An Examination into and an Elucidation of the Great Principle of the Mediation Part 14

Or as Paul writes; "He that cometh to G.o.d must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

The second principle of the Gospel of salvation, is repentance. It is a sincere and G.o.dly sorrow for and a forsaking of sin, combined with full purpose of heart to keep G.o.d's commandments. As is written by the Prophet Isaiah: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our G.o.d, for he will abundantly pardon." And to quote from the Book of Mormon:

"And again: Believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before G.o.d; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things, see that ye do them."--Mosiah, iv, 10.

Thirdly, Baptism for the remission of sins, of our personal transgressions, which, through this means, provided by divine mercy, are, by reason of the atonement, blotted out. To use the words of Paul: "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection."

Next, the reception of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands of those who have received the Holy Priesthood, and are duly authorized, ordained, and empowered to impart this blessing: Thus Peter preached on the day of Pentecost:

"Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our G.o.d shall call."--Acts, ii, 38, 39.

These are the introductory or first principles of the everlasting, unchangeable Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that is and has been the same to all men, amongst all nations, in all ages, whenever, or wherever it has been taught by the authority of heaven.

Hence we read: It was "preached from the beginning, being declared by holy angels, sent from the presence of G.o.d, and by his own voice, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost. And thus all things were confirmed unto Adam, by an holy ordinance, and the Gospel preached, and a decree sent forth, that it should be in the world, until the end thereof."--Pearl of Great Price.

And in that day "the Lord G.o.d called upon men by the Holy Ghost everywhere, and commanded them that they should repent; and as many as believed in the Son, and repented of their sins, should be saved; and as many as believed not and repented not, should be d.a.m.ned; and the words went forth out of the mouth of G.o.d in a firm decree; wherefore they must be fulfilled."--Ibid.

This same Gospel was preached to Seth, and to all the antediluvian Patriarchs, and they ministered under its authority. By its power, as we have already shown, Enoch and his people were translated. Of Noah it is written: "And the Lord ordained Noah after his own order, and commanded him that he should go forth and declare his gospel unto the children of men, even as it was given unto Enoch." And further, to quote from the testimony of Noah before the flood: "And it came to pa.s.s that Noah continued his preaching unto the people, saying, Hearken, and give heed unto my words; believe and repent of your sins, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of G.o.d, even as our fathers did, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost, that ye may have all things made manifest; and if ye do not this, the floods will come in upon you."

From this we learn that the principles of the Gospel in the first ages of the world were identical with those taught in our day.

The Gospel and the Holy Priesthood continued from Noah to Abraham.

"Abraham received the priesthood from Melchizedek, who received it through the lineage of his fathers, even till Noah." (Doc and Cov., lx.x.xiv, 14, p. 289.) As Paul writes, "And the Scripture, foreseeing that G.o.d would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, "In thee shall all nations be blessed;"

whilst Jesus declared, "Abraham saw my day and was glad." The knowledge and practice of the Gospel were perpetuated through Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and other Patriarchs, until the age of Moses, who, it is said, esteemed "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt;" and of the Israelites, of whom he was the great lawgiver, Paul writes:

"Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all pa.s.sed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: (For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.) But with many of them G.o.d was not pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness."--1 Cor., x, 1-5.

The further history of the Gospel in its relation to the house of Israel is briefly told in the following paragraphs from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants:

"Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of G.o.d; but they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence, therefore the Lord in his wrath (for his anger was kindled against them) swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fulness of his glory. Therefore he took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood also; and the lesser priesthood continued, which priesthood holdeth the key of the ministering of angels and the preparatory gospel; which gospel is the gospel of repentance and of baptism, and the remission of sins, and the law of carnal commandments, which the Lord in his wrath caused to continue with the house of Aaron among the children of Israel until John, whom G.o.d raised up, being filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb; for he was baptized while he was yet in his childhood, and was ordained by the angel of G.o.d at the time he was eight days old unto this power, to overthrow the kingdom of the Jews, and to make straight the way of the Lord before the face of his people, to prepare them for the coming of the Lord, in whose hand is given all power."--Sec. lx.x.xiv, 23-28, p. 290, 291.

