CHAPTER XVII

THE DOCTRINES OF RESTORATION, RESURRECTION AND

SALVATION

ALTHOUGH, in some aspects of the matter, the strenuous insistence on the Mosaic law of retributive justice might seem needlessly severe, it remains true that, in dealing with human nature, a law that is all "love" and no severity is no law at all. "Love" and leniency are often confused with laxity and complacence, with the result that the standards of right and truth come to be less seriously considered. We can understand some of this insistence, when we remember that the Mormon Church represents a serious attempt to found an order of social righteousness and equity. It is also the only one of all so-called Christian bodies that includes this social ideal as an essential element of its creed. Various persons in other bodies at the present time are doubtless attempting to retrieve the historic neglect of this branch of effort, and much good work has been begun in various quarters, also there is, so we are told, a "general awakening of the social conscience," etc. It will be interesting information for people working along these lines of effort to learn that the Mormon Prophet anticipated their movement by over three-quarters of a century, and that, whatever their future success, he was probably the first man of modern times to found a stable and equable social order on a religious basis.

With the Mormons, however, the restoration of the Law is only a part of their grand doctrine of the unity of the Gospel throughout all time. As a corollary of this doctrine, they divide history into seven separate periods, known as "dispensations": (a) the Adamic; (b) the Enochian; (c) the Noachian; (d) the Abrahamic; (e) the Mosaic; (f) the Dispensation of the Meridian of Time, beginning with the ministry of John the Baptist and continued in the work of Christ and His Apostles; (g) the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times, consisting in the work of the Gospel restored by revelation to Joseph Smith, and to continue until the end of the world.

The Dispensation of the Fulness of Times is characterized by a complete restoration of the Gospel after a universal apostasy

of the church; and, as such, is, in effect, a means of preparing the world for the return of Christ as visible judge and ruler, and for the events preceding the "last times." The Mormons are taught that, like the ancient Israelites, they are a peculiar people," called to a lofty and wonderful mission in the world. This inspiring belief, like most of their tenets, is no figure of speech, but is accepted as a literal and an essential fact. They hold that it is no strain upon revealed truth to believe that the blood of the "dispersion of Israel," the "lost tribes of Joseph,' is demonstrated in those who accept the "fulness of the Gospel," as revealed on earth in these "latter days." This is explained by Orson F. Whitney, as follows:

"It must be borne in mind, as a basic fact, upon which to found all further argument or theory in relation to the Saints (Mormons) and their religion, that they sincerely believe themselves to be literally of the blood of Israel; children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,mostly of Joseph through the lineage of Ephraim. The loss of their tribal identity, and their scattered state among the nations - whence the Gospel, they say, has begun to gather them,- is explained to them by the Scriptures, which declare that Ephraim hath mixed himself with the people'; that is, with other nations, presumably from the days of the Assyrian captivity. They believe, moreover, that in this age, The Dispensation of the Fulness of Times,'-a figurative spiritual ocean, into which all past dispensations of divine power and authority like rills and rivers run,-it is the purpose of Jehovah, the God of Israel, to gather His scattered people from their long dispersion among the nations, and weld in one vast chain the broken links of the fated house of Ábraham. . . . This gathering of Israel, they claim, is a step preparatory to the 'gathering together in one' of 'all things in Christ, both in heaven and on earth, as spoken of by Paul the Apostle.

...

