Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
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Commentary & Explanation
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Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
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SECTION 138
A vision, given to President Joseph F. Smith in Salt Lake City, Utah, on
October 3, 1918. In his opening address at the eighty-ninth Semiannual
General Conference of the Church, on October 4, 1918, President Smith
declared that he had received several divine communications during the
previous months. One of these, concerning the Savior's visit to the spirits
of the dead while his body was in the tomb, he had received the previous day.
It was written immediately following the close of the conference; on October
31, 1918, it was submitted to the counselors in the First Presidency, the
Council of the Twelve, and the Patriarch, and it was unanimounsly accepted by
them.
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1—10, Preseident Joseph F. Smith ponders upon the writings of
Peter and our Lord's visit to the spirit world;
11—24, He sees the righteous dead assembled in paradise and Christ's
ministry among them;
25—37, How the preaching of the gospel was organized among the
spirits;
38—52, President Smith sees Adam, Eve, and many of the holy prophets in
the spirit world who considered their spirit state before their resurrection
as a bondage;
53—60, The righteous dead of this day continue their labors in the
world of spirits.
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D&C 138:1 ON the third of October, in the year
nineteen hundred and eighteen, I sat in my room apondering
over the scriptures;
D&C 138:2 And areflecting upon the great
batoning csacrifice that was made by the
Son of God, for the dredemption of the world;
D&C 138:3 And the great and wonderful alove made manifest
by the Father and the Son in the coming of the bRedeemer
into the world;
D&C 138:4 That through his aatonement, and by
bobedience to the principles of the gospel, mankind might
be saved.
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D&C 138:5 While I was thus engaged, my mind reverted to the writings of the
apostle Peter, to the aprimitive saints scattered abroad
throughout bPontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and the other
parts of Asia, where the gospel had been cpreached after
the crucifixion of the Lord.
D&C 138:6 I opened the Bible and read the third and fourth chapters of the
first epistle of aPeter, and as I read I was greatly
bimpressed, more than I had ever been before, with the
following passages:
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D&C 138:7 "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:
D&C 138:8 "By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in
aprison;
D&C 138:9 "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 by water." (1 Peter 3:18-20.)
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D&C 138:10 "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 4:6.)
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D&C 138:11 As I apondered over these things which are
bwritten, the ceyes of my
dunderstanding were opened, and the Spirit of the Lord
erested upon me, and I saw the hosts of the
fdead, both small and great.
D&C 138:12 And there were gathered together in one place an innumerable
company of the spirits of the ajust, who had been
bfaithful in the ctestimony of Jesus
while they lived in mortality;
D&C 138:13 And who had offered asacrifice in the
bsimilitude of the great sacrifice of the Son of God, and
had suffered ctribulation in their Redeemer's
dname.
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D&C 138:14 All these had departed the mortal life, firm in the
ahope of a glorious bresurrection,
through the cgrace of God the dFather and
his eOnly Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
D&C 138:15 I beheld that they were filled with ajoy and
gladness, and were rejoicing together because the day of their
bdeliverance was at hand.
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D&C 138:16 They were assembled awaiting the advent of the Son of God into the
aspirit world, to declare their
bredemption from the cbands of death.
D&C 138:17 Their sleeping adust was to be
brestored unto its cperfect
framea,
dbone to his bone, and the sinews and the flesh upon them,
the espirit and the body to be united never again to be
divided, that they might receive a fulness of fjoy.
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17a Their sleeping dust was to be
restored unto its perfect frame Often we spend to much time
worrying about 'nothing'. We take time to consider the bones of each man
being restored and coming together and the flesh coming back upon them. And
some even think to consider the manners of death suffered and the seeming
impossibility of restoring such things as has been burned or even
discenagrated into seemingly nothingness by various castostrophic events,
Rest assured all who have lived will be restored and resurrected. And as it
states here, even from the vary particles of dust will each and every one be
restored to their own perfect forms and frames. For the comfort of the
living we take much care in the burial of the dead body, but from the stand
point of the restoration of the resurrection, it will not matter to what
degree the very elements and atoms have been desolved into but dust. It will
be restored, each according to their own programmed structure and being, each
recognizable as to who they are and according first to how they body was
laid down and then on to that perfected form, it perfected form to that final
glory which it will recieve.
