Saturday Night Thoughts: A Series of Dissertations on Spiritual, Historical, and Philosophic ThemesWhitney, Orson F. (Orson Ferguson)
Religion
Saturday Night Thoughts: A Series of Dissertations on Spiritual, Historical, and Philosophic Themes
Whitney, Orson F. (Orson Ferguson)
Latter Day Saint churches
A False Doctrine.--Jesus never taught such a doctrine, nor did any
authorized servant of the Lord. It is a man-made theory, based upon
faulty inference and misinterpretation. The Scriptures plainly teach
that men will be judged according to their works, [9] and receive
rewards as varied as their deeds. [10] It was best for the thief,
of course, to repent even at the eleventh hour; but he could not be
exalted until prepared for it, if it took a thousand years. When Christ
said: "I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye may
be also," [11] he was not speaking to murderers and malefactors, but
to his pure-minded, right-living disciples, those only to whom such a
promise could consistently be given.
What Goes on There.--Jesus Christ and the thief both went to the world
of spirits, a place of rest for the righteous, a place of correction
for the wicked. "But," as the Apostle Parley goes on to say, "the one
was there in all the intelligence, happiness, benevolence and charity
which characterize a teacher, a messenger anointed to preach glad
tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to comfort those
who mourned, to preach deliverance to the captive, and open the prison
to those who were bound; or, in other words, to preach the Gospel to
the spirits in prison, that they might be judged according to men in
the flesh; while the other was there as a thief, who had expired on
the cross for crime, and who was guilty, ignorant, uncultivated, and
unprepared for resurrection, having need of remission of sins and to be
instructed in the science of salvation."
Thus is told in part what goes on in the spirit world. "It is a place,"
continues our Apostle, "where the Gospel is preached, where faith,
repentance and charity may be exercised, a place of waiting for the
resurrection or redemption of the body; while to those who deserve it,
it is a place of punishment, a purgatory or hell, where spirits are
buffeted until the day of redemption."
Alma's Teaching.--To the foregoing should be added the testimony of
Alma the Nephite, upon the same subject:
"Now concerning the state of the soul between death and the
resurrection--Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that
the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal
body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are
taken home to that God who gave them life.
"And then shall it come to pass that the spirits of those who are
righteous, are received into a state of happiness, which is called
paradise; a state of rest; a state of peace, where they shall rest from
all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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