What follows stands alone as an essay
At some point there will be a part 2. But for now. enjoy part 1.
[Inuit[i]]: 'If I did not know about
God and sin, would I go to hell?'
Priest:
'No, not if you did not know.'
[Inuit]:
'Then why did you tell me?'
Annie
Dillard[ii]
You don’t need salvation
Part 1. Ransomware
It seems that in
Mormonism (and to a lesser degree in the broader category of Christianity),
there is a proviso for those who die without hearing the gospel.
Proviso?
Accepting Jesus (and
whatever that may entail) is necessary for us to avoid an eternal punishment in
the form of being separated from the presence of God. That hardly seems fair to
those who don’t accept Jesus because of an accident of birth. A majority of
persons who have ever lived did not accept Jesus due to living their lives in a
time and/or place in which they never had a chance to hear the gospel.
The proviso I mention is for these people.
For example, 2
Nephi 9:25 tells us that “…where there is no law given there is no
punishment; and where there is no punishment there is no condemnation;
and where there is no condemnation the mercies of the Holy One of Israel have
claim upon them, because of the atonement; for they are delivered by the power
of him.” (italics added)
Similarly, Mormon 8: 22 tells us that “…all little
children are alive in Christ, and also all they that are without the law.
For the power of redemption cometh on all them that have no law; wherefore,
he that is not condemned, or he that is under no condemnation, cannot repent;
and unto such baptism availeth nothing.” (italics added)
St. Paul seems to be in agreement with the Book of
Mormon on this matter, asking rhetorically “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not
believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and
how shall they hear without a preacher…” (Romans 10:14), and suggests something
akin to the provision spoken of above: “…but sin is not imputed when there is
no law.” (Romans 5:13). And although “through the law we become conscious of
sin…” (Romans 3:20), those that die without the law, per se, will still
be judged on essentially being a good person (if I’m reading St. Paul right): “it
is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers
of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by
nature do what the law requires…They show that the work of the law is
written on their hearts.” (Romans 2:13-15). (italics added)
Mormonism has an explanation for why those who die without hearing the gospel are not condemned. In 1st Peter, Chapter 3, we learn that Jesus, “being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; (v. 18, 19, italics added).
President Joseph
F. Smith reports (D&C 138 1-11) that in the days before his surprise[iii] General
Conference address of October 4th 1918 he was pondering (D&C 138
1-11) what was meant by St. Peter, and received a series of visions regarding
the spirit world, and that the eyes of his understanding were opened (v. 11).
President Smith reports
that in the afterlife, although all spirits inhabit a single kingdom[iv],
there is a division of some sort between the righteous (D&C 138: 12-16) and
the wicked (20-22, Alma 40: 13-14). During the two days between His death and resurrection[v], Jesus,
in a sense went to preach to the spirits in prison, but He did not go in
person to the unrighteous (29). He instead organized missionaries, so to speak,
from the righteous, to teach the good news to those who did not hear it during
their lifetime (30-31, 36-37).
“[F]aithful Elders”
(D&C 138:57) and Sisters[vi] will
engage in this missionary work after death. Wilford Woodruff[vii] described
a personal vision, and Russell M. Nelson[viii]
relayed a experience of his grandfather, both of which report interactions with
the deceased who describe themselves as being fervently engaged in the post-life
missionary effort. “Every apostle, every seventy, every elder, etc., who has
died in the faith, as soon as he passes to the other side of the veil, enters
into the work of the ministry, and there is a thousand times more to preach
there than there is here.” (Wilford Woodruff[ix])
To summarize the
story so far: If you die without hearing the gospel, no worries, it does not
effect your chances of getting into the Celestial Kingdom. You get to accept
Jesus after you die.
Now, consider the
burden that membership in the LDS Church places on individuals. A list of
commandments, including some that are simply for the purpose of demonstrating
obedience. No work on Sunday (financial burden). Word of Wisdom (social
stigma). Modesty requirements (social stigma). Rules about sexual purity
(social stigma, restriction from healthy adult sexual relationships). Unrealistic
emphasis on perfection and keeping up the appearance of perfection. Prosperity
Gospel (it may not be doctrine, but I’ve heard it taught in Sacrament meetings;
and how many bishops and stake presidents are un-employed/under-employed vs.
how many are doctors, dentists, lawyers?). How many hours per week are spent in
meetings, assignments, committees, preparation? How many hours spent in
personal prayer, scripture study, family home evening? Two years of your life
spreading the good news. At your own expense. Temple attendance is necessary
for exaltation. Without temple attendance, your family is separated at death.
