n out,
compared, and stated in general terms, seem to us to be as
follows: "You suppose that in the last day your Messiah will
restore the dead to live again upon the earth. I am the Messiah,
and the last days have therefore arrived. I am commissioned by the
Father to bestow eternal life upon all who believe on me; but not
in the manner you have anticipated. The true resurrection is not
calling the body from the tomb, but opening the fountains of
eternal life in the soul. I am come to open the spiritual world to
your faith. He that believeth in me and keepeth my commandments
has passed from death unto life, become conscious that though
seemingly he passes into the grave, yet really he shall live with
God forever. The true resurrection is, to come into the experience
of the truth that 'God is not the God of the dead, but of the
living; for all live unto him.' Over the soul that is filled with
such an experience, death has no power. Verily, I say unto, you,
the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead, the ignorant and
guilty, buried in trespasses and sins, shall hear these truths
declared, and they that believe shall lay hold of the life thus
offered and be blessed. The Father hath given me authority to
execute judgment, that is, to lay down the principles by which men
shall be judged according to their deserts. All mankind shall be
judged in the spiritual state by the spirit and precepts of my
religion as veritably as if in their graves the generations of the
dead heard my voice and came forth, the good to blessedness, the
evil to misery. The judgment which is, as it were, committed unto
me, is not really committed unto me, but unto the truth which I
declare; for of mine own self I can do nothing." We believe this
paraphrase expresses the essential meaning of Christ's own
declarations concerning a resurrection and an associated judgment.
Coming to bring from the Father authenticated tidings of
immortality, and to reveal the laws of the Divine judgment,
he declared that those who believed and kept his words were
delivered from the terror of death, and, knowing that an endless
life of blessedness was awaiting them, immediately entered upon
its experience. He did not teach the doctrine of a bodily
restoration, but said, "In the resurrection," that is, in the
spiritual state succeeding death, "they neither marry nor are
given in marriage, but are as the angels of heaven."

He did not teach the doctrine of a temporary sl