Has Joseph Smith Been Exalted?

[Thinking]

In a recently closed thread, bookofmormontruth wrote, “we know [Joseph Smith] is already exalted in the Celestial Kingdom.”

This statement raises a few questions.

1. Is it official doctrine that Joseph Smith has been exalted?

2. Does a person need to be resurrected in order to be exalted?

3. If a person does need to be resurrected in order to be exalted, how is it possible for Joseph Smith to have been resurrected since the Church found and reburied his body in Nauvoo?

[Alla]

In a recently closed thread, bookofmormontruth wrote, “we know [Joseph Smith] is already exalted in the Celestial Kingdom.”

This statement raises a few questions.

1. Is it official doctrine that Joseph Smith has been exalted?

2. Does a person need to be resurrected in order to be exalted?

3. If a person does need to be resurrected in order to be exalted, how is it possible for Joseph Smith to have been resurrected since the Church found and reburied his body in Nauvoo?

May be bookofmormontruth meant that JS will resurrect in celestial body because he is obidient prophet of God and he accomplished his mission. So Celestial Glory is his already. But it doesn't mean that he resurrected.

[Stargazer]

In a recently closed thread, bookofmormontruth wrote, “we know [Joseph Smith] is already exalted in the Celestial Kingdom.”

This statement raises a few questions.

1. Is it official doctrine that Joseph Smith has been exalted? I don't think so.

2. Does a person need to be resurrected in order to be exalted? Yes.

3. If a person does need to be resurrected in order to be exalted, how is it possible for Joseph Smith to have been resurrected since the Church found and reburied his body in Nauvoo? I don't think it is going to be those precise atoms that presently comprise your body that are going to be the ones that become part of your resurrected form. Very much in question is that your resurrected body will be comprised of atoms at all, I am reasonably certain.

[Bernard Gui]

Mingling with Gods, he can plan for his brethren.

Bernard

[bookofmormontruth]

Good questions! Here are my thoughts.

Exaltation (Eternal life) vs. Immortality.

Eternal life, or exaltation, "is to live in God's presence and to continue as families". It is very safe to say today, that Joseph Smith is now "mingling with Gods", hence my statement that he has been "exalted".

Also, remember that God's time is not our time so just like Alvin (Joseph's brother and not resurrected yet) was seen in a vision already living in the Celestial Kingdom (exaltation), if the heavens were open to us today, we would see Joseph Smith also in the Celestial Kingdom living in God's presence (exaltation).

Immortality (resurrection) is to live forever as a resurrected being and is not a requirement for exaltation. Requirements For Exaltation.

Immortality (resurrection) is a free gift and everyone will be resurrected, but not everyone will receive exaltation. Eternal Life.

In regards to the resurrection, Joseph Smith will be resurrected just like all of us. This will be a requirement for Godhood (to be like our Heavenly Father completely- which we fully don't know how that will take place), but not a requirement for exaltation.

[Questing Beast]

No. Exaltation (according to the doctrine) only occurs AFTER the resurrection. All those "departed" are still disembodied until then; and those in Paradise are not exalted yet, because exaltation for this world has not generally occurred. I think anyone asserting that any of the prophets have been resurrected need to prove it by checking out their graves. And anyone asserting that those remains are not the "atoms" that will be used in the resurrection has either not read Joseph Smith's pointed teaching on the subject of the resurrection or does not believe it (him)....

[inquiringmind]

No. Exaltation (according to the doctrine) only occurs AFTER the resurrection. All those "departed" are still disembodied until then; and those in Paradise are not exalted yet, because exaltation for this world has not generally occurred. I think anyone asserting that any of the prophets have been resurrected need to prove it by checking out their graves. And anyone asserting that those remains are not the "atoms" that will be used in the resurrection has either not read Joseph Smith's pointed teaching on the subject of the resurrection or does not believe it (him)....

What about Abraham, Moses, Lehi, Nephi, etc.?

Isn't it LDS doctrine that the first resurrection began in the first century?

