Cowley's Talks on DoctrineCowley, Matthias F. (Matthias Foss)
Religion
Cowley's Talks on Doctrine
Cowley, Matthias F. (Matthias Foss)
Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines
It was supposed by those in Palestine that the Galileans, whose blood
Pilate had mingled with the sacrifices, were greater sinners than
others because such agonies had come upon them. "And Jesus answering
said unto them, 'Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above
all the Galileans, because they suffererd such things? I tell you nay,
but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.'" The foregoing
contains the divine lesson that suffering is not a substitute for
repentance: that while He did not justify the agonies brought upon
them by persecution, He did not intimate that the suffering would be
acceptable instead of repentance, or that these sufferings were any
evidence of the sins of the sufferers as to the height or depth of
their transgressions. The weight of responsibility is measured either
by the light men possess or the light which opportunities afford them
to possess. As Paul said to the Athenians (Acts xvii:30.), "And the
times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent"; and again the Savior enunciated this doctrine:
"And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and
men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."
(St. John iii:19.)
No matter how strict the individual may be in living a life of moral
rectitude, it is very plainly taught in the Scriptures that rejecting
further light from God constitutes a sin. We cite the case of the
young man told of in Matthew, chapter 19, who came to the Savior
for instructions, but who, when he was commanded by the Redeemer to
sell all that he had, give to the poor, and follow Him, went away
sorrowful, rejecting the injunction of the Savior, and yet he had kept
the commandments from his youth up, and probably was as righteous as
any modern Christians, who, if commanded by the Savior to give their
possessions to the poor, would go away sorrowful. There were "devout"
people assembled on the day of Pentecost, and yet Peter made no
exception when he commanded the multitude to repent. If they had done
the best they could previously with the light they had, greater light
had come to them and they must receive it or be condemned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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