Salvation for the Dead

1 Corinthians 15:29.

I wonder, really, what translators think when they hit this passage. The clear similarity between NIV and KJV indicates their academic honesty over time (though a retranslation of my own would be more convincing, I'll admit ;). There is a lot that the Bible doesn't clarify or expand on, and this is one of those facts. (Another is “In my Father's house are many mansions” along with the varying “reward in heaven” individuals receive discussed elsewhere in the New Testament.)

So, what is this little gem? A passing mention? A passage clearly denouncing the reality of the resurrection? (No. Seriously. I have been told that to my face by a .) This passage is, throughout, strongly advocating the reality of the resurrection.

Having more information helps make sense out of this. First of all, Christ says that one must be baptized in order to enter the Kingdom of God. How, then, is God just and fair (in any sense) if someone who has never even heard of Christ is condemned by that fact to never enter heaven?

Resolution of these tidbits came in January of 1836 in Kirtland, Ohio. Joseph Smith was given a vision (recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants (of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) as section 137) in which he saw several aspects of heaven, from the gate, the throne, the streets (“which had the appearance of being paved with gold” v.4, note they're not actually gold), to the people that are there. This included Adam and Abraham, naturally, but also Joseph's parents and long-deceased brother Alvin. Here is the highest degree of heaven that has a very clear admission requirements, yet here is Alvin, who was never baptized. This made Joseph curious.

The Lord then informs us that yes, indeed, the dead can be redeemed. Any who would have received the gospel of Christ in its totality had it been presented to them are candidates for this degree of glory—that is, to live with God in His presence and be joint-heirs with Christ. (Notably He also notes that young children who die are also there.)

This is a very merciful and peaceful idea. The peace that passeth understanding that comes because of faith in Christ is not limited to the minority who have even heard of Christ in history; beyond death the Lord makes provision for those who have not heard to hear, learn, and accept if they so choose so that “they might be judged according to men the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” I feel this lends a completeness to my view of the universe that is otherwise lacking.

(I've never heard the question of salvation for the young and the ignorant squared with quite so rigorously in any other Christian theology. I've knocked a lot of doors and had many discussions, and this came up once in a while.)

Title Origin

It might be useful to know why I named my blog "artifacts." See, I'm fond of fractals. These are incredibly complex mathematical entities which are most easily studied empirically by means of computers. However, in making the necessary approximations, inaccuracies appear. They are often dead, uniform spaces that obscure some vital point whose details are too fine for the machine's precision to render. These are called artifacts of the process or algorithm, and the mathematical process that generates them is yet another degree more complex.

Life is like that. We're all individuals, and we each have to approximate some things. Often we gloss over really important stuff.

This blog is to reflect this eclectic nature of the world.

BYU Library Special Collections Visit

Lateness is (pretty much) never a virtue. This is the case with the Special Collections visit my class just made. See, BYU has a number of rather valuable and irreplaceable items. These are housed in the Special Collections section of the library, which enterprising professors teaching relevant classes can schedule visits to. Frankly, I missed the first half hour of class. That's really sad, since when I walked in I had missed all of the explanations.

It was really quite amazing. The librarian had a host of items out for us to inspect. He showed us a cuneform tablet (that apparently contained a beer brewer's inventory). Those are neat; apparently a palace north of Israel was burned down during a civilization's fall and a whole shlew of them was preserved. Linguistically, this is notable because it was quite some time before this particular language had been cracked. I think the Rosetta stone was involved. This palace, it was discovered, if that talk on CD is to be trusted, was the center of a kingdom named Ebla...that had been mere legend to date. Syria is keeping a lid on that, though, since the translations started talking about Abram and Melchi-zedek... Naturally, our distinguished lector didn't know where this tablet was from, but it was really neat to see a real live hardened clay cuneform tablet. That's Old.

I digress. This really is just a stream of consciousness ramble. I really want to do these properly. I showed up expecting a tour and got a lecture with really really cool visual aids. I was unable to take notes.

There was a really cool later-1800s era printed book with a ripply-looking paper glued to the inside of the 'boards.' I got to read something on the process this entailed. That must have been a collector book like he said, because each sheet had to be carefully dipped in phases in an oil-based paint.

Seeing the old Bibles was amazing. The intricate designs, the gold leaf inlays, elaborate text decorations, and other details were fascinating. Bookmaking was as much art as it was a science or trade. Some of the documents, as I recall, were even Palimpsests and had been examined with multi-spectral photography to reconstruct the old writing. (Palimpsests are documents that have been erased to provide writing space for more-important-at-the-time writings, e.g. Aristotle would be erased in favor of copying the Bible.)

So, visiting this part of the library was rather curious. They even had a first-run Book of Mormon we got to see. (I say 'see' because the trained student walked around and flipped through it so we could all see it.) The oldest of the old—cuneform—was sitting in the same room as almost-new print-and-bound books from the late 1800s.

Suffer.

Suffering hurts.

I've been metaphorically kicked in the head by a girl. I've bombed tests. Walking tends to cause me some pain. I've been racked by a failure or oversight that hurt someone. I've been left hanging because I was too stupid to catch the clues that someone didn't care.

Is suffering bad?

Not necessarily. Indeed, I posit that it is unconditionally not. What meaning and 'bad'ness is attached to suffering? From a religious perspective, one can be drawn to the polar view that God rewards goodness with peace and bliss, while He rewards evil with pain and suffering. Psalms 34:19 indicates quite the contrary: we have His promise of support and peace through afflictions as well as eventual deliverance from them in His time. In a revelation given to the prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord states that even the worst, darkest, and most horrific times in our lives are used by the Lord to give us experience and bring good to both us and others. My mother's experiences with cancer have enabled her to sympathize with several of her friends who have since gotten cancer.

I don't know about you, but when I'm burdened or worried, my prayers become a bit more sincere and a bit more frequent. I try to be as sincere and as regular in prayer as I can, but a sincere desire really helps. One question I had once really humbled me. When I prayed I needed the answer, so I would express to the Lord what I wanted to know and then wait for an answer. Often none came, but I was listening. When members of the congregation would speak, the Spirit of God would softly bring reassurance and light to my mind regarding my question.

Meaning is key to understanding suffering. If I had decided that that girl telling me in no uncertain terms to leave her alone was a sign from God that I had sinned horribly, I would have spent a great deal of time wasted in self-searching and self-doubt. Instead, I took from it a rich set of experiences (read: mistakes) that I could learn from. I spent time searching myself for what I had done wrong and came away with a much better understanding of who I am in the dating scene. What is a guy to a girl? Excellent question. All I've got is a rough heuristic, but through that suffering I actually have one now. (On a side note, this was in part an answer to my longstanding plea to be more socially well-adjusted.)

On the other hand, I do not doubt that God sometimes uses sickness or other suffering as punishment. King Herod of the New Testament, the Egyptians of the Old Testament, Zeezrom of the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith in modern holy writ all stand out as examples of direct punishment via suffering. King Herod and the story of Moses in Egypt are, presumably familiar to you; Zeezrom was a lawyer who led an effort to destroy prophets of God in his land and was so racked with guilt once he believed that he nearly died, and Joseph Smith lost a portion of the Book of Mormon manuscript and feared for his soul over the matter.

The difference, in the end, is only knowable through direct, personal revelation. As one reads the scriptures and makes right choices, one's ability to receive and follow promptings increases. This is the standard by which suffering is to be discerned; this is the way God helps us grow.