THE GLORY OF GOD IS INTELLIGENCE
Knowledge Is Power in Heaven as on Earth
IN a revelation to Abraham the Lord made known the existence of spirits appointed to take bodies upon the earth. These spirits were designated as "the intelligences that were organized before the world was"; and elsewhere in the same record spirits are called intelligences. See Pearl of Great Price, pp. 65, 66.
This usage of the term has gained a place in modern English, as lexicographers agree. The Standard Dictionary gives us the following as one of the specific definitions of intelligence: "An intelligent being, especially a spirit not embodied; as the intelligences of the unseen world; the Supreme Intelligence."
The word is current as connoting (1) the mental capacity to know and understand; (2) knowledge itself, or the thing that is known and understood; and (3) the person who knows and understands. Beside these there are other minor usages.
In the revelation above cited the Lord impressed upon His ancient prophet and seer the fact that some of the spirits were more intelligent than others; and then proclaimed His own Divine supremacy by the declaration: "I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all. . . . I rule in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath, in all wisdom and prudence, over all the intelligences thine eyes have seen from the beginning. I came down in the beginning in the midst of all the intelligences thou hast seen."
In such wise did God make known anciently the power by virtue of which He is supreme over all the intelligences that exist—the fact that He is more intelligent than any and all others. In the heavens as upon the earth the aphorism holds good that Knowledge is Power, providing that by "knowledge" we mean application, and not merely mental possession, of truth. In a revelation through Joseph Smith the prophet given in 1833, the character of Divine authority and power is thus sublimely summarized: "The Glory of God is Intelligence." (D&C 93:36.)
The context of the passage shows that the intelligence therein referred to as an attribute of Deity is spiritual light and truth; and that man may attain to a measure of this exalting light and truth is thus made certain: "He that keepeth His commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things. . . . Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be. All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also."
The antithesis of light and truth is darkness and falsehood; the former is summarized as righteousness, the latter as evil. Reverting to the figure of mortality as a school for embodied spirits, we must admit that every pupil who ignores or rejects the truth as presented to him through the revealed word and his own experience is culpably responsible for his ignorance.
Not all knowledge is of equal worth. The knowledge that constitutes the wisdom of the heavens is all embraced in the Gospel as taught by Jesus Christ; and wilful ignorance of this, the highest type of knowledge, will relegate its victim to the inferior order of intelligences. Another latter-day Scripture may be cited as an inspired generalization embodying an eternal truth relating to our subject: "It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance." (D&C 131:6.)
Can it be otherwise? If a man be ignorant of the terms on which salvation is predicated he is unable to comply therewith, and consequently fails to attain what otherwise might have been his eternal gain. The ignorance that thus condemns is responsible ignorance, involving wilful and sinful neglect. Lack of the saving knowledge that one has had no opportunity to acquire is but a temporary deficiency; for Eternal Justice provides means of education beyond the grave. Every one of us will be judged according to the measure of light and truth we have had opportunity to acquire. Even the untutored heathen who has lived up to his highest conceptions of right shall find means of progression. Part of the blessing to follow the second advent of Christ is thus stated: "And then shall the heathen nations be redeemed, and they that knew no law shall have part in the first resurrection; and it shall be tolerable for them." (45:54.)
The intelligence that saves comprises knowing and doing what is required by the Gospel of Christ; and such intelligence will endure beyond death. "Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come." (130:18, 19.)
Intelligence as to Godly things, which are summarized in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, leads to an ever increasing understanding and comprehension of God Himself, and this is knowledge supreme; for as the praying Christ affirmed: "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3.)
WHEN IGNORANCE IS SIN
Opportunity Entails Accountability
IT is an aphorism of the courts that ignorance of the law is no valid excuse for crime. If this rule be just it must rest upon the assumption that knowledge of what the law demands or forbids is an inherent and natural possession, or that it is so readily accessible that no one is justified in failing to become informed.
