Chapter X: Part 10

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.)

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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.)

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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.

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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.)

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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.

Be it remembered that Temples are not designed for purposes of general assembly or congregational worship as are church buildings in general, but for the administration of sacred ordinances. It is both interesting and instructive to note that this characteristic applies alike to heathen temples and to exclusive sanctuaries reared to the name of the true and living God. In pagan temples of olden time, the altar of sacrifice stood at the entrance; and though devotees thronged about the altar, none but the officiating priests were admitted to the actual shrine within the temple itself.

So also with the Tabernacle of the Congregation, which was a portable sanctuary, constructed by the Israelites in their migration from Egypt; and so with the imposing Temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel and Herod, in each of which were spacious courts enclosed by outer walls, with altar and other equipment, within which courts the people congregated; but the sanctuary itself was a relatively small structure, reserved for the most holy ordinances and ceremonial ministry. Similarly the Temples erected and maintained by the Latter-day Saints are reserved for the solemnizing of sacred ordinances, and are distinctively other than meeting-houses used for public worship.

True to the Divine commission laid upon Israel, the Nephite colonists erected a Temple on the Western Continent as early as 570 B. C., about thirty years after their exodus from Jerusalem. The Book of Mormon informs us that this structure was patterned after the Temple of Solomon, though greatly inferior in size and splendor. (2 Nephi 5:16.)

The Latter-day Saints build Temples because they are commanded so to do through the direct word of modern revelation; and in this divinely imposed labor they recognize the purposes of God with respect to the salvation and possible exaltation of mankind.

Through the Atonement wrought by Jesus Christ the eventual resurrection of all who have lived and died is assured. This deliverance from the power of death is an essential element of Redemption; and Christ is the one and only Redeemer of the race.

By compliance with the prescribed terms as embodied in the Gospel, men may be saved from the blighting effects of sin. This condition constitutes Salvation; and since provision therefor is made effective through the Atonement, Christ is the one and only Savior of the race.

Great and glorious as is the boon of Redemption from the grave, greater and more glorious as are the conditions prescribed for the soul's Salvation, the revealed Gospel of Jesus Christ provides yet more transcendent blessings in the plan for Exaltation, whereby resurrected man may advance from one stage of relative perfection to another, with powers of eternal increase and never ending progression.

The laws and ordinances of the Gospel so far as required for Salvation--specifically the individual exercise of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, true repentance, submission to baptism by immersion at the hands of one having authority, and to the higher baptism of the Spirit by the authoritative imposition of hands for the bestowal of the Holy Ghost--these requirements may be met and the saving effects thereof secured by the living without Temples. But baptism for the dead, as also the endowments incident to the Holy Priesthood with its boundless possibilities of advancement, in short, administration of the laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Christ requisite to Exaltation in the eternal worlds, can be solemnized only in Temples erected and dedicated for these holy purposes, for so the Lord hath declared. See D&C 124:28-41.

As indicated above, Temples are not for the benefit of the living alone. Existing Temples are maintained for the salvation and exaltation of both living and dead; and the ordinances administered therein in behalf of the dead outnumber many fold the administrations for the living.

Vicarious service for the departed is peculiar to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and rightly so, for to this Church has the commission for this high ministry been given. In the last chapter of Malachi we find a vivid description of the condition of mankind in the last days, and a prophecy of gladsome promise. On April 3, 1836, in the first Temple erected in modern times, that at Kirtland, Ohio, a glorious manifestation was given to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, in the course of which Elijah ministered in person to the two modern prophets, saying:

"Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of Malachi, testifying that he (Elijah) should be sent before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse. Therefore 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." (D&C 110:14-16.)

The requirements of the Gospel are universally applicable, to bond and free, to living and dead. In the plenitude of Divine mercy provision is made whereby the myriads who have died without a knowledge of the required conditions, or without opportunity of compliance therewith, may be ministered for by their living posterity. Thus the departed fathers, if they be repentant in the spirit world, may be made partakers of the blessings provided through the Atonement of Christ. "For 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." (1 Peter 4:6.) [1]

Footnotes

1. See the author's "The House of the Lord," 333 pp., with illustrations of modern Temples, _The Deseret News_, Salt Lake City, Utah.

