A Marvelous Work and a Smartphone

If you are reading this sentence, then you were foreordained to come to the Earth in the last days.  Don't just take my word for it; prophets and apostles have said so!

"You have been born at this time for a sacred and glorious purpose. It is not by chance that you have been reserved to come to earth in this last dispensation of the fulness of times. Your birth at this particular time was foreordained in the eternities.  You are to be the royal daughters of the Lord in the last days." - Ezra Taft Benson (To the Young Women of the Church, October 1986)

"Young men, you are a royal brotherhood—not because you’re better than anyone else—but because the Lord has blessed you with special privileges and responsibilities. You were foreordained to come to earth at a time when the fulness of the gospel was on the earth. You were foreordained to receive his priesthood." - David B. Haight (Spiritual Crevasses, October 1986)

What does it mean that you were foreordained?  Well there are two parts of the word: "fore" and "ordained."

"Fore" means beforehand, meaning you were ordained before now.  Each of us lived with God before we came to Earth.  That's when we were ordained to come to Earth at this particular time.

"Ordain" means to appoint to something, meaning God assigned us times to come to Earth.  Some people were ordained to come sooner and some were ordained to be here now.  Ordinations are done by the Priesthood, or the power of God.

So God appointed you to be here on the Earth at this time.  Pretty cool right?  But why did God appoint you to be here now and not ten, a hundred, or a thousand years ago?  Well, I have an idea about that!

"Verily I say unto you, blessed are you for receiving mine everlasting covenant, even the fulness of my gospel, sent forth unto the children of men, that they might have life and be made partakers of the glories which are to be revealed in the last days, as it was written by the prophets and apostles in days of old." (D&C 66:2)

As the scripture says, in the last days, we get to partake of "glories."  What "glories" means here is up for interpretation, but I want to emphasize that there are things that are revealed in the last days that were not revealed at any other time.  Joseph Smith taught this principle:

"Those things which never have been revealed from the foundation of the world, but have been kept hid from the wise and prudent, shall be revealed unto babes and sucklings in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times" (D&C 128:18).

Some of these "glories" might include doctrines of the gospel, but why couldn't they include digital technologies?  Technologies are based on truths, but truths about how digital technologies work have not been known among mankind until recently.

So what does this have to do with you and your foreordination?

"And hence comes the doctrine of foreordination. When we come into mortality, we bring the talents, capacities, and abilities acquired by obedience to law in our prior existence. Mozart composed and published sonatas when but eight years of age because he was born with musical talent. Melchizedek came into this world with such faith and spiritual capacity that “when a child he feared God, and stopped the mouths of lions, and quenched the violence of fire." (JST, Gen. 14:26.)" - Bruce R. McConkie (God Foreordains His Prophets and His People, April 1974)

As I watch my little sister play on an iPad and my grandfather struggle on a Kindle, it seems like my little sister already has talents, capacities and abilities to engage digital technologies.  Could it be that we were foreordained to come to the Earth now because we learned to use these technologies before we came to earth?  I don't think that is unreasonable.

The more I strive to use social media to share the gospel and use websites to do family history and temple work, the more affirm my belief that we were foreordained to come to the Earth in the last days, in part, because we developed talents to use digital technologies before we came to Earth.  Isaiah prophesied about this very thing:

Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. (Isaiah 29:14)

What could be more marvelous than using digital technologies to share the gospel?  If prophets saw our day, surely they would be in wonder over the devices that we now posses.  Not to mention the shoutout to the wise and prudent men, just like we had from Joseph Smith a moment ago.

Now, go forth with the gift of thumbs!  You know how to use the technology, so you have the power to build the kingdom!  If you don't know how to use the technology, just ask and we'll help!