TESTIMONY TO THE INSPIRATION AND DIVINE CALLING OF JOSEPH SMITH DERIVED
FROM THE COMPREHENSIVENESS OF THE WORK HE INTRODUCED--CONTINUED.
At once intimately connected with the coming of the Lord Jesus, and
fatal to all claims of a divine commission on the part of Joseph Smith
had he omitted it from the New Dispensation, is the mission of Elijah.
This, too, is the subject of one of Malachi's prophecies. "Behold,"
that prophet represents the Lord as saying, "I will send you Elijah
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the
Lord: and he will 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." [1] According to the testimony of Joseph Smith and
Oliver Cowdery, on the 3rd of April, 1836, Elijah appeared to them in
the Kirtland Temple and fulfilled this prophecy. "Therefore," said he,
on that occasion, "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." [2]
The nature of Elijah's mission, the manner in which the hearts of
the fathers would be turned to the children, and the hearts of the
children to the fathers, has been and is a mystery to Christendom;
and only by a revelation from God could it be made plain. The mission
of Elijah related to the salvation of the dead; and the introduction
of that doctrine was the beginning of a revolution in the theology
of Christendom. Up to that time--1836--I may say it was universally
believed by Christians that the souls of men who died without
conversion to the Christian religion were everlastingly lost. As I
have said elsewhere, [3] it was believed that the application of
the gospel of Jesus Christ was limited to this life; and those who
failed, through whatever cause, to obtain the benefits of the means
of salvation it affords, are forever barred from such benefits. "If
the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place
where the tree falleth, there it shall be;" [4] and they argued from
this that in whatever state a man died so he remained. If he died in
a state of justification his salvation was assured; but if not, then
justification, and consequently salvation, were forever beyond his hope.
This sectarian doctrine which does so much violence to the justice of
God--since it closes the door of salvation against so many millions of
God's children through no other circumstance than that they never so
much as heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and therefore could not
either believe or obey it--arose, first, through a misconception of the
doctrine of eternal punishment with which the wicked are threatened in
the scriptures; and, second, through a very narrow conception of the
sure mercies of God.
Christians believed that to receive eternal punishment was to be
punished eternally. This popular error was corrected in a revelation
to Martin Harris through Joseph Smith, even before the church was
organized. [5] In that revelation it is explained that God is
"Endless," that is one of his names; as also is "Eternal," one of
his names. "Wherefore eternal punishment is God's punishment." In
other words the punishment that will overtake the wicked is Eternal's
punishment; Endless' punishment. But Christians mistaking the name
of the punishment for the sign of its duration, taught that men
were punished eternally for the sins committed in this life. God's
punishment is eternal; that is, it always exists; it is eternal as
God is, but the transgressor receives only so much of it, endures it
only so long as may be necessary to satisfy the reasonable claims
of justice, tempered with mercy. Then, when the insulted law is
vindicated, the offender is released from the punishment. But as "the
bars survive the captive they enthrall," as the prison remains after
the transgressor has served his time in it; so in God's government, the
punishment eternally remains after transgressors have satisfied the
claims of justice, and are relieved from its pains and penalties. It
remains to vindicate the law of God whenever it shall be broken.
But men read, "He that believeth not" (the gospel) "shall be damned,"
[6] and they have been taught to believe that they are damned to all
eternity--that they are consigned forever to the flames of hell. The
so-called early fathers of the church, Justin Martyr, Clement of
Alexandria, Tertullian and Cyprian, all taught that the fire of hell
is a real, material flame; and that the wicked were punished in it
eternally. Augustine in the fifth century stated the same doctrine with
great emphasis and argued against those who sought to modify it. [7]
Thomas Aquinas of the mediaeval school of theologians, rising head and
shoulders above divines of his day, teaches in his _Summa Theologia,_
that the fire of hell is of the same nature as ordinary fire, though
with different properties; that the place of punishment though not
definitely known is probably under the earth. He also taught that
there was no redemption for those once damned, their punishment is to
be eternal. Coming to more modern times, we read in the Westminster
Confession of Faith--adopted in the seventeenth century by the Puritan
party in England--the following on the subject: "The wicked who know
not God, and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into
eternal torment and be punished with everlasting destruction from
the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power." [8] Question
twenty-nine of the larger catechism and the answer to it are as
follows: "What are the punishments of sin in the world to come?"
