From Kent. . . There will be no posts over the weekend due to general conference, hence this post is longer than normal. Check out the end of this post for a link to Conference and the times of the sessions.
Quoting from the previous post The Judging Christ, insights from Terryl and Fiona Givens: . . . . It is only in and through Christ that the past can be forgiven and forgotten.” Now continuing:
It is in the forgiving and the forgetting that healing lies. It is not in quenching of divine wrath or eternal justice that we find the miracle, but in the healing of our wounds. The imagery of Isaiah is quite explicit here. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool”4 This mystery of a Christ who heals our wounds and forgets our wrongs steers our understanding of judgment in new directions.
At the end of a discussion about the absolute love of the weeping God of Enoch, a young adult at the back of the room asked, “But what about judgment?” “How do you feel when you hear the word judgment?” we asked. “I feel frightened,” he said. “I feel fear.” Indeed judgement has become a frightful word—with good reason. It is commonplace of theological understanding, notes one scholar, that the concept of an eternal hell is based on the assumption of the justice of retributive punishment.”5 “Day of wrath, that day will turn the earth to ash. What dread there will be when the Judge shall come!” intone the lines of Mozart’s Requiem.6 It is tragically erroneous to maintain that such is the purpose or intent of judgment. Indeed, Jesus testifies in John’s gospel that such is not the purpose of Christ’s engagement with the human family: “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.”7 We have, thankfully, left behind much of the medieval Church’s imagery of sulfurous pits, the Reformation’s language of “total depravity” and “desperate corruption,” and Puritan sermons about a spiteful God holding souls over hell like a vicious boy with a spider. Still, Latter-day Saint culture has not fully shaken off what Aaron called the “traditions of their fathers, which were not correct.”8
Christ, himself, engaging a woman caught in the very act of adultery, emphasized that judgment does not entail condemnation. “Where are . . . thine accusers? he asked, before adding, “Neither do I condemn thee.”9 We might do well to note the term he employed here: (kategoros), or accuser, is the very word used elsewhere in the New Testament to refer to Satan.10 Satan, in fact, is the Hebrew word for accuser.11 Accusatory judgment is Satan’s role, not Christ’s. “We do not know the inmost depths of the human heart; it is revealed only in love. But those who condemn have generally little love, and therefore the mystery of the heart which they judge is closed to them.”12 This may be implicit in the words to Joseph Smith, that “pure knowledge . . . shall greatly enlarge thy soul.”13 It is impossible to know another completely and not love that person deeply.
In the shadow of the rising Nauvoo Temple, a contemporary recorded, “Joseph then delivered unto us an Edifying address showing us what temperance faith virtue, charity & truth was he said if we did not accuse one another God would not accuse us & if we had no accuser we should enter heaven. . . . He did many things to break down superstition.” It seems a curious thing to preach that our forgiveness of one another can affect the other’s salvation as well as ours. Berdyaev confirms this perspective: man must, “in the name of Christ forgive his neighbors sin and evil and help him to free himself from their power. If a man is condemned by us as hopelessly wicked, this does not help to liberate or save or improve him. On the contrary, the condemnation ruins him.”15 This is why mercy “is twice blessed; it blesseth him that gives and him that [receives].”16
In the Latter-day Saint conception of salvation, this view makes perfect sense, for two reasons. First we believe that we are free to choose. That is a core truth of the universe because, as we saw above, that is what Christ’s Atonement guaranteed. If “you are merciful unto your brethren . . . ye shall have mercy restored unto you again.17 Second, as Latter-day Saints we know we do not earn heaven; we co-create heaven, and we do so by participating in celestial relationships that are its essence (and which temple ordinances eternalize). In a very real sense, then, that act of forgiving one another is the healing and constituting of the heavenly sociality we are called to build and to be a part of. It is required that we forgive one another, not as a test of our righteousness but because heaven is simply not possible on any other terms. Then what of judgment? ~Fiona and Terryl Givens, The Christ Who Heals (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2017), 92-94
Notes: 4. Isaiah 1:18, /5. Morwenna Ludlow, Universal Salvation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000) 4, 6. English translation of Mozart’s Requiem, 7. John 12:47, 8. Alma 21:17, 9. John 8:10-11, 10. See Revelation 12:10, 11.So “Satan” is translated in the New American Standard Bible (Psalm 109:6). It is more often translated as “adversary.”, 12. Berdyaev, Destiny of Man 140, 13. Doctrine and covenants 121:42, 14. Joseph Smith, The Words of Joseph Smith, eds. Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook (Orem, UT: Grandin Book Company, 1991)80, 15. Berdyaev, Destiny of Man 140, 16. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice IV.111. 192-93 (New York:Washington Square Press, 1992),155., 17. Alma 42:14.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or not), would certainly benefit from setting aside time to watch/listen to one or all of the five sessions of conference. Each speaker has spent months preparing, pondering what the Lord would have them say. There will be many Choice gems of wisdom to help us all to draw a little closer to God the Father and God our Savior, Jesus Christ. Please watch prayerfully. There will be five two hour sessions, at 9am, 1pm, and 6pm Saturday, and at 9am and 1pm Sunday. If you would like a ‘spiritual feast’ by all means check it out at October Conference 2021.
