=15. The Resurrection from the Dead.=--Closely associated with, and
analogous to, the ordained rejuvenation of earth, whereby our planet
is to pass from its present dreary and broken state to a condition of
glorified perfection, is the resurrection of the bodies of all beings
who have had an existence upon its surface. The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints teaches the doctrine of a literal resurrection;
an actual re-union of departed spirits and the tabernacles with which
they were clothed during mortal probation; and a transition from
mortality to immortality in the case of some who will be in the flesh
at the time of the great change, and who, because of individual
righteousness, are to be spared the sleep of the grave. But in such
teachings, the Church is not essentially different from most Christian
sects, except perhaps in the literalness of the bodily resurrection as
taught by it, and in the belief concerning the nature of the
resurrected state. The Bible is replete with evidence regarding the
quickening of the dead. Human knowledge of the resurrection rests
wholly upon revelation. Pagan peoples have therefore no conception of
an actual coming forth of the dead unto life.[1143]
[1143] See Note 1.
=16.= In accepting the doctrine of a resurrection, we are to be guided
by faith; which, however, is supported by abundant revelation, given
in a manner unequivocal and sure. Science, the result of human
research, fails to afford us any indication of such an event in the
history of living things, and men have sought in vain for an analogy
in external nature. True, comparisons have been made, metaphors have
been employed, and similes pressed into service, to show in nature
some counterpart or semblance of the immortalizing change to which the
Christian soul looks forward with unwavering confidence; but all such
figures of speech are defective in the application, and untrue in
their professed analogies.
=17.= The return of spring after the death-like sleep of winter; the
passing of the crawling caterpillar into the corpse-like chrysalis,
and the subsequent emergence of the winged butterfly; the coming forth
of a living bird from the tomb-like recess of the egg; these and other
natural processes of development have been used as illustrative of the
resurrection. Each of them is defective, for in no instance of such
awakening has there been an actual death. If the tree die, it will not
resume its leafage with the return of the sun; if the pupa within the
chrysalis, or the life-germ within the egg be killed, no butterfly or
bird will emerge. When we indulge such figurative illustrations
without most thorough caution, we are apt to conceive the thought that
the body predestined to resurrection is not truly dead; and that
therefore the quickening which is to follow, is not what the revealed
word declares it to be. Observation proves that the separation of the
spirit from the body leaves the latter an inanimate mass, no longer
able to resist the processes of physical and chemical dissolution. The
body, deserted by its immortal tenant, is literally dead; it resolves
itself into its natural components, and its substance enters again
upon the round of universal circulation of matter. Yet the
resurrection from the dead is assured; the faith of those who trust in
the word of revealed truth will be vindicated,[1144] and the Divine
decree will be carried into full effect.
[1144] See Note 2.
=18. Predictions concerning the Resurrection.=--The prophets in the
past dispensations of the world's history have foreseen and foretold
the final conquest of death. Some of them testified specifically of
Christ's victory over the tomb; others have dwelt upon the
resurrection in a general way. Job, the man of patience under
tribulation, sang joyously even in his agony:--"For I know that my
Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the
earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I see God."[1145] Enoch, to whom the Lord revealed His
plan for the redemption of mankind, foresaw the resurrection of
Christ, the coming forth of the righteous dead with Him, and the
eventual resurrection of all men.[1146]
[1145] Job. xix, 25-26; see also Isa. xxvi, 19; Ezek. xxxvii,
11-14; Hos. xiii, 14.
[1146] Pearl of Great Price: Moses vii, 56-57.
=19.= Nephi testified to his brethren that the Redeemer's death was a
fore-ordained necessity, provided in order that resurrection from the
dead might be given to man. These are his words:--"For as death hath
passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator
there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must
needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason
of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from
the presence of the Lord; ... And this death of which I have spoken,
which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which
spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up
their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the
grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the
spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the
power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel. O how great the
plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must
deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the
body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to
itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they
are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the
flesh; save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect."[1147]
[1147] II Nephi ix, 6, 12-13.