"_Ans._ The punishments of sin in the world to come are everlasting
separation from the comfortable presence of God, and most grievous
torment in soul and body, without intermission, in hell fire forever."
The Westminster confession and the larger catechism are still the
standards of the Presbyterian churches. Indeed the above expresses the
orthodox Christian faith, from the second and third centuries until the
present time.
One would think that right conceptions of the attributes of justice and
mercy as they exist in God's character would lead men to the rejection
of the horrible dogma of eternal punishment as taught by orthodox
Christianity. But if that be not sufficient then the scriptures
themselves refute it, as will appear in the following paragraphs:
From a remark made in the writings of the Apostle Peter, [9] we
learn that after Messiah was put to death in the flesh "He went and
preached to the spirits in prison, which sometime" [aforetime] "were
disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of
Noah."
During the three days, then, that Messiah's body lay in the tomb at
Jerusalem, his spirit was in the world of spirits preaching to those
who had rejected the testimony of righteous Noah. The Christian
traditions no less than the scriptures teach that Jesus went down
into hell and preached to those there held in ward. "In the second
and third centuries, every branch and division of Christians, so far
as their records enable us to judge, believed that Christ preached
to the departed; and this belief dates back to our earliest reliable
sources of information in the former of these two centuries." [10]
"As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it to be believed
that he went down into hell." [11] A writer in Kitto's Cyclopaedia of
Biblical Literature referring to the passage in Peter on preaching to
the spirits in prison, says: "These 'spirits in prison' are supposed to
be the holy dead. * * * The most intelligent meaning suggested by the
context is, however, that Christ by his spirit preached to those who
in the time of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, were disobedient,
and whose spirits are now in prison, abiding the general judgment. The
prison is doubtless hades, but what hades is must be determined by
other passages of scripture; and whether it is the grave or hell, it is
still a prison for those who await the judgment day."
Not only is the mere fact of Messiah's going to prison stated in the
scripture, but the purpose of his going there is learned from the same
source. "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." [12] This manifestly means that these
spirits who had once rejected the counsels of God against themselves,
had the gospel again preached to them and had the privilege of living
according to its precepts in the spirit life, and of being judged
according to men in the flesh, or as men in the flesh are judged; that
is, according to the degree of their faithfulness to the precepts of
the gospel.
Naturally the question arises why was the gospel preached to the
spirits in prison who had once been disobedient if there were no means
by which it could be applied to them for their salvation. We can
scarcely suppose that Messiah would preach the gospel to them if it
could do them no good. He did not go there to mock their sufferings
or to add something to the torture of their damnation by explaining
the beauties of that salvation now forever beyond their reach. Such
a supposition would at once be revolting to reason, insulting to the
justice of God, and utterly repugnant to the dictates of mercy. The
very fact, therefore, that the gospel was preached to the departed is
sufficient to assure us of the existence of some method by which its
powers of salvation may be applied to all unto whom it is preached,
including those who are dead. Following that question comes another:
If the gospel is preached again to those who have once rejected it,
how much sooner will it be presented to those who have never heard it,
who have lived in those generations when the gospel and the authority
to administer its ordinances were not in the earth? Seeing that those
who once rejected the offer of salvation had it presented to them
again--after paying the penalty of their first disobedience--it would
seem that those who lived when it was not upon the earth, or who when
it was upon the earth perished in ignorance of it, will much sooner
come to salvation.
