Cowley's Talks on Doctrine

by Matthias F. Cowley

The Apostle James declares that "faith without works is dead." The Savior taught in His sermon on the mount that "Not every one that saith unto me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." From these and other passages of Scripture we learn that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe, obey and remain faithful to the end. This gives us a general definition of what is meant by the term Gospel.

To understand the principles which constitute the Gospel, we may remind our readers that mankind find themselves under the necessity of a redemption which is two-fold in its character. First, by the act of our first parents, all creation is subject to the death of the mortal body. Second, by individual sins man becomes unworthy to dwell in the presence of the Eternal Father.

The Gospel, then, consists of the atonement of Christ, by which all are entitled to a resurrection of the body; in the language of Paul, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." It also consists of laws and ordinances for man's obedience, by which he is redeemed from his own sins, placed in communication with God, and led back into His presence.

In the justice of the Almighty the plan of salvation must be so comprehensive and general that the human family, without distinction, shall have the opportunity of receiving it.

We learn from the Pearl of Great Price that before Adam departed to the life beyond, God revealed to him the plan of salvation. He obeyed it and communicated this knowledge to his posterity during the seven generations that lived contemporary with him. With the Gospel, necessarily came the authority of God to administer in the ordinances thereof. This authority is called the Holy Priesthood. In a revelation given the prophet Joseph Smith, September 22d and 23d, 1832, and contained in Sec. 84 of the Doctrine and Covenants, we learn that the priesthood was conferred through Father Adam by the laying on of hands upon Abel, and from Abel or Seth was conferred through the lineage of their descendants to Enoch, and from Enoch to Noah down to Melchisedek, who conferred it upon Abraham. In the days of Abraham lived the great prophet Esaias, who, the revelation informs us, received the priesthood under the hand of God. From Esaias it was handed down through an unbroken chain to the prophet Moses, but because of the unbelief and hardness of the people, "He took Moses out of their midst and the Holy Priesthood also, and the lesser priesthood continued." (Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 84.)

This record shows an unbroken succession of the Holy Priesthood and the Gospel of Christ from Adam to Moses, a period of about 2,500 years. Then began those periods of the world's history when the fullness of the Gospel was not to be had among the children of men, periods when the spirit of darkness engrossed the human family and left mankind, in a great degree, as a blind man groping for the wall. The first of these periods continued from Moses until the Savior came and restored the higher priesthood, established His church upon the earth, and sent his apostles to preach the Gospel in all the world. Another similar period was from the time the Gospel became corrupted, in the first two or three centuries of the Christian era, to its restoration in this dispensation through the prophet Joseph Smith. The Christian dispensation of the Gospel continued to a greater length upon the American continent, extending to nearly 400 years after Christ. What success attended the Gospel among the ten lost tribes whom the Messiah visited and how long it was maintained among them is not yet revealed, but will be in the due time of the Lord.

The Elders in preaching the Gospel abroad are often confronted with an objection to this claim of apostasy from the truth, that such periods of spiritual darkness do not harmonize with the mercy and justice of God. The objectors, therefore, incline to the belief that the Christian world has enjoyed the Gospel ever since the coming of the Messiah. The query then arises, what is the cause of such apparent difference in the opportunities of human beings? Some are born in the church, heirs to the Holy Priesthood; others, in a Gospel dispensation, not in the church, but under conditions favorable to their accepting it; still another class in the same dispensation is under such adverse circumstances that believing and obeying are rendered very difficult; and yet a larger number, counted by millions, live and die where no voice from God comes to their relief.

In the absence of revelation giving any detailed information on this question, we may rest contented with the reflection that God is just, and that a just cause exists for that which appears inconsistent in the eyes of mortal man, but that reflection is not satisfying; we are in absolute need of revelation to enable us to comprehend the cause and to justify in our minds the conditions which exist.

Our works in this life are known to God, and our rewards and punishments are meted out according to the deeds done in the body. Our pre-existent merits and demerits are equally well known to our Heavenly Father. As proof that God knew before this life with all the exactness that we are known here, I here introduce the following from page 41, Pearl of Great Price: "Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones: and God saw these souls that they were good, and He stood in the midst of them; and He said, 'These I will make my rulers,' for He stood among those that were spirits; and He saw they were good; and there stood one among them like unto God, and He said unto those that were with Him, 'We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth, whereon these may dwell; and we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; and they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate, shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads forever and ever."

In the first chapter fourth and fifth verses of Jeremiah, we have the following: "Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee I knew thee, and before thou camest forth, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." From these plain teachings of the prophet, it is readily seen that the measure of integrity attached to our pre-existence was fully understood by our Father; and as our future condition is based upon our works in this life, is it not a reasonable conclusion that our situation in this world is largely due to our conduct in a pre-existent state?