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

by Joseph F. Smith

May the Lord bless this bereaved family and comfort them in their deprivation. Those who die in the Lord shall not taste of death. When Adam partook of the forbidden fruit he was cast out from the presence of God into outer darkness; that is, he was shut out from the presence of his glory and the privilege of his society, which was spiritual death. This was the first death; this indeed was death; for he was shut out from the presence of God; and ever since, Adam's posterity have been suffering the penalty of this spiritual death, which is banishment from his presence and the society of holy beings. This first death will also be the second death. Now we look upon the mortal remains of our departed sister; her immortal part has gone. Where? Into outer darkness?—banished from the presence of God? No, but born again into his presence, restored, or born from death to life, to immortality and to joy in his presence. This is not death, then; and this is true in relation to all Saints who die in the Lord and the covenant of the gospel. They return from the midst of death to life, where death has no power.

There is no death except to those who die in sin, without the sure and steadfast hope of the resurrection of the just. There is no death where we continue in the knowledge of the truth and have hope of a glorious resurrection. Life and immortality are brought to light through the gospel; hence, there is no death here; here is a peaceful slumber, a quiet rest for a little season, and then she will come forth again to enjoy this tabernacle. If there is anything lacking in regard to ordinances pertaining to the House of the Lord, which may have been omitted or not reached, those requirements can be attended to for her. Here are her father and mother, her brothers and sisters; they know the ordinances necessary to be performed in order to secure every benefit and blessing that it was possible for her to have received in the flesh. These ordinances have been revealed unto us for this very purpose, that we might be born into the light from the midst of this darkness—from death into life.

We live, then; we do not die; we do not anticipate death but we anticipate life, immortality, glory, exaltation, and to be quickened by the glory of the celestial kingdom, and receive of the same even a fulness. This is our destiny; this is the exalted position to which we may attain and there is no power that can deprive or rob us of it, if we prove faithful and true to the covenant of the gospel.—Funeral sermon preached over the remains of Emma Wells, Salt Lake City, April 11, 1878.—Journal of Discourses, Vol. 19, 1878, pp. 258-265.

THE RESURRECTION. Guided by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus by faith in God, in the testimony of his prophets and in the scriptures, I accept the doctrine of the resurrection with all my heart, and rejoice at its confirmation in nature with the awakening of each returning spring. The Spirit of God testifies to me, and has revealed to me, to my complete personal satisfaction, that there is life after death, and that the body which we lay down here will be reunited with our spirit, to become a perfect soul, capable of receiving a fulness of joy in the presence of God.—Improvement Era, Vol. 16, 1912-1913, pp. 508-510.

THE RESURRECTION. It is true, all of us are clothed with mortality, but our spirits existed long before they took upon them this tabernacle that we now inhabit. When this body dies, the spirit does not die. The spirit is an immortal being, and when separated from the body takes its flight to the place prepared for it, and there awaits the resurrection of the body, when the spirit will return again and re-occupy this tabernacle which it occupied in this world.

This great and glorious principle of the resurrection is no longer a theory, as some think, but it is an accomplished fact which has been demonstrated beyond all successful contradiction, doubt or controversy. Job, who lived before the resurrection of Christ, possessing the spirit of prophecy, looked forward to the time of the resurrection. He comprehended the fact. He understood the principles and knew the power and design of God to bring it to pass, and predicted its accomplishment. He declares: "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth." He further says, "And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." (Job 19:25-26) He looked forward to something not yet done, something which had never been done in this world before his day. It was not accomplished till long after his time. Having received the spirit of the gospel and of revelation, he was enabled to look down into unborn time and see his body which had moulded and crumbled into dust, raised from the dead. What he saw by the eye of faith has become actual history unto us, and we possess not only the history of the fact but a knowledge by the testimony of the Holy Ghost of its truth. We are not therefore situated as Job was; we live in the latter times which are pregnant with grand and glorious events, among the greatest of which is this glorious principle of the resurrection of the dead, which is no longer a mere prediction, a cherished hope, or a prophetic promise, but a reality; for long before our day it has actually been accomplished. Christ himself burst the barriers of the tomb, conquered death and the grave and came forth "the first fruits of them that slept." But, says one, how can we know that Jesus was put to death or resurrected? We have plenty of evidence to show that Jesus was crucified and resurrected. We have the testimony of his disciples, and they produce irrefutable evidence that they did see him crucified, and witnessed the wounds of the nails and spear which he received on the cross. They also testify that his body was laid away in a sepulchre wherein no man had lain, and they rolled a great stone to the door and departed.

Now the chief priests and Pharisees were not satisfied with the crucifixion and burial of our Lord and Savior; they remembered that while living he had said that after three days he would rise again, so they established a strong guard to protect the sepulchre, and set a seal upon the stone, lest his disciples should come by night and steal away the body and say unto the people, "He is risen from the dead," and thus perpetuate a fraud upon the world.

Lo and behold! by this act those unbelieving guards became actual witnesses to the fact that a heavenly personage came and rolled away the stone and that Jesus came forth. The disciples witness and testify to the resurrection, and their testimony can not be impeached. It therefore stands good, and is true and faithful.

But is this the only evidence we have to depend on? Have we nothing but the testimony of the ancient disciples to rest our hopes upon? Thank God we have more. And the additional evidence which we possess enables us to become witnesses to the truth of the testimony of the ancient disciples. We go to the Book of Mormon; it testifies of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in plain and unmistakable terms; we may go to the book of Doctrine and Covenants containing the revelations of this dispensation, and we shall find clear and well defined evidence there. We have the testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the testimony of Oliver Cowdery, and the testimony of Sidney Rigdon, that they saw the Lord Jesus—the same that was crucified in Jerusalem—and that he revealed himself unto them. Joseph and Sidney testify to it as follows:

"We, Joseph Smith, Jr., and Sidney Rigdon, being in the Spirit on the sixteenth of February, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, by the power of the Spirit our eyes were opened and our understandings were enlightened, so as to see and understand the things of God—even those things which were from the beginning before the world was, which were ordained of the Father, through his Only Begotten Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, even from the beginning, of whom we bear record, and the record which we bear is the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the Son, whom we saw and with whom we conversed in the heavenly vision." (Doc. and Cov. 76: 11-14).