The normal individual of a civilized community requires no specific instruction to know that theft, falsification, drunkenness, adultery or murder is fundamentally wrong, since each of these crimes is a violation of his conscience and a pronounced offense against public weal. If, however, he enter restricted territory within which registration is legally demanded, and he, not knowing of the requirement, fails to register, he is technically a law-breaker subject to the penalties prescribed. True, his offense is that of omission or non-compliance and his ignorance may or may not be taken into account as a mitigating circumstance, this depending, perhaps, upon local conditions and the discretion of the magistrate as warranting leniency or demanding the full measure of punishment.
As thus in the ordinary affairs of men so with regard to the laws of God, framed for the governance of souls and providing for their salvation. One's inherent consciousness warns him against criminal actions but fails to inform him of certain definite requirements, without compliance with which he is debarred from admission to the Kingdom of God. There is no inborn knowledge by which man knows that baptism by immersion in water, and the higher baptism of the Spirit through the imposition of hands are essential to salvation; nevertheless our Lord's words to Nicodemus are alike binding upon every soul: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." (John 3:5.)
Is it less reasonable with respect to spiritual requirements than in secular matters to expect of every one an acquaintance with the law as it applies to himself, providing, of course, such knowledge is accessible to all? But some may honestly assert inability to apprehend the necessity of obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel, even though they had informed themselves as to the letter of the prescribed conditions. Such may ask: Are men to suffer penalty in the hereafter because they cannot understand what is required of them in mortality? The degree of their culpability is to be determined by the fundamental cause of their ineptitude in matters spiritual. Failure to comprehend may be due to bias or to lack of desire to know. The record of our Lord's ministry presents an instance in point, coupled with a remedy for the spiritual disorder by which ignorance was fostered and truth ignored.
It was at the Feast of Tabernacles. Read John 7:14-18. The Jews were greatly troubled over His teachings; a few believed, more doubted and questioned, and some were so resentful as to want to kill Him. The more honest in the multitude desired to know for themselves whether the Master spoke by the power and authority of God or as a man, for as a man only was He generally regarded. "Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, 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."
Are you unable to realize that baptism is essential to salvation? Perhaps the cause lies in the fact that you have never developed the essential condition of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; or, perchance, you have never repented of your sins. Faith and repentance, as the Scriptures aver, are prerequisites to effective baptism; and it is as unreasonable to expect a faithless unrepentant sinner to comprehend the essentiality of baptism as to expect one untrained in the rudiments of arithmetic to understand algebra.
Wilful ignorance of Gospel requirements is sin. Man is untrue to his Divine lineage and birthright of reason when he turns away from the truth, or deliberately chooses to walk in darkness while the illumined path is open to his tread. Positive rejection of the truth is even graver than passive inattention or neglect. Yet to every one is given the right of choice and the power of agency, with the certainty of his meeting the natural and inevitable consequence.
We learn of three principal states or graded kingdoms into which souls shall enter under Divine judgment—the Celestial, the Terrestrial, and the Telestial—and the inheritance of each soul shall be determined by his measure of obedience to the laws of God, as the Lord's revelation through the prophet Joseph Smith attests: "For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory. And he who cannot abide the law of a terrestrial kingdom cannot abide a terrestrial glory. He who cannot abide the law of a telestial kingdom cannot abide a telestial glory; therefore he is not meet for a kingdom of glory." (D&C 88:22-24.)
KNOWING AND DOING
Knowledge May Help to Condemn of Save
BY way of summary and climax to His lofty yet simple, and withal unparalleled discourse, since named The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ thus spake: "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." (Matt. 7:24-27; compare Luke 6:47-49.)
This Sermon has stood through the centuries in a class of its own. The address is before us as a living preceptor thrilled with the spirit of sincerity and action as opposed to wordy profession and careless neglect. The closing sentences quoted above express, in language suited alike to child and sage, a generalization of deep import—that actions not words alone, works not empty belief, doing not merely knowing what to do, are conditions indispensable to the salvation of the soul.
