pgs. 72 and 73...it must needs be an infinite atonement - save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption.

CHAPTER 9

Jews shall be gathered in all their lands of promise—Atonement ransoms man from the fall—The bodies of the dead shall come forth from the grave, and their spirits from hell and from paradise—They shall be judged—Atonement saves from death, hell, the devil, and endless torment—The righteous to be saved in the kingdom of God—Penalties for sins set forth—The Holy One of Israel is the keeper of the gate. Between 559 and 545 B.C.

1 And now, my beloved brethren, I have read these things that ye might know concerning the ^acovenants of the Lord that he has covenanted with all the house of Israel—

2 That he has spoken unto the Jews, by the mouth of his holy prophets, even from the beginning down, from generation to generation, until the time comes that they shall be ^arestored to the true church and fold of God; when they shall be ^bgathered home to the ^clands of their inheritance, and shall be established in all their lands of promise.

3 Behold, my beloved brethren, I speak unto you these things that ye may rejoice, and ^alift up your heads forever, because of the blessings which the Lord God shall bestow upon your children.

4 For I know that ye have searched much, many of you, to know of things to come; wherefore I know that ye know that our ^aflesh must waste away and die; nevertheless, in our ^bbodies we shall see God.

5 Yea, I know that ye know that in the body he shall show himself unto those at Jerusalem, from whence we came; for it is expedient that it should be among them; for it behooveth the great ^aCreator that he ^bsuffereth himself to become ^csubject unto man in the flesh, and ^ddie for ^eall men, that all men might become subject unto him.

6 For as ^adeath hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful ^bplan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of ^cresurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the ^dfall; and the fall came by reason of ^etransgression; and because man became fallen they were ^fcut off from the ^gpresence of the Lord.

7 Wherefore, it must needs be an ^ainfinite ^batonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the ^cfirst judgment which came upon man must needs have ^dremained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.

8 O the ^awisdom of God, his ^bmercy and ^cgrace! For behold, if the ^dflesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who ^efell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the ^fdevil, to rise no more.

9 And our spirits must have become ^alike unto him, and we become devils, ^bangels to a ^cdevil, to be ^dshut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of ^elies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who ^fbeguiled our first parents, who ^gtransformeth himself nigh unto an ^hangel of light, and ⁱstirreth up the children of men unto ^jsecret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness.

10 O how great the ^agoodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our ^bescape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, ^cdeath and ^dhell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit.

11 And because of the way of ^adeliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this ^bdeath, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave.

12 And this ^adeath of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is ^bhell; wherefore, death and hell must ^cdeliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its ^dcaptive ^espirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive ^fbodies, and the bodies and the ^gspirits of men will be ^hrestored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.

13 O how great the ^aplan of our God! For on the other hand, the ^bparadise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is ^crestored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and ^dimmortal, and they are living souls, having a ^eperfect ^fknowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect.

14 Wherefore, we shall have a ^aperfect ^bknowledge of all our ^cguilt, and our ^duncleanness, and our ^enakedness; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their ^frighteousness, being ^gclothed with ^hpurity, yea, even with the ⁱrobe of righteousness.


I read a commentary on this chapter that brought up a point I haven't considered before. The point was that those who read the Book of Mormon have an expanded knowledge of these Isaiah chapters that any who read the Bible would benefit from. I'm sure all Bible readers find the language in the book of Isaiah sort of hard to follow and would benefit from these chapters where Jacob is trying to explain Isaiah to his people. I would be fascinated to hear what a Bible Study group thought of these Book of Mormon chapters "overlap" with the Bible.


These next two quotes really sum up why death is important but why it would stop our eternal progress if the Atonement was not fulfilled.

“Death is just as important in the welfare of man as is birth. There is no greater blessing that can come than the blessing of birth. One third of the hosts of heaven, because of rebellion, were denied that privilege, and hence they have no bodies of flesh and bones, that great gift of God. “But who would like to live forever in this mundane world, filled with pain, decay, sorrow, and tribulation, and grow old and infirm and yet have to remain with all the vicissitudes of mortality? I think all of us would come to the conclusion, if that proposition were placed before us, that we would not like to have it. We would reject it. We would not want life of that nature. Life here in this world is short of necessity, and yet all that is required may be accomplished, but death is just as important in the plan of salvation as birth is. We have to die—it is essential—and death comes into the world ‘to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator.’” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:116).

“The fall brought death. That is not a desirable condition. We do not want to be banished from the presence of God. We do not want to be subject forever to mortal conditions. We do not want to die and have our bodies turn to dust, and the spirits that possess these bodies by right, turned over to the realm of Satan and become subject to him. “But that was the condition; and if Christ had not come as the atoning sacrifice, in demand of the law of justice, to repair or to atone or to redeem us from the condition that Adam found himself in, and that we find ourselves in; then mortal death would have come; the body would have gone back to the dust from where it came; the spirit would have gone into the realms of Satan’s domain, and have been subject to him forever” (Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:122).