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THE SECOND DEATH

Spiritual Banishment Like Unto the First

IN the Revelation written by John, the second death is referred to several times, and always as the dread fate of the ungodly or wilfully wicked. Physical death is associated with sorrow; and the anguish of bereavement is often so deep that only the assurances of immortality and the certainty of a resurrection can effectively palliate or relieve. The mere mention or thought of a second death is horrifying. What is this frightful eventuality? And is it to be the lot of the many or the few?

We have seen that a means of redemption is provided even for those who are cast into hell; and that every soul shall be resurrected in due time, whether he be righteous, or foul with sin. The second death, therefore, whatever its nature or extent, is a feature of the final judgment, at which each shall stand in his resurrected body of flesh and bones to receive the sentence of honor or of shame.

We are without scriptural warrant for assuming that the second death is another separation of body and spirit, or that the spirit shall undergo dissolution and cease to be. The spirit of man is eternal; and the resurrected body shall be everlasting. The soul knows not annihilation, neither loss of personality in an impossible Nirvana. You will be yourself and I myself throughout eternity, with quickened senses, amplified powers of perception and vastly increased capacity for happiness or suffering. Neither heaven nor hell can be gaged by the yard-stick of human conception.

In what then does the second death consist? John wrote of an event following the resurrection of the wicked and the pronouncement of judgment: "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." (Rev. 20:14.) The "lake of fire" as elsewhere explained by the Revelator is the abode of Satan and those over whom he has gained power. The second death therefore is final consignment to the dominion of Satan, and, of necessity, banishment from the presence of God and Christ.

The condition of death that Adam brought immediately upon himself through disobedience was essentially a spiritual change, whereby he was shut out from the presence of God; and this befell him in the very day of his transgression, as he had been warned it would. Bodily death, though an unescapable result, was nevertheless secondary, and was deferred until Adam had reached the age of 930 years.

As eternal life consists in knowing God and His Son Jesus Christ (John 17:3; D&C 132:24), so eternal condemnation or spiritual death is essentially banishment from the Divine presence, with corresponding forfeiture of glory and power appertaining to exaltation. The word of latter-day revelation, relating to Adam's spiritual death, and to the final or as we call it, the second death, which is reserved for the ungodly, runs as follows: "Wherefore I the Lord God caused that he should be cast out from the Garden of Eden, from my presence, because of his transgression, wherein he became spiritually dead, which is the first death, even that same death, which is the last death, which is spiritual, which shall be pronounced upon the wicked when I shall say, Depart, ye cursed." (D&C 29:41.)

The Lamanite prophet, Samuel, had a clear understanding of the matter, as thus expressed: "But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord. Yea, and it bringeth to pass the condition of repentance, that whosoever repenteth, the same is not hewn and cast into the fire; but whosoever repenteth not, is hewn down and cast into the fire, and there cometh upon them again a spiritual death, yea, a second death, for they are cut off again as to things pertaining to righteousness." (Book of Mormon, Helaman 14:17-18.)

We are assured that all who win place and part in the first resurrection--distinctively the resurrection of the just--shall be exempt from the second death, and shall find their way open to exaltation in the presence of God.

There is a place or condition of punishment even deeper than hell. This is prepared for those who have sinned most grievously, who have received the testimony of Christ and afterward wilfully and with consciousness of what they were doing, have surrendered themselves to the power and service of Satan. "They are they who are the sons of perdition, of whom I say that it had been better for them never to have been born. . . . These are they who shall go away into the lake of fire and brimstone, with the devil and his angels, and the only ones on whom the second death shall have any power." (D&C 76:32-37.)

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ANTIQUITY OF THE GOSPEL

As Old as Adam

THE old Anglo-Saxon words "god" and "spel," from which our Anglicized term Gospel is a lineal descendant, signified in combination "the good news of God." In a theological sense, and indeed according to common usage, "The Gospel" is thus defined: "Good news or tidings, especially the announcement of the salvation of men through the atoning death of Jesus Christ." (Stand. Dict.)