Many of those who were so signally privileged and blessed as to personally hear the Master were astonished at His doctrine and deeply moved by the simple and convincing presentation: "For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." (Matt. 7:29.) Our Lord was qualified to teach as He did, not only, by reason of the sufficing fact that He bore the Father's commission, but because He had done and was doing just what He required of others. The authority of Divine precept was united in Him with that of unimpeachable example. The burden of all scriptural direction relating to the attainment of a place in the Kingdom of God is: Do the works that are prescribed.
Ever consistent, unchangeable as the Father Himself, our Lord affirmed the same necessity of works when He ministered among the Nephites on the American continent soon after His ascension from the Mount of Olives in Palestine. Having declared that His doctrine was the doctrine of the Father, the Resurrected Christ thus proclaimed:
"Whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God. And whoso believeth not in me, and is not baptized, shall be damned. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and I bear record of it from the Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also, and unto him will the Father bear record of me; for he will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost. . . . And again I say unto you, Ye must repent and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in no wise inherit the kingdom of God. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this, buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them. And whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock, but he buildeth upon a sandy foundation, and the gates of hell standeth open to receive such, when the floods come and the winds beat upon them." (Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11:33-40.)
The accumulated experience of the world sustains the soundness of the principle thus emphasized in the Savior's teachings. An alien immigrant to our shores may desire to attain the full status of citizenship; but desire alone will never enfranchise him. He must first learn the legal requirements, and then comply therewith in every detail.
A student of the Scriptures may have learned, and that to his own complete conviction, that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance of sin, baptism by water and of the Spirit, are the prescribed conditions of citizenship in the Kingdom of God; but that knowledge serves only to make him the more blameworthy if he fails to act. Even a letter-perfect memorization of all Scripture if unaccompanied by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel is invalid as title to salvation, and does but intensify the guilt incident to wilful neglect.
Opportunity to avail one's self of the saving provisions of the Gospel may not always be within individual reach, for neglect may forfeit the ability to repent. The Word of the Lord to the world today is thus proclaimed: "I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven, and he that repents not, from him shall be taken even the light which he has received; for my Spirit shall not always strive with man, saith the Lord of Hosts." (D&C 1:31-33.)
WILL MANY OR FEW BE SAVED?
Our Place Beyond the Grave
IN the course of our Lord's last journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, which proved to be His solemn march to Calvary and the tomb, He threaded the towns and villages of the region, teaching and preaching by the way. Multitudes were impressed by His lofty precepts and His simple exposition of plain, every-day religion; and many questions were submitted to Him, some based on curiosity or even less worthy motives, others inspired by genuine interest.
"Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved?" (Luke 13:23.)
The inquiry was and is of great moment. We observe as a striking and significant fact, that while the Lord nowise treated the query as improper, yet He gave no specific or direct answer. Indeed, so far as the record enables us to judge He purposely left the question unanswered; though He gave a most impressive sermon in connection therewith. Note again the question, and part of the response:
"Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able."
As the succeeding verses tell, the instruction was enlarged upon to show that neglect or procrastination in obeying the requirements of salvation may result in dire jeopardy to the soul. Moreover, the people were warned that their Israelitish lineage would not save them; for many who were not of the covenant people would believe and be admitted to the Lord's presence, while unworthy Israelites would be thrust out. So is it that "There are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last." (Verse 30.)
Uplifting and invaluable as this teaching is, it has, nevertheless, but an indirect bearing upon the clean-cut question: Will many or but few be saved? The people to whom Jesus was speaking were incapable of understanding a plain answer to the question, and would have been misled thereby. For, had He said "Few" they would have construed the reply to mean that only a few, and they the Jews, would find a place in "Abraham's bosom," while all the rest would be consigned to sheol. Had the Lord answered "Many" they would have taken His word to mean that the great majority shall attain supreme bliss in the kingdom of heaven, and only a few are to find a place in hell. Either inference is untrue.
Later, on the night of the betrayal, the Lord said to the sorrowful Apostles: "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you." Here we find conclusive refutation of the old and still current superstition, that but two states, conditions, or places—heaven and hell—are established for souls in eternity. Salvation is graded; and every soul shall inherit the condition for which he is prepared.