=20.= Samuel, the Lamanite prophet, predicted the Savior's birth,
ministry, death, and resurrection, and explained the resulting
resurrection of mankind:--"For behold, he surely must die, that
salvation may come; yea, it behoveth him, and becometh expedient that
he dieth, to bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, that thereby
men may be brought into the presence of the Lord; Yea, behold this
death bringeth to pass the resurrection, and redeemeth all mankind
from the first death--that spiritual death; for all mankind, by the
fall of Adam, being cut off from the presence of the Lord, are
considered as dead, both as to things temporal and to things
spiritual. But, behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind,
yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the
Lord."[1148]
[1148] Helaman xiv, 15-17; see also Mosiah xv, 20-24; and Alma xl,
2, 16.
=21.= The New Testament furnishes abundant evidence that the doctrine
of the resurrection was very generally understood during the time of
Christ's earthly mission, and in the succeeding apostolic era.[1149]
The Master Himself proclaimed these teachings. In reply to the
hypercritical Sadducees,[1150] He said:--"But as touching the
resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto
you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the
living."[1151] the Jews who sought His life because of His deeds and
doctrine He spoke in this way:--"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He
that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath
everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed
from death unto life. 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."[1152]
[1149] Matt. xiv, 1-2; John xi, 24.
[1150] See Note 3.
[1151] Matt. xxii, 31-32; see also Luke xiv, 14.
[1152] John v, 24-25; see also verse 21, and xi, 23-25.
=22.= That Christ fully comprehended the purpose of His approaching
martyrdom, and the resurrection which was to follow, is abundantly
proved by His own utterances while yet in the flesh. To Nicodemus He
said:--"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so
must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life."[1153] And to Martha, who
was bewailing the death of her brother Lazarus, he declared: "I am
the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he
were dead, yet shall he live."[1154] Of His own resurrection He
prophesied freely; specifying the time during which His body would be
entombed.[1155]
[1153] John iii, 14-15.
[1154] John xi, 25.
[1155] Matt. xii, 40; xvi, 21; xvii, 23; xx, 19.
=23. Two General Resurrections= are mentioned in the scriptures: these
may be specified as first and final, or as the resurrection of the
just and the resurrection of the unjust. The first was inaugurated by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ; immediately following which, many of
the departed Saints came forth from their graves; a continuation of
this, the resurrection of the just, has been in operation,[1156] and
will be brought to pass in a general way in connection with the coming
of Christ in His glory, and will be incident therefore to the
beginning of the Millennium. The final resurrection will be deferred
until the end of the thousand years of peace, and will be in
connection with the last judgment.
[1156] Note the fact that Moroni, the last of the Nephite
prophets, who died in the first quarter of the fifth century A.D.,
appeared as a resurrected being to Joseph Smith in 1823 (see pp.
10-12).
=24. The First Resurrection.--Christ's Resurrection, and that
immediately following.=--The facts of Christ's resurrection from the
dead are attested by such an array of scriptural proofs that no doubt
of the reality finds place in the mind of any believer in the inspired
records. To the women who came early to the sepulchre, the angel, who
had rolled the stone from the door of the tomb, spoke, saying:--"He is
not here, for he is risen, as he said."[1157] Afterward the
resurrected Lord showed Himself to many[1158] during the forty days'
interval between His resurrection and ascension.[1159] Subsequent to
the ascension He manifested Himself to the Nephites on the western
hemisphere, as already noted in another connection.[1160] The
apostles, as we shall see, ceased not to testify of the genuineness of
their Lord's resurrection, nor did they fail to proclaim the
resurrections of the future.
[1157] Matt. xxviii, 6. See "Jesus the Christ." ch. xxxvii.
[1158] Matt. xxviii, 9, 16; Mark xvi, 14; Luke xxiv, 13-31, 34;
John xx, 14-17, 19, 26; xxi, 1-4; I Cor. xv, 5-8.
[1159] Luke xxiv, 49-51; Acts i, 1-11.
[1160] See page 37.
=25.= Christ, "the first-fruits of them that slept,"[1161] was the
first among men to come forth from the grave in an immortalized body;
but we read that, soon after His resurrection, many of the Saints were
brought from their tombs:--"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."[1162]
[1161] I Cor. xv, 20, 23; see also Acts xxvi, 23; Col. i, 18; Rev.
i, 5.
