ENTRY 17 REDEEM

What is the definition of Redemption?

What does it mean to be redeemed?

A “Fallen Condition” was created when Adam and Eve were cut off from the presence of God.  They were cast out of the Garden of Eden when they transgressed the law of God.  A Savior was designated by God to remedy the man and woman from the fallen condition and bring them back into the presence of God.  The restoration of the relationship between the fallen man and woman is the meaning of redemption.  Returning back into the presence of God is the recovery from this fallen condition.  The Savior will lead you back into the presence of the Father.  This means that finding the Savior is your highest priority as you wander in this dark and lonesome world.  Finding the Savior is the way you will overcome the Fall.  When the Savior appears to you, He will teach you all things that you need to do to overcome this corrupt world.  If you will do those things he will ask of you, then He will take you by the hand and bring you into the presence of the Father who is God.  When Christ presents you to God then at that moment you will be Redeemed. 

Therefore the meaning of Redemption is to be restored into the presence of God.

These things are literal.
It is intended that you accomplish this in this mortal life.

 Below are some scriptures which explain these things:

 The Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon teaches that the meaning of redeemed is to be brought into the presence of Christ.

11 And the Lord said unto him: Believest thou the words which I shall speak?
12 And he answered: Yea, Lord, I know that thou speakest the truth, for thou art a God of truth, and canst not lie.
13 And when he had said these words, behold, the Lord showed himself unto him, and said: Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I show myself unto you.
14 Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters. (Ether 3:11-14)

Doctrine and Covenants

Revelations in more recent times also show that seeing the face of the Jesus Christ and conversing with Him is how we are to be Redeemed.  This is why He is called “The Redeemer”.

 1 Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am;

2 And that I am the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world;

3 And that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one—
4 The Father because he gave me of his fulness, and the Son because I was in the world and made flesh my tabernacle, and dwelt among the sons of men.
5 I was in the world and received of my Father, and the works of him were plainly manifest.
6 And John saw and bore record of the fulness of my glory, and the fulness of John’s record is hereafter to be revealed.
7 And he bore record, saying: I saw his glory, that he was in the beginning, before the world was;
8 Therefore, in the beginning the Word was, for he was the Word, even the messenger of salvation—
9 The light and the Redeemer of the world; the Spirit of truth, who came into the world, because the world was made by him, and in him was the life of men and the light of men.
10 The worlds were made by him; men were made by him; all things were made by him, and through him, and of him.  (D&C 93:1-10)

OLD TESTAMENT

The story of Moses is makes a more compelling case in convincing us that it is necessary to return into the actual presence of God while in this life, however I selected a quote from Isaiah to demonstrate that God has been trying to get us to understand that He wants to speak to us directly.  He does not speak in secret.  Even from the beginning He has been speaking to us openly if we will pay attention.  He will teach us.

16 ¶Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me.

17 Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
19 Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.
20 ¶Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob.
21 And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
22 There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked. (Isaiah 48:16-22)

NEW TESTAMENT

Notice in the following counsel how Christ links the concept of “living” with seeing Him.

15 ¶If ye love me, keep my commandments.

16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.
30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. (John 14:15-31)

Doctrine and Covenants

And again here is another witness that these things are intended literally and not figuratively.

John 14:23—The appearing of the Father and the Son, in that verse, is a personal appearance; and the idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man’s heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false. (Doctrine and Covenants 130:3)