Paul comprehended this great truth, as appears from his declaration that in the resurrection some souls shall be of the celestial order, comparable in glory to the sun; others shall attain but a terrestrial state, of which the brightness of the moon is typical; while the graded conditions of others shall be as the varying light of the stars. See 1 Cor. 15:41, 42. Here we have two kingdoms of glory distinctively specified—the celestial and the terrestrial, and a third to which no name is given.
Modern revelation is in strict accord with Holy Writ of ancient record, and is explicit in affirming the graded conditions that await the souls of men. As made known in 1832 through the prophet Joseph Smith (see D&C, Sec. 76) there are three main kingdoms or degrees of glory in the hereafter—(1) the Celestial, of which the sun is relatively typical, (2) the Terrestrial, as far below the first as the moon is inferior to the sun in effulgence, and (3) the Telestial, which is the kingdom referred to by Paul but without name.
The Celestial inheritance is for those who have accepted the Gospel of Christ and have rendered valiant service in the cause of righteousness; those who have yielded obedience to all the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
Into the Terrestrial order shall enter those who have failed to lay hold on the privileges of eternal life while in the flesh; "honorable men of the earth" perhaps, according to human standard, yet blinded "by the craftiness" of false teachers, false philosophy, science falsely so called. These shall inherit glory, but not a fulness thereof.
The Telestial state is provided for those who have rejected the Gospel and testimony of Christ, and who merit condemnation. "These are they who are liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whosoever loves and makes a lie." Among them shall be varied degrees, even as the stars differ in glory.
Far below this condition is that of the sons of perdition—those who have sinned in full consciousness, those who have shed innocent blood. The comparative few who reach this state of extreme degradation are doomed to dwell "with the devil and his angels in eternity, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, which is their torment."
Thus, those who attain even the Telestial state are saved from the depths of perdition; while the inheritors of the higher glories are saved from the condition of the less exalted.
Consider anew the question asked of Christ: "Lord, are there few that be saved?"
And the answer revealed in the present age: "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." (D&C 76:109.)
THE GRAVES SHALL BE OPENED
And the Dead Shall Live
"WHY should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?" (Acts 26:8.)
So asked Paul of King Agrippa when arraigned before him a prisoner in bonds approximately thirty years after our Lord's resurrection. At that time the Apostles and the saints generally suffered severe persecution because of their persistent testimony of the Christ, crucified and risen. The powerful Sadducees denied the actuality of a resurrection; their opponents, the Pharisees, professed a belief in the resurrection, but all save those who had been converted to Christianity through faith and repentance denounced the solemn testimonies of Christ's resurrection as fiction and falsehood.
That the spirit of Jesus Christ returned from the abode of the disembodied and reentered the body till then reposing in the sepulchre is specifically affirmed in Holy Writ. In the early dawn of that most memorable Sunday in history He was seen by Mary Magdalene and then by others, some of whom were permitted to reverently touch His feet. In the evening He stood amongst the Apostles and quieted their fears by the assuring demonstration: "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." (Luke 24:39.)
That the body they beheld was the identical body in which the Lord had lived amongst them was evident from the presence of the wounds made by the crucifiers. To further assure the devoted company that He was no shadowy form, no immaterial being, but a living Personage with bodily organs, internal as well as outward, He asked: "Have ye here any meat?" They brought broiled fish and other food, and He "did eat before them."
Christ was the first of all men to emerge from the tomb with spirit and body reunited, a resurrected immortalized Soul. Therefore, is He rightly called "the firstfruits of them that slept," as also "the firstborn from the dead," and "the first begotten of the dead." (1 Cor. 15:20; Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5.) The victory over death thus achieved by the foreordained Redeemer of the race was positively and abundantly foretold. That a literal resurrection shall come to all who have or shall have lived and died on earth is quite as strongly attested in Scripture.
Two general resurrections are specified; these we may distinguish as the first and the final, or as the resurrection of the just and that of the unjust respectively. Hear the words of Christ Himself relating to the dead and their assured coming forth: "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 5:28, 29.)