It was this same Gospel that the crucified Redeemer commanded His disciples to preach, when "he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be d.a.m.ned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."--Mark, xvi, 15-18.

And Mark testifies: "They went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following."

Hence we find on the day of Pentecost, Peter, the senior of the Apostles, in answer to the cry of the believing mult.i.tude, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" replying in the words already quoted: "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our G.o.d shall call."-- Acts, ii, 38, 39.

Again, it was this same everlasting, unalterable, unchangeable Gospel whose restoration to the earth John, the Apostle, spoke of as follows:

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear G.o.d and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and wors.h.i.+p him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."--Revelation, xiv, 6, 7.

From the Bible, we turn to the Book of Mormon, and in its pages discover that the same Gospel which Jesus directed His disciples to go into all the world and preach, was preached on this continent, from the earliest ages. The Jaredites became acquainted with it through the revelations given to the brother of Jared; in one of which Jesus said unto him:

"Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have light and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters."--Ether, iii, 14.

"And he ministered unto him, even as he ministered unto the Nephites."--Ether, iii, 18.

The principles of this Gospel were very fully understood by the Nephites before the advent of the Messiah. We quote from a sermon of the younger Alma. He says:

"Now if it had not been for the plan of redemption, which was laid from the foundation of the world, there could have been no resurrection of the dead; but there was a plan of redemption laid, which shall bring to pa.s.s the resurrection of the dead, of which has been spoken. And now behold, if it were possible that our first parents could have went forth and partaken of the tree of life, they would have been for ever miserable, having no preparatory state; and thus the plan of redemption would have been frustrated, and the word of G.o.d would have been void, taking none effect. But behold, it was not so; but it was appointed unto man that they must die; and after death they must come to judgment; even that same judgment of which we have spoken, which is the end. And after G.o.d had appointed that these things should come unto man, behold, then he saw that it was expedient that man should know concerning the things whereof he had appointed unto them; therefore he sent angels to converse with them, who caused men to behold of his glory."--Alma, xii, 25-29.

It will be seen from this, in the first place, that, as we have before stated, G.o.d's plan in relation to man was that he should fall, and having fallen and obtained a knowledge of good and evil, (which knowledge he could not have obtained without placing himself in that position,) then it became necessary that he should know concerning the atonement and redemption which should be brought about through the mediation of Jesus Christ; and hence the angel communicated, as before related, this knowledge to Adam, and Alma's testimony on this continent is found to agree precisely with the testimony given in the Pearl of Great Price, pertaining to the revelation of G.o.d's will through an angel to Adam. We again quote from the same discourse:

"And they began from that time forth to call on his name; therefore G.o.d conversed with men, and made known unto them the plan of redemption, which had been prepared from the foundation of the world; and this he made known unto them according to their faith and repentance, and their holy works; wherefore he gave commandments unto men, they having first transgressed the first commandments as to things which were temporal, and becoming as G.o.ds, knowing good from evil, placing themselves in a state to act, or being placed in a state to act according to their wills and pleasures, whether to do evil or to do good; therefore G.o.d gave unto them commandments, after having made known unto them the plan of redemption, that they should not do evil, the penalty thereof being a second death, which was an everlasting death as to things pertaining unto righteousness; for on such the plan of redemption could have no power, for the works of justice could not be destroyed, according to the supreme goodness of G.o.d. But G.o.d did call on men, in the name of his Son, (this being the plan of redemption which was laid,) saying, If ye will repent, and harden not your hearts, then will I have mercy upon you, through mine only begotten Son; therefore, whosoever repenteth, and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine only begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins; and these shall enter into my rest.

And whosoever will harden his heart, and will do iniquity, behold, I swear in my wrath that he shall not enter into my rest."--Alma, xii, 30-35.

When Jesus Himself appeared to the Nephites, He preached the same identical principles that He had previously taught to the Jews, adding occasionally further truths, because of the greater faith of the first named people; "And he did expound all things, even from the beginning even until the time he should come in his glory." Amongst other things He said: "Whosoever will hearken unto my words and repenteth, and is baptized, the same shall be saved. Search the prophets, for many there be that testify of these things."--3 Nephi, xxiii, 5.