"Israel's gathering in the last days,'-the closing period of our planet's mortal probation,-is a cardinal doctrine of the Latter-day Saints, accounting, as it does for their world-wide proselytism, the wanderings abroad of their Apostles and Elders in quest of the seed of Ephraim, their fellows, and their migrations from the ends of the earth to the American Continent, believed by them to be the land of Zion. Upon this land, which they hold to be the inheritance of Joseph, -given him by the Almighty in the blessings of Jacob and Moses (Gen. xlix. 22-26; Deut. xxxiii. 13-17), and occupied for ages by his descendants, the Nephites and Lamanites (as recorded in the Book of Mormon), is to arise the latter-day Zion, New Jerusalem, concerning which so many of the prophet-poets of antiquity have sung. It was for this purpose, say the Saints, that the land was held in reserve, hidden for ages behind Atlantic's waves-the wall of waters over which, in Lehi and his colony, climbed Joseph's 'fruitful bough.' Next came the Gentiles, with Columbus in their van, to unveil the hidden hemisphere; then a Washington, a Jefferson and other heaven-inspired patriots to win and maintain the liberty of the land,- a land destined to be free from bondage.' And all this that Zion might here be established, and the Lord's latter-day work founded and fostered on Columbia's chosen soil. Yes, these Latter-day Saints,- false and fa

natical as the view may seem to most,- actually believe that the greatest and most liberal of earthly governments, that of the United States, was founded for the express purpose of favoring the growth of what the world terms Mormonism.

"But the gathering of Israel is to include the whole house of Jacob; not merely the half-tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. It involves the restoration of the Jews and the rebuilding of old Jerusalem, prior to the acceptance by Judah of the Gospel and mission of the crucified Messiah; also the return of the lost Ten Tribes from the 'north country.'"- History of Utah, Vol. I, pp. 66-69.

This, like other Mormon doctrines, is significant as being a wonderfully ingenious, even if not a true and authoritative, solution of the question as to how the promises of God to Abraham and his seed are apparently fulfilled, instead, for the advantage of "gentiles," or non-Israelites, who have ever "despitefully used and persecuted" the Chosen Nation, which, meantime, seems to have been literally "cut off." To hold that all who accept the Gospel in its fulness are actually of the blood of Abraham, "after the flesh," through the "dispersion" of the "lost Tribes," is both inspiring and illuminating. It follows, then, that the "Chosen People of God" are, after all, the first care with Him, and ever the real heralds of His will and law. Thus, the extensive and persistent missionary activities of this people are found to be only movements to assist in the gathering of the Lord's chosen from all parts of the world.

But the missionary duty entailed upon believers in the Latterday Gospel does not stop with the "dispersion of Israel," nor yet with the nations of the world. It achieves yet other heights and depths in the stupendous doctrine of salvation for the dead. This merciful and comforting doctrine offsets effectually the hopelessness of the situation of those who have died unrepentant or unconverted. Nor does it seem presumptuous to hold that it actually illustrates the "loving-kindness" of God, and justifies to human reason, at least the statement that "God is love." The special application of this doctrine is to two classes, (a) those who lived when the Gospel "was not in the earth," and (b) those who failed to hear it truly preached in their life-time.

"From a remark made in the writings of the Apostle Peter we learn that after the Messiah was put to death in the flesh he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.' (I Pet. iii. 18, 21.) During the three days, then, that the Messiah's body lay in the tomb at Jerusalem, His spirit was in the world of spirits preaching to those who had rejected the teaching of righteous Noah. The Christian traditions, no less than the scriptures, hold that Christ went into hell and preached to those there held in ward. Not only is the mere fact of Messiah's going to the spirits in prison stated in the scriptures, but the purpose of His going there is learned from the same source. 'For this cause was the gospel preached also to them

that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.' (I Pet. iv. 6.) This manifestly means that the spirits who had once rejected the counsels of God against themselves had the gospel again presented to them and had the privilege of living according to its precepts in the spirit life; and of being judged according to men in the flesh, or as men in the flesh will be judged; that is, according to the degree of their faithfulness to the precepts of the gospel. It should be observed from the foregoing scripture that even to those who have rejected the gospel in the days of Noah it was again presented by the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ; upon which consideration the following reflection forces itself upon the mind: viz. If the gospel is preached again to those who have once rejected it, how much sooner will it be presented to those who never heard it—who lived in those generations when neither the gospel nor the authority to administer its ordinances were in the earth. Seeing that those who had rejected it had it again preached to them (after paying the penalty for their disobedience), surely those who lived when it was not upon the earth or who, when it was upon the earth perished in ignorance of it, will much sooner come to salvation.