The first resurrection began with that of Jesus Christ and was continued thereafter as we read: "And the graves were opened; and 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.) The resurrection of the just is to be made general at the time of the Lord's approaching advent in glory; but a fixed gradation is established as Paul averred: "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming." (1 Cor. 15:20-23.)
The Millennium is to be inaugurated by a glorious redemption of the righteous from the power of death; and of them it is written: "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." (Rev. 20:6.) Of the unworthy we read in thrilling contrast: "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished."
Of the imminence of His coming and in further specification of the distinction between the resurrection of the just and that of the unjust the Lord has said through revelation in the current age: "Hearken ye, for, behold, the great day of the Lord is nigh at hand. For the day cometh that the Lord shall utter his voice out of heaven; the heavens shall shake and the earth shall tremble, and 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 43:17, 18.)
The Book of Mormon is explicit in description of the literal and universal resurrection: "Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death; The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; and we shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and have a bright recollection of all our guilt. Now this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but all things shall be restored to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body, and shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one eternal God, to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil." (Alma 11:42-44.)
RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
When Shall It Be?
THE eventual resurrection of every soul who has lived and died on earth is a scriptural certainty. The resurrection consists of a literal and material reembodiment of spirits, following their post-mortal experience in the spirit world, whether this shall have been the freedom and joy of Paradise or the restraint and remorse of the prison house. We are destined to exist through the eternities beyond the resurrection with spirit and body reunited. Only in such union is a fulness of glory, opportunity, and achievement possible.
Thus spake the Lord Jesus Christ to the Church in 1833: "For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receiveth a fulness of joy. And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy." (D&C 93:33-34.)
The word of ancient Scripture affirms beyond any reasonable question or doubt that Jesus Christ, who has been exalted to authority and power by the side of His and our Eternal Father, exists as a Spirit clothed in an immortalized body of flesh and bones; for in such a body did He manifest Himself after His resurrection; and in that same body did He ascend from Olivet in the full sight of the apostles, while angelic attendants solemnly proclaimed: "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11.)
When the Savior does so return, His body will be found to bear the marks of the cruel piercings received on Calvary; and He shall say: "These wounds are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. I am he who was lifted up. I am Jesus that was crucified. I am the Son of God." (D&C 45:52.)
The Eternal Father is likewise a Spirit tabernacled in an immortalized "body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's." (D&C 130:22.)
So shall it be with every one of God's spirit-children who has been born in flesh; he shall be resurrected in flesh; for, through the infinite Atonement, physical death is but a temporary separation of spirit from body.
But though a fulness of joy eternal is possible only to resurrected beings, not all shall find that ineffable happiness. To the contrary, many shall be consigned to anguish and remorse unspeakable, because of their misdeeds in the body and their unrepentant state during the period of disembodiment.
The resurrection from the dead was inaugurated by Christ, who had power over death, and who laid down His body and took it up again as and when He willed. (John 10:17-18.) Other resurrections of the righteous dead followed. (Matt. 27:52-53; and Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 23:9-10.) This, the first resurrection, or that of the just, has been in operation since. John the Baptist, and both Peter and James, each of whom met a martyr's death, have severally appeared upon the earth and ministered in their resurrected bodies in these latter times. (D&C 13; and 27:8-13.) In this circumstance the continuance of service in the Holy Priesthood, through both mortal and resurrected beings, is profoundly exemplified.
Moroni, a Nephite prophet who died about 420 A.D., appeared as a resurrected man to Joseph Smith in 1823, and at later times, and committed to the latter-day prophet the original record from which the Book of Mormon has been translated. (See Pearl of Great Price, p. 88.)
Christ affirmed that there would be a resurrection of the just and a later resurrection of the unjust, or resurrection unto life and damnation, respectively. (John 5:29.) Apostolic Scriptures are definite in segregating individual resurrections, in that every man shall come forth "in his own order" according to worthiness. (1 Cor. 15:20-23; Rev. 20:4-6.)
