Conclusion

In his conclusion, Vogel questions "whether ancient American cultures could have debated Universalism in a manner that would have been meaningful to those in early nineteenth-century America" (p. 47). However, the idea of universal salvation was not born in the nineteenth century, nor anywhere close to that lime. Vogel himself acknowledges that "universal salvation was debated as early as the second century" (p. 27 n. 8). He acknowledges that Clement of Alexandria and Origen, in the second and third centuries respectively, "held the possibility of even Satan being restored" (p. 27 n. 8). But the idea of universal salvation was around far earlier than this. Some of our earliest extant writings attest to it. Carved on the wall of the tomb of Nefer-hotep at Thebes (Tomb No. 50), dating to the reign of Hor-em- heb (about 1349-1319 B.C.), is a text that sets forth the ancient Egyptian belief that, upon death, all find a fulfillment of the good thing s of this life. Regarding the peaceful place to which the Egyptians believed that the soul goes after death. in a sacred writing entitled "The Good Fortune of the Dead," we find it written, " All our kinsfolk rest in it since the first day of time.

They who are to be, for millions of millions. will all have come to it. .. . There exists not one who fails to reach yon place . ... Welcome safe and sound!" Early Zoroastrianism likewise contained the idea of universal salvation. There are also Old Testament passages which have been interpreted as authority for the idea of universal salvation. These would have been familiar to Lehi and his descendants as part of the brass plates taken to the New World. which were part of the Nephite culture (I Nephi 19:21-23; Alma 37:3-4). It is not surprising. therefore, that ancient American cultures, or any others for that matter, have discussed and debated universal salvation. After all, "Salvation may truly be said to be in some sense the ultimate concern of all religion , even those religions which do not envisage the need of a savior apart from man himself." And by all religion , we certainly include the Jewish faith from its inception, and the religions of ancient American cultures.

Vogel's method of attempting to show that the Book of Mormon contains rhetoric directed against the Universalist church of the 1820s and 1830s is plainly not sound. Vogel simply takes the position that any Book of Mormon scripture which is inconsistent with the idea of universal salvation must be nineteenth-century anti-Universalist rhetoric. We can see the fallacy of Vogel's reasoning clearly when it is applied to other ancient texts. Certainly, Vogel would not claim that all Bible passages that are inconsistent with the idea of universal salvation amount to nineteenth-century anti-Universalist rhetoric. Nor should he.