25:14-30

Verse 29 Our path in life might be bumpy and windy. We just need to make sure our path is leading to the exit of life, and the entrance to exaltation.

Parable of Talents

Matthew 25:24-25Parable of Talents

Our spiritual garden

Our spiritualgarden

Kingdom of God on earth

Matthew 25:24-25

We were given a piece of land by Heavenly Father

He has not sowed (planted) it

Expects a harvest

He gives you tools needed to help the harvest (spiritual growth) increase

Parable of Talents

Matthew 25:24-25

Prayer, fasting, bearing all things: Mosiah 3:19

Parable of Talents

What are the “tools”? Result?

Matthew 25:24-25Parable of Talents

Mosiah 2:17: Service

What if your spiritual garden is full?

Matthew 25:25

“I was afraid and hid thy talent” Result?

Parable of Talents

Talent?

Gifts, growth, needs met

James E. TalmageThe unfaithful servant prefaced his report with a grumbling excuse, which involved the imputation of unrighteousness in the Master. The honest, diligent, faithful servants saw and reverenced in their Lord the perfection of the good qualities which they possessed in measured degree…

Unfaithful Servant

What if talents are few?

James E. Talmage…the lazy and unprofitable serf, afflicted by distorted vision, professed to see in the Master his own base defects. The story in this particular, as in the other features relating to human acts and tendencies, is psychologically true…

Unfaithful Servant

James E. Talmage…in a peculiar sense men are prone to conceive of the attributes of God as comprising in augmented degree the dominant traits of their own nature.

James E. Talmage, JTC 582

Unfaithful Servant

They can’t be as good as God?

Something is missing…Are we not children of

God, to become like

Him?

The spirit of man is not a created being; it existed from eternity, and will exist to eternity. Anything created cannot be eternal; and earth, water, etc., had their existence in an elementary state, from eternity.

Joseph Smith, HC 3:387

We are eternal beings with eternal potentialWhere did we come

from?

MATTER

Intelligence

BodyElement

Spirit“organize”

“organize”

Christ is the Firstborn, meaning that he was the first spirit child born to God the Father in the pre-existence.

Bruce R. McConkie, MD 281

Who was the first one through God to be

organized into intelligence?

Jesus Christ

You are all the sons and daughters of God, your spirits were created and lived as organized intelligences before the world was.

[A spirit] is an organized intelligence.

Harold B. Lee, CR October 1973, p. 7-8; TPC:HBL, p.11Not only created by

intelligence, but given intelligence

Alma 13:2-3 Who had agency?

We had agency in the preexistence

When did agency begin?

Agency began when we were organized as spirits (D&C 93:29)

We could make choices between what?

We could choose good or evil (sin!)

D&C 93:29

Abr. 3:18-19

Alma 13:2-3

D&C 93:29

Abr. 3:18-19

How much agency did we have?

We had varying degrees of faithfulness

(cf. Abr. 3:18-19)

Who was given a “head start” as a spirit?

Even Christ had to learn

We started our preexistence as spirits on the same standing – equal capacity!Why are we so different

from each other on earth?

D&C 93:38There is no such thing as original sin as such is defined in the creeds of Christendom. Such a concept denies the efficacy of the atonement. Our revelation says: 'Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning'—meaning that spirits started out in a state of purity and innocence in preexistence—

D&C 93:38'and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God' (D&C 93:38)—meaning that all children start out their mortal probation in purity and innocence because of the atonement.

Bruce R. McConkie, Ensign, Apr. 1977, p. 4

Why are we so different from each other on

earth?

Bruce R. McConkie

Having their agency, all the spirits of men, while yet in the Eternal Presence, developed aptitudes, talents, capacities, and abilities of every sort, kind, and degree. During the long expanse of life which then was, an infinite variety of talents and abilities came into being. As the ages rolled, no two spirits remained alike. The whole house of Israel…was inclined toward spiritual things.

Mortal Messiah 1:23

Bruce R. McConkie

Men are not born equal. Each person in this life is endowed with those talents and capacities which his pre-earth life entitle him to receive. Some by obedience to law acquired one talent and some another in preexistence, and all bring with them into mortality the talents and capacities acquired there.

DNTC 1:688

So we know this: We start out as spirits:

Innocent – free of sin

Same capacity

We start our mortal life:

Innocent again – free of sin

8 and under cannot be tempted

(CES January 2009)

Different capacities!!!

