They Are Their Own Judges
If we have exercised faith in Jesus Christ, made and kept covenants with God, and repented of our sins, the judgment bar will be pleasing.
The Book of Mormon concludes with inspiring invitations from Moroni to “come unto Christ,” “be perfected in Him,” “deny [ourselves] of all ungodliness,” and “love God with all [our] might, mind and strength.” Interestingly, the final sentence of his instruction anticipates both the Resurrection and Final Judgment.
He said, “I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead.”
I am intrigued by Moroni’s use of the word “pleasing” to describe the Final Judgment. Other Book of Mormon prophets likewise describe the Judgment as a “glorious day” and one that we should “look forward [to] with an eye of faith.” Yet often when we anticipate Judgment Day, other prophetic descriptions come to mind, such as “shame and awful guilt,” “dread and fear,” and “endless misery.”
I believe this stark contrast in language indicates that the doctrine of Christ enabled Moroni and other prophets to anticipate that great day with eager and hopeful anticipation instead of the fear they warned of for those not spiritually prepared. What did Moroni understand that you and I need to learn?
I pray for the assistance of the Holy Ghost as we consider Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness and mercy, the Savior’s atoning role in the Father’s plan, and how we will “be accountable for [our] own sins in the day of judgment.”
The Father’s Plan of Happiness
The overarching purposes of the Father’s plan are to provide His spirit children with opportunities to receive a physical body, learn “good from evil” through mortal experience, grow spiritually, and progress eternally.
What the Doctrine and Covenants refers to as “moral agency” is central in God’s plan to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of His sons and daughters. This essential principle also is described in the scriptures as agency and the freedom to choose and to act.
The term “moral agency” is instructive. Synonyms for the word “moral” include “good,” “honest,” and “virtuous.” Synonyms for the word “agency” include “action,” “activity,” and “work.” Hence, “moral agency” can be understood as the ability and privilege to choose and act for ourselves in ways that are good, honest, virtuous, and true.
God’s creations include both “things to act and things to be acted upon.” And moral agency is the divinely designed “power of independent action” that empowers us as God’s children to become agents to act and not simply objects to be acted upon.
The earth was created as a place whereon Heavenly Father’s children could be proved to see if they would “do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.” A primary purpose of the Creation and of our mortal existence is to provide us the opportunity to act and become what the Lord invites us to become.
The Lord instructed Enoch:
“Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;
“And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father.”
The fundamental purposes for the exercise of agency are to love one another and to choose God. And these two purposes align precisely with the first and second great commandments to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Consider that we are commanded—not merely admonished or counseled but commanded—to use our agency to love one another and choose God. May I suggest that in the scriptures, the modifying word “moral” is not merely an adjective but perhaps also a divine directive about how our agency should be used.
A familiar hymn is titled “Choose the Right” for a reason. We have not been blessed with moral agency to do whatever we want whenever we will. Rather, according to the Father’s plan, we have received moral agency to seek after and act in accordance with eternal truth. As “agents unto [ourselves],” we should engage anxiously in good causes, “do many things of [our] own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.”
The eternal importance of moral agency is highlighted in the scriptural account of the premortal council. Lucifer rebelled against the Father’s plan for His children and sought to destroy the power of independent action. Significantly, the devil’s defiance was focused directly on the principle of moral agency.
God explained, “Wherefore, because … Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, … I caused that he should be cast down.”
The adversary’s selfish scheme was to strip away from God’s children the capacity to become “agents unto themselves” who could act in righteousness. His intent was to consign Heavenly Father’s children to be objects that could only be acted upon.
Doing and Becoming
President Dallin H. Oaks has emphasized that the gospel of Jesus Christ invites us both to know something and to become something through the righteous exercise of moral agency. He said:
“Many Bible and modern scriptures speak of a final judgment at which all persons will be rewarded according to their deeds or works or the desires of their hearts. But other scriptures enlarge upon this by referring to our being judged by the condition we have achieved.
“The prophet Nephi describes the Final Judgment in terms of what we have become: ‘And if their works have been filthiness they must needs be filthy; and if they be filthy it must needs be that they cannot dwell in the kingdom of God’ [1 Nephi 15:33; emphasis added]. Moroni declares, ‘He that is filthy shall be filthy still; and he that is righteous shall be righteous still’ [Mormon 9:14; emphasis added].”
President Oaks continued: “From such teachings we conclude that the Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts—what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts—what we have become.”
The Savior’s Atonement
Our works and desires alone do not and cannot save us. “After all we can do,” we are reconciled with God only through the mercy and grace available through the Savior’s infinite and eternal atoning sacrifice.
Alma declared, “Begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which shall bring to pass the resurrection, that all men shall stand before him, to be judged at the last and judgment day, according to their works.”
“We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.” How grateful we should be that our sins and wicked deeds will not stand as a testimony against us if we are truly “born again,” exercise faith in the Redeemer, repent with “sincerity of heart” and “real intent,” and “endure to the end.”
Godly Fear
Many of us may expect that our appearance before the bar of the Eternal Judge will be similar to a proceeding in a worldly court of law. A judge will preside. Evidence will be presented. A verdict will be rendered. And we likely will be uncertain and fearful until we learn the eventual outcome. But I believe such a characterization is inaccurate.
Different from but related to the mortal fears we often experience is what the scriptures describe as “godly fear” or “the fear of the Lord.” Unlike worldly fear that causes alarm and anxiety, godly fear invites into our lives peace, assurance, and confidence.
Righteous fear encompasses a deep feeling of reverence and awe for the Lord Jesus Christ, obedience to His commandments, and anticipation of the Final Judgment and justice at His hand. Godly fear grows out of a correct understanding of the divine nature and mission of the Redeemer, a willingness to submit our will to His will, and a knowledge that every man and woman will be accountable for his or her own mortal desires, thoughts, words, and acts in the Day of Judgment.
The fear of the Lord is not a reluctant apprehension about coming into His presence to be judged. Rather, it is the prospect of ultimately acknowledging about ourselves “things as they really are” and “as they really will be.”
Every person who has lived, who does now live, and who will yet live upon the earth “shall be brought to stand before the bar of God, to be judged of him according to [his or her] works whether they be good or whether they be evil.”
If our desires have been for righteousness and our works good—meaning we have exercised faith in Jesus Christ, made and kept covenants with God, and repented of our sins—then the judgment bar will be pleasing. As Enos declared, we will “stand before [the Redeemer]; then shall [we] see his face with pleasure.” And at the last day we will “be rewarded unto righteousness.”
Conversely, if our desires have been for evil and our works wicked, then the judgment bar will be a cause of dread. We will have “a perfect knowledge,” “a bright recollection,” and “a lively sense of [our] own guilt.” “We shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence.” And at the last day we will “have [our] reward of evil.”
Ultimately, then, we are our own judges. No one will need to tell us where to go. In the Lord’s presence, we will acknowledge what we have chosen to become in mortality and know for ourselves where we should be in eternity.
Promise and Testimony
Understanding that the Final Judgment can be pleasing is not a blessing reserved only for Moroni.
Alma described promised blessings available to every devoted disciple of the Savior. He said:
“The meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil for evil, or carnal for carnal, or devilish for devilish—good for that which is good; righteous for that which is righteous; just for that which is just; merciful for that which is merciful.
“… Deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again.”
I joyfully witness that Jesus Christ is our living Savior. Alma’s promise is true and applicable to you and me—today, tomorrow, and for all eternity. I so testify in the sacred name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.