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D&C 138:18 While this vast multitude waited and conversed, rejoicing in the
hour of their adeliverance from the chains of death, the
Son of God appeared, declaring bliberty to the
ccaptives who had been faithful;
D&C 138:19 And there he apreached to them the everlasting
bgospel, the doctrine of the
cresurrection and the redemption of mankind from the
dfall, and from individual sins on conditions of
erepentance.
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D&C 138:20 But unto the awicked he did not go, and among
the ungodly and the unrepentant who had bdefiled themselves
while in the flesh, his voice was not raised;
D&C 138:21 Neither did the arebellious who rejected the
btestimonies and the warnings of the ancient
cprophets behold his dpresence, nor look
upon his face.
D&C 138:22 Where these were, adarkness reigned, but among
the righteous there was bpeace;
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D&C 138:23 And the saints rejoiced in their aredemption,
and bowed the bknee and acknowledged the Son of God as
their Redeemer and Deliverer from death and the cchains of
dhell.
D&C 138:24 Their countenances ashone, and the
bradiance from the presence of the Lord rested upon them,
and they csang praises unto his holy name.
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D&C 138:25 I marveled, for I understood that the Savior spent about three
years in his aministry among the Jews and those of the
house of Israel, endeavoring to bteach them the everlasting
gospel and call them unto repentance;
D&C 138:26 And yet, notwithstanding the mighty works, and miracles, and
proclamation of the truth, in great apower and authority,
there were but bfew who hearkened to his voice, and
rejoiced in his presence, and received salvation at his hands.
D&C 138:27 But his ministry among those who were dead was limited to the
abrief time intervening between the crucifixion and his
resurrection;
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D&C 138:28 And I wondered at the words of Peter—wherein he said that
the Son of God preached unto the aspirits in prison, who
sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the
days of Noah—and how it was possible for him to preach to those spirits
and perform the necessary labor among them in so short a time.
D&C 138:29 And as I wondered, my eyes were opened, and my understanding
aquickened, and I perceived that the Lord went not in
person among the bwicked and the disobedient who had
rejected the truth, to teach them;
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D&C 138:30 But behold, from among the righteous, he
aorganized his forces and appointed
bmessengers, cclothed with power and
authority, and dcommissioned them to go forth and carry the
light of the gospel to them that were in edarkness, even to
fall the spirits of men; and thus was the gospel preached
to the dead.
D&C 138:31 And the chosen messengers went forth to declare the
aacceptable day of the Lord and proclaim
bliberty to the captives who were bound, even unto all who
would crepent of their sins and receive the gospel.
D&C 138:32 Thus was the gospel preached to those who had
adied in their sins, without a bknowledge
of the truth, or in ctransgression, having
drejected the prophets.
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D&C 138:33 These were taught afaith in God, repentance from
sin, bvicarious baptism for the
cremission of sins, the dgift of the Holy
Ghost by the laying on of hands.
D&C 138:34 And all other principles of the gospel that were necessary for
them to know in order to qualify themselves that they might be
ajudged according to men in the flesh, but live according
to God in the spirit.
D&C 138:35 And so it was made known among the dead, both small and great, the
unrighteous as well as the faithful, that redemption had been wrought through
the asacrifice of the Son of God upon the
bcross.
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D&C 138:36 Thus was it made known that our Redeemer spent his time during his
sojourn in the world of aspirits, instructing and preparing
the faithful spirits of the bprophets who had testified of
him in the flesh;
D&C 138:37 That they might carry the message of redemption unto all the dead,
unto whom he could not go personally, because of their
arebellion and transgression, that they through the
ministration of his servants might also hear his words.