Wouldn't Old Testament (and BOM) saints be resurrected and exalted?

[thesometimesaint]

inquiringmind:

Probably. But outside of a very few what we can't say is who has been, and who still awaits.

[erichard]

In a recently closed thread, bookofmormontruth wrote, “we know [Joseph Smith] is already exalted in the Celestial Kingdom.”

This statement raises a few questions.

1. Is it official doctrine that Joseph Smith has been exalted?

2. Does a person need to be resurrected in order to be exalted?

3. If a person does need to be resurrected in order to be exalted, how is it possible for Joseph Smith to have been resurrected since the Church found and reburied his body in Nauvoo?

It is scriptural doctrine that Abraham has been exalted:

Abraham received all things, whatsoever he received, by revelation and commandment, by my word, saith the Lord, and hath entered into his exaltation and sitteth upon his throne. --D&C 132:29

But Abraham was given his resurrection at the time of Christ. As you noted, the evidence is that Joseph has not been resurrected.

So I believe it is scriptural to say that Joseph is not exalted yet. But it does appear that he has his calling and election made sure:

Nevertheless, I appeared unto him [Joseph] and manifested Myself unto him in many ways, for great was his faith. And in no wise did he sin,

for he repented of his sins

, and he kept My commandments and

was faithful even unto the end

, and I have taken him unto Myself, and he spilled his blood upon the floor of the Carthage jail as a testimony against the wicked. (non-LDS revelation)

Richard

[inquiringmind]

It is scriptural doctrine that Abraham has been exalted:

Abraham received all things, whatsoever he received, by revelation and commandment, by my word, saith the Lord, and hath entered into his exaltation and sitteth upon his throne. --D&C 132:29

Doesn't that make Abraham a God????

[Alla]

Doesn't that make Abraham a God????

Abraham is a God. All exalted men are Gods.

[inquiringmind]

Abraham is a God. All exalted men are Gods.

And he was exalted about two thousand years ago?

Wouldn't that mean he was a God when the New Testament was being written?

That would mean there were at least four Gods when Paul wrote his epistles, wouldn't it?

If Abraham is on his throne, should we pray to him?

[Alla]

And he was exalted about two thousand years ago?

Wouldn't that mean he was a God when the New Testament was being written?

That would mean there were at least four Gods when Paul wrote his epistles, wouldn't it?

If Abraham is on his throne, should we pray to him?

inquiringmind, it really doesn't matter how many Gods or Lords out there. There are gods many and lords many, but TO US there is ONLY one God. It is godhead of three - Farther, Son and the Holy Ghost. We pray only to Father in the name of Jesus Christ.

I don't know when Abraham became a God, but it doesn't matter for us.

[Alla]

deleted

[rpn]

Our second estate is not finished until the Judgement, at which point the leaders of various dispensations will account for their stewardship. We know that Joseph and Emma had the Second Anointing, so they will be exalted (and are probably now acting in every part other than that which requires resurrected body and judgement.) We also know that as of the 1930's when Pres. Grant (?) send observers to participate in the RLDS exhuming JS's body in Nauvoo and reburying it, JS was not yet resurrected.

[bookofmormontruth]

How can Joseph Smith be "mingling with Gods" if he himself isn't exalted?

I tried researching, but I don't see immortality being a requirement for exaltation. Anyone have a source for this?

Maybe generally speaking this will be true for all of us in the exaltation process, but Joseph Smiths seems to be a good candidate to be an exception. In addition, the after-life is not on the same time standards as we are as was shown with Alvin already seen in the Celestial Kingdom (which is exaltation).

What am I missing?

[Deborah]

I don't know if JS is exalted yet but the first resurrection is on-going. It didn't stop at the time of Christ. It would not surprise me if at this time he has been exalted.

[inquiringmind]

Our second estate is not finished until the Judgement, at which point the leaders of various dispensations will account for their stewardship. We know that Joseph and Emma had the Second Anointing, so they will be exalted (and are probably now acting in every part other than that which requires resurrected body and judgement.) We also know that as of the 1930's when Pres. Grant (?) send observers to participate in the RLDS exhuming JS's body in Nauvoo and reburying it, JS was not yet resurrected.

