Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate/Volume 3/Number 6/Commentary on 1st Peter 4:6

For, for this cause was the gospel preached to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.—FIRST PETER, 4th: 6th.

To the apostle who penned these words for our instruction; were committed the keys of the kingdom, altho' he was a fisherman by occupation previously to his being chosen and ordained by his divine Master to proclaim that gospel for which he eventually suffered martyrdom. He accompanied the Savior during his travels and public ministry, almost constantly. He witnessed his transfiguration on the mount, saw and heard him converse with Moses and Elias. He had seen the mighty works which he did while he tabernacled with men in the flesh. He had heard him converse with the Pharisees, Sadducees, and lawyers, and knew that the wisdom and the power of the living God were manifest in all his words and deeds, therefore, he could testify boldly of what he had seen and heard.

There was another consideration which gave boldness and confidence to the apostle whose words we have quoted as a foundation to the remarks we intend to make.

Before he suffered, he said to his disciples, If I go away I will send the comforter, and he shall lead you into all truth, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have told you; and from this promise being so fully verified, Peter taught, boldly and understandingly, that gospel, a dispensation of which had been committed to him. He taught the things he knew and spake of those he had seen. He not only taught those who listened to his instructions, the principles of the gospel by precept but by example, enforcing the whole with the most pointed arguments drawn from the scriptures, in which the Jews as a body most implicitly believed, but the whole course of his instruction after the ascension of the Saviour [Savior] seemed fraught with that wisdom, that power and that authority, that most clearly evinced the divine authenticity of his mission, and enabled him to teach "as one having authority and not as the scribes."

In the words we have quoted he appears to magnify his office by exalting and honoring the character of God, when he judges men, and if he did no [t] answer queries that had arisen and been agitated in his day, he seems clearly to have anticipated what would arise in ours; therefore, "for this cause (said he) was the gospel preached to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh."

This course of instruction seemed to be the more important from the fact that the inventive faculties of man, backed by all the suggestions of the adversary, are ever watching for an opportunity to bring the word of God and his cause into disrepute. But our heavenly Father so ordered it, that all will be left without excuse at the great assize, so that "he will be justified when he speaks and clear when he judges." He has done so upon the principles of reason and of justice. He has not acted the part of a tyrant and doomed men to perdition who never had an opportunity of learning his will concerning them. Some of our readers may think this an unwarrantable assertion, but we think such a sentiment is the legitimate influence of the primises laid down by the Savior himself in his address to his disciples as given us in John's testimony 15th chapter 22, 23 and 24th verses. We come now more directly to an interrogatory that has often been reiterated in our ears; what has become of those who have died since the prophets and apostles fell asleep, till the conferring of the priesthood and the coming forth of the gospel in these last days? Are they all lost? We answer no, we unhesitatingly and unequivocally answer no. Was the gospel preached to them?-No. Were they baptized for the remission of their sins? again we answer no, for the very good reason that since that period, till the renewal of the covenant and the restoration of the priesthood, no one was authorized to do it. Then are not thousands of souls lost, who have come into the world and died since the days of the apostles? Here we would ask in our turn if the inhabitants living on the earth in the 18th century, were blameable because there was not an inspired man upon it, one who had the authority of the Holy priesthood? certainly not, then it follows of necessity they could not be justly condemned, for not yielding obedience to that authority. How then are they to be made happy, having not the true gospel? Let the word of God decide. We now ask is God impartial?

Most assuyredl? [assuredly] If he have no other scheme of saving mankind but the gospel, and there are myriads of them who have never heard it preached, will a just, wise, impartial and benevolent being condemn them? He will be justified when he speaks and clear when he judges. Here would seem to be a discrepancy, the word of God has not been generally understood or he must be perfectly holy, just and good to all the workmanship of his hands.

Here, then, lies the main difficulty If it be a point sustained by the word of God, that all who do not have, or have not had, the privilege of embracing or rejecting the gospel here in the flesh, have that privilege in God's own time before the judgment day; thne [then] will the character of God be vindicated. What says our text, for, for this cause was the gospel preached to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh.

Again, we find this idea more fully supported in the preceding chapter of the same epistle from which our text is taken, at the 18th, 19th and 20th verses: "For Christ 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 to 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, &c." Here are the words of inspiration that the antediluvians had the offer of life, eternal life and salvation, and that too, some thousands of years since they had fallen asleep.

But we have no evidence that the Lord will be thus compassionate to those who have the gospel preached to them here in the flesh, and reject it. -Hence said the Savior, if I had not come among you and done the work that none other ever did do, ye had not had sin, but now ye have no cloak for your sins; thus plainly intimating that they would be left without excuse in the day of judgment. We may also justly infer that they would have excuse, and that, too, founded upon reason and justice, if they were to be condemned for non-compliance with a law, rule or commandment, when such law, rule or commandment, never was made known to them. We believe in the justice, mercy and goodness of God, and in the harmony of all his attributes, that not a soul will be saved in the celestial kingdom of God except upon the gospel plan which he has devised. We feel also assured, that he will condemn no one until he hears, and refuses to obey the mandates of heaven. We believe that at the grand assizes, all will be left without excuse, and that "God will be justified when he speaks and clear when he judges."

We are assured from our own observation and experience that the God of the universe is not a man, that he should lie, or the son of man that he should repent; we feel that he is the same yesterday, to-day and forever, and changes not; that those who love and obey him, will be received with this pleasing plaudit, well done good and faithful servant, &c; while the unthankful, unholy, and disobedient shall be excluded from the presence and the joys of the righteous. Ed.