It is noteworthy that the word does not occur in the Old Testament, which is usually regarded as the record, in part, of the Semitic peoples, and of God's dealings with them through the medium of the Mosaic Law. The definite distinction between this Law and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is strikingly illustrated by the segregation of the Holy Bible into Old and New Testaments.

The teachings of Christ and later those of the Apostles emphasized the superiority of the Gospel over the Law, which latter was likened by Paul to a schoolmaster whose function was to discipline, train and instruct, in preparation for the greater revelation of the Gospel. See Gal. 3:23-29. These and other kindred facts have led to the erroneous assumption that the Gospel was first revealed to mankind when Christ came in the flesh.

Nevertheless, the Gospel, comprising not alone precepts but the accompanying authority of the Holy Priesthood to administer ordinances, was preached to men in the earliest period of human history. The necessity of (1) faith in the then unembodied but chosen and ordained Savior of mankind, (2) the indispensability of repentance as a means leading to remission of sins, (3) the Divine requirement of baptism by immersion in water, and (4) spiritual baptism through the power of the Holy Ghost--which constitute the fundamental principles and ordinances of the Gospel--was preached and administered to Adam, the patriarch of the race, and by him to his posterity. Through a revelation to Moses this is recorded of Adam, following the Fall:

"And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam saying . . . Thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son for evermore. And in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam, which beareth record of the Father and the Son, saying: I am the Only Begotten of the Father from the beginning, henceforth and for ever, that as thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 20.)

As wickedness increased among men "God cursed the earth with a sore curse and was angry with the wicked, with all the sons of men whom He had made. For they would not hearken unto His voice, nor believe on His Only Begotten Son, even Him whom He declared should come in the meridian of time, who was prepared from before the foundation of the world. And thus the Gospel began to be preached, from the beginning, being declared by holy angels sent forth from the presence of God, and by His own voice, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost." (p. 26.)

The prophet Enoch testified further: "But God hath made known unto our fathers that all men must repent. And He called upon our father Adam by His own voice, saying: . . . If thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions, and be baptized, even in water, in the name of mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth, which is Jesus Christ, the only name which shall be given under heaven whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men, ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (p. 33).

Enoch taught the same Gospel and administered baptism to repentant believers, and Noah, duly ordained, labored in similar ministry: "And it came to pass that Noah continued his preaching unto the people, saying: Hearken, and give heed unto my words. Believe and repent of your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, even as our fathers, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost, that ye may have all things made manifest; and if ye do not this, the floods will come in upon you; nevertheless they hearkened not." (p. 48).

So, from Adam to the Deluge, which came because of the unbelief and apostasy of the race, the ordinances of the Gospel were known and administered. Reverting to Biblical Scripture we read that the Gospel was preached unto Abraham, with the assurance that all who would abide therein should be accounted as Abraham's children. See Gal. 3:6-18. Through the prophet Joseph Smith a fuller account of Jehovah's promise to Abraham is given us, the Lord saying: "I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father"; and the particularity of the blessing wherein all families of the earth might share through the lineage of Abraham was to be "the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 58).

As Abraham's posterity became sinful, the lesser law, which when codified came to be known as the Law of Moses, was prescribed instead of the Gospel, which had been preached aforetime and which was later taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. Following the apostolic administration apostasy again darkened the world; and now, in the current or last dispensation, the Gospel has been restored anew with all its ancient authority, power, and blessings. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims these glad tidings to the world. This Gospel is new only in the fact of its restoration to earth according to prophecy. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which was preached to and by Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and a host of other men of God who ministered anciently; it is the Gospel that was taught by the Savior Himself and by His Apostles; it is the Eternal Gospel brought again to earth in preparation for the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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THE ORIGIN OF SACRIFICE

Coeval with the Race

THAT the offering of material things as sacrifices to Deity dates from Adamic days is attested in Genesis 4:3-5, wherein we read that both Cain and Abel made offerings unto the Lord. The Biblical record shows that the practise continued to and beyond the Deluge, and throughout the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations among the Semitic peoples, who were distinguished as Jehovah worshipers. Non-scriptural history is no less definite in making the sacrifice of animals an essential feature of pagan ceremonial, even in the earliest times of which we have account. That Noah, Abraham, Jacob and other patriarchs and prophets builded altars and sacrificed thereon is admitted by all to whom the Holy Bible is authentic; and the Mosaic code regulated the ordinance of sacrifice while silent as to its origin or even its establishment in Israel.

