The Living Earth
The earth is no dead rock but a living, obedient soul, keeping a law and pressing toward its own glory.
We are taught from childhood to think of the earth as inert matter — a ball of stone and water spinning through cold space, a mere stage upon which the real drama of salvation is acted out. The scriptures tell a stranger and far grander story. In the revelations of the Restoration the earth is not a backdrop but a participant; not a thing but a soul. It was created, it keeps a law, it groans, it longs, it will die, and it will be raised again in glory. To understand the destiny of the earth is to understand the destiny of the righteous who are promised it as an everlasting inheritance.
The Earth Has a Voice
The clearest witness of the living earth comes in the visions of Enoch. As Enoch beheld the violence and wickedness of the children of men, he heard the earth itself cry out. It was not a figure of speech laid over dead ground; it was the lament of a living mother weeping over the filthiness of her children and pleading for relief.
“And it came to pass that Enoch looked upon the earth; and he heard a voice from the bowels thereof, saying: Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me?”
Here is a creation that mourns, that grows weary, that aches for rest and cleansing. The earth knows its children, calls itself their mother, and feels the burden of their sin as a personal grief. This is the language not of geology but of a soul. And the earth is not alone in its groaning, for it speaks for the whole of creation.
The Whole Creation Groans
The Apostle Paul saw the same truth from the other side of the dispensations. Writing to the Saints at Rome, he described all created things as held in a common travail, straining together toward a deliverance not yet come. The creation, he taught, was subjected to a fallen and corruptible state — but not without hope.
“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”
Paul’s word is “travaileth” — the labor of a mother in childbirth. The very image Enoch heard from the bowels of the earth, Paul applies to the whole created order. The groaning is not the moan of despair but the labor of birth, the pain that precedes a glorious deliverance. The earth and all its fellow-creatures are not waiting to be discarded; they are waiting to be born again.
A Law Kept, a Death Died, a Body Quickened
What is the deliverance for which the earth labors? The Lord answered plainly in a great revelation on the resurrection of all things. The earth, He declared, is a living thing on a course of sanctification — it will be cleansed, it will die, and it will be raised, exactly as the bodies of men are raised, to become a kingdom of glory.
“And the redemption of the soul is through him that quickeneth all things… Therefore, it must needs be sanctified from all unrighteousness, that it may be prepared for the celestial glory; for after it hath filled the measure of its creation, it shall be crowned with glory, even with the presence of God the Father; that bodies who are of the celestial kingdom may possess it forever and ever; for, for this intent was it made and created, and for this intent are they sanctified.”
The earth was made and created for a single, exalted intent: to become the celestial home of celestial beings. To reach that destiny it must be sanctified from all unrighteousness, just as a man must be sanctified to enter the presence of God. And the path of sanctification runs, for the earth as for man, straight through the grave. The earth keeps a celestial law, and a being that keeps a celestial law is destined for celestial glory.
“And again, verily I say unto you, the earth abideth the law of a celestial kingdom, for it filleth the measure of its creation, and transgresseth not the law—wherefore, it shall be sanctified; yea, notwithstanding it shall die, it shall be quickened again, and shall abide the power by which it is quickened, and the righteous shall inherit it.”
Read those words slowly, for they are among the most astonishing in all scripture. The earth “transgresseth not the law.” In its great obedience the ground beneath our feet is more faithful than the men who walk upon it. It will die — and then it shall be quickened again, raised from its own death, and shall abide the very power by which it is quickened. This is resurrection language, the same promise given to the sons and daughters of God. The earth will be resurrected, and the righteous — the meek who inherit it — shall dwell upon a glorified world.
The Sea of Glass
What shall the resurrected earth look like? The Revelation of John shows the throne of God surrounded by a glassy sea, and the Prophet Joseph Smith was given the meaning of that vision. The sea of glass is the earth itself in its sanctified and immortal state.
“Q. What is the sea of glass spoken of by John, 4th chapter, and 6th verse of the Revelation? A. It is the earth, in its sanctified, immortal, and eternal state.”
John had seen it from afar — “before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal” (Revelation 4:6). That crystal sea is our own world made celestial, transparent as glass and shining like a jewel. And the glorified earth will not be a mere ornament. The Lord revealed that this sanctified earth will become a great Urim and Thummim, whereby all things pertaining to a lower kingdom will be made manifest to those who dwell upon it. The world that now hides the things of God will one day reveal them, a globe of living light before the throne.
Worlds Without Number
Our earth is not unique in this destiny; it is one among an innumerable host of living worlds, each created, each inhabited, each passing through its own appointed order. When the Lord showed Moses the vastness of His works, the number defied counting.
“And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.”
These worlds are not random. They come and go in a measured procession, each fulfilling its purpose and passing away that another may rise, while the word of God endures forever. As the Lord told Moses, “as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come” (Moses 1:38), “for behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). The endless making and redeeming of worlds is the very labor of God.
Abraham was shown the same order from above, the great hierarchy of stars and times and seasons set one above another, each governing in its sphere. He learned that there are degrees among the heavenly bodies as there are degrees among intelligences, “and the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other… there shall be another more intelligent than they” (Abraham 3:18–19). The cosmos itself is a vast order of progression — stars and worlds and souls, each in its place, each climbing toward the throne at the center of all (Abraham 3:2–12). Our living earth takes its place within that grand procession.
Filling the Measure of Its Creation
Twice the Lord uses a single, weighty phrase to describe what the earth is doing: it is “filling the measure of its creation.” Every world was made for a purpose, given a measure to fill, an appointed work to complete. The earth fills its measure by abiding the law given to it, by sheltering the children of God through their mortal probation, and by bringing glory to its Maker. The heavens themselves are a perpetual hymn to that glory.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
When the earth has filled the full measure of its creation — when it has carried the human family through the long day of mortality and kept its law unbroken to the end — then comes its crowning. It shall be sanctified, it shall die, it shall be quickened, and it shall be crowned with glory, even with the presence of God the Father. The faithful world will receive, in its own degree, the same reward promised to faithful souls.
The Inheritance of the Meek
Bring the witnesses together and a single, luminous doctrine stands revealed. The earth is a living soul. It mourned as a mother under the weight of its children’s sin, crying out for rest. It groans and travails with all creation, laboring toward a birth. It keeps a celestial law and transgresses not, more obedient than the men upon it. It will fill the measure of its creation, and then it will die — and rising from that death it will be quickened, sanctified, and crowned, a sea of glass and crystal shining before the throne of God, a great Urim and Thummim of living light.
This changes how we stand upon the ground. We do not live on a dead rock hurtling meaninglessly through the dark. We live upon a faithful, obedient soul that keeps its covenant with God and is bound for glory. The same Savior who quickeneth all things will quicken the earth as surely as He will quicken us, and the redeemed and the redeemed world will be joined together forever.
For this is the promise: “the righteous shall inherit it.” The meek who keep their covenants will be given a celestial earth for their everlasting home — not a cloud, not a shapeless heaven, but a glorified world, this very world, raised and crowned. The Lord blessed the meek with this exact inheritance, that they should inherit the earth, and He meant the earth in its resurrected splendor.
So when the earth cried out, “when shall I rest?” the answer was already written in the counsels of God. It shall rest when it is sanctified. It shall rest when it has filled the measure of its creation. It shall rest when it is quickened from death into celestial glory, and the meek of the Lord walk upon its shining ground in the presence of the Father, world without end. The living earth and the living souls of the righteous will at last enter their rest together.