The Everlasting Gospel

Improvement Era Vol. XXVIII FEBRUARY, 1925 No. 4 THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL* By Orson F. Whitney, of the Council of the Twelve John the Revelator In the ninety-sixth year of the Christian Era an Apostle of Jesus Christ found himself on a desolate island in the midst of the Aegean sea. That island was Patmos, the Roman Siberia, a place of imprisonment for banished criminals. The Apostle was John, the same who is called John the Revelator, and is referred to in the New Testament as the disciple "whom Jesus loved." He was the sole survivor of the original Twelve, commissioned by our Savior to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Well and faithfully had they performed their part. In the short space of fifty years they had traversed the Roman Empire, from Scythia on the north to Ethiopia on the south, from India on the east to Britain on the west, and had lifted the gospel standard in every considerable city of that vast realm, comprising the then known world. But it had cost them their lives. They had fallen as martyrs "for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" — all save one, the apostle of whom I have spoken. He was left to fulfil a divine promise made concerning him, that he should tarry on earth until Christ came in his glory. Modern revelation confirms the ancient tradition that John the Apostle did not die, but in a semi-immortal state remained, after his brethren had been taken, to play a notable part in the Lord's great work of the Latter Days. An attempt was made upon his life, but it was ineffectual. Thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil, he escaped by miracle, and was banished to the Isle of Patmos, condemned by man, but approved of God, who opened to him the heavens and showed him things that would be thereafter. John thus testifies: *An address delivered from radio station K F P T, Salt Lake City, Utah, Sunday evening, January 4, 192 5. Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as second class matter. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 2, 1918, $2 per annum. Address Room 406, Church Office Building, Salt Lake City, Utah.

3M i IMPROVEMENT ERA The Vision on Patmos "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 God, and give glory to him: for the hour of his judgment is come * * * "And there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen * * * "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. "For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remem- bered her iniquities." — Rev. 14:6-8; 18:4, 5. Then follow allusions to the first and second resurrections (the former at the beginning, the latter at the end of Christ's Millennial reign) supplemented by these sublime words: "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away: and there was found no place for them. "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works." — Rev. 20:11-13. Thus far the revelation of St. John, otherwise known as the Apocalypse. "Mocmonism" the Fulfilment "Mormonism," so-called, claims to be the fulfilment, or the beginning of the fulfilment of these inspired predictions. It is not a new religion. It did not have its origin in the nineteenth century. It proclaims itself the Everlasting Gospel, restored to earth after an absence of ages, as foreseen by John the Revelator in his great vision. Christ's apostles preached this same gospel, but they did not originate it. It was a restored gospel then, as it is a restored gospel now. Then it was the faith of the despised "Christians;" now it is the religion of the unpopular "Mormons." The Gospel Dispensations The Everlasting Gospel, instituted in the heavens before this earth was formed, has been revealed to man in a series of dispensa- tions, extending like a mighty chain from the morning of creation down to the present time. Adam, to whom the gospel was given after his expulsion from Eden, had a promise from the Lord that it

THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL 315 should be in the world from the beginning unto the end thereof; and that promise has been fulfilled through a series of restorations or dispensations, of which this is the greatest and the last — the dispensa- tion of the fulness of times. The Gathering of Israel The gospel's restoration in this age of the world has for its pur- pose the gathering of scattered Israel and the bringing together of all things in Christ, thus winding up the work of the Almighty as per- taining to this planet. "Come out of her, my people," is the slogan of Israel's gathering. God's people must not be in Babylon when she falls. Israel must be gathered, because it is the God of Israel who is coming to reign; and they are the people who have the right to receive him and to prepare the way before him. It is through the house of Israel that the Lord blesses all nations, according to his cove- nant with Abraham. Christ will come first to Zion, the New Jeru- salem, a glorious and sacred city yet to be built upon the North Amer- ican continent — which, with South America, constitutes the Land of Zion. Here most of the tribes of Israel will assemble to greet their God and King. But the children of Judah, who are even now migrat- ing to Palestine, will rebuild the Old Jerusalem, and there receive him whom their forefathers rejected. They will recognize in the crucified, glorified Nazarene the long-looked for Messiah of their nation's hope. Ephraim the First Born The Latter-day Saints, called out from the nations to "build up Zion", claim lineal descent from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the pro- genitors of the House of Israel. It is their belief that they have sprung from Joseph who was sold into Egypt, and whose descendants, through Ephraim, "mixed" themselves "among the people," as the Prophet Hosea declares (7:8); — an allusion, no doubt, to the Assyrian cap- tivity, which began about 721 B. C. It devolved upon the house of Ephraim to lift the "Ensign" for the gathering of the Lord's peo- ple, as foretold by the Prophet Isaiah (11:12). Thus Ephraim is God's "first born," the first branch of the Israelitish tree to bear gospel fruit in modern times — the first to be "born again." Joseph Smith, who founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a rallying center for "the outcasts of Israel," was a descendant of Ephraim, and as such he was divinely appointed to begin the work of the gathering. The Savior's Second Coming The glorious advent of the Messiah will usher in the Millenium, the reign of universal peace, and with it will come the morning of the first resurrection. The righteous who have slept in the grave will come forth, and those remaining on earth who are worthy will be caught up to meet him. The Millennial reign, during which Satan will be