And it is this same Gospel, attended by the same power and spirit, blessed by the same inspiration, and led by the same Priesthood, that is now being preached to all the world for a witness. Through its principles, and by its power the Kingdom of G.o.d will be established, righteousness spread, evil overcome, and Satan be vanquished; by it Zion and the New Jerusalem will be built up, Enoch and his city be received, the work of the Millennium be done, the renovation of the earth accomplished, and all G.o.d's glorious will be fulfilled, until the vision becomes a reality which Daniel saw and wrote:

"Behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pa.s.s away, and his kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed. * * * And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him."--Daniel, vii, 13, 14, 27.

APPENDIX.

The Ideas of a General Atonement and Redemption, Entertained by Ancient Heathen Nations, Derived Originally from the Teachings of Earlier Servants of G.o.d.

The following are some natural deductions drawn from the theories entertained by men and recorded in history, which tend to establish rather than to overturn the principles which are so clearly demonstrated in the foregoing pages, exhibiting and showing that the atonement was a great plan of the Almighty for the salvation, redemption and exaltation of the human family; and that the pretenders in the various ages had drawn whatever of truth they possessed, from a knowledge of those principles taught by the Priesthood from the earliest periods of recorded time; instead of Christianity being indebted, as some late writers would allege, to the turbid systems of heathen mythology and to pagan ceremonials.

We believe in the foregoing pages it has been clearly demonstrated to all Latter-day Saints, that the prophecy and promise of the coming of the Son of G.o.d was fully understood in every dispensation of G.o.d's providence from the earliest period of the world's history, down through the succeeding ages, everywhere and at all times when the Church of G.o.d existed on the earth. Furthermore, that the doctrine of the atonement, as understood by us, was understood in like manner by the ancient servants of the Lord, and that it was the central principle of their faith, the foundation of their hope for eternal felicity and salvation, and their only trust for the resurrection of their bodies and life everlasting in the presence of the Father. Again that the ancient Patriarchs, Seers, Prophets, High Priests and others, were almost as intimately acquainted with the earthly life and ministry of the Savior, by and through the gift of prophecy and the spirit of revelation, as we are by the perusal of His history, given to us in the sacred Scriptures. These worthies of olden time knew where He would be born and the names that would be given to Him; that His mother would be called Mary, and be a virgin of the tribe of Judah and house of David. Herod's ma.s.sacre of the Innocents, and the flight of the holy family into Egypt, were not hidden from them. They spake of Christ's baptism by John in Jordan, and of the Divine approval that would follow; they prophesied of His ministry, rejoiced in His wonderful works of power and deeds of charity and love; they understood that He should be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver; they mourned at the vision of His sufferings and death, and rejoiced at his triumph and resurrection. Even the minor details of the soldiers parting His raiment among them, His death between two malefactors, and His burial in the rich man's tomb were revealed; and still further, His descent into Hades, His preaching to the spirits in prison, His visits to the Nephites and His ultimate ascension to the Father, were all comprehended. They knew that He would triumph over death, h.e.l.l and the grave, be crowned with glory at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and that all power would be given to Him in heaven and on earth. These and many more details were understood, prophesied of, talked about and rejoiced in by the Priesthood and Saints from the days of Adam to the hour that they began to be fulfilled by His advent and incarnation.

It is needless for us to go backward to the days before the flood to learn to what extent these truths were understood by the antediluvian races; for all the accounts that we have of those peoples come down to us through the channel of the Holy Priesthood, and all the records, books, traditions, etc., of those early inhabitants of our globe were brought to the children of the renovated earth through one family, that of Noah; and that Patriarch, by right of universal fatherhood to the new generations, ruled them as High Priest, Patriarch and King, as one to whom the living G.o.d revealed His mind and will, through whom the keys, rights and powers of the everlasting Priesthood were continued upon the earth, and with whom special covenants were made by the Almighty and the bow set in the clouds as an everlasting token of their perpetuity and unchangeableness.