Of the things we have written, this is the sum: (1) The gospel was
preached by Messiah to the spirits in prison who had rejected the
teachings of Noah; therefore there must be some means through which its
precepts and ordinances may be applied to them. (2) If the gospel can
be made available to those who once rejected the proffered mercies of
God, its privileges will much sooner and doubtless more abundantly be
granted to those who died in ignorance of it. Let us next consider how
the ordinances of the gospel wherein the power of godliness is made
manifest, and without which it is not made manifest, may be applied to
the dead.
The manner in which the ordinances of the gospel may be
administered to those who have died without receiving them is
hinted at by Paul. Writing to the Corinthians on the subject of the
resurrection--correcting those who said there was no resurrection--he
asks: "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?" [13] In this
the apostle manifestly referred to a practice which existed among the
Christian saints of the living being baptized or the dead, and argues
from the existence of that practice that the dead must rise, or why
the necessity of being baptized for the dead? Though this is the only
passage in the New Testament, or in the whole Bible that refers to the
subject, yet of itself it is sufficient to establish the fact that such
a principle was known among the ancient saints.
While not maintaining the view that there is such a thing as a
living man being baptized for one who is dead, a writer in _Biblical
Literature (Kitto's),_ expresses these views: "From the wording of
the sentence (why are they then baptized for the dead?) the most
simple impression certainly is, that Paul speaks of a baptism which a
living man receives in the place of a dead one. This interpretation
is particularly adopted by those expounders with whom grammatical
construction is of paramount importance and the first thing to be
considered." This view is also upheld by Ambrose among the early
Christian writers; and by Erasmus, Scaliger, Grotius, Calistus among
the moderns; and still more recently by Agusti Meyer, Billroth and
Ruckert. De Wette considers this the only possible meaning of the
words. Epiphanius, a writer of the fourth century, in speaking of the
Marcionites, a sect of Christians to whom he was opposed, says: "In
this country--I mean Asia--and even Galatia, their school flourished
eminently; and a traditional fact concerning them has reached us, that
when any of them had died without baptism, they used to baptize others
in their name, lest in the resurrection they should suffer punishment
as unbaptized." [14]
This proves beyond controversy the fact that vicarious baptism for the
dead was practiced among some of the sects of the early Christians.
Another fact proves it still more emphatically than this statement by
Epiphanius. The Council of Carthage, held A. D., 397, in its sixth
canon, forbids the administration of baptism and holy communion for the
dead; why should this canon be formed against these practices if they
had no existence among the Christians of those days?
From the revelations of God to the church in this dispensation, the
following may be learned: Elijah in fulfillment of ancient prophecy,
appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and delivered to them
those keys or powers of the Priesthood which give to the living the
right to do a work for the salvation of the dead. As a consequence, the
hearts of the children are turned to the fathers; and of course, since
the fathers in the spirit world through the preaching of the gospel
learn that it is within the power of their children to do a work for
them, their hearts are turned to the children, and thus the result to
follow Elijah's predicted mission is fulfilled.
The work that the living may do for the dead is attending to outward
ordinances--baptisms, confirmations, ordinations, washings, anointings
and sealings--all being appointed by revelation from the Lord, and all
sealed and ratified by the power of the Priesthood of God, which binds
on earth and in heaven. It is required that all baptisms and other
ordinances of the gospel performed for the dead, be attended to in
temples dedicated for such holy purposes. These ordinances performed
on earth by the living, and accepted in the spirit world by those for
whom they are administered, will make them a potent means of salvation
to the dead, and of exaltation to the living, since they become in very
deed "saviors upon Mount Zion."
This work that can be done for the dead enlarges one's views of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. One begins to see indeed that it is the
"everlasting gospel;" for it runs parallel with man's existence both in
this life and in that which is to come. It vindicates the character of
God, for by it we may see that justice and judgment, truth and mercy
are in all his ways.
