“When He Had Said These Words He Could Say No More”

W. Cleon Skousen

Finally Sherem felt his life slipping away from him. He sent a public notice to all the people asking them to gather the next day so he could speak to them once more before he died. When the great gathering took place it must have been a tense and dramatic moment as people waited for the dying man to speak. When Sherem did speak he openly denied the things he had previously taught them. He then confessed before God and the multitude three things: he confessed the divinity of Christ, and he confessed that the Holy Ghost did indeed have power, and he confessed to the ministering of angels.

Sherem said he had been deceived by the power of the devil. Then he began talking about hell and eternity and the reality of eternal punishment. Sherem cried out that he feared he might have committed the unpardonable sin because he had lied unto God and had denied the Christ while at the same time claiming he believed the scriptures. Sherem was obviously tormented with the fear that his case would be awful before the judgment of God and therefore he said, "but I confess unto God." Fortunately, a person cannot be guilty of the unpardonable sin and thereby become a son of perdition unless he has previously seen the heavens opened and great manifestations of spiritual power and therefore witnessed the power of God, and then denied it. After Sherem's death-bed repentance, he gave up the ghost.

Treasures from the Book of Mormon

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