Is Man Immortal?

Is Man Immortal?

BY JOSEPH F. SM ITI1, JR., OF THE COUNCIL OF TWELVE

IN THREE PARTS—PART II

The Lord declared to Enoch, as we read in the Pearl of GreatPrice, that his great work and glory is, "to bring to pass the im-mortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39). This greatwork and glory began before the foundation of this earth was laid.For man is not only a physical body, but an immortal spirit also,which is in the likeness of the physical body, or, to speak cor-rectly, the physical body is in the likeness of the spirit. The dis-ciples of the Lord understood this, for, after his resurrection,when he appeared unto them, "they were terrified and affrighted,and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them.Why are ye troubled ? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts ?Behold my hands and iny feet, that it is I myself: handle me, andsee; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have"(Luke 24:37, 38).

There is an account given in the Book of Mormon of thebrother of Jared presenting himself before the Lord with a num-ber of stones that the Lord might touch them that he and his fol-lowers might have light while they crossed the ocean. When theLord touched the stones the brother of Tared fell to the earth, andthe Lord commanded him to arise, and he said unto the Lord: "Isaw the finger of the Lord, and I feared lest he should smite me;for I knew not that the Lord had flesh and blood." And the Lordsaid unto him, "Because of thy faith thou hast seen that I shalltake upon me flesh and blood; and never hath man come beforeme with such exceeding faith as thou hast." This man then askedthe Lord to show himself to him which the Lord did declaring:"I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world toredeem my people. Behold T am Jesus Christ. * * * Thisbody, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit; and manhave T created after the body of my spirit; and even as I appearunto thee to be in the spirit, will I" appear unto mv people in theftesh" (Ether 3:3-16).

In another place it is recorded: "That which is spiritual,being in the likeness of that which is temporal: and that which istemporal, is in the likeness of that which is spiritual: the spirit ofman in the likeness of his person, as also the spirit of the beast.and every other creature, which God has created" (D. and C.

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77:2). What! the beast and every other creature possessingspirit and body—a living soul? And why not? Were they notall created before death was in the world? and through the trans-gression of Adam death passed upon all living creatures. TheLord did not create them as a thing of naught, to pass away andexist no more. The workmanship of his hands is eternal. "Forall old things shall pass away," said the Lord, "and all things shallbecome new, even the heaven and the earth, and all the fulnessthereof, both men and beasts, the fowls of the air, and the fishesof the sea, and not one hair, neither mote, shall be lost, for it isthe workmanship of mine hand" (D. and C. 29:24, 25). This isa new thought to the present religious world, that even the ani-mals, through the goodness of God and the atonement of his SonJesus Christ, are made immortal. Yet if they had correctly readthe scriptures they would have discovered it, and we shall proveit here.

The spirit of man is the offspring of God and existed in theeternities that are past. Paul said to the Athenians: "For inhim [God] we live, and move, and have our being; as certain ofyour poets have said, for we are also his offspring; forasmuchthen as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think thatthe Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by artand man's device" (Acts 17:28-29). In the twelfth chapter ofHebrews and ninth verse we read: "Furthermore we have hadfathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them rev-erence: shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Fatherof spirits and live?"

Jesus taught his disciples to pray: "Our Father who artin heaven," and at all times he taught them that his Father inheaven was also their Father. To Mary he said after his resur-rection : "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend untomy Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." Thesewere not idle words. The Savior meant just what he said, thathis Father is also our Father and that he (the Savior) is ourElder Brother, but the only Begotten Son of God in the flesh,while we are his sons and daughters in the spirit creation.

The Prophet Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, while invision, saw the Father and the Son, and were commanded to beartestimony of him, and they have written:

"For we saw him, even on the right hand of God, and we heardthe voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—that by him and through him, and of him, the worlds are and werecreated, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughtersunto God" (D. & C. 76:23-24).

The Lord declared through Moses the following:

"Remember the days of old, consider the years of many genera-tions: * * * When the Most High divided to t*he nations their

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inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the houndsof the people according to the number of the children of Israel."(Deut. 32:7-8).

A similar passage to this occurs in Acts where Paul declaresto the Athenians that the Lord "hath made of one blood all na-tions of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hathdetermined the times before appointed, and the bounds of theirhabitation" (Acts 17:26).

These passages clearly indicate that the numbers of thechildren of Israel were known and the bounds of their habitationfixed, in the days of old, when the Lord divided to the nationstheir inheritance. We conclude, therefore, that there must havebeen a division of the spirits of men in the spiritual world, andthose who were appointed to be the children of Israel were sep-arated and prepared for a special inheritance. But the objectionis raised that since the Lord knows the end from the beginningit is an easy thing for him to determine the number of the chil-dren of Israel even before they existed. The fact, however, thatall thing's were created first spiritual and secondly temporal is con-firmed in the first two chapters of Genesis. We read in the firstchapter that the Lord created every "moving creature that hathlife" in the sea, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, theherbs bearing seed, and, to cap it all, man in his own image.In the second chapter we read that the heavens and the earth werefinished and all the host of them, and then later we read (v.5) thatthere was not. a man to till the ground, for the Lord had notcaused it to rain upon the earth; moreover, that he created "everyplant of the field, before it was in the earth, and every herb ofthe field before it grew." This evidently was a spiritual creation,and not a temporal one, which truth is confirmed beyond reason-able dispute in the first verse of the second chapter: "Thus theheavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them."How could all the host of the heavens and the earth be finishedat that time, before the earth was prepared to receive the lifeintended for it, if there was no spiritual creation? No believerin the doctrine of the soul being the physical body would conten 1that these natural, or mortal, bodies were all created at that time.We are forced to conclude, then, that all these things, includingthe living creatures on the earth, the plants of the field as well asman, were created spiritually, before they were placed in theearth. We cannot avoid this conclusion.