That pagan sacrifices were originally in imitation of the Semitic practise is highly probable, though both may have been derived from a common and, as generally regarded, a prehistoric pattern. This conception is no whit weakened by the corruptions and abominations incident to heathen idolatry, which reached the extreme of atrocity in the immolation of human victims on the altars of defilement and sacrilege; for, without the directing and restraining power of Divine revelation, unauthorized innovations and unholy extremes were inevitable.

Israelitish sacrifices may be conveniently classified as bloody and bloodless, the former comprising all offerings involving the ceremonial slaughter of animals, and the latter consisting in the offering of vegetables or their manufactured products. The bloody sacrifices were early associated with the idea of expiation, or propitiation for sin, the offerer, whether an individual or the community as a whole, acknowledging guilt and craving propitiation through the death of the animal made to serve as proxy for the human offender.

The animal victim intended for sacrificial death had to be chosen in accordance with specific requirements. Thus, it was to be of the class designated as clean, and within this class only domestic cattle and sheep and certain birds--pigeons and turtle-doves--were acceptable. Furthermore, it was essential that the selected animal be without physical defect or blemish; and thus all that were deformed, maimed or diseased were absolutely excluded. Physical defects were held as typical of spiritual blemish, or sin; and "God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance."

These requirements of relative perfection on the part of the victim were in accord with the fact that the slaughter of animals as a priestly rite by Divine direction was in pre-figurement of the then future sacrifice of the Christ Himself, whose atoning death would mark the consummation of His ministry in mortality. While the animal victims slain on Israel's altars figuratively bore the sins of the people, who by their observance of the sacrificial rite sought propitiation for their offenses, or reconciliation with God, from whom they had become estranged through transgression, Jesus Christ actually bore the burden of sin and provided a way for a literal reconciliation of sinful man to God. The principal sacrifice in the Mosaic dispensation was that of the Passover; and the superseding of the type by the actual is forcefully expressed by Paul: "For even Christ our pass-over is sacrificed for us." (1 Cor. 5:7.)

Theologians, Bible scholars generally, and ethnologists as well, admit the absence of all record both in the Bible and in profane history concerning the origin of sacrifice. The writer of the article "Sacrifice" in one of our Bible Dictionaries (Cassell's), which article is in line with other learned commentaries, says, following an array of facts: "On these and other accounts it has been judiciously inferred that sacrifice formed an element in the primeval worship of man; and that its universality is not merely an indirect argument for the unity of the human race, but an illustration and confirmation of the first inspired pages of the world's history. The notion of sacrifice can hardly be viewed as a product of unassisted human nature, and must therefore be traced to a higher source and viewed as a Divine revelation to primitive man."

That "Divine revelation to primitive man" is now before the world; and the much-talked-of historical difficulty as to the origin of sacrificial rites is definitely solved by revelation from God to man in the current age, whereby parts of the ancient Scriptures not contained in the Bible have been restored to human knowledge. As the natural and inevitable consequence of his transgression, Adam forfeited the high privilege of holding direct and personal association with God. In his fallen state the man was commanded by the voice of the Lord to offer in sacrifice the firstlings of his flocks.

"And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me. And then the angel spake, saying: This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth. Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son for evermore." (Pearl of Great Price, p.20.)

This, then, was the origin of the sacrificial ordinance on earth. Its purport as the prototype of the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ, to be effected approximately four millenniums later, was revealed to Adam, who, through obedience, attained salvation. With the Savior's sacrificial death the significance of animal sacrifices was superseded as part of the Israelitish ritual. The law of sacrifice is still operative however; and the acceptable offering is thus specified in the present age: "Thou shalt offer a sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in righteousness, even that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit." (D&C 59:8.)

