Christians tend to think of rebellion against God as something difficult, requiring an overt act or a substantial decision. None of these perceptions are correct. At all times, you are either in a state of forgiveness through total submission to God, or a state of servitude toward Satan6 through rebellion against God,7 with full exposure to the consequences of your sins.8
Denying the Christ starts when you deny anything you have reason to believe is true. Denying the Christ begins whenever you deviate in the least degree from what you sincerely believe the Lord would feel, think, or do. You deny the Christ every time you deviate from his example. When you do less than your best, you deny the Christ. When you ignore potential improvement, you deny the Christ. When you refuse to state or support the truth in spite of what it will cost you, you are denying the Christ. When you opt not to support someone who would be improved by your intervention, you are denying the Christ. When you opt not to consider the needs of those about whom you know, you deny the Christ.
36 And now, I say unto you, my brethren, that after ye have known and have been taught all these things, if ye should transgress and go contrary to that which has been spoken, that ye do withdraw yourselves from the Spirit of the Lord, that it may have no place in you to guide you in wisdom’s paths that ye may be blessed, prospered, and preserved—
37 I say unto you, that the man that doeth this, the same cometh out in open rebellion against God; therefore he listeth to obey the evil spirit, and becometh an enemy to all righteousness; therefore, the Lord has no place in him, for he dwelleth not in unholy temples.
38 Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever.
39 And now I say unto you, that mercy hath no claim on that man; therefore his final doom is to endure a neverending torment. (Mosiah 2)
Mercy does not last forever.9 Death brings the expiration of God’s mercy.10 Death changes your body, and it changes your awareness, but it does not change your character.11 Anyone who ever willfully disobeys God will go to hell unless they cease sinning before they die.12
If you have not reconciled your life to the commandments God has provided to you in this life, you will not be reconciled to God when you are resurrected. Those who die in their sins are not prepared to meet God.13 They will be resurrected and judged,14 but will retain their sins.15 If you die while still in willful rebellion against God, you will go to hell.16
While you remain an enemy to God, you cannot enter into his kingdom.17 Those who die in their sins will not be forgiven of them through the sacrifice of Christ.577 You can only enter into God’s kingdom by reconciling to him in every way.578
Footnotes
- 1. Therefore come unto me and be ye saved; for verily I say unto you, that except ye shall keep my commandments, which I have commanded you at this time, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (3 Nephi 12:20) ↩
- 2. Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me. (Mosiah 26:30) ↩
- 3. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. (Romans 11:22) ↩
- 4. And it shall come to pass, because of the wickedness of the world, that I will take vengeance upon the wicked, for they will not repent; for the cup of mine indignation is full; for behold, my blood shall not cleanse them if they hear me not. (D&C 29:17) ↩
- 5. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. (2 Peter 2:20-22) ↩
- 6. ...they sell themselves for naught; for, for the reward of their pride and their foolishness they shall reap destruction; for because they yield unto the devil and choose works of darkness rather than light, therefore they must go down to hell. (2 Nephi 26:10) ↩
- 7. But wo, wo unto him who knoweth that he rebelleth against God! For salvation cometh to none such except it be through repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. (Mosiah 3:12) ↩
- 8. And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while 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) ↩
- 9. And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them. They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them. (Hosea 5:5-6) ↩
- 10. And if they be evil they are consigned to an awful view of their own guilt and abominations, which doth cause them to shrink from the presence of the Lord into a state of misery and endless torment, from whence they can no more return; therefore they have drunk damnation to their own souls. (Mosiah 3:25) ↩
- 11. 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. For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked. (Alma 34:34-35) ↩
- 12. For behold, there is a wo pronounced upon him who listeth to obey that spirit; for if he listeth to obey him, and remaineth and dieth in his sins, the same drinketh damnation to his own soul; for he receiveth for his wages an everlasting punishment, having transgressed the law of God contrary to his own knowledge. (Mosiah 2:33) ↩
- 13. And, in fine, wo unto all those who die in their sins; for they shall return to God, and behold his face, and remain in their sins. (2 Nephi 9:38) ↩
- 14. Therefore the wicked remain as though there had been no redemption made, except it be the loosing of the bands of death; for behold, the day cometh that all shall rise from the dead and stand before God, and be judged according to their works. (Alma 11:41) ↩
- 15. ...the time shall come, yea, and it shall be at the last day, that he who is filthy shall remain in his filthiness. (Alma 7:21) ↩
- 16. But behold, and fear, and tremble before God, for ye ought to tremble; for the Lord redeemeth none such that rebel against him and die in their sins; yea, even all those that have perished in their sins ever since the world began, that have wilfully rebelled against God, that have known the commandments of God, and would not keep them; these are they that have no part in the first resurrection. (Mosiah 15:26) ↩
- 17. Therefore come unto me and be ye saved; for verily I say unto you, that except ye shall keep my commandments, which I have commanded you at this time, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (3 Nephi 12:20) And he doth not dwell in unholy temples; neither can filthiness or anything which is unclean be received into the kingdom of God.... (Alma 7:21) ↩