And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen. (D&C 89:21)
Commenting on this, and similar promises, Rudger Clawson commented as follows:
Let me say here, in all solemnity, that those who fail to keep this law cannot justly claim the promise.
I fancy I hear some one say: "Ah, Brother Clawson, my father was a good man, a faithful Latter-day Saint. He kept the commandments of God, he was an observer of the Word of Wisdom. At the age of seventy he died, and the destroying angel came and took him away."
My answer to that is: "Brother, would you make the promise of God of non-effect? Would you intimate that the Lord who gave this law and this promise unto its people failed in your father's case to keep his promise? Surely it was not so. True, the angel of death may have been in your father's home when he passed away, in fact, may have come for your father, but he was not a destroying angel, no, he was an angel of peace, of mercy, of hope, of love, and he came to open the door of light and life and everlasting joy to your good father."
Death comes to all. The death of the righteous is sweet but the death of the wicked, of the rebellious, of those who are wilfully neglectful of their duty and treat lightly the sacred commandments of God, is bitter. Oh, Israel, God will not be mocked in these latter days. His house is a house of order. His will is supreme. He gives the law and demands of his children obedience thereto. (Rudger Clawson, Conference Report, April 1925, p. 62)