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SIMPLICITY OF THE GOSPEL

None Need Err Therein

SALVATION of the soul consists essentially in the attainment of a state of blessedness beyond the grave, and therefore comprises immunity from the penalties incident to condemnation. Both salvation and condemnation involve graded conditions, or degrees, every soul receiving according to his just deserts, based on his works done in the flesh, be they good or evil.

Our individual status in the hereafter, both during the period of disembodiment and in the resurrection from bodily death, will be determined by the record of our earthly life, which will be fully declared by what we actually are. In the judgment of souls conflict of testimony or evidence will be impossible. Every fact bearing upon our condition of worthiness or guilt, of cleanliness through righteousness or defilement through sin, will be known.

To each of these asseverations the Holy Scriptures of both former and current time bear abundant and unequivocal testimony. The same high and unimpeachable authority, embodying the very words of Divine decree, declares that only by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is salvation in the Kingdom of God possible unto man.

Consider the fundamental rite, which is baptism. The words of the Christ to the timid but truth-seeking rabbi of Jerusalem are as free from ambiguity as language makes possible: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5.)

This solemn affirmation was made to Nicodemus at the time of great excitement and controversy in Judea and neighboring provinces over the activities of John the Baptist, who was boldly preaching the necessity of baptism at his own hands as of one having particular authority, and who was administering baptism by immersion to all repentant applicants. John further declared that the watery baptism in which he officiated would be followed by a higher endowment to be administered by a Mightier One than himself, and this he designated the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. Our Lord's declaration to the uninformed "master of Israel" set the seal of an authority higher than John's on the absolute necessity of baptism as conditioning man's attainment of salvation.

The crucified and resurrected Christ left this parting command and commission with the Apostles: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. 28:19); and further declared: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." (Mark 16:16.)

To the Nephite branch of the Israelitish stock on the American continent the Lord taught the same doctrine in language and style as simple as before: "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." (Book of Mormon,3 Nephi 11:38.) In full harmony with these ancient injunctions, the Lord has said to the Church in the present dispensation: "Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature, acting in the authority which I have given you, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." (D&C 68:8, 9.)

Could Scripture be simpler or plainer? Without baptism administered by the requisite authority, salvation in the kingdom of God is impossible, else the Word of God is void. But baptism to be effective must be preceded by repentance of sin. When unrepentant sinners came to John the zealous Baptist denounced them in stinging epithet as a "generation of vipers" and laid upon them the condition to make themselves acceptable by bringing forth fruits meet for repentance.

But to repent of sin in humility and contrition, with the earnest purpose and soulful desire of making amends for offenses done and thereby to become reconciled with and acceptable to God, one must have unqualified trust and faith in Him. The basal principles and fundamental ordinances of the Gospel, through which alone the saving efficacy of the Atonement wrought by Jesus Christ is made certain in assuring individual salvation, are ranged in the following order, as the Scriptures prove: (1) Faith in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ as the Redeemer and Savior of humankind, and in the Holy Ghost; (2) repentance in full purpose of heart--active, vital repentance that shall lead and impel to good works and renunciation of sin; (3) baptism by immersion in water; and (4) bestowal of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands--both ordinances being administered by men duly authorized to officiate by ordination to the Holy Priesthood.

The man of thoughtful mind and contrite heart cannot fail to find inexpressible comfort and profound cause for devout thanksgiving and praise through contemplating God's infinite mercy in having made so simple and easy these indispensable conditions of salvation. Had the terms been such as only vast wealth could meet, or the requirements so intricate or strenuous that great physical strength or high intellectual ability were necessary to accomplish the feat of compliance, then indeed the mortal or fallen state of the race would be deplorable beyond conception; and, withal, justice would be eliminated from the category of Deity's attributes. But lo! The Gospel plan is so simple that the child may comprehend, and he that runs may read.

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THE WILL OF GOD

Though Opposed, Yet Eventually Supreme

DO you believe that "whatever is is right"? I do not; I cannot believe it. If right means accordance with the will of God surely there is much wrong in the world.

