"Mormon" Doctrine Plain and Simple; Or, Leaves from the Tree of LifePenrose, Charles W. (Charles William)
Religion
"Mormon" Doctrine Plain and Simple; Or, Leaves from the Tree of Life
Penrose, Charles W. (Charles William)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines
Universality of Death--Results of the Transgression of Law--Dissolution
of the Body not the End of Existence--What is Resurrection?--The
Spiritual Body of Jesus--All to be Raised from the Dead--The Order
of the Resurrection--Necessity of an Immortal Body--Ignorance of the
Laws of Nature--Matter Indestructible--Possibilities of Creative
Energy--Life and Immortality Brought to Light.
Death is the common heritage. It is a legacy to all the children,
left by our first progenitor. It is the result of transgression, the
penalty of violated law. The immortal pair who dwelt in Eden fell into
mortality through sin. Immortality is the power of continued existence.
But "all things are governed by law." Sin is law-breaking. To live for
ever requires perpetual obedience to the laws of everlasting life.
"That which is governed by law is preserved by law." By the same rule
reversed, the reverse obtains. Therefore, that which is immortal and
obeys not the laws of immortality, will become mortal. If obedience
insures preservation, disobedience involves destruction. Law reigns
in the highest as well as in the lower spheres of being. Eternal life
involves eternal compliance with the laws of existence.
All seeds produce their own kind. Mortal beings beget mortality. When
the parents of our race became mortal through breaking the law of their
immortal condition, they brought death to their offspring as well as
to themselves. "In Adam all die." The curse of death smites the whole
family. "It is appointed unto man once to die." No ingenuity he can
exercise or precautions he can adopt will avert the impending doom.
The decree has been proclaimed, "Thou shalt surely die," and it is
irrevocable. The taint that came from the tree of death whose fruit was
forbidden, descends to all generations, and every variety of form and
feature, and color and stature, and tendency and peculiarity, have the
one common characteristic, the certainty of death.
But is the dissolution of the body the end of existence? Not at all.
We have seen that the part of man that comes from heaven lives on when
that which comes from the earth returns to the earth. Yet this is not
sufficient. The query arises, Shall this body, made mortal through
transgression, remain for ever under the penalty of the broken law, or
are there some means of expiation for the sin, and restoration from the
doom, its consequence? Are all the associations formed in the flesh and
pertaining to this mortal state, to perish with the decayed body and be
scattered like the dust to which it is resolved? Are the fond relations
of husband and wife, and parent and child to be dissolved forever? Is
this exquisitely, "fearfully and wonderfully" formed mechanism, with
the experiences of its temporal existence, to be obliterated and lose
its identity in the material universe?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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