IN THE REALM OF DISEMBODIED SPIRITS.
Jesus the Christ died in the literal sense in which all men die. He
underwent a physical dissolution by which His immortal spirit was
separated from His body of flesh and bones, and that body was actually
dead. While the corpse lay in Joseph's rock-hewn tomb, the living Christ
existed as a disembodied Spirit. We are justified in inquiring where He
was and what were His activities during the interval between His death
on the cross and His emergence from the sepulchre with spirit and body
reunited, a resurrected Soul. The assumption that most naturally
suggests itself is that He went where the spirits of the dead ordinarily
go; and that, in the sense in which while in the flesh He had been a Man
among men, He was, in the disembodied state a Spirit among spirits. This
conception is confirmed as a fact by scriptural attestation.
As heretofore shown[1339] Jesus Christ was the chosen and ordained
Redeemer and Savior of mankind; to this exalted mission He had been set
apart in the beginning, even before the earth was prepared as the abode
of mankind. Unnumbered hosts who had never heard the gospel, lived and
died upon the earth before the birth of Jesus. Of those departed myriads
many had passed their mortal probation with varying degrees of righteous
observance of the law of God so far as it had been made known unto them,
but had died in unblamable ignorance of the gospel; while other
multitudes had lived and died as transgressors even against such moiety
of God's law to man as they had learned and such as they had professed
to obey. Death had claimed as its own all of these, both just and
unjust. To them went the Christ, bearing the transcendently glorious
tidings of redemption from the bondage of death, and of possible
salvation from the effects of individual sin. This labor was part of the
Savior's foreappointed and unique service to the human family. The shout
of divine exultation from the cross, "It is finished," signified the
consummation of the Lord's mission in mortality; yet there remained to
Him other ministry to be rendered prior to His return to the Father.
To the penitent transgressor crucified by His side, who reverently
craved remembrance when the Lord should come into His kingdom,[1340]
Christ had given the comforting assurance: "Verily I say unto thee,
Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." The spirit of Jesus and the
spirit of the repentant thief left their crucified bodies and went to
the same place in the realm of the departed.[1341] On the third day
following, Jesus, then a resurrected Being, positively stated to the
weeping Magdalene: "I am not yet ascended to my Father." He had gone to
paradise but not to the place where God dwells. Paradise, therefore, is
not Heaven, if by the latter term we understand the abode of the Eternal
Father and His celestialized children.[1342] Paradise is a place where
dwell righteous and repentant spirits between bodily death and
resurrection. Another division of the spirit world is reserved for those
disembodied beings who have lived lives of wickedness and who remain
impenitent even after death. Alma, a Nephite prophet, thus spake of the
conditions prevailing among the departed:
"Now concerning the state of the soul between death and the
resurrection. Behold, it has been made known unto me, by an angel, that
the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal
body; yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are
taken home to that God who gave them life. And then shall it come to
pass that the spirits of those who are righteous, are received into a
state of happiness, which is called paradise; a state of rest; a state
of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all
care, and sorrow, &c. And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits
of the wicked, yea, who are evil; for behold, they have no part nor
portion of the Spirit of the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works
rather than good; therefore the spirit of the devil did enter into them,
and take possession of their house; and these shall be cast out into
outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of
teeth; and this because of their own iniquity; being led captive by the
will of the devil. Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked:
yea, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful, looking for the fiery
indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this
state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of their
resurrection."[1343]
While divested of His body Christ ministered among the departed, both in
paradise and in the prison realm where dwelt in a state of durance the
spirits of the disobedient. To this effect testified Peter nearly three
decades after the great event: "For Christ also hath once suffered for
sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put
to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he
went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were
disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of
Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls
were saved by water."[1344]
The disobedient who had lived on earth in the Noachian period are
especially mentioned as beneficiaries of the Lord's ministry in the
spirit world. They had been guilty of gross offenses, and had wantonly
rejected the teachings and admonitions of Noah, the earthly minister of
Jehovah. For their flagrant sin they had been destroyed in the flesh,
and their spirits had endured in a condition of imprisonment, without