But, it is argued, God is omnipotent, and therefore has power to direct all things as He wills. Granted. Nevertheless both scriptural and secular history, as also the turbulent course of current events combine to show that transgression of Divine law is as old as the race, and as persistent.

God has given to man agency and liberty of action. It is the will of God that this birthright of human freedom shall be inviolate; but it is contrary to the Divine intent that man shall abuse his agency, and misconstrue his liberty as license for wrong-doing. And as with the individual, so with communities and nations.

In the course of Israel's troubled journey from Egypt, where they had dwelt as in a "hours of bondage," to Canaan the land of their promised inheritance, the Lord gave them many laws and established ordinances, with promise of blessing for compliance, and warning of calamity if they proved disobedient. As the sacred record progresses, the fact is made plain that Israel had chosen the evil alternative, forfeiting the blessings and reaping the curses.

In the days of Samuel the Israelites clamored for a king. They were tired of the theo-democracy under which they had prospered, and wanted to be "like all nations," a monarchy, with a king wearing a crown, swaying a scepter, and sitting enthroned in state. Read 1 Samuel, chapter 8. This condition had been foreseen and foretold: nevertheless the people erred in their demand, and the Lord yielded under protest. There is real pathos in His words to the prophet: "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." They had their king, and a long succession of monarchs, some of whom proved to be veritable tyrants, and the people groaned under the oppression against which they had been forewarned.

Was it the will of God, think you, that Israel should sin? Can it be the Divine will that any man or nation shall come under the thrall of iniquity? Is it the will of God that man shall make of himself a drunken sot, with reason dethroned, and naught but his brutish passions alert? Or that man shall oppress his fellows by unrighteous dominion, robbing them of the rights upon which God Himself refuses to infringe even though those rights be grossly misused? Is it the will of God that woman's virtue shall be bartered for gold, and that vice shall stalk unchallenged through the world?

To hold that these abominations accord with the Divine will is to make God responsible for them, and therefore the author of sin. The very thought is blasphemous.

God's omnipotence is manifest in the over-ruling by which eventual good results from immediate evil. The crime of the ages, consummated on the slopes of Calvary, has proved to be the means of salvation to the world; but the awful guilt of the betrayal, of the false testimony and the crucifixion is no whit diminished by the glorious outcome.

Through the successive captivities and the general dispersion of Israel, which came as the consequence of infidelity to Jehovah, a knowledge of the true and living God has been diffused among even benighted and idolatrous peoples. And thus the nation's calamity has been made to serve Divine purposes.

I cannot look upon the frightful carnage and inhuman atrocities of the world war as a manifestation of the direct will of God. This dreadful conflict was brought on through lust of power and greed of gain. It sprang from an unholy determination to rob mankind of God-given rights, and to subject the race to autocratic domination. It is a repetition of the issue at stake in the primeval struggle, when Michael, the champion of free agency, led his hosts against Lucifer's myrmidons, who sought to rule by might. (See Rev. 12:7-9.)

In the free exercise of agency and the right of decision our nation deliberately and solemnly entered the great conflict in the interests of righteousness. Out of the seething carnage shall crystallize the lustrous gems of peace and the liberties of men; and thus enriched the world shall be the more prepared to receive the Christ, whose coming is near, and whose dominion shall be holy, whereby the rights of all men shall be respected and assured.

God's power and glory shall be manifest in eventual victory for the right, and in the good that shall spring from present evil. But in the eternal accounting, responsibility for the crime whereby war was precipitated shall weigh upon the man, men, nation or nations who did the devil's bidding in the attempt to enthrall mankind.

Thus the hand of God is potent in the furtherance of right; and though His will be violated and His commandments transgressed, evil shall be followed by good. Divine displeasure is directed against all "who confess not His hand in all things, and obey not His commandments." (D&C 59:21.)

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GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE

Not a Determining Cause

PROPHECY is one of the specified gifts of the Spirit, and one of the distinguishing graces of the Church of Christ. If there be prophecy there must be prophets, men through whom the purposes of God are made known to the people at large. Prediction of events more or less remotely future is a prophetic function, though constituting but part of the gift of prophecy.