In a
revelation given to Brigham Young, we read the following:
Be diligent in keeping all my commandments,
lest judgments come upon you, and your faith fail you, and your enemies triumph
over you. So no more at present. Amen and Amen.: (D&C 136:42)
What stood
out for me in this text while reading it today is that the Lord promises that
sins can result in, not just eschatological punishments, but also temporal punishments. Such is a theme in
the Bible. For instance, while David would be the recipient of eschatological
punishment for his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah (D&C
139:39), he also had to undergo such temporal punishments for these heinous
sins. The first was to witness God taking the life of the child he sired with
Bathsheba in their adulterous affair (2 Sam 12:15-23). The second was to
witness the raping and pillaging of his other wives (2 Sam 12:11-12).
