"The Miracle of Forgiveness" and the Gospel of Good News

A few weeks ago I was asked to give a talk in the Pittsburgh 1st Ward about eternal progression, and while I was studying for the talk I thought about a story Pres. Kimball told about a lady who struggled with the commandments nearly all her life, and he asked the question "at what point was she 'saved'?" with the answer being "the moment she started progressing towards becoming like God." At least, I thought it was Pres. Kimball, it might have been something from Stephen Robinson.

Anyway, I thought I ought to do a search for the story, thinking perhaps it might have been in "The Miracle of Forgiveness." When I did a Google search for the book, unfortunately the top link that comes up appears to be a site trying to discredit Mormonism (mormonwiki.org, as opposed to mormonwiki.com which appears to have a positive slant). The third link that comes up is also hostile to the church. It appears this book is not used much in the church any more.

The gist of both websites, as far as Pres. Kimball's book is concerned, was that it is at odds with the message of forgiveness presented by, say, Paul in the book of Romans. They even encourage Mormons to read the book (just so they can make the contrast). I for one have not actually read the entire book, although I have read selections from it. I understand it is rather harsh in explaining sin and its consequences.

It occurred to me during church meetings today that Pres. Kimball is actually in good company, even if we ignore the even more harsh consequences of sin described in the Old Testament. In Mosiah 12:20-24, we see Abinadi similarly criticized for not preaching good tidings, joy, redemption, and salvation; focusing instead on warnings about sin and destruction. The following chapters (end of 12 through 16) contain Abinadi's response to this criticism, which is rather long and difficult to summarize. Possibly by the time you finish reading it, you've already forgotten the original question. Try to remember it next time. It shows that the messages of salvation and condemnation are in fact different sides of the same coin. (This is related to my earlier discussion on agency.)

PS: Jeff Lindsay came to the same conclusion about this chapter on his blog entry found here. Although I can't prove it, I actually didn't read it until I had already come up with the same idea about Abinadi's message. He did not, however, draw the parallel with Pres. Kimball.