The servants of God and the saints generally have been earnest in
seeking to erect temples in which to attend to these ordinances of
the gospel for the dead. [15] At first thought I was tempted to say
that this work for the dead was by far the greatest part of the work
contemplated in the New Dispensation; for as the leaves upon the trees
in a single summer are insignificant in comparison to the leaves that
have flourished upon the trees in all the summers since creation's
dawn, so the number of men now living is insignificant in comparison
to the unnumbered millions that have passed away; but I chanced to
remember that this work extends to the future as well as to the past;
that it will effect the generations to come, as well as those that have
gone, and so I checked the thought that the work in relation to past
generations was greatest. It is enough to say for this phase of the
work that relates to salvation for the dead, that it recognizes the
great truth, which Paul also teaches, in part, that the fathers who
have died without us cannot be made perfect; [16] nor can we without
them be made perfect. Hence in the great dispensation of the fullness
of times those principles are made active, and those sentiments excited
which shall turn the hearts of the present generation backward to
the fathers, and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, a
circumstance that shall eventuate in the complete salvation and linking
together not only of all the generations of men, but also all the
families and kindred of the earth.
Closely associated with the matter treated in the foregoing paragraphs,
is the subject of the different degrees of glory. Nothing is more
clearly stated in holy writ than that men will be judged and rewarded
according to their works. [17] And as their works vary in degree of
righteousness, so will their rewards vary, and so will they have
bestowed upon them different degrees of glory according as their
works shall merit, and their intelligence be capable of receiving and
enjoying. Messiah said to his disciples: "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; * * * that where I am there ye may be also." [18] Still
it is commonly held among Christian sects, that he who attains heaven
partakes immediately of the highest glories; while he who misses heaven
goes direct to hell and partakes of all its miseries forever.
Yet nothing is clearer than the fact that there are different heavens
spoken of in scripture and different degrees of glory. When Solomon
dedicated the temple he had builded, he exclaimed in his prayer:
"Behold the heaven and heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee; how much
less this house which I have builded!" [19] Paul in writing to the
Corinthians says: "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, * *
* such an one caught up to the _third_ heaven; and I knew such a man,
* * * how that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable
words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." [20]
Reasoning on the resurrection, the last writer quoted says: "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 as one star differeth from another star in glory, so
also is the resurrection of the dead." In all this, however, the great
subject is but vaguely hinted at, for a full understanding of it we are
indebted to a revelation given to Joseph Smith, February 16th, 1832.
From that revelation we summarize the following: [21]
They who receive the testimony of Jesus, who believe on his name, and
are baptized after the manner of his burial; who keep the commandments
of God and are washed and cleansed from all sin; who receive the
Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands; who overcame by faith, and are
sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise--these become the church of the
First Born. They are they into whose hands the Father hath given
all things--they are priests and kings, who have received of God's
fullness, and of his glory; they are priests of the Most High, after
the order of Melchisedek, which is after the order of the Son of
God--therefore they are Gods, even Sons of God. All things are theirs.
Whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are
theirs, and they are Christ's, and Christ is God's. They shall overcome
all things; they shall dwell in the presence of God and Christ forever
and forever; they are they whom Christ will bring with him when he
shall come in the clouds of heaven to reign on the earth over his
people; they have part in the resurrection of the just; their names are
written in heaven, where God and Christ dwell; they are just men made
perfect through Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant; these are they
whose bodies are celestial, whose glory the sun in heaven is spoken of
as typical--they inherit the celestial glory, they see as they are seen
and know as they are known.
The terrestrial glory differs from the celestial glory as the light
of the moon differs from the light of the sun. These are they who
died without law, and also they who are the spirits of men in prison,
whom the Son visited and preached the gospel unto, 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.
These are they who receive of God's glory but not of his fullness. They
will enjoy the presence of the Son, but not the presence of the Father;
these are they who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus, therefore
they obtain not the crown over the kingdom of God.
