The Judge of All the Earth has Done Right

Reflections on Doctrine and Covenants Section 76 (Part 5)

In case any of my readers wonder why I continue to study and share the word of God as contained in the Doctrine and Covenants, please allow me to explain.

Recently I visited with two young missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one from Mexico and the other from Arizona. They are great young men, servants of the Lord. They shared a message from the Doctrine and Covenants that I would also like to share with you.

As he assisted the Prophet Joseph Smith in his work of translating the Book of Mormon, Oliver Cowdery desired to be endowed with the gift of translation. In essence, he desired to understand and transmit revelations from the Lord. The Lord blessed Oliver Cowdery and answered his supplication. The Lord revealed to him that revelation comes by the power of the Holy Ghost, and the Lord taught him how to recognize and respond to revelation. The missionaries shared these verses that I now share with you:

Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.

Now, behold, this is the spirit of revelation; behold, this is the spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground. (D&C 8:2-3)

As I was studying the Book of Mormon this morning, I read a related verse that also helps to explain my reasons for studying and sharing the word of God. When Alma the Younger embarked upon a mission to lead souls unto Jesus Christ, Mormon explained why Alma the Younger preached the word of God:

And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God. (Alma 31:5)

Like Alma the Younger, and like the young missionaries with whom I visited recently, I think that it is expedient to try the virtue of the word of God. The word of God is the Spirit of Revelation, the same Spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground. The word of God has a great tendency to lead us to do that which is just. The word of God has a more powerful effect upon our minds than anything else, including the sword.

This is why I study and share the word of God as contained in the Doctrine and Covenants: because it leads us to repentance, to Jesus Christ, to salvation, and to eternal life.

In previous posts I outlined the historical background for Doctrine and Covenants Section 76, began to study the introduction and early verses in the same section, reviewed the vision of the sufferings of the ungodly, and described the resurrection of the just. In this post, let’s continue our study of Doctrine and Covenants Section 76.

And again, we saw the terrestrial world, and behold and lo, these are they who are of the terrestrial, whose glory differs from that of the church of the Firstborn who have received the fulness of the Father, even as that of the moon differs from the sun in the firmament.

Behold, these are they who died without law;

And also they who are the spirits of men kept in prison, whom the Son visited, and preached the gospel unto them, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh;

Who received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it.

These are they who are honorable men of the earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men.

These are they who receive of his glory, but not of his fulness.

These are they who receive of the presence of the Son, but not of the fulness of the Father.

Wherefore, they are bodies terrestrial, and not bodies celestial, and differ in glory as the moon differs from the sun.

These are they who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus; wherefore, they obtain not the crown over the kingdom of our God.

And now this is the end of the vision which we saw of the terrestrial, that the Lord commanded us to write while we were yet in the Spirit. (D&C 76:71-80)

Our goal is to rise in the Resurrection of the Just and enter into the Celestial Kingdom of God. However, in the life to come, not all will receive the same glory. The ungodly sons of perdition shall go away into everlasting punishment, and the righteous who comply with the Celestial law shall dwell in the presence of God and his Christ forever and ever. But what is the eternal destiny for the rest of God’s children, those who are neither ungodly sons of perdition on the one hard or persons who are willing to live the Celestial law on the other hand? The answer is found in these verses and in the rest of D&C 76.

The glory of the terrestrial world differs from that of the glory of the Celestial world, just as the glory of the moon differs from the glory of the sun. This portion of D&C 76 describes the characteristics of those who will inherit the terrestrial kingdom of God. These are good and even honorable people who fall short of the greater, Celestial glory, for a variety of reasons, such as being blinded by the craftiness of men, and failing to be valiant in the testimony of Jesus.

This is the Prophet Joseph Smith’s poetic rendering of this part of the vision:

Again, I beheld the terrestrial world,
In the order and glory of Jesus go on;
'Twas not as the church of the first-born of God,
But shone in its place, as the moon to the sun,

Behold, these are they that have died without law;
The heathen of ages that never had hope,
And those of the region and shadow of death,
The spirits in prison, that light has brought up.

To spirits in prison the Saviour once preach'd,
And taught them the gospel, with powers afresh;
And then were the living baptiz'd for their dead,
That they might be judg'd as if men in the flesh.

These are they that are hon'rable men of the earth;
Who were blinded and dup'd by the cunning of men;
They receiv'd not the truth of the Saviour at first;
But did, when they heard it in prison again.

Not valiant for truth, they obtain'd not the crown,
But are of that glory that's typ'd by the moon:
They are they, that come into the presence of Christ,
But not to the fulness of God on his throne.

