CHRIST'S UNIQUE STATUS
As Redeemer and Savior of the World
TO hosts of earnest and thoughtful people, comprising many who devoutly believe in the efficacy of our Lord's atoning death as a means of redemption from death and salvation from sin, it is a matter of surpassing wonder that the sacrifice of a single life could be made an effective means of emancipation for mankind.
Scriptures ante-dating the Savior's earthly life plainly aver that the Atonement to be made by Him was to be a vicarious sacrifice, voluntary and love-inspired on His part, and universal in its application so far as human-kind would avail themselves of its beneficent means. These conditions were confirmed by the personal affirmations of the embodied Christ, and are attested by Scriptures post-dating the tragic consummation on Calvary.
The concept of vicarious service, in which one may act or officiate for and in behalf of another, is as old as the race. It is, however, fundamentally opposed to the unscriptural assumption that the merits of one man may be accounted to the cancellation of another's sins. Scriptures both ancient and modern, the traditions of the human family, the rites of altar sacrifice, and even the sacrileges of heathen idolatry involve the basal conception of vicarious atonement. This principle, of Divine establishment in its original and uncorrupted form, was revealed to Adam (Pearl of Great Price, pp. 19-20), who offered sacrifices in the similitude of the then future death of the Lamb of God, and was taught and practised by later prophets down to the time of Christ.
The Scriptures relieve us from the assumption that any ordinary mortal, by voluntarily giving up his life even as a martyr to the best of causes, could become a ransom for the sins of his fellows and a victor over death. Jesus Christ, though He lived and died as one of the human family, was of unique nature. Never has another such as He walked the earth. Christ was the only Being among all the embodied spirit-children of God suited to and acceptable as the great sacrifice of atonement, in these definite and distinct respects:
1. He was the One chosen and foreordained in the heavens to this specific service.
2. He was and is the Only Begotten of the Father in the body, and therefore the only Being ever born to earth who possessed in their fulness the inherent attributes of both Godhood and manhood.
3. He was and is the one and only sinless Man who has lived in mortality.
Concerning our Lord's foreordination as the Redeemer and Savior, He has given us personal testimony with which the utterances of prophets who lived before His birth and apostles who taught after His death are in harmony. Twenty-two centuries before the meridian of time, the then unembodied Christ revealed Himself to a Book of Mormon prophet, saying: "Behold I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold I am Jesus Christ." (Book of Mormon, Ether 3:14). Unto Moses the Father spake, saying: "Thou art in the similitude of mine Only Begotten, and mine Only Begotten is and shall be the Savior." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 2). These Scriptures are in accord with Peter's testimony of Christ as "a Lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world." (1 Peter 1:19-20).
As the Eternal Father's Only Begotten Son in the flesh, Christ possessed the inborn power to withstand death indefinitely, and this just as naturally as that He, being the offspring of a mortal mother, should derive the ability to die. Jesus Christ inherited through the operation of the natural law of heredity the physical, mental, and spiritual attributes of His parents—the Father immortal and glorified, the mother human. He could not be slain until His hour had come, the hour in which He would voluntarily give up His life, and permit His own decease as an act of will. How else are His definite asseverations concerning Himself to be construed? Consider for example this: "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." (John 10:17-18). And further: "For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." (John 5:26).
Christ died, not as other men have died or shall die, because of inability to escape death, but for a special purpose by voluntary surrender. Thus, the atoning sacrifice was no usual death of an ordinary man, but the decease of One who had the power to live. It was a sacrifice, indeed![1]
As a sinless Man Christ was exempt from the dominion of Satan; and was sublimely conscious of His own perfect probity. He challenged assailants with the pertinent demand "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" (John 8:46); and in the hour of His entrance into Gethsemane solemnly averred: "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." (John 14:30).