The telestial glory differs from the terrestrial as the light of the
stars differs from the light of the moon. The inhabitants of the
telestial glory are those who neither receive the gospel of Christ in
the flesh nor the testimony of Jesus in the spirit world. These are
they who are thrust down to hell, and will not be redeemed from the
devil until the last resurrection, when Christ shall have finished his
work. These are they who are of Paul and of Apollos and of Cephas;
some of Christ and some of John; some of Moses and some of Elias; but
received not the gospel nor the testimony of Jesus. These are they who
will not be gathered with the Saints, to be caught up unto the church
of the First Born and received into the cloud. These are liars, and
sorcerers and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whoso loves and makes a
lie. They suffer the wrath of God on earth and the vengeance of eternal
fire; but they will be judged every man according to his deeds and
receive according to his works, his own dominion, in the mansions which
are prepared; and they shall be servants of the Most High, [22] but
where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end. They
of the telestial glory enjoy neither the presence of the Father nor the
Son, but receive the ministration of angels and of the Holy Ghost, for
even they of the telestial glory are accounted heirs of salvation.
The Prophet Joseph and Sidney Rigdon in their vision saw that the
inhabitants of the telestial glory were as innumerable as the stars in
the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the sea shore--and they
heard the voice of God saying--"These all shall bow the knee and every
tongue shall confess to him who sits upon the throne forever and ever;
for they shall be judged according to their works, and every man shall
receive according to his own works, his own dominions in the mansions
which are prepared, and they shall be servants of the Most High, but
where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end."
These are the great divisions of glory in the world to come, but there
are subdivisions or degrees. Of the telestial glory it is written:
"And the glory of the telestial is one, even as the glory of the stars
is one, for as one star differs from another star in glory, even so
differs one from another in glory in the telestial world." [23] From
this it is evident that there are different degrees of glory within
the celestial and the telestial glories; and though we have no direct
authority for the statement, it seems but reasonable to conclude
that there are different degrees of glory in the terrestrial world
also. It appears but rational that it should be so, since the degrees
of worthiness in men are almost infinite in their variety; and as
every man is to be judged according to his works, it will require a
corresponding infinity of degrees in glory to mete out to every man
that reward of which he is worthy, and that also which his intelligence
will enable him to enjoy.
The question of advancement within the great divisions of glory
celestial, terrestrial, and telestial; as also the question of
advancement from one sphere of glory to another remains to be
considered. In the revelation from which we have summarized what has
been written here, in respect to the different degrees of glory, it is
said that those of the terrestrial glory will be ministered unto by
those of the celestial; and those of the telestial will be ministered
unto by those of the terrestrial--that is, those of the higher glory
minister to those of a lesser glory. I can conceive of no reason for
all this administration of the higher to the lower, unless it be for
the purpose of advancing our Father's children along the lines of
eternal progression. Whether or not in the great future, full of so
many possibilities now hidden from us, they of the lesser glories after
education and advancement within those spheres may at last emerge
from them and make their way to the higher degrees of glory until at
last they attain to the highest, is not revealed in the revelations
of God, and any statement made on the subject must partake more or
less of the nature of conjecture. But if it be granted that such a
thing is possible, they who at the first entered into the celestial
glory--having before them the privilege also of eternal progress--have
been moving onward, so that the relative distance between them and
those who have fought their way up from the lesser glories may be as
great when the latter have come into the degrees of celestial glory
in which the righteous at first stood, as it was at the commencement.
Thus: Those whose faith and works are such only as to enable them to
inherit a telestial glory, may arrive at last where those whose works
in this life were such as to enable them to entrance into the celestial
kingdom--they may arrive where these _were,_ but never where they _are_.
There is a class of souls with whom the justice of God must deal, which
will not and cannot be classified in the celestial, terrestrial or
telestial glories. They are the sons of perdition. But though they will
not be assigned a place in either of these grand divisions of glory,
the revelation from which we have drawn our information respecting
man's future state describes the condition of these sons of perdition
so far as it is made known unto the children of men. It also informs us
as to the nature of the crime which calls for such grievous punishment.
