I felt prompted to read D&C 19 this morning.

And surely every man must repent or suffer, for I , God, am endless.

Nevertheless, it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment.

Eternal punishment is God’s punishment.

Endless punishment is God’s punishment.

The least satisfactory reading of this is that the scriptures about eternal punishment are a verbal sleight-of-hand.  

There might be another reading lurking in the first verse I quoted, which you don’t usually hear mentioned. “Every man must repent or suffer, for I, God, am endless.”  I don’t know what the reading is, but it is there.  (Taken on its own, I would see in the verse a link between meaningful experience, which means choices against a background of right and wrong in which one can err and then suffer the consequences or else repent, and the ability to tolerate continued existence forever and to transcend into eternity–tapping into the same vein as 2 Nephi 2.)

But there is another reading that I see.  Think about this verse in light of integration, our ability to continue on forever while always being eternally present in all moments of our existence:  “it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment.”

 

 

 


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