It will be perceived that in the first days after the flood there was but one religion, and that was the wors.h.i.+p of the true G.o.d under the ministration and guidance of His duly authorized servants. Further, that the belief of the first inhabitants of the postdiluvian age was not only the true one, but it was accompanied by the power and authority of the Holy Priesthood, which received revelations direct from the Almighty. Thus the young world, like the old, was opened with a dispensation of G.o.d's mercy, and the posterity of Noah were not left to grope in the dark for light and truth, anymore than had been the immediate descendants of our great original father. The effects of thus repeopling the earth under the direct and immediate guidance of Jehovah, through His duly appointed servants, have been felt through all succeeding generations; for men, as they scattered over the earth, took with them the seeds of Divine truth, and though, frequently, in after ages, they disfigured it with false and base theories of their own, introduced all manner of corruptions into their forms of wors.h.i.+p, established orders of uninspired and unauthorized priesthood, and replaced the wors.h.i.+p of the true G.o.d by idolatry, yet the fact of the existence of G.o.d the universal Father was not entirely forgotten, nor was the doctrine of the atonement ever utterly obliterated from the minds of men. So strong and so universal a hold had this principle in the varied religions of antiquity, that its very strength has been used as an argument against the doctrine; and it has been vigorously a.s.serted that the Gospel taught by the Savior was of pagan origin, and that He was simply a reformer who took the most excellent wisdom of past ages and framed it into a code of morals and system of religious faith to suit His own ideas and accomplish His own purposes, however n.o.ble those purposes might have been.

The earliest departures from the straight and narrow path to the lives that are eternal, appear to have been made in Chaldea and Egypt. In the former land, Nimrod was one of the first leaders in apostacy and wickedness.[A] These evils so rapidly spread, that as early as the days of Melchizedec and Abraham, the wors.h.i.+p of false deities and idols seems to have become almost universal; and even those who did not wors.h.i.+p graven images, the starry hosts of heaven, or the forces of nature, had so far perverted the principles of the Gospel, that they taught numerous soul destroying errors, totally inconsistent with the plan devised by heaven. In Egypt the apostacy began, and an unauthorized priesthood was established as early as the days of the grandson of Ham. The origin of this defection is explained in the Book of Abraham, as follows:

[Footnote A: Josephus' Antiquities, Book I, Chap. 4.]

"Now the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the government of Ham, which was Patriarchal. Pharaoh being a righteous man, established his kingdom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of the first Patriarchal reign, even in the reign of Adam, and also of Noah, his father, who blessed him with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood.

"Now, Pharaoh being of that lineage by which he could not have the right of Priesthood, notwithstanding the Pharaohs would fain claim it from Noah, through Ham."

As the idolatries of Chaldea and Egypt gave marked tone and color to the mythologies of the dominant races of antiquity on the eastern hemisphere, we shall not trace the growth and development of the religions of Persia, Greece, Rome, etc., through their various branches and ramifications. Such an effort would require a volume; but we shall confine ourselves simply to a brief consideration of the doctrine of the atonement, as understood by the ancient Gentile nations; referring only to such other theories and ideas as have naturally a bearing on that doctrine.

