23. For what object are the Saints gathering from Babylon?
SECTION VIII.
1. Salvation for the Dead.—The appearing of Elijah the prophet, in the Kirtland Temple on the 3rd of April, 1836, was the introduction of another great work connected with the redemption of the human race. That work is Salvation for the dead, the keys of which were given to the Prophet Joseph Smith by Elijah, on the occasion of the appearing mentioned above. That event was an epoch in the history of this great dispensation. It began a revolution in the theology of the Christian world. Up to that time—1836—it was universally believed by orthodox Christians that the souls of men who died without conversion to the Christian religion, were everlastingly lost. It was believed that the application of the gospel of Jesus Christ was limited to this life; and those who failed, through whatever cause, to obtain the benefits of the means of salvation it affords, are forever barred from such benefits. "If the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall lie;"[[180]] and they argued from this that in whatever state a man died so he remained. If he died in a state of justification his salvation was assured; but if not, then justification and consequently salvation was forever beyond his hope.
2. This sectarian doctrine which does so much violence to the justice of God—since it closes the door of salvation against so many thousands of God's children through no other circumstances than that they never so much as heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and therefore could not either believe or obey it-arose, first, through a misconception of the doctrine of eternal punishment with which the wicked are threatened in the scriptures; and, second, through a very narrow conception of the sure mercies of God.
3. Christian Dogma of Eternal Judgment.—Christians believe that to receive eternal punishment was to be punished eternally. This popular Christian error was corrected in a revelation to Martin Harris through Joseph Smith, even before the church was organized.[[181]] In that revelation it is explained that God is "Endless;" that is one of his names; as also is "Eternal" one of his names. "Therefore eternal punishment is God's punishment. Endless punishment is God's punishment." In other words, the punishment that will overtake the wicked is Eternal's punishment; Endless' punishment. But Christians, mistaking the name of the punishment for the sign of its duration, taught that men were punished eternally for the sins committed in this life. Then again God's punishment is eternal; that is, it always exists; it is eternal as God is, but the transgressor receives only so much of it, endures it only so long as may be necessary to satisfy the reasonable claims of justice, tempered with mercy. Then, when the insulted law is vindicated, the offender is released from the punishment. But as "the bars survive the captive they enthrall," as the prison remains after the transgressor has served his time in it, so in God's government, the punishment eternally remains after transgressors have satisfied the claims of justice, and are relieved from its pains and penalties. It remains to vindicate the law of God whenever it shall be broken. But men read—"He that believeth not [the gospel] shall be damned,"[[182]] and they are taught to believe that they were damned to all eternity—that they were consigned forever to the flames of hell.[[183]] [See note 1, end of section.]
4. One would think that right conceptions of the attributes of justice and mercy as they exist in God's character would lead men to the rejection of the horrible dogma of eternal punishment as taught by orthodox Christianity. But if that be not sufficient then the scriptures themselves refute it, as will appear in the following paragraphs:
5. Preaching to the Spirits in Prison.—From a remark made in the writings of the Apostle Peter,[[184]] we learn that after Messiah was put to death in the flesh "He went and preached to the spirits in prison, which sometime [aforetime] were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waiting in the days of Noah." During the three days, then, that Messiah's body lay in the tomb at Jerusalem, his spirit was in the world of spirits preaching to those who had rejected the preaching of righteous Noah. The Christian traditions no less than the scriptures teach that Jesus went down into hell and preached to those there held in ward. [See note 2, end of section.]
6. Not only is the mere fact of Messiah's going to the spirit prison stated in the scripture, 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."[[185]] This manifestly means that these spirits who had once rejected the counsels of God against themselves, had the gospel again preached 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 are judged; that is, according to the degree of their faithfulness to the precepts of the gospel.
7. Naturally the question arises, Why was the gospel preached to the spirits in prison who had once been disobedient if there were no means by which it could be applied to them for their salvation? We can scarcely suppose that Messiah would preach the gospel to them if it could do them no good. He did not go there to mock their sufferings or to add something to the torture of their damnation by explaining the beauties of that salvation now forever beyond their reach! Such a supposition would at once be revolting to reason, insulting to the justice of God, and utterly repugnant to the dictates of mercy!