3 1 6 IMPROVEMENT ERA bound, is to sanctify the earth and prepare it for glorification. Through a baptism of fire, it will be renewed and converted into a celestial sphere, that beings of a celestial order may inherit it. How know we that such events are on the wing — that these are indeed the latter days, and that the Savior's second coming is near? We know it by divine revelation, ancient and modern. The Book with Seven Seals John the Revelator beheld in vision a book that was sealed with seven seals, and no one could break the seals and open the book excepting the Son of God, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. When he had broken the first seal certain events took place, and when he had broken the second seal other events followed; and so on until the seventh. Joseph Smith's Interpretation Joseph Smith says that this book is a record of "the revealed will, mysteries, and works of God, the hidden things of his economy concerning this earth, during the seven thousand years of its con- tinuance or its temporal existence"; the first seal representing the things of the first thousand years, the second seal the things of the second thousand years, and so on. He also declares that in the begin- ning of the seventh thousand years the Lord God will sanctify the earth and complete the salvation of man;" and that the sounding of the trumpets of the seven angels, also mentioned by John, is "the preparing and finishing of the Lord's work in the beginning of the seventh thousand years — the preparing of the way before the time of his coming." The World's Real History In other words, that book contains the real history of this world — what the eye of God has seen, what the recording angel has written. Human history, as written by man, is full of errors, the fruit of ignorance, of prejudice (for or against), and oftentimes of sheer malice. Men make history in more ways than one. "What is his- tory," says Napoleon, "but what we agree it shall be?" This cannot be said of the book that John saw. It contains no lies, no flatteries, no slanders, no false deductions. It is "The Book of Life," as life has actually been lived, and men will have to meet it at the Judgment Day. Seven Great Days The seven thousand years corresponding to the seven seals of the Apocalyptic volume, are as seven great days, during which Mother Earth will fulfil her mortal mission, laboring six days and resting upon the seventh. These seven great days do not include the period of our planet's creation and preparation as a dwelling place for man. They are limited to earth's "temporal existence," preceding her

THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL 317 spiritual exaltation. They represent Time, considered as distinct from Eternity, which really includes Time. According to Kolob Joseph Smith explains that these great days are "after the time" or according to the reckoning of Kolob, a mighty governing planet nearest the Celestial Throne, a planet revolving once in a thousand years. This period is a day upon Kolob. One might well suppose such a day to have figured in the warning given to Adam: "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;" for Adam, after eating of the forbidden fruit (though spiritually dead from the hour of his transgression until the gospel redeemed him) , lived on in the flesh, to the age of nine hundred and thirty years. The Apostle Peter may have had the same thing in mind when he wrote: "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." The Saturday Evening of Time At all events, according to received chronology — admittedly imperfect, yet approximately correct — four thousand years, or four of the seven great days given to this planet as the period of its continu- ance in a temporal condition, had passed before Christ was crucified; while nearly two thousand years, or two more of those great days have gone by since. Consequently, earth's long week is drawing to a close, and we stand at the present moment in the Saturday evening of Time, at or near the end of the sixth day of human history. Morn- ing will break upon the Millennium, the thousand years of peace, the Sabbath of the world. Purification in Progress Marvel not, my hearers, that all things are in commotion. The hour of God's judgment is at hand. War, famine, pestilence, earth- quake, tempest and tidal wave — these are among the predicted signs of the Savior's second coming. Tyranny and wickedness must be overthrown, and the way prepared for him who, though gracious and merciful to all, and forgiving to sinners who repent, "cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance." Earth must be freed from all oppression and cleansed from all iniquity. It is God's house; he is coming to live in it, and to make of it a glorified mansion. The world is in its Saturday night; house-cleaning is in progress; and the work of purification must be done and out of the way before the Lord of the Sabbath appears. False Doctrines Shattered John's revelation made plain the solemn fact that all men will be judged according to their works. But when Joseph Smith came forth it was being widely taught that men were either predestined to be saved or predestined to be damned, regardless of any good or evil