Had our Lord died as the result of Satan's power over Him through transgression, His death would have been but an individual experience, expiatory in no degree of any offenses but His own. His absolute freedom from spot or blemish of sin made Him eligible, His humility and willingness rendered Him acceptable as the propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the world. In these respects, as in that of His having life in Himself and therefore power over death, He was of a status absolutely unique among men. With this knowledge spake the ancient Hebrew prophet, saying: "As the Lord God liveth, there is none other name given under heaven, save it be this Jesus Christ of which I have spoken, whereby man can be saved." (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 25:20).
1. For comprehensive treatment see the author's work "Jesus the Christ," 800 pp.,The Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah.
PHILOSOPHY OF THE ATONEMENT
Its Two-fold Effect
BELIEF in the efficacy of the death of Jesus Christ as a means of atonement, whereby redemption and salvation are made possible, is an essential feature of distinctively Christian religion. That belief if sustained by works constitutes faith in or acceptance of the Christ as the Only Begotten Son of God, and is supported by the Holy Scriptures of all ages. Nevertheless, to most of us, the fact of the Atonement is a great mystery.
Be it remembered that the effect of the Atonement is two-fold: (1) Redemption of the human race from physical death, which entered the world as a result of Adam's transgression; and (2) Salvation, whereby means of relief from the results of individual sin are provided.
Victory over death and the tomb became manifest in the resurrection of the crucified Christ. Of all who have lived in the flesh He was the first to come from the grave with spirit and body reunited, a resurrected, immortalized Soul. Justly, therefore, is He called "the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Cor. 15:20); "the firstborn from the dead" (Col. 1:18); and "the first begotten of the dead." (Rev. 1:5).
Immediately following our Lord's resurrection, "many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." (Matt. 27:52-53).
We learn that in due time everyone who has lived and died on earth shall be resurrected, "they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." (John 5:29). However, the order in which we shall be resurrected is determined by individual conditions of righteousness or guilt. (See 1 Cor. 15:23; Rev. 20:5-6.) A latter-day Scripture, describing the general resurrection of the just, incident to the approaching advent of Christ, embodies the Lord's declaration in these words: "The trump of God shall sound both long and loud, and shall say to the sleeping nations, Ye saints arise and live; ye sinners stay and sleep until I shall call again." (D&C 43:18).
The second effect of the Atonement makes salvation possible to all men through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel; and of these the following are fundamental: (1) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; (2) Repentance; (3) Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; (4) Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
It is evident that but for the Atonement accomplished by the Savior, there could be no resurrection from the dead (see Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 9:7-12); and advancement from the disembodied state would be impossible. And just as plainly the Scriptures declare that without the Atonement of Christ mankind would be left in their sins, without means of making amends therefor and receiving remission thereof.
We have learned but little of the eternal laws operative in the heavens; but that God's purposes are accomplished through and by law is beyond question. There can be no irregularity, inconsistency, arbitrariness or caprice in His doings, for such would mean injustice. Therefore, the Atonement must have been effected in accordance with law. The self-sacrificing life, the indescribable agony, and the voluntary death of One who had life in Himself with power to halt His torturers at any stage, and whom none could slay until He permitted, must have constituted compliance with the eternal law of justice, propitiation and expiation by which victory over sin and death could be and has been achieved. Through the mortal life and sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus Christ the demands of justice have been fully met, and the way is opened for the lawful ministration of mercy so far as the effects of the Fall are concerned.
Sin, followed by death, came into the world through the transgression of one man. The entailment of mortality upon that man's posterity, with all its elements of a fallen state, is natural, we say, because we think we know something about heredity. Is it any more truly natural that one man's transgression should be of universal effect than that the redeeming and saving achievement of One, fully empowered and qualified for the work of atonement, should be of universal blessing? The ancient Apostles were explicit in answer. Thus spake Paul: "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (Rom. 5:18). And further: "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all." (1 Tim. 2:5-6).
Christ, victor over sin and death, established His right to prescribe the conditions under which man may attain salvation, and these are summarized as obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. That the physical, mental, and spiritual agony preceding and accompanying the crucifixion was real and necessary to the accomplishment of His fore-appointed mission has been affirmed by the Christ in the current dispensation: "For behold I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; but if they would not repent, they must suffer even as I. Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit: and would that I might not drink the bitter cup and shrink—Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparation unto the children of men. Wherefore, I command you again to repent." (D&C 19:16-20).