hope, from the time of their death to the advent of Christ, who came as
a Spirit amongst them. We are not to assume from Peter's illustrative
mention of the disobedient antediluvians that they alone were included
in the blessed opportunities offered through Christ's ministry in the
spirit realm; on the contrary, we conclude in reason and consistency
that all whose wickedness in the flesh had brought their spirits into
the prison house were sharers in the possibilities of expiation,
repentance, and release. Justice demanded that the gospel be preached
among the dead as it had been and was to be yet more widely preached
among the living. Let us consider the further affirmation of Peter, as
part of his pastoral admonition to the members of the Primitive Church:
"Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the
dead. 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."[1345]
That Jesus knew, while yet in the body, that His mission as the
universal Redeemer and Savior of the race would not be complete when He
came to die is sufficiently demonstrated by His words to the casuistical
Jews, following the Sabbath day healing at Bethesda: "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. For as the
Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in
himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because
he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: 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."[1346] The
solemn truth, that through the atonement of Christ salvation would be
made possible to the dead as well as to the living, was revealed to the
prophets centuries before the meridian of time. Isaiah was permitted to
foresee the fate of the ungodly, and the state prepared for haughty and
rebellious offenders against righteousness; but the dread vision was in
part brightened by the deliverance that had been provided. "And it shall
come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the
high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the
pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they
be visited."[1347] To the same mighty prophet was shown the universality
of the Savior's atoning victory, as comprizing the redemption of Jew and
Gentile, living and dead; and convincingly he voiced the word of
revelation: "Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and
stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which
cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and
spirit to them that walk therein: I the Lord have called thee in
righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give
thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open
the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them
that sit in darkness out of the prison house."[1348]
David, singing the praises of the Redeemer whose dominion should extend
even to the souls in hell, shouted in joy at the prospect of
deliverance: "Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my
flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt
shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy
right hand there are pleasures for evermore."[1349]
From these and other scriptures it is evident that the ministry of
Christ among the disembodied was foreseen, predicted, and accomplished.
The fact that the gospel was preached to the dead necessarily implies
the possibility of the dead accepting the same and availing themselves
of the saving opportunities thereof. In the merciful providence of the
Almighty, provision has been made for vicarious service by the living
for the dead, in the ordinances essential to salvation; so that all who
in the spirit-world accept the word of God as preached to them, develop
true faith in Jesus Christ as the one and only Savior, and contritely
repent of their transgressions, shall be brought under the saving effect
of baptism by water for the remission of sins, and be recipients of the
baptism of the Spirit or the bestowal of the Holy Ghost.[1350] Paul
cites the principle and practise of baptism by the living for the dead
as proof of 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?"[1351] Free agency, the divine
birthright of every human soul, will not be annulled by death. Only as
the spirits of the dead become penitent and faithful will they be
benefited by the vicarious service rendered in their behalf on earth.
Missionary labor among the dead was inaugurated by the Christ; who of us
can doubt that it has been continued by His authorized servants, the
disembodied, who while in the flesh had been commissioned to preach the
gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof through ordination in
the Holy Priesthood? That the faithful apostles who were left to build
up the Church on earth following the departure of its divine Founder,
that other ministers of the word of God ordained to the Priesthood by
authority in the Primitive as well as in the Latter-day Church, have
passed from ministerial service among mortals to a continuation of such
labor among the disembodied, is so abundantly implied in scripture as to
be made a certainty. They are called to follow in the footsteps of the
Master, ministering here among the living, and beyond among the dead.
The victory of Christ over death and sin would be incomplete were its
effects confined to the small minority who have heard, accepted, and
lived the gospel of salvation in the flesh. Compliance with the laws and
ordinances of the gospel is essential to salvation. Nowhere in scripture
is a distinction made in this regard between the living and the dead.