10% of your gross income is to be given to the Church—an already profoundly
wealthy organization. No 10% à no templeàno eternal family.
Enjoying the
blessings of the gospel places an onerous burden on the recipient of said
blessings.
If one could get (i)
all of the benefits of exaltation and (ii) avoid the onerous burden placed upon
the members of the Church simply by accepting the gospel post-mortality, one
could be forgiven for empathizing the Inuit in the exchange with the Priest,
above.
But wait, it gets
worse.
What of those who
hear the gospel during mortality, yet do not accept it? Once one hears the good
news, is it okay to “procrastinate the day of your repentance?” The Book of
Mormon (Alma Chapter 34) says no:
33 And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had
so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the
day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is
given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while
in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor
performed.
34 Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis,
that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for
that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of
this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that
eternal world.
35 For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of
your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit
of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath
withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over
you; and this is the final state of the wicked.
The Book of Mormon
prophet Abinadi (Mosiah Chapter 15) makes a similar dire warning:
11 Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the
words of the prophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied
concerning the coming of the Lord—I say unto you, that all those who have
hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people,
and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto
you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God.
24 And these are those who have part in the first
resurrection; and these are they that have died before Christ came, in their
ignorance, not having salvation declared unto them. And thus the Lord bringeth
about the restoration of these; and they have a part in the first resurrection,
or have eternal life, being redeemed by the Lord.
26 But behold, and fear, and tremble before God, for
ye ought to tremble; for the Lord redeemeth none such that rebel against him
and die in their sins; yea, even all those that have perished in their sins
ever since the world began, that have wilfully rebelled against God, that have
known the commandments of God, and would not keep them; these are they that
have no part in the first resurrection.
27 Therefore ought ye not to tremble? For salvation
cometh to none such; for the Lord hath redeemed none such; yea, neither can the
Lord redeem such; for he cannot deny himself; for he cannot deny justice when
it has its claim.
The Book of Mormon
is quite explicit in saying that if you hear the gospel, and still rebel
against God, there is most emphatically not a chance to accept it in the
next life.
Anton H. Lund
offered the following word of warning in General Conference (1900):
This doctrine of salvation for the dead does not have
the effect, as some say, to make men neglect the present opportunity, thinking
that there will always be a chance for them. For there is punishment meted
out to those who reject the Gospel…We endeavor to impress upon the hearts
of men the necessity of repenting and of living according to the commandments
of God... (italics added)
Joseph Fielding
Smith explicates that, as implied by D&C 76: 73-74, the terrestrial kingdom
will include “those who refused to receive the gospel when they lived on the
earth, but in the spirit world accepted the testimony of Jesus.”[x]
Apostle Bruce R. McConkie[xi] conveys a brief story
intended to illustrate that the belief that one can reject the gospel in this
life but accept in the next is a heresy:
I knew a man, now
deceased, not a member of the Church…His wife was a member of the Church, as
faithful as she could be under the circumstances. One day she said to him, “You
know the Church is true; why won’t you be baptized?” He replied, “Of course I
know the Church is true, but I have no intention of changing my habits in order
to join it. I prefer to live the way I do. But that doesn’t worry me in the
slightest. I know that as soon as I die, you will have someone go to the temple
and do the work for me and everything will come out all right in the end
anyway.”
He died and she had the
work done in the temple. We do not sit in judgment and deny vicarious
ordinances to people. But what will it profit him?
There is no such thing as
a second chance to gain salvation. This life is the time
and the day of our probation. After this day of life, which is given us to
prepare for eternity, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no
labor performed.
