SALVATION OF THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

“He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned.” Mark
xvi. 16. This is a declaration that came from the lips of Jesus, the Messiah. The declaration is so plain
that nothing could make it more so–so positive that nothing could make it more positive than those who
believed and were baptized were in a state of salvation. While, on the other hand, those who believed
not and were not baptized were shut out from God’s kingdom, and, therefore, were not in a state of
salvation, consequently damned. Christ says: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the
door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. He that
entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. And when he putteth forth his own sheep he
goeth before them, and the sheep follow him; for they know his voice.” John x. 1, 2, 4.

By this figure we understand that all men are out of the sheepfold, or place of safety, or salvation,
naturally; and that in order to get in they have to fellow the shepherd of the sheep, and he goes in
through the door. The same idea is carried out in the assertion of the Apostle, when he says, “The
scripture hath concluded all under sin, that it might have mercy upon all.” We understand also by this
that all men are in a lost or fallen state; that they are not natural heirs of salvation, but are made so by
adoption, the principles of which are revealed in the gospel. Then the gospel was given to save men, and
not to damn them, as many vainly suppose. But men being in a lost, fallen, or damned state, the gospel
was revealed to redeem and save men from that state.–Hence the Savior said: “He that believeth not
shall be damned.” But how long shall an unbelieving person be damned? The answer is, just so long as
he continues to be unbelieving. But can he ever be saved? Yes, just as soon as he believes and is
baptized he is an heir of salvation.

But if, as many suppose, the gospel damns men, as well as saves them, I think that every rational being
will say that it would have been far better for mankind if their great author had never instituted in this
world the law of the gospel. Why? Because not one person in a million of all the great Adamic family
have ever heard the gospel preached in the flesh; and of those who have, not one per¬son out of a
thousand have ever obeyed it. Consequently the great mass of mankind have gene to hell, simply
because of the gospel; and, according to the most popular theories of the age, must forever remain
there.

“That when they’ve been there

Ten thousand times ten thousand years,

Add to them all the leaves upon the trees,

And the sands upon the shore,

Then add to them ten thousand times ten thousand more,

The time is just begun.”

But, says one, the millions of which you speak that have never heard the gospel, and dying without law,
will be judged without law, and will be saved. Then I would ask, would it not have been better not to
have had the gospel preached at all to the thousand, and thereby had not only the one, but also the
nine hundred ninety and nine saved?

But I must confess that “I have not so learned Christ,” neither so understand the gospel, but have
understood that the gospel was given “that all men might come to the knowledge of the truth, and be
saved,” and not that the heathen should be saved because they did not hear the gospel; neither that
thousands should be damned because they did hear it. But I understand that all men are aliens and
foreigners to the household of faith; that no man is naturally by birth an heir of salvation, but that all
men alike are made heirs of salvation through obedience to the gospel; and that whenever a person
yields obedience to the gospel, he becomes an heir of salvation, whether it be to-morrow, next week,
next year, or fifty years from now, or whether it is done while he is living here in the flesh, or whether it
is done after he loaves the body, and goes into the world of spirits.

But, says one, I always understood that this life was a probation, a place to prepare for the life to come.
True it is that this life is a time to prepare for the life to come. Yet I presume that no person will say
there is no preparation after this life. For St. Paul tells us that “God will judge all men according to my
gospel.” Then how can God judge all men by the law of the gospel, and do it in righteousness? For it
certainly would be unrighteous to judge men by a law they knew not of. And I have before shown that
but a small part of mankind ever hear the gospel in the flesh. Peter says: “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 to God in the spirit.” 1 Peter iv. 6.

In fact, we find, while looking through the Old Testament, as well as the New, that the great work of
preaching the gospel and of salvation is to be carried on among the nations of the dead, as well as the
living. Even one portion of the great mission of Jesus Christ was to preach the gospel to the dead, or the
spirits of the dead in prison. For the prophet, speaking concerning him, says: “The spirit of the Lord God
is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me
to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them
that are bound.” Isa. lxi. 1.
And Peter records the fulfillment of the last clause, by saying “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by
the spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were
disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a
preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved.” 1 Peter iii. 18, 19, 20.

Here Peter not only tells when Christ done this, but tells who he preached to; that it was when he was
put to death in the flesh, [Page 130/718] while his body lay in the tomb; that then he went to the place
called prison, where the spirits of those who were swept off by the flood in the days of Noah were
preserved, and there preached to them the gospel. But for what purpose? To save them, of course. Not
to damn them. For they, like the living, are damned until they obey the gospel. But how shall they obey
the gospel? “For they go down to the pit wherein there is no water,” as one of the prophets says, for
them to be baptized in. The prophet Obadiah says that “saviors shall come upon mount Zion.” i. 21.
What is a savior? It is one that does for another what the other cannot do for himself. And that is, to be
baptized for one that is dead. For the dead can hear and believe, yet they cannot be baptized. But a
living friend can stand as proxy, and be baptized for and in behalf of the dead. Thus he becomes his
savior.

By this time I think we shall be able to understand what St. Paul meant when, after bringing up one
evidence after another in proof of the resurrection of the body, he finally hangs the subject on this one
point: “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they
then baptized for the dead?” 1 Cor. xv. 29. It had become an institution in the church to be baptized for
the dead, that they might come forth in the first resurrection. For Paul, in the same chapter, declares
those who were Christ’s at his coming should rise first from the grave.–And Paul continues the subject
by saying that Christ should continue to reign until all enemies are subdued. And John the Revelator
declares that the first resurrection takes place one thousand years before the last. And Paul and John
both agree that those who are Christ’s come forth in the first resurrection. But when the last
resurrection is brought to pass, we find by reading the account of it that many of them that come forth
at that time have their names written in the book of life. Hence we come to the conclusion that,
although peace is restored to the earth at the first resurrection, and the reconciliation of all the living is
accomplished, yet Christ continues his work among the dead, that he may finally reconcile, subdue and
put all enemies under his feet, and save all the work of his hands except those whose names are not
written in the book of life, who are the sons of perdition, who have once been enlightened and have
tasted the good word of life and the powers of the world to come, of whom Paul said, “it was impossible
to renew them again, they having crucified the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” Heb.
vi. 4, 5, 6.