Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 2 of 2)Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 2 of 2)
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches
"For whatsoever things remain, are by me; and whatsoever things
are not by me, shall be shaken and destroyed. Therefore, if a man
marry him a wife in the world, and he marry her not by me, nor by
my word; and he covenant with her so long as he is in the world,
and she with him, their covenant and marriage are not of force when
they are dead, and when they are out of the world; therefore, they
are not bound by any law when they are out of the world."
So far as any denial of the validity of marriages is concerned, it
relates only to denying their validity after the resurrection--not this
side of it; and, gentlemen, you ought not to complain of this, because
you yourselves, in performing the marriage ceremony, say, "I pronounce
you man and wife until death does you part." I think you ought not
to take offense at what we say on this subject--we say your marriage
ceremonies are of no binding effect in and after the resurrection, you
make no pretensions of marrying for eternity. The fact is, you scorn
and ridicule it. Before leaving this group of propositions with which
I am dealing, I desire to say respecting this question of universal
apostasy from the Christian faith--we can sustain the truth of that
declaration from Scripture, from history, from the condition of the
religious world at the opening of the nineteenth century. We have no
anxiety about it, but we have not time on this occasion to enter into
an argument on the justification of our attitude.
But, gentlemen, Christian gentlemen, what in reality is the difference
between your attitude and ours in respect of the world at large, and
the existence of the gospel in the earth, and consequences growing out
of those respective attitudes? You proclaim, do you not, that there
is no other name given under heaven whereby men can be saved except
the name of Jesus Christ? You insist, do you not, that there must be
acceptance of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and do you not hold that
those who do not accept this gospel cannot receive the benefits of its
salvation? Now then, after two thousand years of proselyting in the
world, under the most favorable circumstances, what is the sum total of
your achievements? Why, less than one-third of the inhabitants of the
earth are even nominally Christians! and what is your attitude toward
God's children whom you have not converted. Why, that they are lost.
That is the inevitable result of your attitude and doctrine. Or else
you must say that men can be saved without the gospel of Christ. Now
the difference between your position and ours is simply this:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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