Question;

The Mormons claim that when Jesus died he traveled in the time so that he
was able to preach to long-dead people in the Old Testament. Any
comment on this claim? Secondly what are those sins that do not lead to
death? Thirdly, what kind of sins that are unforgiveable? thank you so
much..

Answer:

There are two possibilities with regard to what you heard. One
possibility is that you are misunderstanding a Mormon teaching. What the
Book of Mormon does claim is that some time soon after his resurrection,
Jesus came to the New World and preached repentance and baptism for the
forgiveness of sins. If you read the Book of Mormon, you will get the
idea from the context that the place Jesus came to is somewhere in Central
America.

Actually, it would be easy to make the mistake I believe you have made (or
else someone who told you) because the Book of Mormon has people teaching
about Jesus, and preaching repentance and baptism for forginess of sins as
early as about 544 BC, and even more clearly in the second century BC.
This is one of the most obvious mistakes in the Book of Mormon. I am
attaching a file which is a summary of the content in the different books
in the Book of Mormon. This excellent summary of the Book of Mormon was
written by a friend, Joe Fields of Tuscon, Arizona.

A second possibility is that what you heard is a reference, not to a
specific Mormon teaching, but to what is said in 1 Peter 3:17,18. This
passage says about Jesus, “He was put to death in the body but made alive
in the Spirit, in which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison
who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while
the ark was being built. This is one of the more obscure and difficult to
understand passages in the New Testament. I myself am not sure exactly
what it means. However, almost certianly it is not about Jesus traveling
back in time to preach to long-dead people.

The sin which leads to death is to, once being saved, turn one’s back on
Jesus, and return to a life of full-blown sin. This is variously
described in the New Testament as “A dog returning to its vomit.” (2 Peter
2:22), where Peter talks about people who, “having escaped the corruption
of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are again
entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they
were at the beginning.” Another description of this state is found in
Hebrews 10:26-31, which describes a person who “deliberately keeps on
sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth.” For this person, “no
sacrifice for sin is left.” This person “has trampled the Son of God
under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant
that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace.” Hebrews
6:4-8 says that “It is impossible” for such people “to be brought back to
repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all
over again, and subjecting him to public disgrace.”

I believe that there is no specific single act which can be described as a
sin which leads to death. The sin which leads to death is to turn our
back on Jesus, to insult the Spirit of Grace. Although we cannot tell
when a person has reached this point, when we turn our backs on God, he
will eventually take away the Holy Spirit from us.

Again, there is no particular sin which is unforgiveable. If Paul can be
forgiven of murdering Christians and of blaspheming God, then there is no
single sin which is unforgiveable. The only unforgiveable sin is to fall
away, to deliberately continue in willful sin over a period of time. This
is the unforgiveable sin.

Based on this, the sin which does not lead to death is the sin that is
repented of, and forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. You may be
aware of the Roman Catholic doctrine concerning mortal and venial sins.
The former are not forgiveable, while the latter are removed through time
in Pergutory. This doctrine is not supported by the Bible. It is false
doctrine.

John Oakes