Harold B. LeeThose born to the lineage of Jacob, who was later to be called Israel, and his posterity, who were known as the children of Israel, were born into the most illustrious lineage of any of those who came upon the earth as mortal beings. All these rewards were seemingly promised, or foreordained, before the world was. Surely these matters must have been determined by the kind of lives we had lived in that pre-mortal spirit world.

Harold B. LeeSome may question these assumptions, but at the same time they will accept without any question the belief that each one of us will be judged when we leave this earth according to his or her deeds during our lives here in mortality. Isn’t it just as reasonable to believe that what we have received here in this earth [life] was given to each of us according to the merits of our conduct before we came here?

Harold B. LeeYou are all the sons and daughters of God. Your spirits were created and lived as organized intelligences before the world was. You have been blessed to have a physical body because of your obedience to certain commandments in that pre-mortal state.

CR October 1973, p. 7–8

1 2 3 4 5 6 JHS / HS College

A

B x

x x

x xxxx

Remedial Math

Algebra IIDegree or Drop out?

Who knows?

Premortal Mortal Post mortal

X = worked hard to improve

Neal A. Maxwell

God does not begin by asking us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability!

Ensign, July 1975, 7

How does God grade or judge us?

According to our works Based on heart’s intent

Samuel 16:7 God's grading is always upward

to a higher spiritual plateau

A man will rise and demand, 'By what right does God choose one race or people above another?' I like that form of the question. It is much better than asking by what right God degrades one people beneath another, although that is implied. God's grading is always upward. If He raises up a nation, it is that other nations may be raised up through its ministry.

If He exalts a great man, an apostle of liberty or science or faith, it is that He might raise a degraded people to a better condition. The divine selection is not [alone] a prize, a compliment paid to the man or the race-it is a burden imposed. To appoint a chosen people is not a pandering to the racial vanity of a 'superior people,' it is a yoke bound upon the necks of those who are chosen for a special service…

…the Lord hath made [Israel] great for what He is going to make [Israel] do.

W. J. Cameron, "Is There a Chosen People?" in James H. Anderson, God's Covenant Race, pp. 300-302.

That is the point of Family History and missionary work---

To bring back His children and help to an exalted state

How does all this explain

where we started in life?

Latter-day Saints further believe that the times, places, and circumstances of birth into mortality may be the outcome of former covenants and decisions as well as that which would be best, in divine wisdom, to provide both opportunities and challenges for the individual's growth and development. Additionally, foreordination may also be based on God's own purposes and plans to bless all of his children.

The specifics of these factors remain unclear. As a result, a person's pre-mortal character can never be judged by his or her present station in life. Some of the most bitter and arduous circumstances may be, in the perspective of eternity, the most blessed, and perhaps even the situations that men and women elected and agreed to enter.

Encyclopedia Mormonism 521

So we know… Based on pre-life experiences

Not be tempted more than we can bear

(1 Corinthians 10:13)

We have potential to become more

our experiences are for our gain

Best choice for our path to exaltation

Comes through FAITH

Common phrase, but that is because it is true

Henry D. MoyleI have a conviction deep down in my heart that we are exactly what we should be, each one of us, except as we may have altered that pattern by deviating from the laws of God here in mortality.

I have convinced myself that we all have those peculiar attributes, characteristics, and abilities which are essential for us to possess in order that we may fulfill the full purpose of our creation here upon this earth. Once again, that allotment which has come to us from God is a sacred allotment.

It is something of which we should be proud, each one of us in our own right, and not wish that we had somebody else's allotment. Our greatest success comes from being ourselves. I think that we can console ourselves best by believing that whatever is our allotment in life, whatever is our call in the priesthood, the Lord has been wise and just,

…and I might add, merciful, in giving to us that which we need to accomplish the particular purpose of our call.

Elder Henry D. Moyle, CR October 1952

Even though life is confusing or hard, find ways to learn

from experience and contemplate what you can

become Kindness can be shown in many ways,

a gift you buy, or debts you pay.

A sweet word to someone blue, or just listening,

to someone’s point of view.

Acts of kindness, should come naturally,

Never noticing what you've done, until its through.

Flowers picked right from the yard, or something you've worked for very hard.

Just taking time to let a loved one know, just how far, for them you'll go.

A complete stranger, in dangers way, your act of kindness they've no need to repay.

Whether its something your asked to do, or just because, you wanted to.

You never know when you’ll be in need, of a sweet and kindly deed.

When an act of kindness comes your way, it brightens up a gloomy day.

So if the chance should come your way, show an act of kindness today!

~Makala Shay

We may not understand all the “whys”, but we can understand the “where’s” regarding our goal of becoming like God.