1
Ne 12:18 a great and terrible gulf divideth them;
yea even the word of the justice of the Eternal God
The
justice of God cannot allow the wicked and righteous to receive the same
reward. This seems simple enough, however Alma’s son Corianton had trouble with
this concept, ‘I perceive there is somewhat more
which doth worry your mind, which ye cannot understand—which is concerning the
justice of God in the punishment of the sinner; for ye do try to suppose that
it is injustice that the sinner should be consigned to a state of misery’ (Alma
42:1). Alma goes on to show his son that it
is injustice if the sinner is not punished, ‘What,
do ye suppose that mercy can rob justice?…whosoever will come [unto God]
may come and partake of the waters of life freely;
and whosoever will not come the same is not compelled to come; but in the last
day it shall be restored unto him according to his deeds. If he has desired to
do evil, and has not repented in his days, behold, evil shall be done unto him,
according to the restoration of God’ (Alma 42:25-28).
The DC teaches that the individual must
be able to abide the law of the kingdom he/she enters, ‘For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot
abide a celestial glory’ (DC 88:22). A corollary to this principle is
taught by Moroni, ’Do ye suppose that ye could be
happy to dwell with that holy Being, when your souls are racked with a
consciousness of guilt that ye have ever abused his laws? Behold, I say unto
you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a
consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the
damned souls in hell’ (Mormon 9:3-4).
Therefore,
the justice of God is actually merciful in requiring that the righteous and
wicked be separated. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, this same gulf
is described separating those in Spirit Prison from those in Spirit Paradise, ‘between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that
they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that
would come from thence’ (Lu 16:26).
Hugh
Nibley
“…’a great
and terrible gulf divideth them.’ There it is again. It is a figure of
speech, an image. Nothing could better describe it; there is a great and
terrible gulf between two different ways of living. There is nothing in common
between them at all. You can't breach it….” (Teachings of the Book of
Mormon--Semester 1: Transcripts of Lectures Presented to an Honors Book of
Mormon Class at Brigham Young University, 1988—1990, p. 195)