The Articles of Faith / A Series of Lectures on the Principal Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

by James E. Talmage

Walk the earth

Unseen both when we wake,

And when we sleep."

If this thought be founded on truth, and the Christian soul will hardly doubt it, we may as readily believe in the existence of other worlds than those of structure so gross as to be visible to our dull eyes. I repeat, that in regard to the revealed word concerning the regeneration of earth, and the acquirement of a celestial glory by our planet, science has nothing to offer, either by way of support or contradiction. Let us not because of this, disparage science, or decry the labors of its votaries. No one realizes more fully than does the truly scientific man how much we do not know.

RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.

15. The Resurrection from the Dead.—Closely associated with, and analogous to, the ordained rejuvenation of earth, whereby our planet is to pass from its present dreary and broken state to a condition of glorified perfection, is the resurrection of the bodies of all beings who have had an existence upon its surface. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches the doctrine of a literal resurrection; an actual re-union of departed spirits and the tabernacles with which they were clothed during mortal probation; and a transition from mortality to immortality in the case of some who will be in the flesh at the time of the great change, and who, because of individual righteousness, are to be spared the sleep of the grave. But in such teachings, the Church is not essentially different from most Christian sects, except perhaps in the literalness of the bodily resurrection as taught by it, and in the belief concerning the nature of the resurrected state. The Bible is replete with evidence regarding the quickening of the dead. Human knowledge of the resurrection rests wholly upon revelation. Pagan peoples have therefore no conception of an actual coming forth of the dead unto life.[1142]

16. In accepting the doctrine of a resurrection, we are to be guided by faith; which, however, is supported by abundant revelation, given in a manner unequivocal and sure. Science, the result of human research, fails to afford us any indication of such an event in the history of living things, and men have sought in vain for an analogy in external nature. True, comparisons have been made, metaphors have been employed, and similes pressed into service, to show in nature some counterpart or semblance of the immortalizing change to which the Christian soul looks forward with unwavering confidence; but all such figures of speech are defective in the application, and untrue in their professed analogies.

17. The return of spring after the death-like sleep of winter; the passing of the crawling caterpillar into the corpse-like chrysalis, and the subsequent emergence of the winged butterfly; the coming forth of a living bird from the tomb-like recess of the egg; these and other natural processes of development have been used as illustrative of the resurrection. Each of them is defective, for in no instance of such awakening has there been an actual death. If the tree die, it will not resume its leafage with the return of the sun; if the pupa within the chrysalis, or the life-germ within the egg be killed, no butterfly or bird will emerge. When we indulge such figurative illustrations without most thorough caution, we are apt to conceive the thought that the body predestined to resurrection is not truly dead; and that therefore the quickening which is to follow, is not what the revealed word declares it to be. Observation proves that the separation of the spirit from the body leaves the latter an inanimate mass, no longer able to resist the processes of physical and chemical dissolution. The body, deserted by its immortal tenant, is literally dead; it resolves itself into its natural components, and its substance enters again upon the round of universal circulation of matter. Yet the resurrection from the dead is assured; the faith of those who trust in the word of revealed truth will be vindicated,[1143] and the Divine decree will be carried into full effect.

18. Predictions concerning the Resurrection.—The prophets in the past dispensations of the world's history have foreseen and foretold the final conquest of death. Some of them testified specifically of Christ's victory over the tomb; others have dwelt upon the resurrection in a general way. Job, the man of patience under tribulation, sang joyously even in his agony:—"For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."[1144] Enoch, to whom the Lord revealed His plan for the redemption of mankind, foresaw the resurrection of Christ, the coming forth of the righteous dead with Him, and the eventual resurrection of all men.[1145]

19. Nephi testified to his brethren that the Redeemer's death was a fore-ordained necessity, provided in order that resurrection from the dead might be given to man. These are his words:—"For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord; ... And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel. O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh; save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect."[1146]