Key to the Science of Theology

by Parley P. Pratt

The elements and beings in the spirit world are as real and tangible to spiritual organs, as things and beings of the temporal world are to beings of a temporal state.

In this spirit world there are all the varieties and grades of intellectual being, which exist in the present world. For instance, Jesus Christ and the thief on the cross, both went to the same place, and found themselves associated in the spirit world.

But the one was there in all the intelligence, happiness, benevolence, and charity, which characterized a teacher, a messenger, anointed to preach glad tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to comfort those who mourned, to preach deliverance to the captive, and open the prison to those who were bound; or, in other words, To preach the Gospel to the spirits in prison, that they might he judged according to men in the flesh; while the other was there as a thief, who had expired on the cross for crime, and who was guilty, ignorant, uncultivated, and unprepared for resurrection, having need of remission of sins, and to be instructed in the science of salvation.

The former bid farewell to the world of spirits on the third day, and returned to his tabernacle of flesh, in which he ascended to thrones, principalities, and powers, while the latter is, no doubt, improving in the spirit world, and waiting, believing, hoping for the redemption of the body.

In the world of spirits there are Apostles, Prophets, Elders, and members of the Church of the Saints, holding keys of Priesthood, and power to teach, comfort, instruct, and proclaim the Gospel to, their fellow-spirits, after the pattern of Jesus Christ.

In the same world there are also the spirits of Catholics, and Protestants of every sect, who have all need to be taught, and to come to the knowledge of the true, unchangeable Gospel, in its fulness and simplicity, that they may be judged the same as if they had been privileged with the same in the flesh.

There is also the Jew, the Mahometan, the infidel, who did not believe in Christ while in the flesh. All these must be taught, must come to the knowledge of the crucified and risen Redeemer, and hear the glad tidings of the Gospel.

There are also all the varieties of the heathen spirits; the noble and refined philosopher, poet, patriot, or statesman of Rome or Greece; the enlightened Socrates, Plato, and their like; together with every grade of spirits, down to the most uncultivated of the savage world.

All these must be taught, enlightened, and must bow the knee to the eternal king, for the decree hath gone forth, that unto him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.

O what a field of labour, of benevolence, of missionary enterprise now opens to the Apostles and Elders of the Church of the Saints! As this field opens they will begin to realize more fully the extent of their divine mission, and the meaning of the great command to "Preach the Gospel to every creature."