What Are You Taking to Heaven ?

  1. MAN IS SAVED AS CREATED--MENTAL, PHYSICAL, AND SPIRITUAL!

    1. 6T 368 MY CHARACTER! "Men (meaning mankind) are forming characters for eternity."
    2. Unpublished Testimonies, Spalding and Megan, p. 58 THE RESULTS OF MY STUDIES HERE ON EARTH! "Men that enter the higher school (take) with them the results of their studies in this world."
    3. TDWG, 253 CAPABILITIES FOR FURTHER SPIRITUAL GROWTH! "as we faithfully continue the work, we shall have high aspirations for righteousness, holiness, and a perfect knowledge of God. We ourselves will become complete in Christ in this life and will take us to the courts above our increased capabilities--there to continue our higher education." 
      I. Ibid. "And just in proportion to the advancement they have made in seeking God and His righteousness will they be rewarded in the future immortal life."
    4. TDWG, 350 MY REMAINING PHYSICAL STRENGTH (THIS IS NOT REFERRING TO BACK PAIN, DISFIGURATIONS, MEDICAL PROBLEMS, BUT NONE THE LESS IT IS OF CRITICAL IMPORTANCE FOR OUR UNDERSTANDING--AND LIFE-STYLE ADJUSTMENTS DURING THIS PROBATIONARY TIME.) "Every time one of the glorious faculties with which God has enriched man is abused or misused, that faculty loses FOREVER a portion of its vigor and will NEVER be as it was before the abuse it suffered. Every abuse inflicted upon our moral nature IN THIS LIFE is felt not only for time but FOR ETERNITY. Though God may forgive the sinner, yet ETERNITY WILL NOT make up that voluntary (KEY WORD!) loss sustained in this life.  "TO GO FORTH INTO THE NEXT, THE FUTURE LIFE, DEPRIVED OF HALF THE POWER WHICH MIGHT BE CARRIED THERE is a terrible thought. The days of probation lost HERE in acquiring a fitness for heaven, IS A LOSS WHICH WILL NEVER BE RECOVERED. THE CAPACITY OF ENJOYMENT WILL BE LESS IN THE FUTURE LIFE FOR THE MISDEMEANORS AND ABUSE OF MORAL POWERS IN THIS LIFE. However high we might attain IN THE FUTURE LIFE, we might soar higher and still higher, IF WE HAD MADE THE MOST OF OUR GOD-GIVEN PRIVILEGES AND GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE OUR FACUTLIES HERE IN THIS PROBATIONARY EXISTENCE. . . . "  
      1. "Vibor," "Power," "Moral Powers are all referring to the Electrical currents in man, and their source." Another term used for the same thing is "Vital Force," "Vital Powers," "Capital," "Vital Energy," etc. (And for those who have never heard of this concept--it is also known as "Burning the candle at both ends!")

  2. VITAL FORCE, WHAT IT IS--AND WHAT IT IS NOT

    1. "Vital energy is imparted to the mind through the brain. Therefore the brain should never be dulled by the use of narcotics, or excited by the use of stimulants (be it mental or physical)."
    2. 8T 259-260 Vital Force is not matter, it is not something that can be physically held and identified by its mass.
    3. A Solemn Appeal, 73 Men have more vital force than women. (So--even though it is not matter, it is measurable).
    4. MH 234-235 Vital force is a gift from God, and man can only use it, abuse it, or borrow from it--but man can not add to it. "God has endowed us with a certain amount of Vital Force. . . . If we carefully preserve the Life Force, and keep the delicate mechanism of the body in order, the result is health, but if the Vital Force is too rapidly exhausted the nervous system borrows Power for present use from ITS RESOURCES OF STRENGTH." 
      1. CH 99 "Intemperance in eating and drinking . . . in labor, . . . in almost everything exists on every hand. . . . They are living on Borrowed Capital (Vital Force). They are expending the Vital Force which they will need at a future time. AND WHEN THE ENERGY THEY HAVE SO RECKLESSLY USED is demanded, they fail for want of it. Their physical sources are exhausted. God has provided us with Constitutional Force which will be NEEDED AT DIFFERENT PERIODS OF OUR LIVES. If we recklessly exhaust this Force by continual overtaxation, we shall sometime be losers. Our usefulness will be lessened (on earth--and possibly in heaven), if not our life itself destroyed.  
      As a rule the labor of the day should not be prolonged into the evening. Those who do this often lose much more than they gain, for their Energies are exhausted and they LABOR ON NERVOUS EXCITEMENT (Which is Satan's Counrterfeit for Vital Force). They may not realize any immediate injury--but they are surely undermineing their constitution."
    5. MCP, 382-383 "The misuse of our Physical Powers shortens the period of time in which our lives can be used for the glory of God, and unfits us to accomplish the work God has given us to do. By allowing ourselves to form wrong habits, but keeping late hours, by gratifying appetite at the expense of health, we lay the foundation for feebleness. . . . Those who thus shorten their lives and unfit themselves for service by disregarding nature's laws are guilty of robbery towards God. And they are robbing their fellow men also. The opportunity of blessing others, the very work for which God sent us into the world, has by their own course of action been cut short."

  3. SO WHAT IS THE "NEW BODY" ALL ABOUT?

    1. EW 287 "Those bodies that had gone down into the grave BEARING THE MARKS OF DISEASE AND DEATH--come up in immortal health and vigor."
    2. 6BC 1093 "Our personal identity is preserved in the resurrection, though not WITH THE SAME PARTICLES OF MATTER OR MATERIAL SUBSTANCE AS WENT INTO THE GRAVE."
    3. 6BC 1092 "The resurrection of Jesus was a sampe of the resurrection of all who sleep in Him. The RISEN BODY of the Saviour, His DEPORTMENT, the ACCENTS OF HIS SPEECH, were all familiar to His followers. In like manner will those who sleep in Jesus rise again. We shall know our friends even as the disciples knew Jesus. THOUGH THEY MAY HAVE BEEN DEFORMED, DISEASED, or DISFIGURED IN THIS MORTAL LIFE, yet in their resurrected and glorified body THEIR INDIVITUAL IDENTITY WILL BE PERFECTLY PRESERVED."  
      But that is not to say that no matter what we choosed to do to, or with, our bodies and mind facutlies that God is under some kind of obligation (because it has been our understanding) to present us with new everything. Man was created to live forever--so why is it so difficult to understand we were endowed with what powers if took to do that? And Christ, because of a Voluntary Choice to leave heaven--will bear the marks of His earthly sojourn throughout eternity--and is the servant greater than the Master?
    4. 3T 138, 139 Adam, at his creation was ENDOWED WITH TWENTY TIMES AS MUCH VITAL FORCES AS MEN HAVE NOW. Man came from the hand of his Creator perfect and beautiful in form, AND SO FILLED WITH VITAL FORCES that it was more than a thousand years before his corrupt appetite and passions, and general violations of physical laws were sensibly felt upon the race. More recent generations have felt the pressure of infirmity and disease more rapidly and heavily with every generation. THE VITAL FORCES HAVE BEEN GREATLY WEAKENED BY THE INDULGENCE OF APPETITE AND LUSTFUL PASSIONS."
    5. Testimonies on Sexual Behavior, Adultery, and Divorce, pp. 110, 111 "Even men and women professing Godliness give loose reign to their lustful passions AND HAVE NO THOUGHT THAT GOD HOLDS THEM ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE EXPENDITURE OF VITAL ENERGY which weakens their hold on life and enervates the whole system."