Didn't Emma oppose the revelation given in D&C 132 all her life?

Is her exaltation garunteed because of a second annointing, or is she in jepardy becaouse God said He'd destroy her if she resisted that revelation?

[Anijen]

How can Joseph Smith be "mingling with Gods" if he himself isn't exalted?

because one can mingle with gods does not make one a god.

We all were in His presence before we came to earth, thus we mingled with him, yet we are far from being gods (not yet, well for me it will take extra courses after this life).

[bookofmormontruth]

because one can mingle with gods does not make one a god.

We all were in His presence before we came to earth, thus we mingled with him, yet we are far from being gods (not yet, well for me it will take extra courses after this life).

True, not fully. But exaltation is to live in God's presence.

I used to believe that also about the pre-earth life until I took a Pearl of Great Price course with Joseph Fielding McConkie @ BYU. He completely shifted my beliefs in the pre-earth life including the belief that "we were in His presence before we came to Earth".

[LeSellers]

Wouldn't that mean [Abraham] was a God when the New Testament was being written?

...

If Abraham is on his throne, should we pray to him?

Let's assume that Abraham is exalted and on his throne. That would make him a God. But that would not make him our God. Thus, we would not pray to him.

Lehi

[LeSellers]

Didn't Emma oppose the revelation given in D&C 132 all her life?

No, she did not.

She vacillated between acceptance and rejection. She chose several of Joseph's Plural Wives, she (reportedly) pushed one of them down the stairs during late pregnancy, making her (Eliza Roxey Snow) an obstetrical invalid. She railed against Joseph from time to time on the subject, and threatened to have her own revelation supporting Plural Marriage for her as sec 132 was for Joseph. She was an official witness to several of Joseph's other marriages.

She obviously had mixed feelings on the subject, and she died opposed to Plural Marriage, but she died re-affirming that her husband, Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that she believed his work to have been divine. That can only have included Plural Marriage, since, by that time, it had been an openly official doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than 35 years.

Lehi

[inquiringmind]

No, she did not.

She vacillated between acceptance and rejection. She chose several of Joseph's Plural Wives, she (reportedly) pushed one of them down the stairs during late pregnancy, making her (Eliza Roxey Snow) an obstetrical invalid. She railed against Joseph from time to time on the subject, and threatened to have her own revelation supporting Plural Marriage for her as sec 132 was for Joseph. She was an official witness to several of Joseph's other marriages.

She obviously had mixed feelings on the subject, and she died opposed to Plural Marriage, but she died re-affirming that her husband, Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that she believed his work to have been divine. That can only have included Plural Marriage, since, by that time, it had been an openly official doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than 35 years.

Lehi

But wasn't her son the president of the RLDS, and didn't they deny this doctrine?

[Joseph Antley]

I have no idea about now, but in the early 1900s, whenever the RLDS exhumed the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum, Brother Joseph had apparently not yet been resurrected,

[LeSellers]

But wasn't her son the president of the RLDS, and didn't they deny this doctrine?

She didn't want him to be affiliated with the RLDS church and had to be persuaded to allow the RLDS "apostles" who came to present their appeal to him to take the presidency. (He was not their first president of the RLDS church, and the current president of the Coc is not his descendant.) She had not raised him as a "Mormon"; and had prejudiced him against Plural Marriage.

Her testimony on the matter, late in life, was in response to questions by that son who, trained as a lawyer, knew how to ask questions so as to get the answers he wanted. Nonetheless, her answers reflect the same sort of vagueness and deflections that many have used to accuse Joseph of lying about his practice of the Principle.

Furthermore, he, as an ardent opponent of Plural Marriage, was in complete control of the message, since it was published in the RLDS organ, The Saints' Herald. So, while I do not discount it, I am not convinced that it, and especially the conclusions they draw there, is the final word on the subject.

Lehi