Chauncey C. Riddle
December 1995
One of the big problems in the life of every human being is to figure out what is going on in this world. Until we have a clue as to the big picture, we cannot act very intelligently. Most of us begin by assuming the perspective and values of our parents. But to become an individual, we must come to choose our perspective and values for ourselves, be they like those of our parents or not. Life usually gives us special learning moments when we are better able to decide such grand things.
There are two kinds of occasions in my life when I see more clearly what is important in life and what is not. One such occasion is the funeral of a good person. As their life is reviewed, perspective comes for me and my life. The other kind of occasion is even more powerful: when I am desperately ill and think that I might die. The prospect of imminent death brings a sense of clarity so that the important and the unimportant are widely separated.
I would now like to crystallize for you the perspective and values which my life experience have brought to me. I do this by way of bearing testimony, and proffer my testimony in the hope that there might be some gain for each of you as you ponder the important questions of life.
My thesis is simple. It is that: Wisdom in life is to pay proper attention to both the things of time and the things of eternity. “Proper attention” means to give both the things of time and the things of eternity their due while keeping the attention given to each in appropriate balance. “Proper attention” also means working at life with all of the intelligence we can muster.
In explanation of this thesis, I will ask and answer a number of questions.
Question No. 1: What are time and eternity?
Eternity is the sum total of our personal existence. Since you and I had no beginning and will have no end, our eternity is forever, and is the same eternity of all other eternal beings. It is useful to know that progress is part of our eternity. We were first intelligences, about which state we know very little. Most of what we know other than that we had no beginning is that there were vast differences in ability and orientation toward good among those of us who were intelligences. Then in the second stage we were blessed by our Heavenly Father and Mother to become their spirit children, acquiring spiritual bodies in the image of their more tangible bodies, and learning from them to do good works. We mortals are now in the third stage of our development, which mortal stage is marked by having another body of flesh, bone and blood added to our spirit body, and now having the opportunity to choose our eternal future for ourselves.
We choose our eternal future by choosing each day, each moment as we desire and choose. We may choose good or we may choose evil. If we choose only good, we will become heirs of all that our Heavenly Father and Mother have and are. If we choose a mixture of good and evil, we fall as short of becoming as Father and Mother because of the evil in which we indulge. No one who comes to mortality chooses only evil, for their was a screening in the premortal existence to keep those who would choose only evil from coming to mortality.
Time is the name for this third stage, the mortal stage. Time is distinctive and precious because in it we have two kinds of choices with which to exercise our agency. We have the choice between doing good or doing evil, which we have always had, but we also have a choice while in mortality to become new creatures in Christ. Were there no Fall and no Christ, we would all simply be rewarded for the choices we make here on the basis of our eternal natures, what we were from the beginning. But there was a Fall and there is a Christ, so our eternal nature is now up for change. The change possible ranges from changing our eternal nature to be remade in the image of Christ Himself to being remade in the image of Satan, the father of lies.
The fourth stage of our eternity will be our resurrected state in which we enjoy for the rest of forever what we have chosen to become in time. Some will have joy, while others who could have had joy will weep and wail and gnash their teeth. Most will be in between, having a measure of happiness, and all they can stand, but not a fullness.
To sum up this answer as to what time and eternity are: Eternity is the envelope of our total existence. Time is this crucial mortal segment of our existence, of our eternity, in which we have the opportunity to confirm or to change what we have been in all past eternity, to become a new creature for all future eternity.
Question No. 2: What are the things of time?
The things of time are those things in this world which can be obtained by using money. These things of time are thus transferable, one person to another. All things of time are acquired in time and will be lost when we pass out of time.
Examples of things of time are 1. Physical properties, such as food, clothing, shelter, land, tools and raw materials. 2. Services, such as the assistance and cooperation of other persons for tutorial, medical, legal, management or other actions. The things of time are thus goods and services, the items of the economy of this world, each item of which is purchasable by money, or which can be exchanged for something else of time.
One interesting example of a thing of time is reputation. Reputation is a service others render to someone; it is a thing of time because it can be manipulated by the use of money. While sometimes reputation is not gained by the spending of money, in normal worldly society reputation can always be affected for better or worse by the spending of money. Thus the honors of men, position in social organizations, and being esteemed by normal men and women are all things of this world, of time, for they are or can be bought with money, as we see so often in politics. They are all services.
Is health a thing of this world, of time? Health is not a thing of time because no expenditure of money can guarantee it, though expenditure of money can certainly destroy health. Health is a gift of God, a thing of eternity which may be enjoyed in time but is not derivative from the world in time.
Question No. 3: Are the things of time evil?
The things of time are not of themselves evil, though each thing of time may be used to do evil and may be related to in an evil way. It is not evil to have money, but one may do great evil by the manner in which one obtains that money or in the way one uses that money.
Everything of time is simply an opportunity for the exercise of agency. Every human being of normal mentality knows true good from true evil, and has the opportunity to practice that knowledge as he or she acts in the world in relation to the things of time.
Question No. 4: What are the things of eternity?
The things of eternity are all other things possible in this world which cannot be bought for money. As there are two basic categories of things of time, goods and services, so there are two basic categories of the things of eternity: character and abilities.
Character is what each of us makes of ourselves through the process of mortal choosing between good and evil. We take what we were from the premortal existence and add, take away or transform that character through what we choose to do and not do in this world. Our character is essentially our habits, whatever we do or don’t do.
Abilities are those habits of our character we have acquired to produce changes in the universe.
Those who acquire god-like character in the image of Christ are stronger, have more abilities than those who reject Christ. The fulness of abilities is possessed only by those who have acquired the character of Christ, his goodness. They are then the possessors of all good things, as is Christ Himself.