…Salvation for the dead
is for those whose first chance to gain salvation is in the spirit world…Those
who reject the gospel in this life and then receive it in the spirit world go
not to the celestial, but to the terrestrial kingdom. (italics added)
Like McConkie, Current LDS prophet, seer, and
revelator, Russell M. Nelson recently went so far as to raise doubts with
regards to the value of doing the vicarious temple ordinances on behalf of
those who rejected the gospel during their mortal probation[xii]: “I do question the
efficacy of proxy temple work for a [person] who had the opportunity to be
baptized in this life . . . but who made the conscious decision to reject that
course.”
The Doctrine and
Covenants speaks directly to the missionaries on their way to spread the news
(D&C 84):
64 Therefore, as I said unto mine apostles I say unto
you again, that every soul who believeth on your words, and is baptized by
water for the remission of sins, shall receive the Holy Ghost.
74 Verily, verily, I say unto you, they who believe
not on your words, and are not baptized in water in my name, for the remission
of their sins, that they may receive the Holy Ghost, shall be damned, and shall
not come into my Father’s kingdom where my Father and I am.
To summarize
Living the gospel
is quite burdensome.
If you don’t hear
the gospel during this life, you have the opportunity to accept it in the next.
If you don’t hear the
gospel during this life, you avoid the burden of living the LDS gospel.
If you hear the
gospel, you are expected to accept it.
If you ignore the
gospel in mortality, you cannot accept it in the spirit world and still inherit
Celestial glory.
If you hear the gospel,
you have to accept it and it. Once you hear it, you cannot avoid being judged
by it.
As a sincere and
eager (and impetuous) young missionary, I believed the gospel to be the cure
for individual ills and for the ills of the world. However, if it is true that
one is not judged according to the gospel unless one hears it first, then by
telling people about the gospel, I was ensuring that they were going to be
judged in accordance with whether they believed what I taught them or not.
If the LDS gospel
is true, then by telling people the alleged good news, I was taking away their
chance to accept the gospel in the next life, and taking away the very possibility
of living a life free of the cumbersome requirements imposed by the LDS Church.
If I was spreading
the cure, so to speak, those to whom I was spreading said cure were not
infected until I told them they were infected.
Missionaries are
not spreading the cure. Missionaries are spreading the disease.
There is a category
of malware called “Ransomware” in which a computer or computer system is
attacked, and the files in that computer or system are encrypted. The only way
to get one’s files back is to pay for them to be decrypted. The attacker
infects your computer, typically by use of a “trojan”—a file or program that
appears legitimate, such that receivers are likely to download and activate,
thus infecting their own computers. The attacker then holds the files for
ransom. The files are lost (or potentially leaked) if the victim does not pay
the ransom.
Innocuous young
missionaries share an innocuous message about “hope” or about “faith” or about “families.”
But embedded in that innocuous sweet message (akin to a trojan) is “the
gospel.” And once you hear it, you are infected. Once you hear it, your eternal
salvation rests upon acting according to its precepts. Once you hear it, your
eternal destiny requires hours of volunteer work every week, adherence to strict
dietary and dress codes, and a minimum of 10% of your gross income, just for
starters.
Spreading the gospel—missionary
work, is spiritual ransomware.
[i] I have taken the
liberty of replacing the term from the original with “Inuit” because some have
come to consider the original an ethnic slur.
[ii] Dillard, A.
(1985). Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. New York: Harper & Row.
[iii] Surprise address
because he was quite ill, and there had been a number deaths in the family. Joseph
F. Smith, in Conference Report, October 1918, 2.
[iv] According to
Joseph Smith (History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843], 1574,
The Joseph Smith Papers, https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-d-1-1-august-1842-1-july-1843/219.)
and Brigham Young (Widtsoe, Discourses of Brigham Young, 376).
[v] yes, I said two
days. Friday evening to Sunday morning does not even add up to 48 hours
[vi] Gospel Doctrine,
p. 461.
[vii] G. Homer Durham,
comp., The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1946), 288–89.
[viii] Russel. M. Nelson
and Wendy Nelson, “RootsTech Family Discover Day—Opening Session 2017,” The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/family-history/video/opening-session-2017?lang=eng.
[ix] Wilford Woodruff,
in Journal of Discourses, 22:333–34.
[x] Joseph Fielding Smith,
Answers to Gospel Questions, 2:209.
[xii] Russell M.
Nelson, “Come Follow Me,” Ensign, May 2019, 91
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