Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate/Volume 2/Number 12/Communication from W
"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves to the mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." 1 CORINTHIANS 6th, 9, 10.
It is abundantly evident from the words we have selected; which were addressed to the ancient saints at Corinth—that wickedness in the extreme, and every species of evil and abomination in the sight of God, had begun to manifest itself, and show its deformed head among those who were received into the church, built up under the instruction and superintendence of the great apostle of the Gentiles. In the context the apostle rebukes his brethren sharply for going to law before the unjust and not before the saints: he plainly stamps it with reprobation as an unrighteous act. The manner of his rebuke is directly calculated to exalt the character of God, and the inestimably privilege of the saints; when he says know ye not that ye shall judge angels. Truly this must be an exalted station, and yet the Corinthian church had become so corrupt, and so far departed from the holy commandments given unto them, as to lose their confidence in their brethren, and go to law before the unjust and not before the saints. O the great contrast between those who keep the commandments of God and those who do not!
This rebuke, which we find so severe on those to whom the epistle was addressed, of which our text forms a part, was not given merely to warn the brethren at Corinth that they must avoid those great sins in the sight of God, which he had, and was about to enumerate, but we have incontestible [incontestable] proof that they, or some of them at least, were verily guilty. Here, let us remark, was a church built up in the days of the apostles of the Son of God.—The combined powers of darkness had quenched, or grieved the Holy Spirit, till it had withdrawn its vivifying influences, and left the members of this church to become guilty, verily guilty, of some of the blackest of crimes that disgraced the annals of any age, any nation, or any people. If they were not the blackest that the arch fiend himself could invent; they were of that enormity in the sight of God, that he said by the mouth of his servant acting under the influence of immediate inspiration, that the perpetrators of such crimes should not inherit the kingdom of God.
Although this was a church built up among the Gentiles, among those who were "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise," we may, without doing the least violence to the truth, conclude, that many of those abominations were practiced by them, without reprehension or censure before they became members of the church; but this was no mitigation of their crime or palliation of their guilt. They had solemnly vowed in presence of God, angels and men, to keep all the commandments of the Most High and walk in his ordinances. Therefore, the apostle comes out against their wickedness and abomination, not in mild sycophantic court-bred flattery, lest he should offend them, but in the bold daring language of keen rebuke, and at the same time portraying the inevitable consequences of such enormous crimes. In general terms he says, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?" Now that his brethren need not be ignorant of what was righteous and what was unrighteous, he particularizes thus, be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. This is language altogether too plain to need comment. Any argument, to either evade or enforce it, is entirely superfluous. We can no more evade it than we can do away a self-evident fact by sophistry: it still tells against the perpetrators of all such crimes, and sounds the knell of departed peace incessantly in their ears. Although such characters may be surrounded with the temporal blessings of a bountiful providence, and riot in voluptuous ease, they are destitute of that peace, that comforter, that leads into all truth, and if we are destitute of that, we have not the spirit of Christ, and if have not the spirit of Christ, it is plainly said, we are none of his.
Perhaps, some of our brethren may attempt to evade the force of this rebuke because it was not addressed to a church or people, in this day nor age of the world, but to a people of another country, another kingdom, another clime, another continent and living eighteen hundred years ago. We will look at the objection or excuse. Without making any bold assertions, let us ask a few plain questions and see what answers the scriptures and the Holy Spirit will suggest to our minds. Was the church of Corinth considered a gospel church? True it was, the apostle says in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel; and he further said he thanked God they came behind in no gifts; he also enumerates the necessary gifts, their uses, and their necessity, and not only that but how long they would be necessary.—He beautifully illustrates his ideas and enforces his teachings by the apt but striking similitude of a human figure. Showing that as every limb and all the senses were necessary to complete the human figure and that it would be incomplete and imperfect without all the members. So all the spiritual gifts were necessary to constitute a true church. He, as we before remarked, not only gave the Corinthians to understand how long these gifts would be useful, and why they would be useful, but he more fully and clearly established the same points when writing to his Ephesian brethren as will appear when we look at the 4th chapter, 12th and 13th verses. Was it not the power of God in the gospel that produced these things? Certainly. The same apostle says to his Roman brethren that he was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it was the power of God unto salvation, &c.
Is God the same being he then was, and his gospel the same. He has said by the mouth of his servant Malachi, "I am the Lord, I change not." Have we any intimation that he has ever revealed any other plan of saving men but by the gospel as preached by the apostle Paul and his colleagues at the commencement of the christian era?—We have none. Do we not then learn by the sacred writings that this same gospel of which so much is said, is no less than the plan of God for saving mankind? Surely we do. Do we suppose that any thing short of infinite wisdom could have devised this plan? We do not. Would a different plan require different means or different agents to effect that plan? It certainly would. Then the plan being different, the agents operating on that plan must of necessity produce a different effect.—Well, as we have seen that God is the same, his gospel the same, is it unreasonable, is it unscriptural, is it unchristian, is it a mark of delusion, to conclude the effect of the same gospel must be the same? Can a rational being be blamed for his incredulity who puts no confidence in any plan or course or procedure, the effect of which is entirely different in many of its prominent features from that which God devised for man's salvation? Certainly he could not. Do we not then come to the irresistible conclusion that the professing christian world with all their zeal, and apparent sanctity, are preaching and inculcating another gospel?—The scriptures have told us what the true gospel is, and the effect of it, and when we compare the modern with the ancient we find it suffer in the comparison, therefore, we strongly suspect it is not the same. If it be not the same it is another, and if it be another, a woe is pronounced against those who proclaim it.
We have almost inadvertantly [inadvertently] digressed from the subject under consideration, at the commencement of this article, but we trust it will not be deemed wholly unprofitable. We are warned by the apostle not to be deceived and he names the characters that should not inherit the kingdom of God. And most certainly a deception would be as fatal, from an erroneous principle, a spurious gospel, a false religion, as from the wicked practices of those who embraced a correct principle. Now that we have been able to arrive at some definite conclusions respecting the true gospel, let us beware, lest from a consciousness, that we have obeyed the commands of God in complying with some of the first principles of the plan of salvation, we lose sight of that mark of the prize, that high attainment in wisdom and knowledge which is the imperious duty and inestimable privilege of every saint of the Most High, to obtain. Therefore, let us not deceive ourselves nor deceive others.—Men do not gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles. No unrighteous act can be approbated by the Judge of heaven and earth, for the reason that all unrighteousness is sin, and he cannot look upon sin with any allowance or approbation. He has said that the soul that sinneth it shall die.
Can the subject be made any plainer to the understanding of the children of men? Will any deceive themselves with the vain hope, that while they are guilty of any of those sins, against which the apostle has spoken in such strong unequivocal terms, they shall be saved in the celestial kingdom?
Surely, as rational beings they will not, they cannot. The wicked idolatrous, covetous or drunken believer or professor of the true gospel, will fare no better than he that embraces a false system and vainly strives to climb up some other way. The best, and all he can reasonably expect at the hand of his Judge, is, depart ye cursed, ye workers of iniquity, I know you not. Rather, then let us be wise, let us bring our bodies into subjection to the will of God, by yielding obedience to all his commands, that we may have right to the tree of life—and be admitted thro' the gate into the city to go no more out forever; which may the Lord grant for his Sons' sake. Amen. W.