Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Joseph F. Smith

by Joseph F. Smith

While suspended upon the cross, in the agonies of death, as he was about to yield up his spirit, our gracious, glorious Savior breathed this memorable and merciful prayer: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34.)

No man can sin against light until he has it; nor against the Holy Ghost, until after he has received it by the gift of God through the appointed channel or way. To sin against the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, the Witness of the Father and the Son, wilfully denying him and defying him, after having received him, constitutes this sin. Did Judas possess this light, this witness, this Comforter, this baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, this endowment from on high? If he did, he received it before the betrayal, and therefore before the other eleven apostles. And if this be so, you may say, "he is a son of perdition without hope." But if he was destitute of this glorious gift and outpouring of the Spirit, by which the witness came to the eleven, and their minds were opened to see and know the truth, and they were able to testify of him, then what constituted the unpardonable sin of this poor, erring creature, who rose no higher in the scale of intelligence honor or ambition than to betray the Lord of glory for thirty pieces of silver?

But not knowing that Judas did commit the unpardonable sin; nor that he was a "son of perdition without hope" who will die the second death, nor what knowledge he possessed by which he was able to commit so great a sin, I prefer, until I know better, to take the merciful view that he may be numbered among those for whom the blessed Master prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."—Improvement Era, Vol. 21, June, 1918, p. 732.

THE RESURRECTION. Speaking of the resurrection, the subject on which so much has been said during this conference, and appropriately said, too—we distinctly believe that Jesus Christ himself is the true, and only true type of the resurrection of men from death unto life. We believe there is no other form of resurrection from death to life; that as he rose, and as he preserved his identity, even to the scars of the wounds in his hands and feet and side, that he could prove himself to those that were skeptical of the possibility of rising from the dead, that he was indeed himself, the Lord crucified, buried in the tomb, and raised again from death to life, so it will be with you and with every son and daughter of Adam, born into the world. You will not lose your identity any more than Christ did. You will be brought forth from death to life again, just as surely as Christ was brought forth from death to life again, just as surely as those who ministered to the Prophet Joseph Smith had been raised from death to life—therefore, in the same manner in which Christ has been raised, so will life, and the resurrection from death to life again, come upon all who have descended from our first parents. The death that came into the world by Adam's transgression has been conquered, and its terror vanquished by the power and righteousness of the Son of God. He came to redeem man from the temporal death, and also to save him from spiritual death if he will repent of his sins, and will believe on the name of Christ, follow his example, and obey his laws.—Apr. C. R., 1912, pp. 135-136.

NATURE OF MINISTERING ANGELS. We are told by the Prophet Joseph Smith, that "there are no angels who minister to this earth but those who do belong or have belonged to it." Hence, when messengers are sent to minister to the inhabitants of this earth, they are not strangers, but from the ranks of our kindred, friends, and fellow-beings and fellow-servants. The ancient prophets who died were those who came to visit their fellow creatures upon the earth. They came to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; it was such beings—holy beings if you please—who waited upon the Savior and administered to him on the Mount. The angel that visited John, when an exile and unfolded to his vision future events in the history of man upon the earth, was one who had been here, who had toiled and suffered in common with the people of God; for you remember that John, after his eyes had beheld the glories of the great future, was about to fall down and worship him, but was peremptorily forbidden to do so. "See thou do it not; for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book; worship God." (Rev. 22:9) Jesus has visited the people of this earth from time to time. He visited and showed himself in his spiritual body to the brother of Jared, touching certain stones with his finger, that the brother of Jared had fashioned out of the rock, making them to give light to him and his people in the barges in which they crossed the waters of the great deep to come to this land. He visited others at various times before and after he tabernacled in the flesh. It was Jesus who created this earth, it therefore is his inheritance, and he had a perfect right to come and minister to inhabitants of this earth. He came in the meridian of time and tabernacled in the flesh, some 33 years among men, introducing and teaching the fulness of the gospel, and calling upon all men to follow in his footsteps; to do the same thing that he himself did, that they might be worthy to inherit with him the same glory. After he suffered the death of the body, he appeared, not only to his disciples and others on the eastern continent, but to the inhabitants of this continent, and he ministered unto them as he did to the people in the land of Palestine. In like manner our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the divine Presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof and instruction, to those whom they had learned to love in the flesh. And so it is with Sister Cannon. She can return and visit her friends, provided it be in accordance with the wisdom of the Almighty. There are laws to which they who are in the Paradise of God must be subject, as well as laws to which we are subject. It is our duty to make ourselves acquainted with those laws, that we may know how to live in harmony with his will while we dwell in the flesh, that we may be entitled to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, clothed with glory, immortality and eternal lives, and be permitted to sit down at the right hand of God, in the kingdom of heaven. And except we become acquainted with those laws, and live in harmony with them, we need not expect to enjoy these privileges; Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Jedediah M. Grant, David Patten, Joseph Smith, Sen., and all those noble men who took an active part in the establishment of this work, and who died true and faithful to their trust, have the right and privilege, and possess the keys and power, to minister to the people of God in the flesh who live now, as much so and on the same principle as the ancient servants of God had the right to return to the earth and minister to the Saints of God in their day.

These are correct principles. There is no question about that in my mind. It is according to the Scriptures; it is according to the revelation of God to the Prophet Joseph Smith; and it is a subject upon which we may dwell with pleasure and perhaps profit to ourselves, provided we have the Spirit of God to direct us.—Discourse delivered at the funeral services of Elizabeth H. Cannon, Fourteenth Ward assembly rooms, Salt Lake City, January 29, 1882. Journal of Discourses, Vol. 22, pp. 350-353.

REDEMPTION BEYOND THE GRAVE. "But woe unto him that has the law given; yea, that has all the commandments of God, like unto us, and that transgresseth them, and that wasteth the days of his probation, for awful is his state." (II Nephi 9:27-38; see also Alma 11:40, 41).

Now, it is evident that such as these have no chance for redemption, no matter what may be done for them in hope or by faith, for they will have sinned against life and knowledge, and are, therefore, worthy of damnation. It is nowhere revealed that such as these will ever be forgiven, although we are informed that all of God's judgments are not given unto men.

There is no other means of salvation revealed or given to the children of men except that offered by the Son of God, and those who reject this, whether before or after they have received it in part, cannot be saved, because they rejected the means of their redemption and salvation. Not so with those to whom Christ went to deliver the gospel when his body lay in the tomb; they were disobedient to the message of Noah, which was a warning to them to repent or they should be destroyed by a flood. We are not told to what extent the gospel of Christ, in its fulness, was proclaimed to them, but are left to suppose that the message of Noah was not the fulness of the gospel, but a cry of repentance from sin that they might escape destruction by the flood. They hardened their hearts against Noah's message, and would not receive it, and were punished for this disobedience in their destruction by the flood; thus in part paying the penalties for their disobedience; but not having received the light they could not be condemned as those spoken of in 9th Nephi, who had all the commandments of God given unto them.

Therefore, Jesus went with his message to their spirits in prison and proclaimed liberty and deliverance to them through their obedience in the spirit world, that the work might be done for them in the flesh, and they be judged according to men in the flesh, and live according to God in the spirit. So there is no conflict in these scriptures. Of course, there is a difference between those who receive the light of the gospel and the testimony of Jesus Christ and afterwards rebel against that light and reject it, thereby putting Christ to an open shame and crucifying him, and those who are referred to by Alma: "Therefore the wicked remain as though there had been no redemption made." These are not under as great a condemnation as those who have received it and rejected it; but so long as they remain unrepentant and wicked, there is no redemption for them any more than for the others; but it is possible that these may repent in the spirit world.