Apparent Doom of the Majority of Mankind--No Salvation but by Jesus
Christ--Is the State of Man Fixed at Death?--The Common Belief
Incorrect--Preaching to the Dead--The Spirit Without the Body
Sentient--Nature of Paradise--All People to Hear the Gospel Either in
this Life or the Next.
One of the great difficulties in the way of inquiring minds, desirous
of understanding gospel truth, is the apparent doom of the great bulk
of the human family to perdition. The declaration is plainly and
positively made in the scriptures that there is no other name given
under heaven whereby man can be saved, but the name of Christ Jesus.
It is also proclaimed that "except a man be born of water and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
Many millions of the earth's inhabitants have passed away without
hearing the name of Jesus, or having any opportunity of the privilege
of the second birth. And the query arises, must all these souls be lost
in consequence? And if so can the God of the Bible be just? Further;
the question comes up, If the world has been in error so long, and the
Church of Latter-day Saints is the only true Church of Christ, what has
become of the generations of professing Christians, who lived and died
in the centuries between the loss of the gospel and the Priesthood and
their restoration in the present age?
The difficulty arises through lack of a correct understanding of the
plan of salvation, and through the erroneous doctrines of unauthorized
teachers. Orthodox "Christianity" affirms that the future state of man
is fixed at death; that the departing spirit goes either to an eternal
heaven or an everlasting hell; and that there is no possibility of
change, but, to use a familiar saying, "as the tree falls, so it lies."
The light of modern revelation rolls back the darkness of ages and
unfolds the glorious plan of human redemption in its fullness, and the
illuminated soul perceives the triumph of justice in union with mercy,
through the extension of gospel privileges beyond the narrow sphere of
this mortal life.
Why should the opportunity to learn and the power to obey the truths of
the gospel be confined to dwellers in the flesh? Is it to be supposed
that when the immortal spirit leaves its domicile of clay its powers
of preception, of reason, of reception or rejection of truth or error,
of submission or rebellion to the decrees of heaven, are buried with
the decaying body? The idea is contrary to all the hopes of the life
to come kindled in the heart by the promises of the gospel. It is also
antiscriptural. There is nothing in holy writ which establishes any such
absurdity. Paul declares that all men shall be judged by the gospel
which he preached. If this is true and God is just, must not all men
_hear_ that gospel and have the opportunity of receiving or rejecting
it? And if this privilege has not been granted to them while in the
body, must it not be afforded them when out of the body?
Peter states that the Lord shall "judge the quick and the dead," and
explains that "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." He mentions this in connection
with his history of the mission and works of Jesus, who, he tells us,
was "put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit: by which
also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison."
This accounts for the whereabouts of the Savior during the interval
between his death on the cross and His resurrection from the sepulchre
in the rock. At His appearance to Mary in the garden, after He had
risen, He said, "I am not yet ascended to my father." During the
three days of His body's sleep in the tomb He was continuing the work
the Father had given Him to do. He was preaching "deliverance to the
captives, and the opening of the prison to them that were bound."
That these spirits in prison had been in the flesh, Peter makes clear
by stating that they were "disobedient * * in the days of Noah, while
the ark was a preparing." The gospel was thus preached also to the
dead, that they might have the same opportunities and be judged by the
same gospel as the living.
The exercise of faith is an operation of the spirit of man, and so is
repentance. These lead to obedience and obedience to acceptance with
God. The body without the spirit is dead and can neither believe,
repent nor obey, but the spirit without the body is active, sentient
and capable of exercising all of its powers that are adapted to a
spiritual sphere. It is only through the medium of the body, however,
that the spirit can handle, experience and fully control or be
subjected to corporeal things. That part of the gospel which pertains
to earthly ordinances and observances is, therefore, unapproachable to
the disembodied. But they can learn and submit to all its spiritual
laws and influences and "live according to God in the spirit." They
can hear the gospel, for Christ preached it to many of them; they
can obey, for He not only proclaimed liberty to them but "He led
captivity captive," and they must therefore have repented and become
acceptable to God. As one of the early fathers of the Church said of
the slain Redeemer, "He went into hades alone, but he came forth with a
multitude."
The Jews of Christ's day believed that there were two divisions of the
spirit world--Paradise and Tartarus. The good went to the former, the
bad to the latter. Jesus promised the repentant thief on the cross:
"To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." This is not the abode of
the Eternal Father but of departed spirits, where they wait until the
resurrection. A place of instruction and preparation, of peace and
rest, of joy and serenity, of progress toward perfection. And into this
abode of the just, Christ led from Tartarus the spirits purified and
chastened through their captivity, who were disobedient in the flesh
in the days of Noah, but had suffered for their rebellion, and in the
spirit had gladly received the gospel through His ministrations.
And thus, in the due time of the Lord all who have dwelt upon the earth
in any age, Jew, Gentile, heathen, Christian, may hear the glad tidings
of the everlasting gospel preached by those appointed and authorized,
and have an opportunity of repentance, improvement and reconciliation.
But the ordinances which belong to the sphere of mortality cannot be
received in a spiritual estate; they belong to the flesh and must
be attended to in the flesh. Consideration of the means provided
by Infinite Goodness through which the benefits of those essential
ordinances can be obtained by believing, repentant, disembodied
persons, must be left till the unfolding of another leaf.