"...no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom..."I taught a lesson in Relief Society recently that was based on Elder Christofferson's General Conference address given this last April (2013) entitled "Redemption." That talk had some very interesting footnotes in it and this scripture in 3 Nephi reminded me of one of them. (It is footnote #4 if you are interested in looking up the talk yourself.) It reads:
It is with respect to our own sins that the scriptures speak of some not receiving the benefit of redemption: “The wicked remain as though there had been no redemption made, except it be the loosing of the bands of death” (Alma 11:41). “He that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption” (Alma 34:16). If a man rejects the Savior’s Atonement, he must redeem his debt to justice himself. Jesus said, “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; but if they would not repent they must suffer even as I” (Doctine and Covenants 19:16–17). An unredeemed individual’s suffering for sin is known as hell. It means being subject to the devil and is described in scriptural metaphors as being in chains or a lake of fire and brimstone. Lehi begged his sons to choose Christ’s Redemption “and not choose eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and the evil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hell, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom” (2 Nephi 2:29). Even so, because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, hell has an end, and those who are obliged to pass through it are “redeemed from the devil [in] the last resurrection” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:85). The relatively few “sons of perdition” are “the only ones on whom the second death shall have any [lasting] power; yea, verily, the only ones who shall not be redeemed in the due time of the Lord, after the sufferings of his wrath” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:32, 37–38).
This is a gospel of hope. I'm so grateful for the Atonement, and I plan to strive to take advantage of the Savior's gift everyday.
