Thursday, December 19, 2019

Repentance, Forgiveness, and the Need to "Pay Penalties" and "Suffer"


In an attempt to refute Latter-day Saint soteriology, one author quoted a pro-LDS tract and then posed a question against LDS theology:

Those who had sinned were “ready to comply with any requirement no matter how hard . . . [and were] willing to pay penalties, to suffer even to excommunication if necessary.” (Repentance Beings Forgiveness,” pp. 6-7)

Question #601: Before God forgives your sins, must you “pay penalties” and “suffer”? (Sharon I. Banister, For Any Latter-day Saint: One Investigator’s Unanswered Questions [Fort Worth, Texas: Bible Publications, Inc., 1988], 366)

 Even when God forgives grievous sins, there may be "temporal punishments" (to borrow a term our Catholic friends use) that must be endured by the person. A classic example is that of King David. Even after repenting of the grievous sins of adultery and murder, he had to endure severe punishments give to him for such heinous crimes. The first was to witness God taking the life of the child that was the result of his adulterous affair with Bathsheba:

Nathan went home, and the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and it became critically ill.  David entreated God for the boy; David fasted, and he went in and spent the night lying on the ground. The senior servants of his household tried to induce him to get up from the ground; but he refused, nor would he partake of food with them. On the seventh day the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell David that the child was dead; for they said, "We spoke to him when the child was alive and he wouldn't listen to us; how can we tell him that the child is dead? He might do something terrible." When David saw his servants talking in whispers, David understood that the child was dead; David asked his servants, "Is the child dead?" "Yes," they replied. Thereupon David rose from the ground; he bathed and anointed himself, and he changed his clothes. He went into the House of the Lord and prostrated himself. Then he went home and asked for food, which they set before him, and he ate. His courtiers asked him, "Why have you acted in this manner? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept; but now that the child is dead, you rise and take food!" He replied, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept because I thought: 'Who knows? The Lord may have pity on me, and the child may live.' But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will never come back to me." (2 Sam 12:15-23| 1985 JPS Tanakh)

The second was to witness the rape and pillage of his other wives:

Thus said the Lord: 'I will make a calamity rise against you from within your own house; I will take your wives and give them to another man before your very eyes and he shall sleep with your wives under this very sun. You acted in secret, but I will make this happen in the sight of all Israel and in broad daylight.'" (2 Sam 12:11-12 |1985 JPS Tanakh)

If Banister (and many other Protestant critics of “Mormonism”) is correct, the author of 2 Samuel is wrong vis-à-vis repentance and suffering either to bring about “full” repentance or the temporal punishments one suffers after the reception of forgiveness. Indeed, there will be some individuals who will suffer posthumously to receive a full forgiveness of sins, as seen in 1 Cor 3:11-15. For an exegesis of this text, see:


Another important text is that of 1 Cor 5:5, where Paul writes that:


I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. (NASB)

Notwithstanding the various interpretations, most commentators agree that, regardless of that Paul means by "the destruction of the flesh," this person Paul is commenting on has to suffer (whether extreme physical suffering or illness) with the goal (the Greek is a purpose [ινα-] clause) that they will receive eschatological salvation.


Further, the typical Protestant critic, it should be noted, has a warped understanding of true repentance due, in part, to holding to imputed righteousness, something the Bible does not support. For a full discussion, see:



Notwithstanding the objections of many critics, Latter-day Saint soteriology has strong biblical support, including our theology of repentance.

Further Reading

Christina Darlington, D&C 82:7, and the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant