Do we really get a Second Chance?

           By: Michael Flournoy

            LDS doctrine does a lot to clarify the state of our spirits after death, even going so far as to say the gospel is still preached in the afterlife and the dead can accept vicarious baptisms performed by the living.  So does preaching and baptism in the hereafter constitute a second chance to repent and live righteously?  

The scriptures give a resounding no.  Alma 34:32-34 reads: For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to prepare their labors.  And now, as I have said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.  Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God.  Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.

Alma 34:32-34 makes it clear that our decisions during this life heavily outweigh any choices we might want to make after we die, so much so that no labor (or ordinances) can effectively be performed on our behalf.  So if preaching and ordinances in the spirit world do not constitute a second chance, what do they constitute?  Frankly, they amount to a first chance for those who never had the opportunity to hear and accept the gospel. 

In Doctrine and Covenants 137 the prophet Joseph Smith recorded a vision in which he saw his older brother Alvin, who died before the gospel was restored, in the Celestial Kingdom.  Starting in verse 6 he writes: And [I] marveled how it was that he had obtained an inheritance in that kingdom, seeing that he had departed this life before the Lord had set his hand to gather Israel the second time, and had not been baptized for the remission of sins.  Thus came the voice of the Lord to me, saying: All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God.

Perhaps this is one reason 2 Corinthians 5:10 says: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.  The things done in mortality are heavily emphasized in this verse and in Hebrews 9:27 which says: And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.  Hebrews 9:27 in particular, is one of those verses which, once read, seal the deal.  1 Nephi 14:7 explains: For the time cometh, saith the Lamb of God, that I will work a great and a marvelous work among the children of men; a work which shall be everlasting, either on the one hand or on the other- either to the convincing of them unto peace and life eternal, or unto the deliverance of them to the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds unto their being brought down into captivity, and also into destruction, both temporally and spiritually, according to the captivity of the devil, of which I have spoken.  The Lord is hastening the work in our day, so that more and more people aren’t dying without the chance to accept the gospel. 

But what about verses in the Bible that teach against a missionary work, awareness in the next life, or a first chance in the world to come, do they disprove LDS doctrine?  Psalms 115:17 for instance, states: The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.  At first glance this verse appears to describe the dead as having no voice to preach or praise, however, there’s no reason this verse isn’t simply talking about silence as it relates to the living hearing from the dead.  In his parable of Lazarus and the rich man Jesus describes two dead men (father Abraham and the rich man) speaking to each other.  

Psalms 6:4-5 follows this same vein: Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.  For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?  Saying no remembrance of God persists in the grave may only apply to those who die after rejecting Christ, since scripture indicates that the dead do in fact remember Christ.  In 1 Samuel 28, Samuel the prophet briefly returns from the realm of the dead to speak to Saul.  In verses 16-19 we read: Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?  And the LORD hath done to him, as he spake by me: for the LORD hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbor, even to David; because thou obeyedst not the voice of the LORD, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amulek, therefore hath the LORD done this thing unto thee this day.  Samuel, who is dead, mentions the Lord five times, demonstrating a clear memory of him.    

Revelation 14:13 challenges missionary work in the Spirit World by saying: And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.  The traditional LDS view of the Spirit World is one in which the righteous are laboring diligently to preach the gospel to the spirits in prison who died in ignorance.  However, the afterlife isn’t just a place where the righteous have to work all the time, it will also be a place of rest, especially from working out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).  Before dying, King Benjamin in The Book of Mormon looked forward to joining the choirs above in singing the praises of a just God (Mosiah 2:28).

Finally, Ecclesiastes 9:10 says: Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, no device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.  To understand this verse, it must be read in its full context.  Beginning in verse 6 the preacher tells his readers that the dead have no portion in things done under the sun (i.e. they are unable to do things that the living can do).  He then pleas with us to eat and drink with joy (the dead can’t eat after all), to keep our garments white (since our righteousness now is what’s important), and to enjoy our spouses (and yes, there are physical things that only the living can enjoy with their spouses).  Whatever we do, we should strive to do in life!

In conclusion, these verses do little to damage the LDS view that work can be done in behalf of the dead, that the dead do carry with them a remembrance of things learned in mortality, and that missionary work does occur in the Spirit World.