In this dispensation of the fulness of times (Eph. 1 :10) theLord has revealed this very clearly to his people. In the Pearl< f Great Price we read:

"Thus the heaven and the earth were finished and all the host ofthem. And on the seventh day, T, God, ended my work, and allthings which 1 had made; and T rested on the seventh day from all my

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work, and all things which 1 had made were finished, and I Godsaw that they were good. And I, God, blessed the seventh day, andsanctified it; because that in it I had rested from all my work whichI, God, had created and made. And now, behold, I say unto you,that these are the generations of the heaven and the earth, when theywere created, in the day that I, the Lord God, made the heaven andthe earth. And every plant of the field before it was in the earth,and every herb of the field before it grew. For, I, the Lord God,created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before theywere naturally upon the face of the earth. For I, the Lord God, hadnot caused it to rain upon the face of the earth. And I, the LordGod, had created all the children of men; and not yet a man to tillthe ground; for in heaven created I them; and there was not yetflesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air. * * *And I, the Lord God, formed man from the dust of the ground, andbreathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a livingsoul, the first flesh upon the earth, the first man also; nevertheless, allthings were before created; but spiritually were they created andmade according to my word" (Moses 3:1-7).

Now, this is the word of the Lord as it was originally re-vealed to Moses and recorded, and again in these latter-days hasbeen restored to man. The passages here quoted are clear andeasily understood and no man who reads them need be at crosspurposes with their meaning. Yet, in the book of Genesis thesame thought is set forth, and while not in the clear cut mannerhere given, yet with sufficient clearness that "he may run thatreadeth it," and understand. There is no conflict, but full har-mony between King James' version and the Pearl of Great Price.But men, blinded by tradition and false interpretation of thescriptures, fail to understand.

It is very easy to comprehend with the knowledge here setforth what the prophets of old meant in these passages of scrip-ture :

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whohath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ;according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of theworld, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love"(Eph. 1:3-4).

"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from hisbirth. And his disciples asked him saying, Master, who did sin, thisman or his parents, that he was born blind?"

In his answer the Savior confirmed the idea in the minds ofthe disciples of the pre-existence when he answered:

"Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the worksof God should be made manifest in him" (John 9:1-4).

If their idea had been erroneous, the Master would havetaken this occcasion to correct it, for it would have been a griev-ous error, but he confirmed them in their view.

"In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promisedbefore the world began" (Titus 1:2).

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Jeremiah was told that he was called hy the Lord heforehe was born, to be a prophet to the nations (Jer. 1:5).

This also explains the meaning of the question the Lord putto Job:

"Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowl-edge? * * * Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demandof thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foun-dations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding. * * *When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of Godshouted for joy" (Job 38:2, 3, 7).

Was there ever such a time as this ? We learn from the Pearlof Great Price, that there was a council held in heaven, whenthe Lord called before him the spirits of his children and pre-sented to them a plan by which they should come down on thisearth, partake of mortal life and physical bodies, pass through aprobation of mortality and then go on to a higher exaltationthrough the resurrection which should be brought about throughthe atonement of his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Thethought of passing through mortality and partaking of all thevicissitudes of earth life in which they would gain experiencestlirough suffering, pain, sorrow, temptation and affliction, as wellas the pleasures of life in this mundane existence, and then, iffaithful, passing on through the resurrection to eternal life in thekingdom of God, to be like him (I John 3 :2), filled them with thespirit of rejoicing, and they "shouted for joy." The experienceand knowledge obtained in this mortal life, they could not getin any other way, and the receiving of a physical body was es-sential to their exaltation.

God gave his children their free agency even in the spiritworld, by which the individual spirits had the privilege, just asmen have here, of choosing the good and rejecting the evil, orpartaking of the evil to suffer the consequences of their sins. Be-cause of this, some even there were more faithful than others inkeeping the commandments of the Lord. Some were of greaterintelligence than others, as we find it here, and were honoredaccordingly. We read in the Pearl of Great Price:

"Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligencesthat were organized before the world was; and among all these therewere many of the noble and great ones. And God saw these soulsthat they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said:These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that werespirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me;Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wastborn. And there stood one among them that was like unto God, andhe said unto those who were with him; We will go down, for thereis space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will makean earth whereon these may dwell; and we will prove them herewith,to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shallcommand them; and the}' who keep their first estate shall be added

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upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory inthe same kingdom with those who keep their first estate- and theywho keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their headsfor ever and ever" (Abraham 3:22-26).