"The manner in which the ordinances of the gospel may be administered to those who have died without having received them is plainly stated by Paul. Writing to the Corinthians on the subject of the resurrection correcting those who said there was no resurrectionhe asks: 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? In this the apostle manifestly refers to the practice which existed among the Christian saints of the living being baptized for the dead; and argues from the existence of that practice that the dead must rise, or why the necessity of being baptized for them. This passage of the scripture of itself is sufficient to establish the fact that such an ordinance as baptism for the dead was known among the ancient saints."- B. H. Roberts (Mormonism, etc., 50-52).

The practice of this doctrine which claims the same authority as the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory, involves that some living believer shall be baptized as proxy for some one of the dead, either for one from among his or her own ancestors, or for any other person who died without knowledge of the Gospel in its fulness. This is explained by Elder Talmage, as follows:

"The redemption of the dead will be effected in strict accordance with the law of God, which is written in justice and framed in mercy. It is alike impossible for any spirit, in the flesh or disembodied, to obtain even the promise of eternal glory, except on condition of obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. And, as baptism is essential to the salvation of the living, it is likewise indispensable to the redemption of the dead. . . . The necessity of vicarious work is here shown, the living laboring in behalf of the dead; the children doing for their progenitors what is beyond the power of the latter to do for themselves.

"The plan of God provides that neither the children nor the fathers can alone be made perfect; and the necessary union is effected through baptism and associated ordinances for the dead. The manner in which the hearts of the children and those of the fathers are turned toward one another is made plain through these scriptures. As the children

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learn that without the aid of their progenitors they cannot attain perfection, assuredly will their hearts be opened, their faith will be kindled, and good works will be attempted, for the redemption of their dead; and the departed, learning from the ministers of the gospel laboring among them, that they must depend upon their children as vicarious saviours, will seek to sustain their still mortal representatives with faith and prayer for the perfecting of those labors of love....

"The results of such labors are to be left with God. It is not to be supposed that by these ordinances (baptism, laying-on of hands and the higher endowments') the departed are in any way compelled to accept the obligation, nor that they are in the least hindered in the exercise of their free agency. They will accept or reject, according to their condition of humility or hostility in respect to things divine; but the work so done for them on earth will be of avail when wholesome argument and reason have shown them their true position."Articles of Faith, pp. 152–156.

The ordinances for the dead are performed in the temples maintained by the Latter-day Saints, and are frequently attended to by persons known as "temple-workers," who are regularly set apart" for this form of service, although any members of the Church in good standing may enter the Temple and fulfil the ordinances for his deceased ancestors and other relatives. The work of vicarious baptism is always superintended by some elder, who administers the rite, and complete records are kept of all ceremonies, with the names, or identities, of all departed beneficiaries.

Roberts, concluding a brief summary of the doctrine of salvation for the dead, remarks:

"There must be a sealing and binding together of all the generations of men until the family of God shall be perfectly joined in holiest bonds and ties of mutual affections. These ordinances attended to on earth by the living, and accepted in the spirit world by those for whom they are performed, will make them a potent means of salvation to the dead, and of exaltation to the living, since the latter become in very deed saviors upon Mount Zion.' This work that can be done for the dead enlarges one's views of the gospel of Jesus Christ. One begins to see indeed that it is the 'everlasting gospel'; for it runs parallel with man's existence both in this life and in that which is to come."-Mormonism, p. 53.

Speaking of the twofold character of this work, both in this world and in the world of spirits, Talmage writes:

"How often do we behold friends and loved ones, whom we count among earth's fairest and best, stricken down by the shafts of death, seemingly in spite of the power of faith and the ministrations of the priesthood of God! Yet who of us can tell but that the spirits so called away are needed in labor of redemption beyond, preaching perhaps the gospel to the spirits of their forefathers, while others of the same family are officiating in a similar behalf on earth?"— Articles of Faith, p. 156.

When one considers the absurd and ignorant criticisms made