Keywords

The Restoration, Ascension, Latter-day Saints, Christ's Ascension

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, “When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the gospel—you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation.” This step-by-step ascension is both literal and symbolic. Ascension was woven throughout ancient scripture and climaxed in Jesus Christ’s physical ascension into heaven. What does ascension represent for Latter-day Saints? How are we to understand its implications in our own salvific journey? The answers to these questions, touched upon briefly by ancient scriptural authors, were brought to fruition by Joseph Smith in the Doctrine and Covenants. As a restorer of eternal truth, Joseph grasped a theology of ascension and extended it into our day and beyond to the millennial day. It is then that faithful followers of Christ are promised that notwithstanding a necessary descent into tribulation, “you may come up unto the crown prepared for you, and be made rulers over many kingdoms” (Doctrine and Covenants 78:14–15; emphasis added).