The imminent but yet future advent of Jesus Christ is to be accompanied by a general resurrection of the just, while the yet unregenerate dead shall remain in their unrepentant state of duress until the Lord's blessed reign of a thousand years on earth shall have passed. Then, in a period following shall come the resurrection of the wicked.
The Book of Mormon makes plain that the resurrection of both just and wicked shall precede the last judgment: "And they [the dead] shall come forth, both small and great, and all shall stand before his bar, being redeemed and loosed from this eternal band of death, which death is a temporal death. And then cometh the judgment of the Holy One upon them." (Mormon 9:13-14.)
No spirit shall remain disembodied longer than he deserves, or than is requisite to accomplish the just and merciful purposes of God. The resurrection of the just began with Christ; it has been in process and shall continue till the Lord comes in glory, and thence onward through the Millennium. The final resurrection, or that of the wicked, the resurrection to condemnation, is to be yet later.
REACHING AFTER THE DEAD
"Lest We Forget"
THE Latter-day Saints are deeply concerned in the identification of their dead, back through the generations to the remotest extent possible. This is exemplified by the persistent ardor of the people in the compilation and preservation of genealogical records, the collating of items of lineage, and the formulation of true family pedigrees, by which the facts as to the relationship of ancestors to posterity may be determined.
In this specific activity the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not working alone; for it is a notable fact that during the last seven or eight decades, interest in genealogical matters has developed to a degree theretofore unknown in modern history. The living are reaching backward to learn of their dead. And in this movement, as in many other distinguishing features of particular epochs, a power superior to man's unguided purpose is operative.
The immediate motive in such undertakings may vary with the individual. Many, doubtless, are eager to trace their pedigree to an illustrious source according to human estimate of eminence; and of these some find disappointment. As literature attests, many spurious pedigrees have been fabricated. It was probably against such that Paul inveighed in his terse admonition to both Timothy (1 Tim. 1:4) and Titus (3:9) and through them to the Church, to eschew fables and endless genealogies, from the discussion of which only contention would result.
The Latter-day Saints have a specific, and, indeed, unique purpose in genealogical investigation. They seek not nobility nor aristocracy of ancestry, but the facts, let the line lead where it may; and the shadow of falsification would be fatal to their object.
Every believer in individual existence beyond the grave—and everybody believes in or fears the certainty of such a state—hopes and yearns for the blessed condition we call salvation. On the authority of Scripture the Church proclaims that "through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel"; and conversely, that without compliance with the laws and ordinances prescribed by Jesus Christ no man can have place in the Kingdom of God.
Who can doubt this basal and portentous truth in the light of the Savior's definite and unqualified affirmation to the learned Jew, Nicodemus, respecting baptism by water and of the Spirit (see John 3:5), which requirements are among the fundamental laws and ordinances of the Gospel?
In His comprehensive declaration our Lord made no discrimination of classes, drew no distinction between the living and the dead. But what of the unnumbered hosts who have lived and died without a knowledge of the indispensability of baptism, or, though they knew yet never had opportunity to be baptized by one holding the authority of the Holy Priesthood to so administer? Are they irrecoverably lost? A frightful thought!
When Death is reaping so rank a harvest through war, pestilence, and famine, can we bear to believe it?
What of those beloved fathers, husbands, brothers, sons—yours or some others'—who have fallen on the blooddrenched fields beyond the seas—are they, because unbaptized, to be forever shut out from the Kingdom of God, even though they have died martyrs to the cause of the Divine purpose in the vindication of the liberties of mankind?
Verily, No! The living may be baptized for the dead, as they were in earlier dispensations. Ponder the profound significance of Paul's climacteric question relating to the actuality of the resurrection: "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.)
Those still in the flesh may officiate vicariously for their departed progenitors; but for this service the genealogy of the dead is indispensable. Furthermore, vicarious ordinances are administered only in sacred Temples, reared, dedicated, and maintained for this ministry; for so the Lord has directed.
Hence the Latter-day Saints are diligently seeking out the records of their dead and are ministering for them in holy Temples. This we hold to be the bounden duty of the living in behalf of the departed, the discharge of which is as truly essential to our exaltation as to theirs.