HOW DOES CHRIST SAVE?
His Plan Combines Justice and Mercy
THE results of the Atonement accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ comprise (1) universal deliverance from bodily death, that is to say the assured resurrection of all the dead, and (2) deliverance from the effects of individual sin.
It is but just that since death has been entailed upon the entire race through the act of our first parents, redemption therefrom should be likewise universal, without effort or sacrifice on our part. We shall each be resurrected from death, our disembodied spirits tabernacling again in their bodies of flesh and bones, whether we be relatively clean, or filthy from sin; but the time or order of our respective liberation from the grave will be determined by our state of righteousness or guilt. So the Scriptures aver. (See e. g. John 5:28-29; 1 Cor. 15:23; Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 9:6-13; and D&C 88:96-102.)
Herein is a lawful adjustment between justice and mercy. We are mortal through no personal fault; we shall be made immortal without personal merit. Such is justice. And though many have committed crimes far more heinous than Adam's disobedience, even they shall eventually be absolved from their hereditary mortality. Such is mercy.
The Divine plan of salvation, made effective through the Atonement, is likewise of universal application, so that every man may become a beneficiary thereof; but that plan is not self-operative. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints summarizes the conditions in this wise:
"We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.
"We believe that, through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel."
However great his moral weakness and sinful tendencies entailed by heredity, every responsible individual knows right from wrong, with some degree of conviction; and in the final judgment of that soul every element, whether of extenuation or crimination, will be taken into due account. Means of making amends for sin, and thereby establishing eligibility as fit subjects for remission or forgiveness, are freely offered to all men; but the prescribed conditions must be complied with or the incubus of sin can not be lifted.
Salvation is not to be had for the mere asking. It is too precious a pearl to be wantonly cast at the feet of the unrepentant and unregenerate who, heedless of its eternal worth, would fain tread it into the mire wherein they wallow. Christ's plan for saving the souls of men contemplates no universal and unconditional remission of sins. That would be justice travestied and mercy corrupted. So far as I am personally responsible for sin, I, and I alone am accountable. This is just. But though I make all material restitution possible to my brother whom I may have wronged, I cannot alone wipe the stain of guilt from my soul. To obtain remission from God whose laws I have violated, to be again reconciled to Him through expiation for my transgression, I am in dire need of help. That help is provided through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am not left without hope; but on the contrary have the Divine assurance of possible emancipation. This is mercy, indeed.
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." (Mark 16:16). So spake the Christ. The belief here specified must mean that active, vital, potent belief which we distinctively designate faith. A mere assent of the mind to any proposition, without application and action, remains a mental concept and nothing more. Our Lord's association of belief with baptism is proof that no empty or idle belief can avail to save. Genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ naturally leads to obedience to His commands; and the firstfruits of faith are embodied in repentance. None but the truly repentant believer is an acceptable subject for baptism.
Thus no man can consistently hope for salvation in the Kingdom of God except through the Atonement of Jesus Christ; and the Atonement is made operative for the remission of sins through individual compliance with the conditions explicitly set forth by "the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." (Heb. 5:9). Christ's method of saving souls is that of providing definite means, which any one may accept or reject to his own eternal gain or loss.
Universal amnesty for crime may serve to increase crime. God's system of benevolence, which comprises and exceeds all that we call charity, consists in helping sinners to help themselves. Indiscriminate giving fosters pauperism in both the temporal and the spiritual sense. Man alone cannot save himself; and just as truly, Christ alone cannot save him. Obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel is the price of salvation.
An ancient Hebrew prophet thus set forth in simplicity the plan of salvation dependent upon the Atonement of Christ:
"His blood atoneth for the sins of those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam, who have died, not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned. But, wo, wo unto him who knoweth that he rebelleth against God; for salvation cometh to none such, except it be through repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ." (Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3:11-12).