[1162] Matt. xxvii, 52-53.
=26.= Alma, the Nephite prophet, whose writings antedate by nearly a
century the birth of Christ, clearly understood that there would be no
resurrection prior to that of the Redeemer, for he said:--"Behold I
say unto you, that there is no resurrection; or, I would say, in other
words, that this mortal does not put on immortality; this corruption
does not put on incorruption, until after the coming of Christ."[1163]
And furthermore, he foresaw a general resurrection in connection with
Christ's coming forth from the dead, as the context of the foregoing
quotation clearly proves.[1164] Inspired men among the Nephites spoke
of the death and resurrection of Christ[1165] even during the time of
His actual ministry in the flesh; and their teachings were speedily
confirmed by the appearance of the risen Lord among them,[1166] as had
been foretold by their earlier prophets.[1167]
[1163] Alma xl, 2.
[1164] The same. Paragraph 16.
[1165] III Nephi vi, 20.
[1166] III Nephi xi.
[1167] I Nephi xii, 6; II Nephi xxvi, 1, 9; Alma xvi, 20; III
Nephi xi. 12.
=27.= In the latter-days, the Lord has again manifested Himself,
declaring the facts of His death and resurrection:--"For behold, the
Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered
the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him. And
he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto
him on conditions of repentance."[1168]
[1168] Doc. and Cov. xviii, 11-12.
=28. Resurrection at the Time of Christ's Second
Coming.=--Immediately, after the departure of Christ from the earth,
the apostles, upon whom then devolved the direct responsibility of the
Church, were found preaching the doctrine of a future and universal
resurrection. This teaching appears to have formed a very prominent
feature of their instructions; for it was made a special cause of
complaint by the Sadducees, who assailed the apostles, even within the
sacred confines of the temple, the accusers "being grieved that they
[the apostles] taught the people, and preached through Jesus the
resurrection from the dead."[1169] Paul gave offense by the zeal with
which he preached the resurrection which was to come; as witness his
contention with certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the
Stoics; in the course of which some said:--"What will this babbler
say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods:
because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection."[1170] The
discussion was continued at Areopagus, or Mars' Hill, where Paul
preached the gospel of the true and living God, including the tenets
of the resurrection. "And when they heard of the resurrection of the
dead, some mocked; and others said, We will hear thee again of this
matter."[1171] He declared the same truth to Felix, the governor of
Judea;[1172] and when brought in bonds before Agrippa, the king, he
asked, as if dealing with one of the principal accusations against
him, "Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God
should raise the dead?"[1173]
[1169] Acts iv, 2; see also Matt. xxii, 23, 31-32, and Acts xxiii,
8.
[1170] Acts xvii, 18.
[1171] Verse 32.
[1172] Acts xxiv, 15.
[1173] Acts xxvi, 8.
=29.= The resurrection appears to have been a favorite theme with
Paul; in his epistles to the Saints, he gives it a prominent
place.[1174] From him, also, we learn that an order of precedence is
to be observed in the resurrection:--"But now is Christ risen from the
dead, and become the first-fruits 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."[1175]
[1174] Rom. vi, 5; viii, 11; I Cor. xv; II Cor. iv, 14; Phil. iii,
21; Col. iii, 4; I Thess. iv, 14; Heb. vi, 2.
[1175] I Cor. xv, 20-23; the entire chapter should be studied.
=30.= It is expressly declared that many graves shall yield up their
dead at the time of Christ's advent in glory, and the just who have
slept, together with many who have not died, will be caught up to meet
the Lord. Paul thus wrote to the Saints in Thessalonica:--"Even so
them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.... For the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall
rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air."[1176]
[1176] I Thess. iv, 14-17.
=31.= To the three Nephite disciples, who had asked the blessing of
John the beloved apostle, Christ said:--"And ye shall never endure the
pains of death; but when I shall come in my glory, ye shall be changed
in the twinkling of an eye from mortality to immortality."[1177]
[1177] III Nephi xxviii, 8.
