That is to say, the punishment takes the name of Him in whose name it is inflicted; as if it were written, "Eternal's punishment," "Endless's punishment." And also, it must be understood, that the punishment itself is endless. That is, penalties always attend upon law, and follow its violation. That is an eternal principle. Law is inconceivable without accompanying penalties. But it does not follow that those who fall into the transgression of law, and therefore under sentence of Eternal's justice, will have to endure affliction of the penalty eternally. Justice can be satisfied. Mercy must be accorded her claims, and the culprit having been brought to repentance and taught obedience to law through the things which he has suffered, must go free. But only to suffer again the penalties of the law, if he again violates it; for laws and their penalties are eternal. Hence eternal punishment, hence endless punishment administered to the violator of the law, until he learns to live in harmony with law. For, on the one hand, as "that which is governed by law is also preserved by law, and perfected and sanctified by the same;"[[23]] so "that which breaketh a law and abideth not by the law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment. Therefore they must remain filthy still."[[24]] Thus obedience to law becomes a savor of life unto life; while disobedience to law equally becomes a savor of death unto death.
In February, 1832, still further light was shed upon the subject of the different states or degrees of glory in which men will live in the future, by the revelation known as "The Vision." This revelation is one of the sublimest ever given to man. It utterly discredits and displaces the dogmas about the future of man held by Christendom, or at least by Protestant Christendom. The orthodox, Protestant view of man's future is that there are two states in one or the other of which man will spend eternity—in heaven or in hell. If one shall gain heaven, even by ever so small a margin, he will enter immediately upon a complete possession of all its unspeakable joys, equally with the angels and the holiest of Saints. Not only in the "Shorter Catechisms," but in nearly all orthodox creeds the accepted doctrine was: "The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness." On the other hand, if one shall miss heaven, even by ever so small a margin, he is doomed to everlasting torment equally with the wickedest of men and vilest of devils, and there is no deliverance for him through all the countless ages of eternity! It will be noted that I have excepted out of participating in the above view of man's future, the Catholic church, by ascribing these views only to orthodox Protestant Christendom. This is because the Catholic church doctrine slightly differs from the doctrine of the Protestants on this subject. That is Catholics do not believe that all Christians at death go immediately into heaven, but on the contrary "believe that a Christian who dies after the guilt and everlasting punishment of mortal sins have been forgiven him, but who, either from want of opportunity, or through his negligence has not discharged the debt of temporal punishment due to his sin, will have to discharge that debt to the justice of God in purgatory." "Purgatory is a state of suffering after this life, in which those souls are for a time detained, which depart this life after their deadly sins have been remitted as to the stain and guilt, and as to the everlasting pain that was due to them, but which souls have on account of those sins still some temporal punishment to pay; as also those souls which leave this world guilty only of venial (that is pardonable) sins. In purgatory these souls are purified and rendered fit to enter into heaven, where nothing defiled enters."[[25]] As all works of the Catholic church accessible to me have nothing on the different degrees of glory in which men shall subsist in eternity, I conclude that Catholic teaching is that they who finally attain unto heaven are all equal in glory. So that in the last analysis of the matter, Catholic doctrine falls as far below the great truth that God has revealed upon the subject of the future estate of man, as the doctrine of orthodox Protestant Christendom.
Here is not the place for an extended exposition of the doctrine in relation to the future state of man as revealed to Joseph Smith in the revelation called "The Vision."[[26]] It must suffice here to say that its central principle is resident in the justice and the mercy of God, that requires that every man shall be judged according to his works, considered in the light of his intelligence, his consciousness of right and wrong, and the moral law under which he lived. If he lived in the earth when the Gospel of Jesus Christ was not in the world, or if he lived at places or in circumstances where he did not learn of its existence, much less come to a knowledge of its truths, then the plain dictates of justice demand that some means must exist by which its sanctifying powers may be applied to him in the future; so also as to those who have even once rejected the truth (as in the case of the antediluvians who rejected the teaching of righteous Noah, and were disobedient,[[27]] when once the long suffering of God waited in vain in those days for their repentance); having paid the just penalty of their disobedience, then justice would demand that some means must exist by which the saving principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ may be applied to them; for only by the acceptance of the principles of the Gospel, and by the application of its laws and ordinances as the means by which the grace of God is applied to man, can the sons of men hope for salvation. Then as men differ in degree of intelligence; in the intensity of their faith; in the hartiness of their obedience; in the steadiness of their fidelity; and in as much as there is the stern fact of human freedom and responsibility, and the possibility of a short or long resistance to the will of God, even up to eternal resistance to that will, there is an infinitude of states of glory, of so called rewards and punishments, in which man will live in the future. There is one glory of which the sun in heaven is spoken of as being typical; another of which the inferior light of the moon is typical; and another of which the varying light of the stars is typical. And even as one star differs from another star in glory, in light, so differ those states of existence in which men will live in the future, but each assigned to a place, to an environment, that corresponds to the status of his development; which is only the modern way of saying he shall be judged according to his works. These, in brief, are the underlying principles of this remarkable revelation; a revelation which in every way is worthy the encomium that the Prophet Joseph himself bestowed upon it at the time of its inception: "Nothing could be more pleasing to the Saints upon the order of the Kingdom of the Lord, than the light which burst upon the world through the foregoing Vision. Every law, every commandment, every promise, every truth, and every point touching the destiny of man, from Genesis to Revelation, where the purity of the Scriptures remains unsullied by the folly of men, go to show the perfection of the theory [of different degrees of glory in the future life] and witnesses the fact that that document is a transcript from the records of the eternal world."