Regarding these verses, Smith and Sjodahl write:

7. Vision of the Terrestrial World.

71. - 80. Another grand scene is now presented. The seers have been given a view of the celestial world and have learned that those who have accepted the gospel in this world, and remained faithful, and all who have lived before the restoration of the gospel and would have accepted it, had they heard it; also those who live now in ignorance of the gospel and who would gladly believe, if they had an opportunity of hearing it; and, finally, all infants who die before the age of accountability, will have an inheritance in the celestial kingdom. But what about those who have heard the gospel and rejected it, and yet have remained morally upright men and women? What about those who have passed away, and those who live, in ignorance of the truth, and who would not have accepted it here, even if they had heard it? These questions are answered in this vision. There is a terrestrial, as well as a celestial world. There is the glory of the moon, as well as of the sun, and they will be partakers of this lesser glory.

71. Terrestrial world] This glory differs from that inherited by the members of the Church of the Firstborn; and yet it is, undoubtedly, all that those who inherit it can endure.

72. -

73. Spirits of men kept in prison] This has reference not only to those who rejected the teachings of Noah and others before the flood, but also all those who in like manner refused to receive the message of salvation when living from the beginning to the time of Christ. In the spirit world they accepted the “testimony of Jesus,” and repented of their sin of rejection. This class is composed of those who were clean in their lives, “honorable men who were blinded by the craftiness of men.” Because they rejected the message when living on the earth but afterwards received it they are awarded with a place in the terrestrial kingdom. The same reward will be given to honorable men since the restoration of the Gospel, who refused to receive it, as well as to those who lived before the crucifixion of our Savior.

74. -

75. -

76. - 78. Receive of his glory *** They are bodies terrestrial] Because they were honorable men, free from lying, adultery and kindred sins, they will receive of the Savior’s glory. In other words they will be entitled to visits from the Son, but not from the Father. They do not “obtain a crown of the kingdom of our God.”

79. They who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus] This is another class which will be composed of those assigned to the terrestrial kingdom. These are members of the Church who have had the gift of the Holy Ghost, many of whom have filled missions and in other ways have been active in the Church, but they have not endured in faithfulness, or have not been valiant to the end. This class could not be composed of those who had never been in the Church, for no one outside of the Church could be valiant in the testimony of Jesus, for they have not had the gift of the Holy Ghost. (See John 14:17 and I. Cor. 12:3.)

“Are we all magnifying our calling? No; we are not! We have indeed a sort of skeleton fixed up; but I think sometimes it needs flesh on the bones and the breath of life, the Spirit of the Living God breathed into it. We need to realize the position we occupy and the duties devolving upon us. We see this in almost everything around us associated with the Church and kingdom of God. While many men are diligent and their whole hearts are engaged in the work of God, there are a great many astride of the fence *** And yet they are High Priests, and Seventies and Elders. What will be the condition of such? We are told that ‘Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name and in Thy name have cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works?’ Yet to all such he will say: ‘Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.’ You say that means the outsiders? No; if they do anything, it is done in the name of themselves or of the devil. Sometimes they will do things in the name of God; but it is simply an act of blasphemy. This means you, Latter-day Saints, who heal the sick, cast out devils and do many wonderful things in the name of Jesus. And yet how many we see among this people of this class, that become careless, and treat lightly the ordinances of God’s house and the Priesthood of the Son of God; yet they think they are going by and by, to slide into the kingdom of God; but I will tell you unless they are righteous and keep their covenants they will never go there. Hear it, ye Latter-day Saints! Hear it, ye Seventies and ye High Priests! Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap. *** You have the Priesthood, and if you do not magnify that Priesthood, God will require it at your hands. He expects us all to be alive and energetic, honoring our callings, our Priesthood and our God; for he expects it of all of us. Now here it, for as sure as God lives it will be so. *** If you aim at a celestial glory you must have a celestial spirit and be governed by it. You must be honest, virtuous and benevolent; you must be men full of the Holy Ghost, magnifying your Priesthood, if you would obtain an entrance into the kingdom of God.” - President John Taylor, Salt Lake Stake Conference, January 6, 1879.

80. Write while *** yet in the spirit] The Lord commanded the seers to write this and the previous vision, while they were yet “in the spirit;” that is, while the vision of their spirits was yet unobstructed by their outward senses. This proves that, although they were in a condition of ecstasy, they had full control of all their faculties. They were not in a trance, which is described as a condition in which voluntary movement is suspended and all evidence of mental activity removed. They were, still less, in an epileptic condition. They had full control of all their faculties, and deception was impossible, for both heard the same words and saw the same vision, and the record was made while the impression was still deep on their minds. The reality of these visions is, therefore, fully attested.