3 1 8 IMPROVEMENT ERA done by them. Even innocent babes, according to the theology of that day, were consigned to endless torment unless they had been baptized. Such men as Plato, Aristotle, Homer, Virgil, the best and brightest spirits of their times, were lost, because they had not belonged to the Christian Church — a Church that did not then exist! Joseph Smith denounced these doctrines as man-made and not heaven-inspired. Said he in substance: No man is predestined to be saved, and no man is predestined to be damned. Men are free moral agents, having the right of choice between good and evil. How else could a righteous judgment be passed upon them? They will be judged according to their works, and rewarded according to their merits. As for little children, they need no baptism. Baptism is foi the remission of sins, and little children are sinless. They are redeemed by the blood of Christ, as decreed from the foundation of the world The Gospel's Requirements Grown up, responsible men and women stand upon quite an* other plane. They must yield obedience to the gospel — must have faith in God, must repent of their sins, must be baptized by immersion for the remission of sins, and receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands of those having divine authority to so officiate. They who pass away without an opportunity to embrace the gospel in this life, will have an opportunity to do so in the life to come. "For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according tc God in the spirit.'.' — I Peter 4:6. The Old Seems New In putting forth these doctrines, Joseph Smith was but reaffirm- ing what ancient prophets and apostles had spoken. He was preaching "Mormonism"; but "Mormonism," as I have already shown, is not a new religion. It is as old as eternity, out of which it came. It was not a new doctrine, that men are to be judged according to their works; that infant innocence, though unbaptized, is fit for the presence of him who said, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." There was nothing new in the doctrine that the gospel is preached to the dead; but it seemed new to Joseph Smith's generation. In like manner the gospel of Christ seemed a new thing to the Jews, who "were astonished at the doctrine" of the world's Redeemer. What Jesus Taught "In my Father's house there are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye may be also." To whom was Jesus speaking when he uttered those wonderful words? Not to all the world. It was to his disciples, those who had faith in

THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL 319 him, who had repented of their sins, who had buried their sins in the liquid grave, and had received the gift of the Holy Ghost, which maketh manifest the things of God. They were the ones to whom he said: "I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am thercye may be also." And that particular place was but one of the "many mansions" of the Father. Paul's Teaching Paul the Apostle refers to "celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial." He declares that "there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars," and as "one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead." (I Cor. 15:40, 41.) What is this but an equivalent of what Jesus taught, and what his servants Paul and John afterwards proclaimed — that men will be judged and rewarded according to their works? All Kingdoms Have a Law Given The Prophet Joseph Smith, through whom the ancient gospel was restored early in the nineteenth century, in a wonderfully clear and comprehensive presentation amplifies and explains the same great doctrine. He declares that the glorified planets are God's kingdoms; that to each of them a law is given; and that whosoever inherits any one of those kingdoms, must abide the law pertaining to that king- dom— whether it be celestial, terrestrial or telestial. The Three Glories They who inherit celestial glory are they who receive the gospel while on earth and are valiant for it, and endure faithful to the end. All things are theirs; they constitute the nobility of heaven; and are the Church of the First Born. They who inherit terrestrial glory, which differs from the celes- tial as the moon differs from the sun, are they who receive not the gospel in the flesh, but afterwards receive it — they who believe and repent in the Spirit World, and whose sins are remitted and their souls illumined through vicarious work done for them in the temples of God on earth. Thus they are saved, but not in the highest degree of glory. Not being valiant for Christ, they win not the crown over the Kingdom of God. They receive that to which their works entitle them. And who are the inheritors of telestial glory? They are the wicked and impenitent, who are cast down to hell, where they are purged of their sins, and pay their debt to Justice, after which Mercy claims them, they are set free, and are given a glory greater than the finite mind can comprehend. They are as the twinkling stars, and shall be servants of the Most High; but where God and Christ dwell they can not come, worlds without end.

320 IMPROVEMENT ERA Repentance the Basis of Salxmtion All salvation is based upon repentance, and repentance is possible even in. the depths of hell. But if a soul cannot repent, it cannot be saved. Such cases, however, are comparatively few. They are the "sons of perdition." They sin against the Holy Ghost, after receiving and enjoying its powers, even to tasting of the glories of the worlds to come. They "deny the Son, after the Father has revealed him; wherefore, he saves all except them." — Doctrine and Covenants 76: 43, 44. Desires as Well as Deeds to be Judged God gives to men according to their desires, as manifested by their deeds, and as made plain to his omniscience and foreknowledge concerning them. Desires as well as deeds go to judgment. The Celestial Kingdom, the highest of all heavenly conditions, will be peopled not only by those who receive and live the gospel here, but also by those who would have received and lived it, had they been given the opportunity. So says Joseph Smith. "For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts." (History of the Church, Vol. 2, p. 380; Alma 29:4.) In other words, justice will be done, mercy will be shown, and none will be held accountable for opportunities that they never possessed. The Greatness of the Gospel We are not ashamed of these doctrines. They are the doctrines of Eternal Justice and of Divine Wisdom. They are the principles of the Everlasting Gospel, called "Christiariism" two thousand yaars ago, and re-nicknamed "Mormonism" in this dispensation. And this is only a part of it, hastily and imperfectly told. Many suppose it to be a small and narrow religion. Narrow, indeed! Then where will you find breadth? Where find justice, mercy, mag- nanimity, if not in a religion that saves the living, redeems the dead, rescues the damned, and glorifies all who repent, Small, forsooth! It is the biggest thing in the Universe, and I testify to its truth and divinity, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Just A Verse Care comes to everyone In spite of creed or class; Joy comes to all of us Then our cares must pass. Why, then, shun a brother When he makes known his need? For some time in our sorrow, He may prove a friend indeed. Sandy, Utah. JACK EGBERT.