The sons of perdition are they of whom God hath said that it had been
better for them never to have been born; for they are vessels of wrath
doomed to suffer the wrath of God with the devil and his angels in
eternity. Concerning whom he hath said there is no forgiveness in this
world nor in the world to come. These are they who shall go away into
everlasting punishment, with the devil and his angels and the only
ones on whom the second death shall have any power; the only ones who
will not be redeemed in the due time of the Lord after the sufferings
of his wrath. He saves all the works of his hands except the sons of
perdition; but they go away to reign with the devil and his angels in
eternity, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,
which is their torment. The end thereof, the place thereof no man
knoweth. It has not been revealed nor will it be revealed unto man,
except to them who are made partakers thereof. It has been partially
shown to some in vision, and may be shown again in the same partial
manner to others; but the end, the width, the heighth, the depth and
the misery thereof they understand not, nor will it be revealed to any
but those who receive the terrible condemnation. [24]
Such the punishment, now, as to the crime that merits it. It is the
crime of high treason to God which pulls down on men this fearful doom.
It falls upon men who know the power of God and who have been made
partakers of it, and then permit themselves to be so far overcome of
the devil that they deny the truth that has been revealed to them and
defy the power of God. They deny the Holy Ghost after having received
it. They deny the Only Begotten Son of the Father after the Father has
revealed him, and thus crucify him unto themselves anew, and put him to
an open shame. They commit the same act of high treason that Lucifer
in the rebellion of heaven did, and hence are condemned to the same
punishment. Thank God, the number who commit that fearful crime is few!
Only those who attain to a very great knowledge of the things of heaven
are capable of committing it; and the number among such is few indeed
who become so recklessly wicked as to rebel against and defy the power
of God. But when such characters do fall, they fall like Lucifer, never
to rise again; they get beyond the power of repentance or the hope of
forgiveness. [25]
Carried away by the beauty, consistency and grandeur of these
doctrines, how far I have wandered from the line of direct argument!
And yet not so; for these very doctrines breathing as they do a spirit
so purely charitable, laden with joy for the living and hope for even
the unconverted dead, manifesting such a spirit of universal love, so
every way broad, noble and Godlike, they are within themselves the
strongest arguments that they are not merely human conceptions. As
"the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his
handiwork," so these doctrines proclaim that the mind which fashioned
them was inspired of God. In other words they were not conceptions of
the human mind, but are the outgrowth of revelation direct from God;
and bespeak a divine authority for him who in this generation first
taught them to the world.
But how comprehensive is this New Dispensation! The Dispensation of
the Fullness of Times, truly; in which God is gathering "together in
one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in
earth!" A dispensation in which all former dispensations find their
complement, and without which they would be meaningless. Nothing is
omitted essential to its completeness. In it all the prophecies of the
scripture either have been fulfilled, are in process of fulfillment,
or are in contemplation, that is, the way is being prepared for their
accomplishment.
In viewing a work so vast in its designs, so complete in what it
is accomplishing and what it contemplates, one stands over-awed at
the boldness of the conceptions involved in it; and as its real
greatness begins to be comprehended by the understanding, the folly
of accrediting such a work to Joseph Smith uninspired of God becomes
apparent. There is no proportion between such a work and the uninspired
intelligence of Joseph Smith, or any other man. It is too universal in
its sympathies, too broad in its contemplated achievements, too great,
in every way too splendid to be referred to a merely human origin.
And I assert again that as the grandeur of the universe forces upon
the mind the conviction that behind all its phenomena, there must be
an intelligence operating infinitely greater than that possessed by
man, so the comprehensiveness of the New Dispensation proclaims an
intelligence superior to that possessed by man for the origin of it;
and which can only be attributed to the inspiration of God in him who
was the instrument by which it was brought into existence.
