Question about Why People Aren’t Being Translated in Our Day

img_4880

Question: Why don’t we hear of persons that are translated in our day? It seems strange that there been translated beings in every dispensation except ours.

Answer: By examining the backstories of translated beings in any dispensation and getting into the heart of what motivated them in their lives, we are able to measure at least to some degree what caused their translation. The commitment they had to serve God, which ultimately led to their attaining what Isaiah identifies as a seraph state—that of angelic emissaries—determined how far they would ascend the spiritual ladder. The prophet Joseph Smith hit on this point:

“When a man has offered in sacrifice all that he has, for the truth’s sake, not even withholding his life, and believing before God that he has been called to make this sacrifice, because he seeks to do his will, he does know most assuredly, that God does and will accept his sacrifice and offering, and that he has not nor will not seek his face in vain. Under these circumstances, then, he can obtain the faith necessary for him to lay hold on eternal life” (Lectures on Faith 6:7).

The combination of sacrifice in the service of God and faith tested to the utmost set translated persons apart: “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5); “It was by faith that the three disciples obtained a promise that they should not taste of death; and they obtained not the promise until after their faith” (Ether 12:17).

The three disciples “desired the thing which John, my beloved, who was with me in my ministry, before that I was lifted up by the Jews, desired of me . . . that ye might bring the souls of men unto me, while the world shall stand” (3 Nephi 28:6, 9). Nephi the son of Helaman “with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will” (Helaman 10:4).

Isaiah speaks of God’s end-time servant as of one who attains seraph status: “My servant, being astute, shall be highly exalted; he shall become exceedingly eminent: just as he appalled many—his appearance was marred beyond human likeness, his semblance unlike that of men—So shall he yet astound many nations, kings shutting their mouths at him—what was not told them, they shall see; what they had not heard, they shall consider” (Isaiah 52:13–15; cf. 14:29).

Like the three disciples, he is taken into heaven: “She brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days” (Revelation 12:5–6). As the angel from the east (Isaiah 41:2), he oversees the translation of the 144,000 end-time servants of God:

“The angel ascending from the east is he to whom is given the seal of the living God over the twelve tribes of Israel; wherefore, he crieth unto the four angels having the everlasting gospel, saying: Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And, if you will receive it, this is Elias which was to come to gather together the tribes of Israel and restore all things” (Doctrine & Covenants 77:9).

If Jesus was the firstfruits of the resurrection in his day (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23), could his servant be the firstfruits of the translation in our day? Shall those servants who are beloved of God—who are willing to suffer “exclusion” and a “twofold shame” at the hands of “brethren”—not be empowered of God over the elements and over enemies so they may gather Israel out of the world’s end-time destruction as Isaiah predicts (Isaiah 43:2–8; 49:22–23; 61:2–11; 66:5)?

Latest Post

About Isaiah Institute

The Isaiah Institute was created in the year 2000 by the Hebraeus Foundation to disseminate the message of the prophet Isaiah (circa 742–701 B.C.). Avraham Gileadi Ph.D’s groundbreaking research and analysis of the Book of Isaiah provides the ideal medium for publishing Isaiah’s endtime message to the world. No longer can the Book of Isaiah be regarded as an obscure document from a remote age. Its vibrant message, decoded after years of painstaking research by a leading authority in his field, now receives a new application as a sure guide to a rapidly changing world. To those who seek answers to today’s perplexing questions, the Book of Isaiah is God’s gift to humanity.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Shopping Cart
Scroll to Top