D&C 76:71-75
From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.
Doctrine & Covenants > Section 76
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Questions
- What does whether one died without law (verse 72) or received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh (verse 74) have to do with what kingdom someone will inherit?
Lexical notes
- The phrase without law is also used in Romans 2:12 (as noted in the footnote). In Romans 2:12-15 without law is used to mean without knowledge of the commandments.
Exegesis
Verses 71 to 79 describes the vision Joseph Smith and Sidney Ridgdon had of the telestial kingdom. The phrase "these are they" is repeated throughout these verses to introduce each description of the people here. This is similar to verses 50-70 where "they are they" and then "these are they" is repeated throughout to introduce each description of the people in the celestial kingdom. In the description of the people in the celestial kingdom, each description seems to apply to everyone in the celestial kingdom and only to those in the celestial kingdom. In this way each description is self-contained. For example from verse 62 we get the idea that all of those in the celestial kingdom will dwell in the presence of God and Christ forever and that if we don't go to the celestial kingdom we won't be in their presence forever.
But, if we read verse 72 by itself as something that applies to everyone in the terrestrial kingdom and only applies to those in the terrestrial kingdom, we would come to the understanding that everyone who dies without the law would go to the terrestrial kingdom. But we know this is not the case from other scriptures. One of the footnotes points us to D&C 137:7-10. There the Lord makes it clear that those who die without the law because they did not have the chance to receive it, but would have received it had they been given the chance will go to the celestial kingdom.
If instead we read "these are they" as a partial description these verses make sense. Reading verses 71 to 74 together we see that those in the terrestrial kingdom are those who died without the law, whose spirits were kept in prison after death, who Christ visited and preached to there, who did not receive the testimony of Jesus in this life but received it after they died. D&C 138:32 makes the explicit distinction between those in spirit prison because they never had a chance to receive the gospel and those who rejected it. We read "received not" in verse 74 as a description of this latter group. Verse 75 then sums it up by saying that these people were "honorable" but "blinded by the craftiness of men." This doesn't apply to those people who simply never had the opportunity to accept the gospel.
Related links
Verses 71-80
- See "Middle Ground or No-Man's Land?" by LXXLuthor at the FPR blog for a speculative discussion about docrtine regarding the terrestrial kingdom.
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