Footnotes
1. Mal. iv: 5, 6.
2. Doc. and Cov. Sec. cx.
3. The following passages are largely adapted from the writer's work
"Outlines of Ecclesiastical History."
4. Eccl. xi.
5. The revelation was given in March, 1830; Doc. and Cov. Sec. xix.
6. Mark xvi: 16.
7. See "Augustine's City of God." Part II.; book xx and xxi.
8. Ch. xxxiii.
9. I. Peter iii. 18-21.
10. Christ's Mission to the Under World (Huidekoper), 4th edition, p.
49. Huidekoper's volume, 185 pages, is a most valuable collection of
Christian tradition and teaching on this subject.
11. Church of England--Book of Common Prayer, p 311.
12. p. 798.
13. I. Peter iv: 6.
14. I. Cor. xv: 29.
15. Heresies xxviii: 7.
16. A temple was erected in Kirtland, Ohio, and dedicated in 1836,
though at the time little was known of the character of the work to
be performed in such kind of structures. A temple site was dedicated
at Independence, Missouri; another at Far West in the same state. One
was erected at Nauvoo and there the ordinance work for the dead was
begun. Since settling in the Rocky Mountains the church has erected
four splendid temples, in which up to December, 1893, there have been
683,377 baptisms for the dead; of ordinations to the priesthood, for
the dead, 20,232; of endowments, 310,511; of sealings (including wives
to husbands and children to parents--three temples reported), 69,749.
17. Heb. xi: 39, 40.
18. Rom. ii: 6-12. I, Cor. iii: 8. II. Cor. v: 10. Rev. ii. 23. Rev.
xx: 12.
19. St. John xiv: 1-3.
20. An exception must be made in the case of the Roman Catholic Church.
Catholics do not believe that all Christians at death go immediately
into heaven, but on the contrary "believe that a Christian who dies
after the guilt and everlasting punishment of mortal sins have been
forgiven him, but who, either from want of opportunity or through his
negligence has not discharged the debt of temporal punishment due to
his sin, will have to discharge that debt to the justice of God in
purgatory." "Purgatory is a state of suffering after this life, in
which those souls are for a time detained, which depart this life
after their deadly sins have been remitted as to the stain and guilt,
and as to the everlasting pain that was due to them; but which souls
have on account of those sins still some temporal punishment to pay;
as also those souls which leave this world guilty only of venial
(that is pardonable) sins. In purgatory these souls are purified and
rendered fit to enter into heaven, where nothing defiled enters." The
quotations in the above are from "Catholic Belief," by Bruno, D. D.,
of the Catholic church. As all works of the Catholic church accessible
to me have nothing on the different degrees of glory, I conclude that
Catholic teaching is that they who attain unto heaven are all equal in
glory.
21. I. Kings viii: 27.
22. II. Cor. xii: 1-4.
23. The circumstances under which the revelation was given are these:
The Prophet Joseph and Sidney Rigdon were engaged in revising the
Jewish scriptures. When they came to St. John, ch. v: 29--speaking of
the resurrection of the dead, concerning those that should hear the
voice of the Son of Man and come forth, instead of reading as in the
text of our common English Bibles--"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," the following was given to
them by the Spirit: "And shall come forth, they who have done good
in the resurrection of the just, and they who have done evil in the
resurrection of the unjust." This reading of the passage caused them to
marvel, as it was given to them by inspiration; and while they pondered
on this thing the Spirit of God enveloped them and they saw the Lord
Jesus Christ and those different glories which men will inherit, an
account of which is given in the text. The vision is recorded in Doc.
and Cov. Sec. lxxvi.
24. "Servants of God, but not Gods, nor the Sons of God," remarks
Apostle Orson Pratt in his footnote on the passage from which this is
condensed. Doc. and Cov. Sec. lxxvi: 112.
25. Doc. and Cov. Sec. lxxvi.