“They Who Are Filthy Shall Be Filthy Still”

Joseph F. McConkie, Robert L. Millet

The resurrection does not change one’s disposition nor does it alter one’s spiritual directions. One who was honorable and moral on earth but not valiant in the testimony of Jesus shall rise to a terrestrial glory. One who lived a telestial existence on earth—who lived after the ways of the world—shall reap as he sowed.

Moroni taught that “because of the redemption of man, which came by Jesus Christ,” men are “brought back into the presence of the Lord; yea, this is wherein all men are redeemed, because the death of Christ bringeth to pass the resurrection.... And then cometh the judgment of the Holy One upon them; and then cometh the time that he that is filthy shall be filthy still; and he that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is happy shall be happy still; and he that is unhappy shall be unhappy still.” (Mormon 9:13-14; cf. Revelation 22:11.)

“Righteous Shall Be Righteous Still and They Who Are Filthy Shall Be Filthy Still”

Jacob explained that those who are filthy are the devil and his angels—Those who have followed him from the time of the war in heaven in the premortal existence, as well as those in this life who deny the Lord and defy his works—the sons of perdition. “That which breaketh a law,” the Lord explains in the revelation known as the “Olive Leaf,” and “abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment. Therefore, they must remain filthy still.”

In that same revelation the Lord speaks of the angels sounding the different trumps associated with the specific resurrections—celestial, terrestrial, and telestial. After discussing the last group, the telestial—those who do not come forth from the grave until the thousand years are ended—the Lord continues: “And another trump shall sound, which is the fourth trump, saying: There are found among those who are to remain [the sons of perdition] until that great and last day, even the end, who shall remain filthy still.” (D&C 88:35, 102.)

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1

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