In these latter days the Lord hath given this commandment unto the Church: "Thou shalt declare repentance and faith on the Savior and remission of sins by baptism and by fire, yea, even the Holy Ghost." (D&C 19:31.)
HEAVEN AND HELL
Graded Conditions in the Hereafter
THE destiny of souls in the hereafter is a subject of persistent interest and concern in human belief and speculation. Even pagan literature and the languages of heathendom testify to a general though ofttimes vague conception of two widely separated places or strongly contrasted states of future existence, which are in the main equivalent to the heaven and the hell of dogmatic theology.
The Holy Scriptures generalize the future estate of the righteous as heaven, and the opposite as hell, without giving warrant, however, for the belief that but two places or kingdoms are provided, to one or the other of which every soul is to be consigned according to the balance-sheet of his life's account, and perhaps on a very small margin of merit or guilt. Equally unscriptural is the inference that the state of the soul at death determines that soul's place and environment throughout eternity, forever deprived of opportunity of progression.
When left to his imagination, without the guidance of revelation, man conjures up a heaven and a hell to suit his fancy. Thus, to the mind of the savage, heaven is a hunting-ground with game a-plenty; to the carnal, heaven promises perpetual gratification of senses and passions; to the lover of truth and the devotee of righteousness, heaven is the assurance of limitless advancement in wisdom and achievement. And to each of these, hell is the eternal realization of deprivation, loss, disappointment and consequent anguish.
Divine revelation is the only source of sure knowledge as to what awaits man beyond the grave, and from this we learn that at death the spirits of all men pass to an intermediate state, in which they associate with their kind, the good with the good, the wicked with the wicked, and so shall endure in happiness or awful suspense until the time appointed for their resurrection. Paradise is the dwelling place of relatively righteous spirits awaiting the glorious dawn of the resurrection. The final judgment, at which all men shall appear before the bar of God, is to follow their resurrection from the dead. We shall stand in our resurrected bodies of flesh and bones to receive from Jesus Christ, who shall judge the world, the sentence we individually merit, whether it be "Come ye blessed of my Father" or "Depart from me ye cursed." (See Matt. 25:31-46.)
In His solemn discourse to the Apostles immediately prior to the betrayal our Lord sought to cheer their saddened hearts with the assurance, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:2, 3.)
Here is conclusive proof of varied conditions in the world beyond; and the teachings of Paul are incisive as to the state of resurrected souls: "There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead." (1 Cor. 15:40-42.)
Latter-day revelation avers even more explicitly the fact of numerous and graded states provided for the souls of men. There is a Celestial Kingdom, into which shall enter all who have won not alone Salvation, but Exaltation. And who are these blessed ones?
"They are they who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on his name and were baptized after the manner of his burial, being buried in the water in his name, and this according to the commandment which he has given; that by keeping the commandments they might be washed and cleansed from all their sins, and receive the Holy Spirit." (D&C, 76).
Next in order is the Terrestrial Kingdom, in which shall be saved those who, though honorable according to the codes of men, have failed in valiant and aggressive service in the cause of God, and also those who have died in ignorance of the prescribed "laws and ordinances of the Gospel."
"Behold, these are they who died without law, and also they who are the spirits of men kept in prison, whom the Son visited, and preached the gospel unto them, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh; who received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it. These are they who are honorable men of the earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men."
Yet lower is the Telestial Kingdom, and of its inhabitants we read:
"These are they who received not the gospel of Christ, neither the testimony of Jesus. These are they who deny not the Holy Spirit. These are they who are thrust down to hell. These are they who shall not be redeemed from the devil, until the last resurrection, until the Lord, even Christ the Lamb shall have finished his work. . . . But behold, and lo, we saw the glory and the inhabitants of the telestial world, that they were as innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the sea shore."
Far below the lowest of these kingdoms of glory is the fate or state decreed for the souls who have sinned in the full light of knowledge and with conscious guilt, those who having received the testimony of Christ have ruthlessly and wantonly denied it in the interest of temporary gain or gratification, who have fallen so far in transgression as to be known by the awful name "sons of perdition," for whom no forgiveness is promised. (See D&C, 76:32-38).
