Speaking of the final judgement, Jacob said the following:
And assuredly, as the Lord liveth, for the Lord God hath spoken it, and it is his eternal word, which cannot pass away, that they who are righteous shall be righteous still, and they who are filthy shall be filthy still; wherefore, they who are filthy are the devil and his angels; and they shall go away into everlasting fire, prepared for them; and their torment is as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever and has no end. (2 Ne. 9:16)
What I find interesting is what appears to be a diametrical idea between the righteous and the filthy. Jacob states that the righteous will be righteous till and the filthy will be filthy still. In other words, the reward we receive will be directly influenced by our level of righteousness.
Naturally, anyone reading this would assume that Jacob is speaking of two opposites: the righteous and the unrighteous (or filthy). Yet later in the verse he clarifies that the filthy refer to the devil and his angels.
Does this imply that all others are righteous? That all who have gained a body are not filthy?
Or does it mean that Jacob left out one or more groups?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùthose who are neither righteous nor filthy?
UPDATE: It appears later in the chapter that Jacob identifies the righteous.
But, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever. (v. 18)
Certainly there are more to judge than the devil, his angels and the saints of the Holy One of Israel. I wonder why he left out the others.
What a great question. What about those who pay for their own sins and inherent a lesser kingdom?
It looks like we are safe in assuming that the BoM authors were writing with a limited perspective on salvation. They believed in heaven and hell. I don’t know that they believed in anything more than that.
I’m not sure how this fits into your post, but I remember studying the concept of ancient hebrew beauty, and it was all focused on purity. Pure things were clean and beautiful, Impure things ugly and filthy. One of the reasons pigs are filthy is because they don’t have a pure form, the cloven (sp?) hoove, it also explains a lot of the prohibitions against such things as mixed textiles in clothing which are thus impure.
Sorry, that’s pretty random, but this post brought it to mind.
I don’t think it’s random, Lisa. I think it is very fitting. The same could be said of us when we sin.