"For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers 'that they without us cannot be made perfect'; neither can we without our dead be made perfect." (D&C 128:15; see also Hebrews 11:40.)
THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
Why do the Latter-day Saints Build Temples?
THE Latter-day Saints are known and distinguished as a Temple-building people. They, in common with religious bodies in general, build houses of worship, which for the different sects range from humble chapels to great churches, imposing synagogs, spacious tabernacles and stately cathedrals; but for none of these edifices is the claim advanced that they are Temples in the true and specific sense of the term.
Be it remembered that Temples are not designed for purposes of general assembly or congregational worship as are church buildings in general, but for the administration of sacred ordinances. It is both interesting and instructive to note that this characteristic applies alike to heathen temples and to exclusive sanctuaries reared to the name of the true and living God. In pagan temples of olden time, the altar of sacrifice stood at the entrance; and though devotees thronged about the altar, none but the officiating priests were admitted to the actual shrine within the temple itself.
So also with the Tabernacle of the Congregation, which was a portable sanctuary, constructed by the Israelites in their migration from Egypt; and so with the imposing Temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel and Herod, in each of which were spacious courts enclosed by outer walls, with altar and other equipment, within which courts the people congregated; but the sanctuary itself was a relatively small structure, reserved for the most holy ordinances and ceremonial ministry. Similarly the Temples erected and maintained by the Latter-day Saints are reserved for the solemnizing of sacred ordinances, and are distinctively other than meeting-houses used for public worship.
True to the Divine commission laid upon Israel, the Nephite colonists erected a Temple on the Western Continent as early as 570 B. C., about thirty years after their exodus from Jerusalem. The Book of Mormon informs us that this structure was patterned after the Temple of Solomon, though greatly inferior in size and splendor. (2 Nephi 5:16.)
The Latter-day Saints build Temples because they are commanded so to do through the direct word of modern revelation; and in this divinely imposed labor they recognize the purposes of God with respect to the salvation and possible exaltation of mankind.
Through the Atonement wrought by Jesus Christ the eventual resurrection of all who have lived and died is assured. This deliverance from the power of death is an essential element of Redemption; and Christ is the one and only Redeemer of the race.
By compliance with the prescribed terms as embodied in the Gospel, men may be saved from the blighting effects of sin. This condition constitutes Salvation; and since provision therefor is made effective through the Atonement, Christ is the one and only Savior of the race.
Great and glorious as is the boon of Redemption from the grave, greater and more glorious as are the conditions prescribed for the soul's Salvation, the revealed Gospel of Jesus Christ provides yet more transcendent blessings in the plan for Exaltation, whereby resurrected man may advance from one stage of relative perfection to another, with powers of eternal increase and never ending progression.
The laws and ordinances of the Gospel so far as required for Salvation—specifically the individual exercise of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, true repentance, submission to baptism by immersion at the hands of one having authority, and to the higher baptism of the Spirit by the authoritative imposition of hands for the bestowal of the Holy Ghost—these requirements may be met and the saving effects thereof secured by the living without Temples. But baptism for the dead, as also the endowments incident to the Holy Priesthood with its boundless possibilities of advancement, in short, administration of the laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Christ requisite to Exaltation in the eternal worlds, can be solemnized only in Temples erected and dedicated for these holy purposes, for so the Lord hath declared. See D&C 124:28-41.
As indicated above, Temples are not for the benefit of the living alone. Existing Temples are maintained for the salvation and exaltation of both living and dead; and the ordinances administered therein in behalf of the dead outnumber many fold the administrations for the living.
Vicarious service for the departed is peculiar to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and rightly so, for to this Church has the commission for this high ministry been given. In the last chapter of Malachi we find a vivid description of the condition of mankind in the last days, and a prophecy of gladsome promise. On April 3, 1836, in the first Temple erected in modern times, that at Kirtland, Ohio, a glorious manifestation was given to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, in the course of which Elijah ministered in person to the two modern prophets, saying:
"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. Therefore the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands, and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors." (D&C 110:14-16.)
