The Final Judgment ______
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Teachings Concerning The Final Judgment _______________ General Statement Russell M. Nelson Another unchanging principle, brothers and sisters, is that of your eventual judgment. Each of you will be judged according to your individual works and the desires of your hearts (see D&C 137:9). You will not be required to pay the debt of any other. Your eventual placement in the celestial, terrestrial, or telestial kingdom will not be determined by chance. The Lord has prescribed unchanging requirements for each. You can know what the scriptures teach, and pattern your lives accordingly (see John 14:2; 1 Cor. 15:40–41; D&C 76:50–119; D&C 98:18). [“Constancy amid Change,” Ensign, Nov. 1993, p. 35] There Are Many “Days of Judgments” inheritance. At that time the wicked among men are consumed as stubble, their bodies become dust again, Bruce R. McConkie and their spirits are consigned to an eternal hell to await In all ages, from Adam to this hour, the holy the day of the resurrection of damnation. At that time prophets have taught the true doctrine of the judgment. those mortals who are worthy escape the burning, abide They have always set forth those concepts and verities the day, and remain on the new earth with its new that would encourage men to live in such a manner as to heavens in the presence of earth’s new King. gain the glorious reward of eternal life when their day Then, in the final day, when all is done and and time came to stand before the Eternal Bar. The hour accomplished according to the divine purpose – after all of judgment is not the same for every man. Some are men, the sons of perdition included, have risen from judged at one time and others at a different hour. There death to life and have become immortal – all men will are, in fact, many days of judgment available, but always stand before the bar of God in a final day of judgment. the same Judge sits at the same judgment bar, always the The eventual destiny of all men will have been same laws govern the procedures, and always a just and determined before that day, but then the final and right judgment is imposed. irrevocable decrees will be issued as pertaining to every Our birth into mortality is a day of judgment in that living soul. (The Millennial Messiah, p.515) it signalizes we were found worthy while in the premortal life to undergo a mortal probation and thus to continue on the course leading to eternal life. There are There Shall Be a Final Judgment those who press forward along this course during this mortal probation – with a steadfastness in Christ, having 3 Nephi 26 a perfect love of God and of all men, keeping the 4 And even unto the great and last day, when all commandments, and doing only those things that please people, and all kindreds, and all nations and tongues their Lord – until they are translated and taken up into shall stand before God, to be judged of their works, heaven, or until their calling and election is made sure. whether they be good or whether they be evil-- Either of these glorious eventualities is in itself a day of judgment. Their celestial inheritance is thus assured, D&C 19 though they have not yet gained bodies of immortal 3 Retaining all power, even to the destroying of glory. Death also is a day of judgment when the spirits of Satan and his works at the end of the world, and the last men go to either paradise or hell as their deeds warrant. great day of judgment, which I shall pass upon the The second coming of Christ is the great day of inhabitants thereof, judging every man according to his judgment for all men, both the living and the dead. In it works and the deeds which he hath done. those who qualify come forth in the resurrection of the just and obtain their rewards in the kingdoms established D&C 38 for them. At that time the decree goes forth that the rest 5 But behold, the residue of the wicked have I kept of the dead shall remain in their graves to await the in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day, resurrection of the unjust and their consequent telestial which shall come at the end of the earth; Ezra Taft Benson confess Jesus is the Christ. (Philippians 2:10-11.) No I testify that not many years hence the earth will be mortals will be standing that day. Those who were cleansed. (See D&C 76:41.) Jesus the Christ will come cruelly used by the adversary will see that awful reality. again, this time in power and great glory to vanquish His Nephi said the unrepentant guilty would “remember foes and to rule and reign on the earth. (See D&C [their] awful guilt in perfectness, and be constrained to 43:26–33.) In due time all men will gain a resurrection exclaim: Holy, holy are thy judgments, O Lord God and then will face the Master in a final judgment. (See 2 Almighty – but I know my guilt; I transgressed thy law, Ne. 9:15, 41.) God will give rewards to each according and my transgressions are mine; and the devil hath to the deeds done in the flesh. (See Alma 5:15.) [“I obtained me, that I am a prey to his awful misery.” (2 Testify,” Ensign, Nov. 1988, p. 87] Nephi 9:46.) Jesus, who purchased us and who owns us, will require this owning up. They who transgressed Marion G. Romney divine law will openly admit that their transgressions are I know, of course, as each of you know that we shall their own and cannot be laid at someone else’s door. die; that our bodies shall return to the earth whence they In writing of this event that really will be, the apostle came; that our spirits shall return to the spirit world; that John described how “the kings of the earth, and the great by reason of Christ’s victory over the grave all of us will men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the be resurrected and as immortal souls stand before the mighty men. hid themselves in the dens and in the judgment bar of the great Jehovah; and that there we rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and shall be assigned that degree of glory the laws of which rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that we have obeyed while in mortality. (“The Way of Life,” sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.” Ensign, May 1976, p. 81) (Revelation 6:15-16.) This is high drama. This is a final confrontation with the ultimate reality, the living God. Joseph B. Wirthlin On that dramatic day there can be no saving swagger At some future day, you and I will each hear the – no panache. On that day there can be no grievance with voice of the Lord calling us forward to render an account God that can be advanced at all. In that scene described of our mortal stewardship. This accounting will occur by John and Alma, those whose grievance with God and when we are called up to “stand before [the Lord] at the his gospel was that his gospel was too plain and too great and judgment day”(2 Ne. 9:22). simple will be simply speechless. Each day on this earth is but a small part of eternity. The living scriptures will have been before us. The day of resurrection and final judgment will surely Living prophets’ words will have previously penetrated come for each one of us. every culture and every clime. Goethe said that Then our Father in Heaven’s great and noble heart “architecture is frozen music,” and the scriptures are the will be saddened for those of His children who, because preserved moral music of the universe that God kept they chose evil, will be cast out, unworthy to return to repeating for mankind over the centuries. His presence. But He will welcome with loving arms and The promised day of judgment will come, and all with indescribable joy those who have chosen to be “true men will be left “without excuse.” (D&C 101:93; to the truth.” Righteous living, combined with the grace Romans 1:20.) All individuals will receive “according to of the Atonement, will qualify us to stand before Him their works, according to the desire of their hearts.” with clean hearts and clear consciences. (“True to the (JS-V 1:9.) The justice and mercy of God will have Truth,” Ensign, May 1997, p. 16) combined so that by then all inhabitants of the earth will have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ sufficiently to be fully accountable for it. Even those who died without Judgment Day that opportunity will by then have heard the gospel “that Will Be the Moment of Truth they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” (JFS-V 1:34, 59.) Neal A. Maxwell What President Joseph F. Smith saw was just what Peter The judgment day is one of the things that really will saw much earlier when he wrote of the preaching of the be. The “future shock” of that judgment and the events gospel “to them that are dead, that they might be judged to precede it will be without parallel.