President Kimball introduced one Saturday night that I want to comment upon tonight briefly, because it's the whole foundation of Easter that's never discussed. We just don't talk about it, and we are the only people that have got the book that talks about it. And we've almost lost it as a doctrine in the Church. So I was quite thrilled when President Kimball introduced it.

He said, "You know, I want everyone to understated that in this life we have a very limited amount of Priesthood authority to function with. There are many ordinances that as yet must be given to us in the next world. One of them will be the ordinance of resurrection."

We're not allowed to perform that ordinance here. It's an ordinance of the Priesthood. We'll get it over there; over in the next life we will also have the ordinance of begetting spirit children with our resurrected bodies. That's something that we have no capacity or power to do here; physical bodies, yes, but not spirit.

Then he got on to a theme that I'm sure may have sounded a little strange to some ears. Then he said that you will be able to have access to the intelligences in the universe and organize them and make planets and organize kingdoms. Now this is a beautiful doctrine. It's time we discuss it a little bit more, because if we understand this principle, it will help us to comprehend why there had to be an atonement.

I don't know whether this bothers you or not, but as I was a little boy sitting in Sunday School in Canada, and they talked about the terrible suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross, I would say to my Sunday School teachers, "Who wanted that? What was all that suffering for?"

Everyone talks all about the suffering, what was it for? Who was it to Satisfy? And my teacher said it was to satisfy Heavenly Father. That didn't answer my childish questions either. It seemed like if Heavenly Father wanted us to come down on this earth, after we'd repented, he'd just say, "Come on back up, you did the best you could." What did we need all that suffering for? And all my life, at least until I went on my mission, I asked those questions.

One day I was riding along with President Widsoe in charge of the European missions. I was only seventeen when I was called on my mission, and I thought this was my chance to ask Brother Widsoe all those questions that had been on my mind since a little boy. So I asked him, "Why did Jesus have to suffer on the cross?"

He said, "Who told you to ask me that question?"

I said, "Well, I've always wondered it, nobody told me, I just wondered it."

He said. "Is this your question?"

I said "Yes," and I thought maybe I had violated a mission rule.

He said, "if it is your question, I'll answer it. This is the most profound question of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it shouldn't be answered unless people are capable of at first wondering about it so they can hear the answer."

Then he said, "I'll tell you where to start studying and where to start reading."

So I did, and when I began to get the picture, It was mostly in the Book of Mormon. Nearly all of it was in the Book of Mormon. So I read quite a bit, and towards the end of my mission I thought I had it pretty well figured out, and I got a chance to ask Brother Widsoe, "Can I report to you on my studies of the Atonement?"

"Yes," he said, "you can. Let me hear it."

So I reported.

"Well, you see," he said, "you need about four more passages and they will tell you this and this and this."

"Oh," I said, "that's wonderful. I've been spending so much time on this, I'm awfully glad I asked you. Where are they located?"

He said, "I wouldn't deprive you of the thrill of finding them."

"President Widsoe, you mean I have to dig these out?!"

He said, "I'll tell you the general area. Now this first one is in the first half of the D&C, and another one is found in the middle of the Book of Mormon...."

Well, he had them all spread out so that I had to read practically the whole standard works again. It took me seven years to find them and it was so thrilling when I finally found them, and he said, "Yes, that's the picture."

It was so thrilling and this, the general theme and foundation of it, was what President Kimball was talking about at Priesthood. He didn't identify it and associate it with the subject of the Atonement per se, but it's the foundation of it.

Now this isn't written up in many places in Church literature so if you have a piece of paper, I'll give you all of the references so it won't take you seven years. however, should you look all of these up, you'll appreciate it much more than if you just said, "Now I know where." Actually read each passage and you'll begin to see what a marvelous motion, an avalanche, a veritable waterfall of truth that has been poured out upon the Saints In the Latter-days. We've allowed some of it to run off without really appreciating what it represented.

Now first of all it's 2 Nephi 2:14 and here's what you'll read:

"And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hat created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon."

Father Lehi says that everything in the Universe is made of two things. This is where we get the building blocks concept "Something to act and something to be acted upon."