The requirements of the Gospel are universally applicable, to bond and free, to living and dead. In the plenitude of Divine mercy provision is made whereby the myriads who have died without a knowledge of the required conditions, or without opportunity of compliance therewith, may be ministered for by their living posterity. Thus the departed fathers, if they be repentant in the spirit world, may be made partakers of the blessings provided through the Atonement of Christ. "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.)[1]
1. See the author's "The House of the Lord," 333 pp., with illustrations of modern Temples,The Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah.
THE SECOND DEATH
Spiritual Banishment Like Unto the First
IN the Revelation written by John, the second death is referred to several times, and always as the dread fate of the ungodly or wilfully wicked. Physical death is associated with sorrow; and the anguish of bereavement is often so deep that only the assurances of immortality and the certainty of a resurrection can effectively palliate or relieve. The mere mention or thought of a second death is horrifying. What is this frightful eventuality? And is it to be the lot of the many or the few?
We have seen that a means of redemption is provided even for those who are cast into hell; and that every soul shall be resurrected in due time, whether he be righteous, or foul with sin. The second death, therefore, whatever its nature or extent, is a feature of the final judgment, at which each shall stand in his resurrected body of flesh and bones to receive the sentence of honor or of shame.
We are without scriptural warrant for assuming that the second death is another separation of body and spirit, or that the spirit shall undergo dissolution and cease to be. The spirit of man is eternal; and the resurrected body shall be everlasting. The soul knows not annihilation, neither loss of personality in an impossible Nirvana. You will be yourself and I myself throughout eternity, with quickened senses, amplified powers of perception and vastly increased capacity for happiness or suffering. Neither heaven nor hell can be gaged by the yard-stick of human conception.
In what then does the second death consist? John wrote of an event following the resurrection of the wicked and the pronouncement of judgment: "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." (Rev. 20:14.) The "lake of fire" as elsewhere explained by the Revelator is the abode of Satan and those over whom he has gained power. The second death therefore is final consignment to the dominion of Satan, and, of necessity, banishment from the presence of God and Christ.
The condition of death that Adam brought immediately upon himself through disobedience was essentially a spiritual change, whereby he was shut out from the presence of God; and this befell him in the very day of his transgression, as he had been warned it would. Bodily death, though an unescapable result, was nevertheless secondary, and was deferred until Adam had reached the age of 930 years.
As eternal life consists in knowing God and His Son Jesus Christ (John 17:3; D&C 132:24), so eternal condemnation or spiritual death is essentially banishment from the Divine presence, with corresponding forfeiture of glory and power appertaining to exaltation. The word of latter-day revelation, relating to Adam's spiritual death, and to the final or as we call it, the second death, which is reserved for the ungodly, runs as follows: "Wherefore I the Lord God caused that he should be cast out from the Garden of Eden, from my presence, because of his transgression, wherein he became spiritually dead, which is the first death, even that same death, which is the last death, which is spiritual, which shall be pronounced upon the wicked when I shall say, Depart, ye cursed." (D&C 29:41.)
The Lamanite prophet, Samuel, had a clear understanding of the matter, as thus expressed: "But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord. Yea, and it bringeth to pass the condition of repentance, that whosoever repenteth, the same is not hewn and cast into the fire; but whosoever repenteth not, is hewn down and cast into the fire, and there cometh upon them again a spiritual death, yea, a second death, for they are cut off again as to things pertaining to righteousness." (Book of Mormon, Helaman 14:17-18.)
We are assured that all who win place and part in the first resurrection—distinctively the resurrection of the just—shall be exempt from the second death, and shall find their way open to exaltation in the presence of God.
There is a place or condition of punishment even deeper than hell. This is prepared for those who have sinned most grievously, who have received the testimony of Christ and afterward wilfully and with consciousness of what they were doing, have surrendered themselves to the power and service of Satan. "They are they who are the sons of perdition, of whom I say that it had been better for them never to have been born. . . . These are they who shall go away into the lake of fire and brimstone, with the devil and his angels, and the only ones on whom the second death shall have any power." (D&C 76:32-37.)