Chapter 14—"How Long Will You Be Unclean?"
Jewish rabbis believed three classes of people exist: (1) the righteous who are made perfect, written and sealed to eternal life; (2) the perfectly wicked, who are written and sealed to Gehenna; and (3) an intermediate class who go to Gehinnom, moan, and come up again. Our station is determined by our choices. Ultimately, we choose to persevere toward righteousness or remain polluted.
I say unto you, the kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God; wherefore there must needs be a place of filthiness prepared for that which is filthy. (1 Nephi 15:34)Those who choose righteousness will be exalted as mountains, but those who exalt themselves will be brought low in the valley of Gehenna, the destination of the wicked, a “burning place” (Isaiah 30:33, ESV) for those who continually rebel against God. While at times the word is used synonymously with hell, Hitchcock’s Dictionary says Gehenna (hinnom) means ‘their riches’ that they seek and trust. By implication, Gehinnom is the pit, and Gehenna the bottomless pit.
Gehinnom (Hinnom) is also the name of a valley near Jerusalem where the children of Israel engaged in serious idolatry. “They have built pagan shrines at Topheth, the garbage dump in the valley of Ben Hinnom, and there they burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I have never commanded such a horrible deed!” (Jeremiah 7:31, NLT).
Garbage and bodies of convicted criminals were burned at Hinnom. The temple of Baal eventually became a literal “refuse dump” (2 Kings 10:28, NASB), the ultimate place of filthiness and pollution. Today’s generation is not without guilt. Nibley lamented, “Quite literally, the net contribution of our present society to the history of the world will be a pile of garbage—and that very ugly garbage.”
Over time a perpetual fire that consumed the debris or waste became a symbol of hell’s always-burning “fire that never shall be quenched” (Mark 9:45). Jesus taught, “Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Matthew 10:28, WEB). Jesus asked the ruling priests, “You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?” (Matthew 23:33, WEB). People today are also “a generation of vipers . . . [who] shall not escape the damnation of hell. Behold mine eyes see and know all their works, and I have in reserve a swift judgment in the season . . . for them all” (D&C 121:23–24).
That covenant makers are called “serpents” or “offspring of vipers” is serious. God described Satan as the “old serpent, even the devil who rebelled against God” and sought to usurp “the kingdom of our God and his Christ” (D&C 76:28). The condemned become “devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God and to remain with the father of lies” (2 Nephi 9:9). Proselyting a perverse gospel creates “offspring” of Satan, religious hypocrites who, with their converts, ironically have enmity to God’s plan. On the outside they appear holy and “righteous but on the inside [they] are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matthew 23:28, NIV). Outward devotion masks the natural man that rules their spirit.
Everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whoever shall say to his brother ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of the fire of Gehenna. (Matthew 5:22, WEB)Raca means empty, worthless, contemptible, or good for nothing. It is significant that Belial, a personification of evil, also means worthless. All who reject the righteous or believe their divine message is worthless (or evil) will be cast out as a “useless servant into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30, NLT). Should we think we are not at risk, we are reminded, “Those for whom the Kingdom was prepared will be thrown into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12, NLT).
Covenants intended to bestow eternal life will bring penalties and spiritual death if made in vain. “They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant” (Hosea 10:4). Saying but not doing is iniquity of the tongue, which “defiles the entire body . . . and is set on fire by hell” (James 3:6, NASB). A tormented sinner begged to “cool my tongue” from hell’s fire (Luke 16:24). Saying, but not doing, condemns us because doing what we say we will do is a mark of godliness.
Only genuine repentance and strict obedience deliver us from hell’s torment. “Many have believed and become the sons of God, and many have believed not and have perished in their sins, and are looking forth with fear, in torment, for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God to be poured out upon them . . . Until that day [that they repent] they shall be in torment” (Moses 7:1, 39). Deeply tormented that his misplaced zeal and unbelief had led people astray, Alma agonized as he went through hell.
When I heard the words—If thou wilt be destroyed of thyself, seek no more to destroy the church of God—I was struck with such great fear and amazement lest perhaps I should be destroyed, that I fell to the earth and I did hear no more. But I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins. Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments. Yea, and I had murdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction; yea, and in fine so great had been my iniquities, that the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror.
Oh, thought I, that I could be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my deeds. And now, for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul. (Alma 36:11–16)A hard heart is only softened by His word. “Is not my word like fire? declares the Lord, like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29, NIV). “The gospel was the apostolic hammer for breaking hard hearts in pieces, for producing repentance unto life” as a once “stony heart” becomes a “heart of flesh.”
If our hearts have been hardened, yea, if we have hardened our hearts against the word, insomuch that it has not been found in us, then will our state be awful, for then we shall be condemned.
For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence. (Alma 12:13–14)Many are called to come to the Lord, but few walk up to their covenants to do so. “There has been a day of calling but the time has come for a day of choosing; and let those be chosen that are worthy . . . [and] sanctified” (D&C 105:35–36). We are not chosen or sanctified without a divine spiritual transformation. “There are many who have been ordained among you, whom I have called but few of them are chosen” (D&C 95:5).