As a starting point we believe we may state with a.s.surance of its truth that the expectation of the coming of a Son of G.o.d, a Messiah, in the flesh was universal with all the leading nations that flourished in the ages previous to the advent of the Redeemer. This is true of the people of Egypt, Babylon, Arabia, Persia, Hindostan, Greece and Rome; as also of the races that inhabited the American continent. And so strong in certain cases had this idea grown that by gradual stages it became changed into the belief that that expected Son of G.o.d had already come, and such a being was reverenced and wors.h.i.+ped under various names. In Greece and Rome this idea became so prevalent that nearly every very eminent man was thought to be a son of one of the G.o.ds; and evil designing men sometimes personated these deities on purpose to seduce the virtuous of the other s.e.x, whose chast.i.ty they could overcome in no other way than by falsely declaring themselves to be the G.o.d for whom such women had particular reverence and esteem.[A] Whilst on the other hand young women who found themselves mothers without husbands would cunningly declare that their children were the offspring of a G.o.d; or, to use the words of the historian Grote, when speaking of Greece, "the furtive pregnancy of young women, often by a G.o.d, is one of the most frequently recurring incidents in the legendary narratives of the country." To such an extent did this excess run, that at a later period a decree was issued subjecting to a very severe penalty any woman who should pretend that her child was of divine parentage. One writer states: "Many are the cases noted in history of young maidens claiming a paternity for their male offspring by a G.o.d. In Greece it became so common that the reigning king issued an edict, decreeing the death of all young women who should offer such an insult to Deity as to lay to him the charge of begetting their children." Whilst on this point Mr. Draper writes: "Immaculate conceptions and celestial descents were so currently received in those days, that whoever had greatly distinguished himself in the affairs of men was thought to be of supernatural lineage. Even in Rome, centuries later, no one could with safety have denied that that city owed its founder, Romulus, to an accidental meeting of the G.o.d Mars with the virgin Rhea Sylvia, as she went with her pitcher for water to the spring. The Egyptian disciples of Plato would have looked with anger on those who rejected the legend that Perictione, the mother of the great philosopher, a pure virgin, had suffered an immaculate conception through the influences of Apollo, and that the G.o.d had declared to Ariston, to whom she was betrothed, the parentage of the child. When Alexander issued his letters, orders and decrees, styling himself 'King Alexander, the son of Jupiter Amnion,' they came to the inhabitants of Egypt and Syria with an authority that now can hardly be realized. The freethinking Greeks, however, put on such a supernatural pedigree its proper value. Olympias [Alexander's mother], who, of course, better than all others knew the facts of the case, used jestingly to say, that 'she wished Alexander would cease from incessantly embroiling her with Jupiter's wife.'"--Draper's Conflict between Religion and Science.

[Footnote A: See Josephus' Antiquities, Book xviii, Chapter iii.]

Returning to Egypt where, as before stated, a priesthood, disowned of G.o.d, had been set up, we are informed[A] that those who were initiated into the inner mysteries of its mythology, were taught that G.o.d created all things at the first, by His first born, who was the author and giver of all knowledge in heaven and on earth, being at the same time the wisdom and the word of G.o.d. The incarnation and earthly life of this important being const.i.tuted the grand mystery of their entire religious system. So great was their faith in the advent of this Holy One, that they had chambers prepared in their temples for His nativity.

[Footnote A: See Osborn's "Religions of the World."]

The priesthood of the Egyptians, though entirely without Divine authority, taught many great truths which they had received from Noah, through Ham and Pharaoh, and it took generations before these Gospel truths were so entirely overlaid and corrupted by falsehood and pagan innovations, that they became undiscernable to all but the initiated.

It is an important fact, holding good of other ancient civilizations as well as that of Egypt, that the farther we trace back their religious beliefs and mythologies, the purer does the creed become, the nearer it approaches to heavenly truth, and the stronger and more evident are the traces of Gospel teachings. This fact alone is sufficient to prove that paganism had its origin in the revelations of heaven, from which, in its various diverse branches, it had turned and strayed, and by gradual growth, had become the vile, inconsistent, degrading and loathsome system which is abhorred by all pure minded, honorable and intelligent people. Had the various forms of ancient dominant pagan wors.h.i.+p been radically and entirely different, with only those features in common that could reasonably be attributed to accident or the inter-communication of races, the inference would be strong that they had different origins; but when, as is the case, there is a strong family likeness, and that likeness grows stronger the further it is traced back, and continually points to a common parentage, and that parentage is the truth as taught by the early patriarchs and inspired servants of heaven, our conclusions must necessarily be that these correct and G.o.d-given teachings were the source from whence the whole sprang, and the differences in development arose from the varied incidents in the history, and the peculiar surroundings of the various races that gave a local hue and tinge to their forms of belief. It is also noteworthy that the fundamental principles of the everlasting plan devised by infinite wisdom, and which were the most widely taught and accepted, are those which prevailed the most extensively in pagan creeds, and which longest retained their hold in the faith of the different races.[A]

Amongst these ideas or principles we will mention a few that were so general that they might almost be called universal: