The Last Day

I think it might be good to add an extra caveat at the beginning of this missive. Some of the concepts I am about to discuss are my own thoughts. I have identified places where doctrine ends and my thoughts begin.

As I was reading the scriptures with my wife a few mornings ago, I was struck by the phrase “the last day.” (Not to be confused with “the last days.”) According to my trusty search program, this phrase appears at least 58 times in the scriptures. Usually, it is used in conjunction with a discussion of the final judgment. A question popped into my mind – more on that later.

In mortality, we live in “mortal time.” That is, we reckon the passage of our lives in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, based on the rotation of the earth. Sometimes, what seems like a very long time can really be just a few minutes, and inversely, what seems like a few minutes can actually be a long time. So we could say that “time” is relative to the situation at hand. Our internal clock, that mechanism in our brains that measures “time,” can easily be made to compress or lengthen relative “time” depending on circumstances.

When I was 15 years old, and I went to Saturday night dances that lasted 3 hours, it often seemed that I had been there about 15 minutes, so intent was I on the girls and the music.

When I was in an anteroom in a hospital waiting for my oldest daughter to be brought into the emergency room from an auto accident, 15 minutes seemed like 3 hours. She came in on a body board, stretching the time even further, but blessedly, was largely uninjured. It seemed like an eternity until she emerged. Mercifully, she was shaken up but only had a broken little finger. Time resumed a more normal progression. Thank heaven for seatbelts and a daughter who insisted on wearing them!

Our Father-in-Heaven and his Son, as well as other resurrected beings who serve us and them, live on a different plane largely incomprehensible to us as mortals. They live in eternity, or what President Joseph Fielding Smith called “celestial time.” We read in D&C 39:22:

And he that receiveth these things receiveth me; and they shall be gathered unto me in time and in eternity. [Italics added]

In that scripture, mortal time and celestial time are separated – they are different states of being. As we accept the gospel in mortality, we are gathered into his church. As we repent when necessary and endure to the end, we can pass into eternity and still be among the gathered – those who will dwell with the Father and the Son in celestial time and in celestial glory eternally.

As we read about celestial time, we learn that it is based on the rotation of Kolob, the immense planet that is the dwelling place of the Father. In a somewhat (at least to me) ambiguous attempt to explain the Lord’s way of reckoning, Peter said in 2 Peter 3:8:

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Maybe we get a glimpse of what Peter is describing when we have experiences where time is either compressed or lengthened, such as the ones I described above. Elder Boyd K. Packer has told us that the temple is the best glimpse we have in mortality into eternity:

…it is at the temple that we may begin to see into the eternities." It is there that we can get our bearings about time. Some of the symbolic stones on the temple very literally move us toward an understanding of a place where we can escape the tyranny of mortal time. We more clearly understand the Lord’s concept of and relationship to omnipresent, eternal time…

Before the fall, Adam was on that plane called celestial time. In Volume 5, p 115 of Answers to Gospel Questions, President Joseph Fielding Smith said:

Let me call your attention also to the statement in the Book of Abraham 5:13, which tells us that until the time of Adam this earth was on celestial time, and Adam had not received his time of reckoning until the fall. Before that this earth was governed by celestial time.

So when our first parents were cast out of the Garden, they not only went from a beautiful garden to the lone and dreary world, but from eternity (celestial time) to mortality (mortal time). Adam was told in Genesis 2:16 exactly when his reckoning (his entry into mortal time) would begin:

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Now I, Abraham, saw that it was after the Lord's time, which was after the time of Kolob; for as yet the Gods had not appointed unto Adam his reckoning.

In other words, If Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of the tree, they would become mortal but eventually leave the mortal body behind – they would die – an unavoidable consequence of living in mortal time. “In the day” refers to mortal time. Adam and Eve, by their transgression, caused the earth to leave Celestial time and enter mortal time – an act absolutely essential to the salvation of all of the spirits waiting to come to earth.

But apparently, passing from this earth does not end mortal reckoning. That brings me to the question I had in my mind when we were reading the scriptures that morning. When does mortal time end and eternity (celestial time) begin again for each of us?

I think (gospel according to Cornelius) that the phrase “the last day” is literal, and denotes not only the day of the final judgment, but the actual last day, the last moment that we each will reside in mortal time.

Before we came to the earth, we lived in celestial time. We lived as spirits with The Father and His Son. When we were born and became mortal, we left celestial time and entered mortal time (as the Savior did). After we leave this earth as spirits, leaving our mortal body behind, I believe that time continues to be reckoned for us in a mortal sense (gospel according to Cornelius), but when we are resurrected (as the Savior was – unblemished, without need of judgment) and finally judged “at the last day” we enter eternity (eternal time) again. John seems to confirm this to me when he says in John 17:3:

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet co authored Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon. In volume 3, p 297, they explain that chronological time will always exist, but mortal time is only measured unto men:

We are told in the scriptures that in the worlds to come "there shall be time no longer" (D&C 84:100; D&C 88:110). This refers to mortal time, to temporality, to the temporary nature of things. There will always be chronological time, in the sense that one event precedes or follows another event in time. This scripture is referring to mortality.

To truly know God the Father and His Son, we must be able to dwell with them. Since they live in eternity (on celestial time), it follows that we must live in that state also. But we must be prepared to live in that state. After our body and spirit separate, we still are not ready to know the Father and the Son until we have been resurrected and judged worthy to live with them.

So perhaps the only conclusion we can draw is that the Lord’s time is not our time, and the “time” we are given in mortality is precious and fleeting. Our charge is to make the most of it, however long it is, and prepare to be ready, “at the last day,” to be judged worthy to live eternally with the Father and the Son in the Celestial Kingdom under the celestial time of the Lord.