Why are they not chosen? Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson—that the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness . . . We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. Hence many are called, but few are chosen. (D&C 121:34–36, 39–40)The beauty of the Lord’s atoning work is that a truly repentant sinner need not remain tormented a moment longer than is needful. Continuing to describe his experience, Alma explained,
As I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death. And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more. And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain! (Alma 36:17–20)By using words like ‘memory,’ ‘my mind caught hold,’ and ‘I remembered,’ Alma implies that hell’s torment resides in our mind. Joseph taught the same: “The great misery of departed spirits in the world of spirits, where they go after death, is to know that they come short of the glory that others enjoy and that they might have enjoyed themselves, and they are their own accusers.”
A man is his own tormenter and his own condemner . . . The torment of disappointment in the mind of man is as exquisite as a lake burning with fire and brimstone.Peter described “a great lake, full of flaming mire, in which were certain men that pervert righteousness” (Apocalypse of Peter 1:22). Now knowing that their fate is justified, the torment increases as they realize “all the unclean wickedness of their errors, wherewith they have filled the earth with transgression and uncleanness and fornication and sin” (Jubilees 9:15). Enoch warned,
Do not err in your hearts or lie, or alter the words of truth, or falsify the words of the Holy One, or give praise to your errors. For it is not to righteousness that all your lies and all your error lead, but to great sin. (1 Enoch 104:9)Once he turned to God, Alma escaped “the darkest abyss” to “behold the marvelous light of God” (Mosiah 27:29). Our minds “must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss” to receive eternal life. “Thou must commune with God.”
If we are unfaithful or disinterested in what God reveals, we “degenerate from God . . . descend to the devil, and lose knowledge, and without knowledge, we cannot be saved.” Those who believe there is no longer a need or personal “right to receive revelations . . . are not the people of God.” They “cannot escape the damnation of hell” because “salvation cannot come without revelation.” And “what is the damnation of hell? To go with that society who have not obeyed His commands.” Hell is realizing our choices must keep us separated from God.
Do ye suppose that ye shall dwell with him under a consciousness of your guilt? Do ye suppose that ye could be happy to dwell with that holy Being when your souls are racked with a consciousness of guilt that ye have ever abused his laws?
Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell. For behold, when ye shall be brought to see your nakedness before God, and also the glory of God, and the holiness of Jesus Christ, it will kindle a flame of unquenchable fire upon you. (Mormon 9:3–5)Having experienced hell firsthand, Alma declared, “I wish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great anxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins, and not procrastinate the day of your repentance” (Alma 13:27).
Holy prophets relentlessly exhort us to not delay our repentance. “Harden not your hearts any longer. For behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation . . . For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God” (Alma 34:31–32).
Mortality offers mankind the power “to act according to their wills and pleasures,” for good or evil (Alma 12:31). “Wherefore, if ye have sought to do wickedly in the days of your probation, then ye are found unclean before the judgment-seat of God; and no unclean thing can dwell with God. Wherefore, ye must be cast off forever” (1 Nephi 10:21). Without a mortal probation, men would be “miserable forever, having no preparatory state, and thus the plan of redemption would have been frustrated, and the word of God would have been void, taking none effect” (Alma 12:26). And so,
[a] Christian should so live to be ready to renounce the prince of this world at any time and betake himself back to the Lord—the Lord having sworn by His glory that after a certain set day . . . on this earth, salvation would be impossible.When the day of repentance comes to its end, what could have been a holy nation became a place of filth and sin. And what is sin? “Sin is waste. It is doing one thing when you should be doing another and better things for which you have the capacity.” Misery will come to all who build their city by sin or iniquity. The Dead Sea Scrolls interpretation of this verse is that it “concerns those who misdirect Ephraim with their fraudulent teaching and lying tongue and perfidious lip[s].” It refers to “the city of Ephraim, those looking for easy interpretation in the final days since they walk in treachery and lies.”
Woe to this filthy, polluted, and oppressive city! It won’t obey anyone. It won’t accept discipline. It does not trust in the Lord. It does not approach God. Its national officials are roaring lions; its judges are like wolves of the night that don’t leave the bones for the morning. Its prophets are arrogant and treacherous. Its priests have contaminated the sanctuary. They give perverse interpretations of the Law. (Zephaniah 3:1–4, ISV)In 1868 Heber Kimball prophesied, “The Gentiles will gather by the thousands to this place, and Salt Lake City will be classed among the wicked cities of the world.” They “call themselves of the holy city but they do not stay themselves upon the God of Israel” (1 Nephi 20:2). The LDS were warned, “Our enemies . . . would like to see society in Utah polluted and their civilization introduced; but it would be a woeful day for the God of Israel if such efforts were to be successful.”
O ye wicked and ye perverse generation; ye hardened and ye stiffnecked people, how long will ye suppose that the Lord will suffer you? Yea, how long will ye suffer yourselves to be led by foolish and blind guides? Yea, how long will ye choose darkness rather than light? Yea, behold, the anger of the Lord is already kindled against you. (Helaman 13:29–30)“How long will ye imagine mischief?” (Psalm 62:3) “How long will ye judge unjustly and accept . . . the wicked?” (Psalm 82:2). “How long will you be unclean?” (Jeremiah 13:27, NIV). “How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me?” (Numbers 14:11). “How long will you people turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?” (Psalm 4:2, NIV).
As ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.
For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil and he doth seal you his. Therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked. (Alma 34:33, 35)
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