The dead are those who have lived in mortality upon earth; the living
are mortals who yet shall pass through the ordained change which we call
death. All are children of the same Father, all to be judged and
rewarded or punished by the same unerring justice, with the same
interposition of benign mercy. Christ's atoning sacrifice was offered,
not alone for the few who lived upon the earth while He was in the
flesh, nor for those who were to be born in mortality after His death,
but for all inhabitants of earth then past, present, and future. He was
ordained of the Father to be a judge of both quick and dead;[1352] He is
Lord alike of living and dead,[1353] as men speak of dead and living,
though all are to be placed in the same position before Him; there will
be but a single class, for all live unto Him.[1354] While His body
reposed in the tomb, Christ was actively engaged in the further
accomplishment of the Father's purposes, by offering the boon of
salvation to the dead, both in paradise and in hell.
NOTES TO CHAPTER 36.
1. Paradise.--The scriptures prove that at the time of the final
judgment every man will stand before the bar of God, clothed in his
resurrected body, and this, irrespective of his condition of
righteousness or guilt. While awaiting resurrection, disembodied spirits
exist in an intermediate state, of happiness and rest or of suffering
and suspense, according to the course they have elected to follow in
mortality. Reference to paradise as the abode of righteous spirits
between the time of death and that of the resurrection is made by the
prophet Nephi (2 Nephi 9:13), by a later prophet of the same name (4
Nephi 14), by Moroni (Moroni 10:34); as also by Alma whose words are
quoted in the text (Alma 40:12, 14). New Testament scripture is of
analogous import (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2:7). The word
"paradise" by its derivation through the Greek from the Persian,
signifies a pleasant place, or a place of restful enjoyment. (See _The
Articles of Faith_, xxi, note 5). By many the terms "hades" and "sheol"
are understood to designate the place of departed spirits, comprizing
both paradise and the prison realm; by others the terms are applied only
to the latter, the place of the wicked, which is apart from paradise,
the abode of the just.
The assumption that the gracious assurance given by Christ to the
penitent sinner on the cross was a remission of the man's sins, and a
passport into heaven, is wholly contrary to both the letter and spirit
of scripture, reason, and justice. Confidence in the efficacy of
death-bed professions and confessions on the basis of this incident is
of the most insecure foundation. The crucified malefactor manifested
both faith and repentance; his promised blessing was that he should that
day hear the gospel preached in paradise; in the acceptance or rejection
of the word of life he would be an agent unto himself. The requirement
of obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel as an essential to
salvation was not waived, suspended, or superseded in his case.
2. The Scripture Relating to Christ Among the Spirits in Prison.--The
revised version of 1 Peter 3:18-20 reads: "Because Christ also suffered
for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us
to God; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit; in
which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which
aforetime were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the
days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is eight
souls were saved through water." This is regarded by scholars as a
closer approach to accuracy in translation than the common version.
Certain important differences between the two versions will appear to
the studious reader. The common version of the latter part of verse 18
and the whole of verse 19 reads: "being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the
spirits in prison." The revised text expresses the true thought that
Christ was quickened, that is to say, was active, in His own spirit
state, although His body was inert and in reality dead at the time; and
that _in_ that disembodied state He went and preached to the disobedient
spirits. The later reading fixes the time of our Lord's ministry among
the departed as the interval between His death and resurrection.
FOOTNOTES:
[1339] Chapters 2 and 3 herein.
[1340] Page 659.
[1341] Note 1, end of chapter.
[1342] Note the distinction made by Paul 2 Cor. 12:2-4.
[1343] B. of M., Alma 40:11-14.
[1344] 1 Peter 3:18-20; see Note 2, end of chapter.
[1345] 1 Peter 4:5, 6. See Note 2, end of chapter.
[1346] John 5:25-29; see also page 210 herein.
[1347] Isa. 24:21, 22.
[1348] Isa. 42:5-7.
[1349] Psalm 16:9-11.
[1350] See page 124 herein; also "The Articles of Faith," vii:18-33; and
"The House of the Lord," pages 63-93.
[1351] 1 Cor. 15:29; see also "House of the Lord," p. 92.
[1352] Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1; 1 Peter 4:5.
[1353] Rom. 14:9.
[1354] Luke 20:36, 38; "The Articles of Faith," vii:18.