=32.= Through the medium of latter-day revelation, the Lord has
said:--"Behold I will come, and they shall see me in the clouds of
heaven, clothed with power and great glory, with all the holy angels;
and he that watches not for me shall be cut off. But before the arm of
the Lord shall fall, an angel shall sound his trump, and the Saints
that have slept shall come forth to meet me in the cloud."[1178] Of
the many signs and wonders which shall attend the Lord's glorious
coming we have this partial description:--"And the face of the Lord
shall be unveiled: and the saints that are upon the earth, who are
alive, shall be quickened, and be caught up to meet him. And they who
have slept in their graves shall come forth; for their graves shall be
opened, and they also shall be caught up to meet him in the midst of
the pillar of heaven. They are Christ's, the first-fruits; they who
shall descend with him first, and they who are on the earth and in
their graves, who are first caught up to meet him."[1179]
[1178] Doc. and Cov. xlv, 44-45.
[1179] Doc. and Cov. lxxxviii, 95-98.
=33.= Such are some of the glories to attend the first resurrection;
in which only the righteous are to have part. But the company of the
righteous will include all who have faithfully lived according to the
laws of God as made known to them; children who have died in their
innocence; and even the just among the heathen nations who have lived
in comparative darkness while groping for light, and who have died in
ignorance.[1180] This doctrine is made plain by modern revelation:--"And
then shall the heathen nations be redeemed, and they that knew no law
shall have part in the first resurrection."[1181] The Millennium then
is to be inaugurated by a glorious deliverance of the just from the
power of death; and of this company of the redeemed 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."[1182]
[1180] See Note 4.
[1181] Doc. and Cov. xlv, 54; see also Ezek. xxxvi, 23-24; xxxvii,
28; xxxix, 7, 21, 23.
[1182] Rev. xx, 6.
=34. The Final Resurrection.=--"But the rest of the dead lived not
again until the thousand years were finished."[1183] So said the
Revelator after having described the glorious blessings of the just,
who are given part in the first resurrection. The unworthy will be
called to the judgment of condemnation, when the regenerated world is
ready to be presented to the Father.[1184]
[1183] Rev. xx, 5.
[1184] See Note 5.
=35.= The contrast between those whose part in the first resurrection
is assured, and those whose doom it is to wait until the time of final
judgment, is a strong one, and in no case do the scriptures lighten
it. We are told that it is proper for us to weep over bereavement by
death, "and more especially for those that have not hope of a glorious
resurrection."[1185] In the present day, the voice of the Mighty One
is heard in solemn warning:--"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."[1186]
[1185] Doc. and Cov. xlii, 45.
[1186] Doc. and Cov. xliii, 17-18.
=36.= The vision of the final scene is thus described by John:--"And I
saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were
opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and
the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the
books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which
were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in
them: and they were judged every man according to their works."[1187]
This stage marks the completion of the work of resurrection. As the
scriptures conclusively prove, the resurrection will be universal;
while it is true that the dead will be brought forth in order, each as
he is prepared for the first or the final stage, yet everyone who has
tabernacled in the flesh will again assume his body and with such be
judged.
[1187] Rev. xx, 12-13.
=37.= The Book of Mormon is explicit in the 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 re-united 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. Now, behold, I have spoken unto you, concerning
the death of the mortal body, and also concerning the resurrection of
the mortal body. I say unto you that this mortal body is raised to an
immortal body; that is from death; even from the first death unto
life."[1188]
[1188] Alma xi, 42-45.
=38.= Consider also the following:--"The death of Christ bringeth to
pass the resurrection, which bringeth to pass a redemption from an
endless sleep, from which sleep all men shall be awoke by the power of
God when the trump shall sound; and they 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, and
then cometh the time that he that is filthy shall be filthy still; and
he that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is happy shall
be happy still; and he that is unhappy shall be unhappy still."[1189]
[1189] Mormon ix, 13-14.
=39.= So far has the word of revealed truth extended our knowledge
regarding the destiny of the children of God. Beyond the regeneration
of the earth, and the final judgment of the just and the wicked, we
know little except that a plan of eternal progression has been
provided.