The Gospel Principle Members Really Believe

I listened again today to a devotional talk by David Paulsen about the great truths that Joseph Smith revealed which help us to resolve the very difficult questions about evil and God’s love.  I was particularly impressed this time by his comments about the difficulty of the claim that only through accepting Christ can one be saved.  The Bible clearly states this in passages such as John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 (and the Book of Mormon is even more emphatic about this principle in 2 Nephi 31:21 and Mosiah 3:17); to believe the scriptures we must believe that there is no other way to salvation but through Christ.  The problem with this was summarized by a professor of philosophy that Brother Paulsen quoted in his talk: “The scandal . . . arises with a simple set of questions asked of the Christian theologian who claims that it is only through the life and death of God incarnated in Jesus Christ that all can be saved and reconciled to God: How can the many humans who lived and died before the time of Christ be saved through him? They surely cannot be held accountable for responding appropriately to something of which they could have no knowledge. Furthermore, what about all the people who have lived since the time of Christ in cultures with different religious traditions, untouched by the Christian gospel? … Is not the love of God better understood as universal, rather than as limited to a mediation through the one particular individual, Jesus of Nazareth? Is it not a moral as well as a religious scandal to claim otherwise?”  Brother Paulsen described the problem with these three seemingly incompatible statements: (1) God is perfectly loving, (2) Salvation only comes through accepting Jesus Christ, and (3) Millions have died with no chance to accept Jesus Christ.  But, as he stated, Joseph Smith gave us the fourth statement that resolves the problem: (4) Those who don’t have an opportunity to accept Christ in this life will have that chance in the next life.  He continued, “Thank God for Joseph Smith! And not merely for resolving one more thorny problem of evil—which he surely did (or, God did, through him)—but for being the instrument through whom God restored the knowledge and priesthood powers that make the redemption of the dead possible.” 

                As I’ve been thinking about this, I realize that there is perhaps no other truth that is so visibly believed by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The idea of redemption for the dead is not just a philosophical argument in which we say passively, “Yep, God will somehow give them all a chance.” Rather, it is a belief at the center of what we consider to be the most holy places and the most sacred activities.  If there is any part of our doctrine that one can observe the lay members’ faith in it, surely it is this principle of the redemption of the dead.  Nearly every day, tens of thousands of latter-day Saints go from well before dawn to well after sunset to one of 150 temples across the world to perform vicarious ordinances for that group of people who did not have the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ in mortality.  From the 12 year old youth group that goes at 5:00 in the morning before school to the retired couples who spend hour after hour in the temple, the participation in temple work by the members of the Church never ends.  The world might mock what we do there, they might argue that it accomplishes nothing, but they cannot deny that there is an absolutely real faith in the principle of the redemption of the dead by the members of the Church.  And when you consider on top of it the absolutely astronomical amount of time spent by Church members researching their ancestors in preparation for their temple visits, the devotion to this principle is astounding. 

                An oft-quoted verse in the Doctrine and Covenants is this injunction from the Prophet Joseph: “Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward.  Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory!”  It’s a motivating refrain in any worthy endeavor, but it was given in a very specific context: to encourage us in our efforts to help “redeem [the dead] out of their prison” (D&C 128:22).  And certainly no matter what happens to the world in the future, as long as there is any way to do it, that great effort will continue by the faithful members in droves.