d they return.
They were informed that they would have to lose their Eden
home. They had yielded to Satan’s deception and believed the
word of Satan, that God would lie. By their transgression they
had opened a way for Satan to gain access to them more readily,
and it was not safe for them to remain in the garden of Eden,
lest in their state of sin, they gain access to the tree of life, and
perpetuate a life of sin. They entreated to be permitted to remain,
although they acknowledged that they had forfeited all right to
blissful Eden. They promised that they would in the future yield
to God implicit obedience. They were informed that in their
fall from innocence to guilt, they gained no strength but great
weakness. They had not preserved their integrity while they were
in a state of holy, happy innocence, and they would have far less
strength to remain true and loyal in a state of conscious guilt.
They were filled with keenest anguish and remorse. They now
realized that the penalty of sin was death.
Angels were commissioned to immediately guard the way of
the tree of life. It was Satan’s studied plan that Adam and Eve
should disobey God, receive his frown, and then partake of the
tree of life, that they might perpetuate a life of sin. But holy
angels were sent to debar their way to the tree of life. Around
these angels flashed beams of light on every side, which had the
appearance of glittering swords.
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Chapter IV. - The Plan of
Salvation.
Sorrow filled Heaven, as it was realized that man was lost, and
the world that God created was to be filled with mortals doomed
to misery, sickness, and death, and there was no way of escape
for the offender. The whole family of Adam must die. I saw the
lovely Jesus, and beheld an expression of sympathy and sorrow
upon his countenance. Soon I saw him approach the exceeding
bright light which enshrouded the Father. Said my accompanying
angel, He is in close converse with his Father. The anxiety of the
angels seemed to be intense while Jesus was communing with
his Father. Three times he was shut in by the glorious light about
the Father, and the third time he came from the Father his person
could be seen. His countenance was calm, free from all perplexity
and trouble, and shone with benevolence and loveliness, such as
words cannot express. He then made known to the angelic host
that a way of escape had been made for lost man. He told them
that he had been pleading with his Father, and had offered to give
his life a ransom, and take the sentence of death upon himself,
that through him man might find pardon; that through the merits
of his blood, and obedience to the law of God, they could have
the favor of God, and be brought into the beautiful garden, and
eat of the fruit of the tree of life.
At first the angels could not rejoice, for their commander
concealed nothing from them, but opened before them the plan
of salvation. Jesus
45
told them that he would stand between the wrath of his Father and
guilty man, that he would bear iniquity and scorn, and but few
would receive him as the Son of God. Nearly all would hate and
reject him. He would leave all his glory in Heaven, appear upon
earth as a man, humble himself as a man, become acquainted by
his own experience with the various temptations with which man
would be beset, that he might know how to succor those who
should be tempted; and that finally, after his mission as a teacher
should be accomplished, he would be delivered into the hands
of men, and endure almost every cruelty and suffering that Satan
and his angels could inspire wicked men to inflict; that he should
die the cruelest of deaths, hung up between the heavens and the
earth as a guilty sinner; that he should suffer dreadful hours of
agony, which even angels could not look upon, but would vail
their faces from the sight. Not merely agony of body would he
suffer; but mental agony, that with which bodily suffering could
in no wise be compared. The weight of the sins of the whole
world would be upon him. He told them he would die, and rise
again the third day, and should ascend to his Father to intercede
for wayward, guilty man.
The angels prostrated themselves before him. They offered
their lives. Jesus said to them that he should by his death save
many; that the life of an angel could not pay the debt. His life
alone could be accepted of his Father as a ransom for man. Jesus
also told them that they should have a part to act, to be with
him, and at different times strengthen him. That he should take
man’s fallen nature, and his strength would not be even equal with
theirs. And they should
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be witnesses of his humiliation and great sufferings. And as they
should witness his sufferings, and the hate of men towards him,
they would be stirred with the deepest emotions, and through
their love for him, would wish to rescue and deliver him from his
murderers; but that they must not interfere to prevent anything
they should behold; and that they should act a part in his
resurrection; that the plan of salvation was devised, and his Father
had accepted the plan.
With a holy sadness Jesus comforted and cheered the angels,
and informed them that hereafter those whom he should redeem
would be with him, and ever dwell with him; and that by his
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death he should ransom many, and destroy him who had the
power of death. And his Father would give him the kingdom,
and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, and
he should possess it forever and ever. Satan and sinners should
be destroyed, never more to disturb Heaven, or the purified new
earth. Jesus bade the heavenly host be reconciled to the plan
that his Father accepted, and rejoice that fallen man could be
exalted again through his death, to obtain favor with God and
enjoy Heaven.
Then joy, inexpressible joy, filled Heaven. And the heavenly
host sung a song of praise and