LDS Defender

THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER AND THE THREE DEGREES OF GLORY

By Idumea

Translated by Gerald D. Woodard

Original French text at www.idumea.org

On several occasions, Christ emphasized the importance of keeping certain things secret. The parable of the sower is one example. Professor Hugh Nibley stated the following[1] about this:

“No more obvious allegory could be imagined on the face of it than the parable of the sower; and yet the gospels treat it as one of the greatest of mysteries, as ‘the mystery of the kingdom of heaven’ itself, whose meaning the Lord divulged only to the Twelve when he was alone with them.[2]

“In every gospel version the challenge, ‘he who hath ears let him hear!’ announcing that something of great import has been said, follows immediately upon mention of the three degrees, thirty, sixty, and one hundred. They are ‘the three degrees of glory,’ referring not to the world at all, but only to those who have heard the gospel, understood it, accepted it, brought forth fruit, and persisted in patience.’[3] This is the gradation and arrangement of those who are saved," says Irenaeus, citing a doctrine which he attributes to ‘the elders,’

“‘The Elders say that those who are deemed worthy of an abode in heaven shall go there, others shall enjoy the delights of Paradise, and others shall possess the splendor of the City; for everywhere the Saviour will be seen, according as they shall be worthy to see him. But that there is a distinction between the habitation of those who produce one-hundred-fold, and that of those who produce sixtyfold, and that of those who produce thirty-fold; for the first will be taken up into the heavens, the second class will dwell in Paradise, and the last will inhabit the City; and that on this account the Lord said, ‘In my Father's house are many mansions.”’[4]

“Clement reports that the Lord ordered the apostles to preach to the world ‘for the time being’ no doctrine beyond that of baptism, of which Peter says:

“Be this therefore the first step to you of thirty commands, and the second sixty, and the third a hundred, as we shall expound more fully to you at another time.[5]

“The fuller exposition, if it was ever written down, has never reached us, and the whole doctrine, certainly an important one, has no place in the teachings of the later churches, ignorant as they were of the great plan of universal salvation.[6]”


NOTES