In June, 1836, while attending to washings and anointings in the Kirtland Temple, previous to its dedication, the Prophet received still further knowledge as to the future state of man. This also was by means of a vision. He says: "The heavens were opened upon us, and I beheld the celestial kingdom of God, and the glory thereof, whether in the body or out, I cannot tell. I saw the transcendent beauty of the gate through which the heirs of that kingdom will enter, which was like unto circling flames of fire; also the blazing throne of God, whereon was seated the Father and the Son. I saw the beautiful streets of that kingdom, which had the appearance of being paved with gold. I saw Fathers Adam and Abraham, and my father and mother, my brother, Alvin, that has long since slept, and marveled how it was that he had obtained an inheritance in that kingdom, seeing that he had departed this life before the Lord had set His hand to gather Israel the second time, and had not been baptized for the remission of sins. Thus came the voice of the Lord unto me saying—
"All who have died without a knowledge of this Gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God; also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom, for I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts."
"And I also beheld that all children who die before they arrive at the years of accountability, are saved in the celestial kingdom of heaven."
The next step in the development of this doctrine of salvation for the dead was the coming of Elijah to "turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers," according to Malachi; to restore the priesthood and "plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers," by which "the hearts of the children shall be turned to the fathers," according to Moroni. And Elijah committed the keys of this dispensation of turning the hearts of the fathers and children towards each other to Joseph Smith and to Oliver Cowdery. This took place in the Kirtland Temple on the 3rd of April, 1836.[[28]]
It was not, however, until the Nauvoo period that the doctrine of salvation for the dead was fully developed and active steps taken looking to the actual performance of ordinances in their behalf. In the revelation that was given on the 19th of January, 1841, the Saints were commanded to build a house unto the Lord, a Holy Temple unto the Most High. "For," said this revelation, "there is not a place found on earth that He may come to and restore again that which was lost unto you, or which He hath taken away, even the fullness of the Priesthood; for a baptismal font there is not upon the earth, that they, my Saints, may be baptized for those who are dead; for this ordinance belongeth to my house, and cannot be acceptable to me, only in the days of your poverty, wherein ye are not able to build a house unto me. But I command you, all ye my Saints, to build a house unto me; and I grant unto you a sufficient time to build a house unto me, and during this time your baptisms shall be acceptable unto me." That is, the baptisms for the dead should be acceptable unto the Lord in other places than the temple, until the temple should be prepared for that ordinance, if the Saints would be diligent and build it according to the Lord's appointment. Moreover, the information is imparted in the revelation that, it is "in Zion, and in her stakes, and in Jerusalem, those places which I [the Lord] have appointed for refuge, shall be the places for your baptisms for your dead."
After this revelation was given to the Church baptism for the dead was a subject frequently expounded in Nauvoo, both by the Prophet and other leading elders. It was a theme upon which the Twelve Apostles dwelt in their Epistles to the Church both in America and in Great Britain. Baptisms for the dead were performed for some time in the Mississippi river, and later, in the latter part of November, 1841, in the baptismal font erected in the basement of the Temple, and dedicated for that sacred purpose. For a time some irregularities obtained in relation to this ordinance owing to the fact that the perfect knowledge of the order of it had not then been obtained, but was developed later in this Nauvoo period of the History of the Church, as will appear in Volume V of this work.
It was a mighty stride forward in the doctrinal development of the Church, this idea of the possibility of salvation for the dead through the administration of the ordinances of the Gospel for and in their behalf by their kindred on earth; and greatly enlarged the views of the Saints in relation to the importance and wide spread effects of their work. The ends of the earth indeed converged in the labors of the Saints henceforth, for their activities in the administrations of the holy ordinances of the Gospel would affect all past generations as well as affect all generations to come. It was a bringing into view the full half of the work which up to this time had lain hidden behind the horizon of men's conceptions of that "great and marvelous work" which God from the beginning declared was about to be brought forth among the children of men.[[29]]