[Footnote L: I venture the suggestion, basing it on the sense of the whole passage, that it should read: "Shall also be judged without the law.">[
[Footnote M: Rom ii, 12.]
So also the word of the Lord to Joseph Smith: "And again I say unto you, that whosoever having knowledge, have I not commanded to repent? And he that hath no understanding it remaineth in me to do as it is written."[N]
[Footnote N: Doc. and Cov. Sec. xxix, 49, 50.]
Hence it is that the heathen nations who have had no law given to them, and have died without law, will have part in the first resurrection.[O]
[Footnote O: Doc. and Cov. Sec. xlv, 54. See also Mosiah xv, 24, 25.]
Still, those who have died without law are placed at this disadvantage; that if they are not under the condemnation of the law, through not having had it delivered to them, neither are they sanctified by the law, and consequently their development in spiritual knowledge and experience is not such as may warrant us in expecting that they are prepared to inherit the same degree of glory with those who have received the law of the gospel, faithfully observed all its requirements and through their obedience have become sanctified by it, and inherit the celestial glory, the highest of all. Therefore, it is written of those who die without the law: "These are they who are of the terrestrial [world], whose glory differs from that of the church of the First Born, who have received the fullness of the Father, even as the moon differs from the sun in the firmament. Behold these are they who died without law."[P]
[Footnote P: Doc. and Cov. Sec. lxxvi, 71, 72.]
I know of nothing that is written, however, which prevents us from believing that they may, eventually, enter the celestial kingdom. Of one thing at least we may rest assured, and that is, that they will receive all the glory, all the exaltation, that their capacity can comprehend and enjoy, and they will be satisfied with the mercy and justice of God.[Q]
[Footnote Q: See chapter on Salvation for the Dead.]