Thus is it provided that every soul shall inherit according to his deserts under the inviolable laws of God. Salvation is relative. He who attains the Telestial state is saved from the fate of utter Perdition; he who wins a place in the Terrestrial is raised above the lesser glory; and those who merit exaltation in the Celestial kingdom are supremely blessed, for they shall dwell and serve with God and His Christ eternally.
IN THE REALM OF THE DEAD
Paradise—What of the Spirits in Prison?
"WE believe that through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel."
No limitation is here expressed with respect to the living or the dead. Who are the living but the few just now tabernacled in mortal bodies destined sooner or later to die? Who are the dead but the uncounted myriads who once lived in the flesh and have already passed to the world of the disembodied? If the Atonement accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ be a means of salvation to the few only who constituted the living during some specific period, or even to all who have heard and accepted the Gospel while in the body, the sacrifice made by the Son of God becomes of limited and small effect. The sure word of Scripture declares otherwise.
Christ affirmed that His mission as the Redeemer and Savior of the race extended beyond the grave. Consider the profound significance of His words: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. . . . Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." (John 5:25-29).
Jesus Christ died upon the cross in the literal sense in which all men die. While the corpse lay in the rock-hewn sepulchre the immortal Christ existed as a disembodied Spirit. Where was He, and what were His activities in the interval between His death on Calvary and His emergence from the tomb with spirit and body reunited—a resurrected Soul? The most natural assumption is that He went where the spirits of the dead ordinarily go; and that in the sense in which He had been while in the flesh a Man among men, He was during the period of disembodiment a Spirit among spirits. The Scriptures confirm this conception as true.
While in the bodiless state our Lord ministered among the departed, both in Paradise and in the prison realm where dwelt in a state of durance the spirits of the disobedient. To this effect testified Peter: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison." (1 Peter 3:18, 19).
And further: "For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." (1 Peter 4:6).
One of the two condemned malefactors crucified by our Lord's side reviled Him; the other, who was penitent, supplicated the dying Christ saying: "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom"; and to this appeal the Lord replied with the blessed assurance: "Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:42, 43).
The spirit of Jesus and that of the repentant sinner left their crucified bodies and went to the same place in the spirit world. But neither of them at that time went to Heaven, the abode of the Eternal Father; for, on the third day following, Jesus, then a resurrected Being, positively stated to the weeping Magdalene: "I am not yet ascended to my Father," and added as to an event then future, "but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." (John 20:17).
Christ and the contrite thief went to Paradise; but Paradise is not the distinctive abode of God. To infer that the crucified transgressor was saved by his dying confession, and was granted a special passport to Heaven with sins unexpiated and without his compliance with "the laws and ordinances of the Gospel" is to disregard both letter and spirit of Scripture, and to ignore both reason and the sense of justice. We find here no warrant for belief in the efficacy of death-bed confession as a means of grace. Only through individual faith, repentance, and works can remission of sins be obtained. The dying malefactor who won from the Christ the comforting promise of a place in Paradise had manifested both faith and repentance. The blessing promised him was to the effect that he should that day hear the Gospel preached in Paradise. In the acceptance or rejection of the message of salvation he would be left an agent unto himself. The requirement of obedience to "the laws and ordinances of the Gospel" was not waived, suspended, or superseded in his case, nor shall it be for any soul.
For the dead who have lived and died in ignorance of the requirements of salvation, as, in another sense, for the disobedient who later come to repentance, the plan of God provides for the vicarious administration of the essential ordinances to the living posterity in behalf of their dead progenitors. Of this saving labor Malachi prophesied in solemn plainness (Malachi 4:5, 6); and the glorious fulfilment has been witnessed in this modern age. The great Temples reared by the Latter-day Saints are maintained in large part for the service of the living in behalf of the dead.
WHY ARE THEY BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD?
