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.)
-- 81 --
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.)
-- 82 --
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.)
-- 83 --
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.
-- 84 --
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.)
-- 85 --
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.