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D&C 138:38 Among the great and amighty ones who were
assembled in this vast congregation of the righteous were Father
bAdam, the cAncient of Days and father of
all,
D&C 138:39 And our glorious aMother bEve,
with many of her faithful cdaughters who had lived through
the ages and worshiped the true and living God.
D&C 138:40 aAbel, the first bmartyr, was
there, and his brother cSeth, one of the mighty ones, who
was in the express dimage of his father, Adam.
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D&C 138:41 aNoah, who gave warning of the flood;
bShem, the great chigh priest;
dAbraham, the father of the faithful;
eIsaac, fJacob, and Moses, the great
glaw-giver of Israel;
D&C 138:42 And aIsaiah, who declared by prophecy that the
Redeemer was anointed to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to
the bcaptives, and the opening of the
cprison to them that were bound, were also there.
D&C 138:43 Moreover, Ezekiel, who was shown in vision the great valley of
adry bones, which were to be bclothed
upon with flesh, to come forth again in the resurrection of the dead, living
souls;
D&C 138:44 Daniel, who foresaw and foretold the establishment of the
akingdom of God in the latter days, never again to be
destroyed nor given to other people;
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D&C 138:45 aElias, who was with Moses on the Mount of
Transfiguration;
D&C 138:46 And aMalachi, the prophet who testified of the
coming of bElijah—of whom also Moroni spake to the
Prophet Joseph Smith, declaring that he should come before the great and
dreadful cday of the Lord—were also there.
D&C 138:47 The Prophet Elijah was to plant in the ahearts
of the children the promises made to their fathers,
D&C 138:48 Foreshadowing the great work to be done in the
atemples of the Lord in the bdispensation
of the fulness of times, for the redemption of the dead, and the
csealing of the children to their parents, lest the whole
earth be smitten with a curse and utterly wasted at his coming.
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D&C 138:49 All these and many more, even the aprophets who
dwelt among the Nephites and btestified of the coming of
the Son of God, mingled in the vast assembly and waited for their
deliverance,
D&C 138:50 For the adead had looked upon the long absence
of their bspirits from their bodies as a
cbondage.
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D&C 138:51 These the Lord taught, and gave them apower to
come forth, after his resurrection from the dead, to enter into his Father's
kingdom, there to be crowned with bimmortality and eternal
life,
D&C 138:52 And continue thenceforth their labor as had been promised by the
Lord, and be partakers of all ablessings which were held in
reserve for them that love him.
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D&C 138:53 The Prophet Joseph Smith, and my father, Hyrum Smith, Brigham
Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and other choice
aspirits who were breserved to come forth
in the cfulness of times to take part in laying the
dfoundations of the great latter-day work,
D&C 138:54 Including the building of the atemples and the
performance of ordinances therein for the redemption of the
bdead, were also in the spirit world.
D&C 138:55 I observed that they were also among the anoble
and great ones who were bchosen in the beginning to be
rulers in the Church of God.
D&C 138:56 Even before they were born, they, with many others, received their
first alessons in the world of spirits and were
bprepared to come forth in the due ctime
of the Lord to labor in his dvineyard for the salvation of
the souls of men.
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D&C 138:57 I behold that the faithful aelders of this
dispensation, when they depart from mortal life, continue their labors in the
bpreaching of the cgospel of repentance
and redemption, through the sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, among
those who are in darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world of
the dspirits of the dead.
D&C 138:58 The dead who arepent will be redeemed, through
obedience to the bordinances of the house of God,
D&C 138:59 And after they have paid the apenalty of their
transgressions, and are bwashed clean, shall receive a
creward according to their dworks, for
they are heirs of salvation.
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D&C 138:60 Thus was the avision of the redemption of the
dead revealed to me, and I bear record, and I know that this
brecord is ctrue, through the blessing of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, even so. Amen.
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