Elijah the Prophet on the American Continent
IN one of his letters to the Corinthians, Paul the Apostle discusses the resurrection of the dead, which was a subject of contention at the time of his writing. Having shown that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ all mankind shall be eventually redeemed from bodily death, the scholarly Apostle asks: "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" (1 Cor. 15:29). As the question is put by way of finality and climax to the preceding argument and is without explanatory comment, we must conclude that the subject involved no new or strange doctrine; but to the contrary that the people both understood and practised the ordinance of vicarious baptism by the living in behalf of the dead.
To Nicodemus our Lord declared in such plainness as to preclude dispute: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5). That this new birth comprises water baptism by immersion, as was at that time being administered by John the Baptist, and the higher baptism of the Spirit, which Christ Himself came to give, is evident from the scriptural context. Note the incisiveness of our Lord's affirmation that without baptism man cannot enter the kingdom of God. No distinction is made, no exceptions are implied. The indispensable condition is applicable to all men whether living or dead.
Nicodemus, though a scholar and a master in Israel, failed to understand the full import of our Lord's words, and in seeming bewilderment asked: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" (Verse 4).
With at least equal pertinency it may now be asked: How can a man who has died without baptism be baptized? Can he enter the second time into his body of flesh and be immersed in water? The answer is that the living may be baptized for the dead. No one who accepts as a reality the Atonement of Jesus Christ in behalf of all humankind can consistently deny the efficacy of vicarious service, in which one person officiates in behalf of another, provided of course that the labor be done by Divine appointment.
In the last chapter of the Old Testament the prophet Malachi describes a condition of the last days immediately precedent to the second advent of the Christ: "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." (Malachi 4:1).
This fateful prediction is followed by the blessed promise, expressed in the words of Jehovah: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." (Verses 5, 6).
Joseph Smith the modern prophet solemnly affirms that in 1836 Elijah the prophet of ancient Israel appeared in the Temple that had been erected by the Latter-day Saints at Kirtland, Ohio, and effected the fulfilment of Malachi's prediction by this declaration: "Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of Malachi, testifying that he (Elijah) should be sent before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse." (D&C, 110:14-15).
This union of the interests of the departed fathers with those of their yet living descendants is a necessary preparation for the coming of the Lord, as affirmed by Joseph Smith: "The earth will be smitten with a curse, unless there is a welding link of some kind or other, between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other, and behold what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect." (D. C. 128:18).
The Latter-day Saints are distinguished as a Temple-building people. Through direct revelation the Lord has made plain that baptism and associated ordinances for the dead, as also certain endowments of the living, are acceptable only when administered in structures specially reared and consecrated for this sacred service.
In the spirit realm, as in our material world of mortals, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is being preached; and among both dead and living the authoritative proclamation is made: Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. To be competent to officiate for his dead, a man must first comply with the laws and ordinances of the Gospel in his own behalf.
There is an element of particular fitness in the fact that the appointed minister, through whom the vicarious service of the living in behalf of the dead has been inaugurated in the current dispensation, is none other than Elijah, who was taken from earth without passing through the change we call death, and who therefore held a peculiar and special relationship to both the living and the dead.
True to the commission conferred through Elijah's modern ministry, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rears Temples to the name and service of the living God, and in those sacred structures carries forward the appointed service for the salvation of the uncounted dead who have passed away in ignorance as to the necessity of compliance with the laws and ordinances of the Gospel, without which compliance no man can have place in the Kingdom of God.
OBEDIENCE IS HEAVEN'S FIRST LAW
Conditions of Citizenship in the Kingdom of God
WE believe that through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. (Articles of Faith, 3).
Pope's famous line, "Order is Heaven's first law," has often been misapplied. Order is a result of compliance with established requirements; of necessity, therefore, it cannot be first. It is an effect, not the primary cause. A more thoughtful generalization leads to the conclusion that obedience is the basal law of Heaven, and that this law is equally valid and as truly operative in things pertaining to mortality.
Jesus Christ, through whom the plan of salvation has been made available to mankind, has prescribed the conditions under which we may become its beneficiaries—the terms by which citizenship in the Kingdom of God may be secured.