    Speaking of the departed ones, President Brigham Young (Jour. of Dis., Vol. III., p. 95) makes the statement that the spirits of the righteous and those of the ungodly, all go to “prison” after death. If the word “prison” is used as a synonym for hades, the statement is perfectly correct, for hades is understood to be the domain of all the dead. But the righteous and the unrighteous are, of course, not in the same locality in that domain. President Young also explains that the wicked, after death, are unhappy, while the righteous dead have passed beyond the reach of the adversary and are resting in peace until the morning of the resurrection, and this makes it clear that he did not mean to say that all the departed spirits are in the same place or the same condition.

    The prison into which the antediluvians who perished in the flood were cast is the same place where the spirits of men all through the ages have gone. The Lord said to Enoch: “But behold, these which thine eyes are upon shall perish in the floods; and behold, I will shut them up; a prison have I prepared for them. And That which I have chosen hath plead before my face, wherefore, he suffereth for their sins; inasmuch as they will repent in the day that my Chosen shall return unto me, and until that day they shall be in torment.” (Moses 7:38-39.) Alma tells us that the righteous are received in a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, but those who have done evil are “cast out into outer darkness” where they are in a state of “awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them.” - (Alma 40:12-14.)

    “If we accept the record of St. Peter’s speeches in the Acts as a true record, and compare the assured clearness and freedom of his teaching there with his imperfect insight into the character of our Lord’s work during the whole period of His ministry prior to the resurrection, we can scarcely fail to see in the interpretation of His words, ‘Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell,’ the first fruits of the method of prophetic interpretation which he had learned from our Lord Himself when He expounded to His disciples the things that were written concerning Himself in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luke 24:44) (Cambridge Bible, Note on I. Peter 3:19).

    St. Peter, then, had heard from Christ Himself of His descent into hades, the visit to the “prison,” and the preaching of the gospel there. (pp. 461-464)

Monte S. Nyman’s commentary on these verses in his Doctrine and Covenants Commentary, Vol. 2 It Came from God, is also instructive and I commend it to your attention.

The revelation in D&C 76 continues:

And again, we saw the glory of the telestial, which glory is that of the lesser, even as the glory of the stars differs from that of the glory of the moon in the firmament.

These are they who received not the gospel of Christ, neither the testimony of Jesus.

These are they who deny not the Holy Spirit.

These are they who are thrust down to hell.

These are they who shall not be redeemed from the devil until the last resurrection, until the Lord, even Christ the Lamb, shall have finished his work.

These are they who receive not of his fulness in the eternal world, but of the Holy Spirit through the ministration of the terrestrial;

And the terrestrial through the ministration of the celestial.

And also the telestial receive it of the administering of angels who are appointed to minister for them, or who are appointed to be ministering spirits for them; for they shall be heirs of salvation. (D&C 76:81-88)

The telestial kingdom is the lowest kingdom of glory, likened to the glory of the stars, in comparison to the glory of the moon (terrestrial) and the glory of the sun (Celestial). These verses describe the characteristics of those who inherit the telestial kingdom. Both the Father and the Son minister to souls in the Celestial Kingdom, whereas only the Son ministers to souls in the terrestrial kingdom, and only the Holy Ghost ministers to souls in the telestial kingdom. In the Celestial Kingdom of God dwell those who receive both the testimony of Jesus and His Gospel. In the terrestrial kingdom dwell those who were good men and women but were not valiant in the testimony of Jesus. In the telestial kingdom dwell those who received neither the Gospel of Christ or the testimony of Jesus.

This is the Prophet Joseph Smith’s poetic rendering of this part of the vision:

Again, I beheld the telestial, as third,
The lesser, or starry world, next in its place,
For the leaven must leaven three measures of meal,
And every knee bow that is subject to grace.

These are they that receiv'd not the gospel of Christ,
Or evidence, either, that he ever was;
As the stars are all diff'rent in glory and light,
So differs the glory of these by the laws.

These are they that deny not the spirit of God,
But are thrust down to hell, with the devil, for sins,
As hypocrites, liars, whoremongers and thieves,
And stay 'till the last resurrection begins.

'Till the Lamb shall have finish'd the work he begun;
Shall have trodden the winepress in fury alone.
And overcome all by the pow'r of his might:
He conquers to conquer, and saves all his own.

These are they that receive not a fulness of light,
From Christ, in eternity's world, where they are,
The terrestial sends them the Comforter, though,
And minist'ring angels, to happify there.

And so the telestial is minister'd to,
By ministers from the terrestrial one,
As terrestrial is, from the celestial throne;
And the great, greater, greatest, seem's stars, moon, and sun.

