OPPORTUNITY HERE AND HEREAFTER

Free Agency and Its Results

REPENTANCE and other good works, whereby the saving grace of Christ's Atonement may be made of individual effect for the remission of sins, are possible to the dead; and furthermore, the required ordinances of the Gospel may be administered to the living in behalf of the departed.

Let it not be assumed that the doctrine of vicarious labor for the disembodied implies, even remotely, that the administration of ordinances in behalf of the dead operates in the least degree to interfere with the right of choice and the free exercise of agency on their part. They are at liberty to accept or reject ministrations intended for their benefit; and so they will accept or reject in accord with their penitent or unregenerate condition, even as is the case with those whom the Gospel message reaches in mortality.

Though baptism be authoritatively administered to a living person as proxy for a dead ancestor, that spirit will derive no immediate advancement nor salvation thereby if he has not yet attained faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, or if he be still unrepentant. Even as Christ has made salvation possible to all, though few there be who accept the prescribed conditions in the flesh, so vicarious ordinances may be administered for many in the spirit realm who are not yet prepared to avail themselves of the opportunities thus placed within their reach.

It is evident that labor in behalf of the dead is two-fold; that performed on earth would remain incomplete and futile but for its supplement and counterpart beyond the veil. Missionary work is in progress there—work compared with which the evangelistic labor on earth is relatively of small extent. There are preachers and teachers, ministers invested with the Holy Priesthood, all engaged in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to spirits still sitting in darkness. This great labor was inaugurated by the Savior during the brief period of His disembodiment. It is reasonable and consistent to hold that the saving ministry so begun was left to be continued by others duly authorized and commissioned; just as the work of preaching the Gospel and administering therein among the living was committed to the Apostles of old through their ordination by the Lord Himself.

Missionary service in the spirit world is primarily effective among two classes: (1) those who have died in ignorance of the Gospel—i. e., those who have lived and died without law, and who therefore cannot be condemned until they have come to the knowledge and opportunity requisite to obedience; and (2) those who failed to comply with the laws and ordinances of the Gospel in the flesh, and who through the experiences of the other world have come to the contrite and receptive state.

It is unreasonable and vitally opposed to both letter and spirit of Holy Scripture to assume that neglect or rejection of the call to repentance in this life can be easily remedied by repentance hereafter. Forfeiture through disobedience is a very real loss, entailing deprivation of opportunity beyond all human computation. Refusal to hear and heed the word of God is no physical deafness, but a manifestation of spiritual disease resulting from sin. Death is no cure for such. The unrepentant state is a disorder of the spirit, and, following disembodiment, the spirit will still be afflicted therewith.

What ages such an afflicted one may have to pass in prison confines before he becomes repentant and therefore fit for cleansing, we may not know. The unrepentant hosts who rejected the Gospel in the days of Noah remained in thraldom until after the crucifixion of Christ. (See 1 Peter 3:18-20.) The prophet Amulek admonished the people to repent while opportunity permitted. Consider his inspired appeal:

"For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God. . . . 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. 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." (Book of Mormon, Alma 34:32-35.)

Revelation in the current age confirms the earlier Scriptures in emphasizing the fact that mortality is the probationary state, and that the individual achievements or forfeitures in this life will be of eternal effect, notwithstanding the merciful provision made for advancement in the hereafter. The celestial kingdom of glory and eternal communion with God and Christ is provided for those who obey the Gospel when they learn of it. The lower or terrestrial state will be the inheritance of such as "received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it." Yet lower is the telestial abode of the less deserving; and deepest of all, the awful banishment of the sons of perdition. (See D&C 76.)