Among these specified conditions is baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. The gross materialist, who wilfully refuses to see or to acknowledge anything beyond the affairs of earth, may ask: How can water wash away sin? In answer be it said, water cannot remove the stain of guilt; nevertheless, obedience to the law of baptism as required by Jesus Christ is truly a means of securing forgiveness. Obedience, not water, is the cleansing unction.
Have you never read of Naaman, captain of the Syrian hosts, who sought relief from his leprosy through the ministration of Elisha, the man of God? Read 2 Kings, chap. 5. The prophet commanded the leper to wash himself seven times in Jordan, and promised that through obedience the man would be cleansed. But the haughty Syrian was offended at the simplicity of the requirement. He had expected some ceremonial spectacle of power, a display of miracle. But by the counsel of his servant he went "and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." The waters of Jordan had no special virtues of healing, but obedience effected a cure from the leprous affliction, which was rightly regarded as at once a bodily disease and a curse.
And what of the widow, whose sons were to be sold into bondage because she could not pay her late husband's debt? Read 2 Kings 4:1-7. She came to Elisha in agony of soul; and the prophet told her to take the one little pot of oil in her house, and pour from it into as many vessels as she could borrow. With scrupulous care she complied with every detail of the instructions given her by the man of God, and the vessels were filled from the single cruse. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, "Go, sell the cil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest."
Obedience is a source of power, even as is prayer. When the Jews marveled at the wisdom of Christ, He told them of a very simple yet effective way of obtaining, each for himself, knowledge of supreme worth. "My doctrine is not mine," said He, "but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." (John 7:16, 17).
In every-day affairs we comply without question with the requirements essential to the results we desire. Electricity lights our homes, propels our vehicles, drives our machinery, transmits our messages, but only on condition that we obey to the minutest detail the laws by which that mystic force operates. We may cause the sunlight to record indelibly the beauties of the landscape, or the features of a friend, but only through obedience to the laws of light and the numerous mechanical adjustments incident to the use of the camera. And as we fully and unreservedly obey, the result is sure.
Why then should it be a thing strange in our eyes that through obedience to established and eternal law the higher or spiritual powers should be invoked to our service? The effect is equally sure. The Christ has given us solemn assurance: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." (Mark 16:16).
In the present age, the unalterable necessity of obedience as a means of blessing has been reaffirmed through the prophet Joseph Smith:
"There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated; And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated." (D&C 130:20, 21).
And further: "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." (82:10).
There is no element of uncertainty in the plan of salvation, far less of inconsistency or caprice in the judgment to be rendered on individual lives, for that would imply injustice. The plan is simple. Man is in a fallen condition, beset with weaknesses and sin. Means are provided whereby he may rise, and, through the corridors of death and the portals of the resurrection, reach the way of eternal progression. These means are all comprised in obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. It is only by compliance with the laws of our community and nation that we have title to personal liberty and to a share in the blessings and privileges provided by the government under which we live. Shall the terms of citizenship in the Kingdom of God be less definite than in the nations officered by men?
Divine authority for the naturalization of mankind in that eternal Kingdom has been restored to earth in the current age. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints calls upon all peoples, irrespective of race or nationality, to cultivate an abiding faith in God, to turn from sin in contrite and genuine repentance, to be baptized by the authority of the Holy Priesthood, and to receive the assured companionship of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands.
On the high authority of the Holy Scriptures, the direct word of God to man, be it said: There is no other road to Salvation.
THE DEVILS BELIEVE AND TREMBLE
Faith Not Mere Belief
WE believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: (1) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; (2) Repentance; (3) Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; (4) Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Articles of Faith, 4).
Faith in God is the first, the fundamental, the basal principle of the Gospel; as, indeed, faith, in the more general usage of the term, is the impelling cause to activity even in ordinary affairs. Faith and belief are not infrequently confused, and the words are too commonly regarded as synonymous. An approach to identity of meaning appears in early English, in consequence of which fact belief is sometimes given the more definite signification of faith in our versions of the Holy Scriptures. Belief may be nothing more than a mental assent to any proposition, principle, or alleged fact; whereas faith implies such confidence and conviction as shall inspire to action. Belief is by comparison passive, a mere agreement or tacit acceptance only; faith is active and positive, and is accompanied by works. Faith is vivified, vitalized, living belief.