Regarding these verses, Smith and Sjodahl write:

8. Vision of Telestial Glory.

81. - 88. Again there is a change of scene. A lesser glory than the terrestrial passes before the view of the seers. When the gospel had been preached on both sides of the veil, and those who have accepted it are gathered into celestial, or terrestrial, spheres, there still remains a large class, consisting of those who have not received the gospel, and yet not committed the unpardonable sin of denying the Holy Spirit. What will be their fate? And who are they? Form them there is the telestial glory.

82. Received not the gospel] They did not receive the gospel here; nor the testimony of Jesus on the other side of the veil.

83. Deny not the Holy Spirit] But they had not denied the Holy Spirit, because they had never known His power, or tasted of the heavenly gift; they had never been “enlightened” by baptism in water and spirit.

84. Thrust down to hell] Those who partake of the telestial kingdom are the unclean inhabitants of the earth; those who have defiled themselves with immoral practices, the liars, sorcerers, thieves, blasphemers, and all who have loved wickedness. Because of their evil practices they bring down upon themselves the wrath of God. These are turned over to Satan and become subject to his rule and suffer his buffetings until the day of the earth, or their redemption which is the resurrection which will not come until the end of the earth, or the “fulness of times,” or when our Savior has finished his work; then they shall be brought forth after they have paid the “uttermost farthing,” and have learned by the things they have suffered that “crime does not pay.”

85. The last resurrection] This will take place after the Millennial reign of our Lord. Then they will be “redeemed,” that is, resurrected: for, “the resurrection of the dead is the redemption of the soul” (Sec. 88:16).

86. Receive not of his fulness] As those of the terrestrial kingdom do not receive a fulness of the glory of the Father, so these do not receive a fulness of the glory of either the Father or the Son. They will, however, receive of the Holy Spirit. The celestials are admitted to the presence of the Father and the Son; the terrestrials, only to the presence of the Son; and the telestials, only to the presence of the Holy Spirit, and that divine presence will be manifested only through the ministry of terrestrial beings, and through angels appointed to minister in the telestial world (v. 88).

87. The terrestrial through the *** celestial] The meaning seems to be that whatever glory is given to those of the terrestrial world comes from God, though the celestial world, and it reaches the telestial world from the terrestrial. It is all one kingdom under one supreme Ruler, but the conditions of those who inhabit it are as different as here indicated.

88. Shall be heirs of salvation] Those of telestial glory are also heirs of salvation, but their glory is that of the stars, contrasted with that of the moon and sun.

    Can anybody who has been thrust down to hell be an “heir of salvation?” yes. (v. 88) Hell must deliver up its dead (Rev. 20:13) and they are to be judged according to their works. The Lord calls this a kingdom of glory, and therefore it is a kingdom of salvation as they are freed from the devil and his angels in the final resurrection. Salvation is condition of degree. The inhabitants of this kingdom do not get what is called an exaltation, for this blessing is reserved for those who become heirs of the celestial kingdom. Those who enter the telestial kingdom are judged at death and thrust down to hell. They receive their final judgment at the last day.

    “How much does it take to prepare a man or woman, or any other being, to become angels to the devil, to suffer with him to all eternity? Just as much as it does to prepare a man to go into the celestial kingdom, into the presence of the Father and the Son, and to be made an heir to His kingdom and all his glory, and be crowned with crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives” (Brigham Young, Jour. of Dis., Vol. III., p. 93). (pp. 464-466)

I love the Prophet Joseph Smith’s testimony regarding the wise judgments of God and the varying degrees of glory:

“… While one portion of the human race is judging and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard; He views them as His offspring, and without any of those contracted feelings that influence the children of men, causes ‘His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.’ [Matthew 5:45.]

He holds the reins of judgment in His hands; He is a wise Lawgiver, and will judge all men, not according to the narrow, contracted notions of men, but, ‘according to the deeds done in the body whether they be good or evil,’ or whether these deeds were done in England, America, Spain, Turkey, or India. He will judge them, ‘not according to what they have not, but according to what they have’; those who have lived without law, will be judged without law, and those who have a law, will be judged by that law.

We need not doubt the wisdom and intelligence of the Great Jehovah; He will award judgment or mercy to all nations according to their several deserts, their means of obtaining intelligence, the laws by which they are governed, the facilities afforded them of obtaining correct information, and His inscrutable designs in relation to the human family; and when the designs of God shall be made manifest, and the curtain of futurity be withdrawn, we shall all of us eventually have to confess that the Judge of all the earth has done right [see Genesis 18:25].”⁶