“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:

“By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;

“Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering 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).

“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).

Many lessons can be taken from these remarkable words written by Peter.  The one on which I would like to focus is the fact that the dead are not dead.  That is, those who have passed on have left mortality, but are in a different sphere where they continue to think, act, and interact, only without their physical bodies for a time.

All people don't believe this.  Contrariwise Jehovah's Witnesses instead focus on a verse in Ecclesiastes which says “ ...the dead know not any thing ...”  (Ecc. 9:5).  They claim that the dead cease to exist until the resurrection.

Solomon presumably wrote the book as he reflected on the transitory or fleeting nature of things of this world.  He was not making “theological pronouncements on the condition of the soul after death,” but was rather observing “how things appear to men on the earth.”  (Bible Dictionary, pg. 631).

Are the dead conscious or unconscious souls?  Peter and Solomon might appear to be at odds in the matter.  They aren't, but if so, I would rather cast my lot with an apostle of the Lord.

My friend, Darlene, joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Subsequently her husband became a Jehovah's Witness.  It was a difficult situation.  Ultimately her husband became ill and incapacitated.  He couldn't so much as talk.  She cared for him, and prayed that his deceased mother would come for him.  One day as she entered his room, he said, “Where is she?”  Darlene was confused until she remembered her request that his mother come for him.  “Who?” she asked.  “Do you mean your mother?”

As Darlene told this story she said, “And then he glared at me as if to say, 'How dare you be right, and I be wrong.'”  He died shortly thereafter.

I think, too, of Jesus' parable about the rich man and the beggar, Lazarus.  They both died.  Lazarus went to rest in Abraham's bosom.  The rich man lifted up his eyes in hell and saw Abraham and Lazarus, and begged Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his five living brothers of their inevitable fate if they didn't change their ways.

If the dead actually cease to exist until the resurrection, as Jehovah's Witnesses believe, why would Jesus have spoken this deceptive parable which indicates that the dead are living and thinking individuals?

What we have here is an example of Nephi's astute prophecy that in the latter day “there shall be many which shall teach … false and vain and foolish doctrines.”  (2 Nephi 28:9).

I love Nephi's word choices.  “False and vain and foolish” says it all.  And they're all around us.

Marjorie had a difficult time delivering her first baby.  She was given a priesthood blessing before going to the hospital which blessing said that she would deliver the baby normally.  The baby was big.  It was going to be a posterior delivery.  The doctor wanted to do a cesarean section.  Marjorie asked for an hour to work at having the baby.  She did that three times before she was finally able to have the baby naturally.

While she was in labor the nun who was being her nurse tried to put a medallion around her neck representing the patron saint of expectant mothers.  Marjorie waved her away.  She said, “I knew that I was going to have that baby, and I didn't want some old saint taking credit for it.”

The idea of Catholic saints interceding with the Lord on our behalf is a non-scriptural concept, and is an example of a “false and vain and foolish doctrine.”

Nearly every Christian Church takes exception with ours in the matter of our understanding of the Godhead.  They subscribe to the Athanasian and Nicene Creeds, which state that the Father and the Son are one unembodied, unknowable essence.

This is a widely-believed “false and vain and foolish doctrine.”

Bruce R. McConkie said in general conference, October 1971:

“There is no salvation in worshiping a false god.  It does not matter one particle how sincerely someone may believe that God is a golden calf, or that he is an immaterial, uncreated power that is in all things; the worship of such a being or concept has no saving power.  Men may believe with all their souls that images or powers or laws are God, but no amount of devotion to these concepts will ever give the power that leads to immortality and eternal life.

“If a man worships a cow or a crocodile, he can gain any reward that cows and crocodiles happen to be passing out this season.

“If he worships the laws of the universe or the forces of nature, no doubt the earth will continue to spin, the sun to shine, and the rains to fall on the just and on the unjust.

“But if he worships the true and living God, in spirit and in truth, then God Almighty will pour out his Spirit upon him, and he will have power to raise the dead, move mountains, entertain angels, and walk in celestial streets.”  (The Ensign, December 1971, 129).

Those who insist upon holding fast to their “false and vain and foolish doctrines” are, as Jude says, “clouds … without water … (and) trees … without fruit.”  (Jude 1:12).

Peter calls them “wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest,” (2 Peter 2:17) and “willingly ignorant.”  (2 Peter 3:5).

There are lots and lots of willingly ignorant people around us.  We are anxious to dispel their ignorance and to share the truth with them, but their ears are often shut, and their eyes are often closed.

Galileo may have said it best as he tried to open the eyes of his inquisitors who steadfastly believed that the sun and the universe rotated around the earth rather than vice versa.

He said, “I wish that we might laugh at the remarkable stupidity of the common herd.  What do you have to say about the principal philosophers of this academy who are filled with the stubbornness of an asp and do not want to look at either the planets, the moon or the telescope, even though I have freely and deliberately offered them the opportunity a thousand times?  Truly, just as the asp stops its ears, so do these philosophers shut their eyes to the light of truth.”

Many are the man-made organizations which say that the Latter-day Saints will have no place in heaven because they're all going the other way.  Most organizations have their doors closed to one or more groups of people because of their race, beliefs, ethnicity, or other factors.  For example, the Athanasian Creed closes with these words:  “This is the catholic faith, which except a man believe truly and firmly, he cannot be saved.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on the other hand, is the most inclusive of any religion or church in the world.  “We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.”  (Articles of Faith, 3).

God be praised for His restoration of those laws and ordinances in our day.  We have so much to be thankful for, and so much to share.