It was this occasion the Lord called to the mind of Job. Welearn from this that the spirits of men had their free agency,some were greater than others, and from among them the Fathercalled and fore-ordained his prophets and rulers. Jeremiah andAbraham were two of them. This is sufficient answer to thosewho say: "If all men partake alike of this divine thinking es-sence, they ought to manifest the same degree of intelligence andshow the same disposition. * * * There ought to be uni-formity of manifestation if there be uniformity of power." Thisis the argument raised by "soul-sleepers" against the existenceof spirit. The fact is, however, that the spirits of men were notequal. They may have had an equal start, and we know theywere all innocent in the beginning (D. & C. 83:38), but the rightof free agency which was given to them enabled some to outstripothers and thus, through the eons of immortal existence, to be-come more intelligent, more faithful, for they were free to actfor themselves, to think for themselves, to receive the truth orrebel against it.

In fact, when this plan of redemption was presente 1 andJesus was chosen to be the Redeemer of the world, some didrebel. They were not willing to accept him as the "Lamb slainbefore the foundation of the world." When the question ofchoosing a Savior to redeem the inhabitants of this mortal worldwas presented, the Lord said: "Who shall I send?" And oneanswered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. Andanother answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lordsaid: I will send the first. And the second was angry, andkept not his first estate; and at that day, many followed aftermm (Abraham. 4:27-28). The first estate was that former spirit-ual existence, the second estate is this mortal probation, and thethird estate will come in the resurrection of the dead.

This rebellion is given in another place more in detail asfollows:

"And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan,whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten; isthe same which was from the beginning, and he came before me.saying, Behold—here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will re-deem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I willdo it; wherefore give me thine honor. But, behold, my Beloved Son,which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me—Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever. Wherefore,because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought, to destroy theagency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, thatI should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine OnlyBegotten, I caused that he should be cast down; and he became

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Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and toblind men and to lead them captive by his will, even as many as wouldnot hearken unto my voice'' (Moses 4:1-6).

The Prophet Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were priv-ileged to see in vision this rebellion and they said:

"And this we saw also, and bear record, than an angel of God whowas in authority in the presence of God, who rebelled against theOnly Begotten Son, whom the Father loved, and who was in thebosom of the Father—was thrust down from the presence of God andthe Son, and was called Perdition, for the heavens wept over him—hewas Lucifer, a son of the morning, and we beheld, and lo, he is fallen!is fallen! even a son of the morning. And while we were yet in thespirit, the Lord commanded us that we should write the vision, forwe beheld Satan, that old serpent—even the devil—who rebelledagainst God, and sought to take the kingdom of our God, and his( hrist. Wherefore he maketh war with the Saints of God, and en-compasses them round about" (D. & C. 76:25-29).

Again it is written:

"And it came to pass, that Adam being tempted of the devil (for,behold, the devil was before Adam, for he rebelled against me, say-ing, Give me thine honor, which is my power; and also a third partof the hosts of heaven turned he away from me because of theiragency; and they were thrust down, and thus came the devil and hisangels, And, behold, there is a place prepared for them from thebeginning, which place is hell" (D. & C. 29:36-38).

We have a glimpse of this rebellion recorded in the Bible.Jude writes the following:

"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left theirown habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darknessunto the judgment of the great day" (Jude 6).

Peter said:

"God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down tohell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved untojudgment" (II Peter 2:4).

Isaiah:

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morn-ing! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken thenations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven,I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also uponthe mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascendabove the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High"(Isaiah 14:12-14).

This account in Isaiah is very much like that given throughthe Prophet Joseph Smith.

This is from the book of Revelation:

"And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels foughtagainst the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and pre-vailed not; neither was there place found any more in heaven. Andthe great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and

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Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into theearth, and his angels were cast out with him" (Rev. 12:7-9).

All these passages refer to one and the same event—the greatrebellion in heaven, when Lucifer, or Satan, a son of the morn-ing, and one-third of the hosts thereof were cast out into the earthbecause he sought to destroy the free agency of man and theysided with him. He sought the throne of God and put forth hisplan in boldness in that great council, declaring that he wouldsave all, that not one soul should be lost, provided God wouldgive him the glory and the honor. When his plan was rejectedfor a better one, he rebelled and said, as Isaiah states the case:"I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the starsof God, I will be like the Most High."

Tf there had been no free agency, there could have been norebellion in heaven; but what would man amount to withoutthis free agency? He would be no better than a mechanical con-trivance. He could not have acted for himself, but in all thingswould have been acted upon, and hence unable to have receiveda reward for meritorious conduct. He would have been an automa-ton ; could have had no "happiness nor misery, neither sense norinsensibility" (2 Nephi 2:11), and such could hardly be calledexistence. Under such conditions there could have been no pur-pose in our creation.

The gospel plan is based upon the merit system, and sucha system requires the free agency of man (D. & C. 29:35. 2Nephi 2:16). Man may choose to do right or he may choose todo evil, for he is free "to choose liberty and eternal life, throughthe great mediation of all men, or to choose captivity and death,according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seekeththat all men might be miserable like unto himself" (2 Nephi2:27).

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