Even the devils believe that Jesus is the Christ, and so fully that they tremble at the prospect of the fate foreshadowed by that belief (see James 2:19). Their belief may amount even to certain knowledge, but they remain devils nevertheless. Consider the man possessed by a demon in the country of the Gadarenes. When he beheld Jesus afar off he ran to the Master, and worshiped Him, while the evil spirit by whom the man was controlled acknowledged the Lord, calling Him "Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God." (Mark 5; for analogous instances see Mark 1:23-27, and 3:8-11).
Strikingly similar in form, yet vitally different in spirit and effect, is this testimony of the demons as compared with Peter's confession of his Lord. To the Savior's question "Whom say ye that I am?" Peter replied in practically the same words voiced by the unclean spirits: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." (Matt. 16:15, 16).
Peter's faith had already been tested, and had demonstrated its vital power. Through faith the Apostle had forsaken much that had been dear, and had followed his Lord in persecution and suffering. His knowledge of God as the Eternal Father and of Jesus Christ as the Redeemer may have been no greater than that of the demons; but while to them that knowledge was an added cause of condemnation, to him it was the power of righteous service and of eventual salvation.
In a theological sense faith includes a moving, vital, inspiring confidence in God, and the acceptance of His will as our law and of His words as our guide in life. Faith in God is a principle of power, for by its exercise spiritual forces are made operative. By this power phenomena that appear to be supernatural, such as we call miracles, are wrought. Even the Lord Jesus was influenced and in a measure controlled by the lack of faith or the possession thereof by those who sought blessings at His hands. We are told that at a certain time and place Jesus "could there do no mighty work" because of the people's unbelief, which was so dense that He marveled at it. (Mark 6:5, 6). Repeatedly did the Lord rebuke and admonish with such reproofs as "O ye of little faith," "Where is your faith?" and "How is it that ye have no faith?" In glorious contrast rang out His words of benediction to those whose faith had made it possible for Him to heal and to save: "Thy faith hath made thee whole" and "According to your faith be it unto you."
Read the record of the youthful demoniac whose agonized father brought his son to the Master, pleading pitiably "If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us and help us." To this qualified intercession Jesus replied "If thou canst believe" and added "All things are possible to him that believeth." (Read Mark 9:14-29). The faith requisite to the healing was not that of the Healer alone, but primarily faith on the part of the suppliant.
If through faith Divine interposition may be secured to the accomplishment of what we call material or physical miracles, and of this the Scriptures contain copious testimony (read Hebrews, chap. 11), is it consistent to doubt that faith is the appointed agency for invoking and securing spiritual blessings, even to the attainment of salvation in the eternal worlds?
As shown in earlier articles, redemption from the power of death is assured to all through the victory achieved by Jesus Christ; but salvation is an individual gift, provided for all who shall establish claim thereto through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. Faith in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ as the Redeemer and Savior of the race, and in the Holy Ghost, is essential to the securing of individual salvation. Paul forcefully declares "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Heb. 11:6).
The Scriptures abound in assurances of salvation to those who exercise faith in God. The Savior's teachings are conclusive:
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." (Mark 16:16).
And again:
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36).
But who will venture to affirm that passive belief as distinguished from active faith is here implied? Can a man be said to believe in Jesus Christ in any effective and genuine sense unless that man shall strive to do the things that Christ commands? To any such inconsistent assumption, the Apostle John replies:
"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him." (1 John 2:3-5).
In a revelation through Joseph Smith in 1829 the Lord Jesus Christ gave this instruction and blessed promise:
"Ask the Father in my name, in faith believing that you shall receive, and you shall have the Holy Ghost, which manifesteth all things which are expedient unto the children of men." (D&C 18:18).