April 3, 2019

Every Knee Should Bow - Every Tongue Should Confess

Those who enter into the telestial kingdom, where their glories differ as do the stars of heaven in their magnitude, and who are innumerable as the sands of the seashore, are the ungodly, the filthy who suffer the wrath of God on the earth, who are thrust down to hell where they will be required to pay the uttermost farthing before their redemption comes. These are they who receive not the gospel of Christ and consequently could not deny the Holy Spirit while living on the earth.
“They have no part in the first resurrection and are not redeemed from the devil and his angels until the last resurrection, because of their wicked lives and their evil deeds. Nevertheless, even these are heirs of salvation, but before they are redeemed and enter into their kingdom, they must repent of their sins, and receive the gospel, and bow the knee, and acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer of the world” (Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 2:22).
-Doctrines of the Gospel - Institute Student Manual-
Since Christ is the Savior, since all things pertaining to life and salvation center in him, since he is God—it follows that all men must turn to him and his gospel for salvation, and that in his own due time he shall receive the worship and adoration of all men….
How appropriate, then, for Paul, knowing that the Lord Jesus was the Lord Jehovah, to apply Isaiah's pronouncement to Christ. And how appropriate also for Christ himself to say to Joseph Smith that when he "shall have subdued all enemies under his feet,... Then shall he be crowned with the crown of his glory, to sit on the throne of his power to reign forever and ever"; and to add, speaking of the telestial hosts, whose numbers shall be "as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the sea-shore," that "These are they who are cast down to hell and suffer the wrath of Almighty God, until the fulness of times, when Christ shall have subdued all enemies under his feet, and shall have perfected his work; When he shall deliver up the kingdom, and present it unto the Father, spotless, saying: I have overcome and have trodden the wine-press alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. Then shall he be crowned with the crown of his glory, to sit on the throne of his power to reign forever and ever. But behold, and lo, we saw the glory and the inhabitants of the telestial world, that they were as innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the seashore; And heard the voice of the Lord saying: These all shall bow the knee, and every tongue shall confess to him who sits upon the throne forever and ever."
-Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, vol. 2 ( 1971)- 

They May Suffer Even As I - Porter
(Click on title to read article)