The Unfaithful Shall Not Have Their Names Written in the Book of Remembrance and “Shall Not Find an Inheritance among the Saints of the Most High”
Doctrine and Covenants 85:9–12
9 And all they who are not found written in the book of remembrance shall find none inheritance in that day, but they shall be cut asunder, and their portion shall be appointed them among unbelievers, where are wailing and gnashing of teeth.
10 These things I say not of myself; therefore, as the Lord speaketh, he will also fulfil.
11 And they who are of the High Priesthood, whose names are not found written in the book of the law, or that are found to have apostatized, or to have been cut off from the church, as well as the lesser priesthood, or the members, in that day shall not find an inheritance among the saints of the Most High;
12 Therefore, it shall be done unto them as unto the children of the priest, as will be found recorded in the second chapter and sixty-first and second verses of Ezra.
President Joseph Fielding Smith wrote:
“The closing verses of this revelation [D&C 85:9–12] state that all those who are not found written in the book of remembrance, shall have no inheritance in that day. Their portion shall be with the unbelievers, where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth [see D&C 85:9]. ‘And they who are of the High Priesthood, whose names are not found written in the book of the law, or that are found to have apostatized, or to have been cut off from the church, as well as the lesser priesthood, or the members, in that day shall not find an inheritance among the saints of the Most High’ [D&C 85:11]. It is stated [in D&C 85:12] that with them it will be done as it was to the people in the days of Ezra after the return from Babylonian captivity. At that time the Lord said through his prophet:
“‘These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood’ (Ezra 2:62).
“The members of the Church today should take warning from this which is written and keep themselves prepared by their faithful adherence to the principles of the gospel, and be true to their covenants, so that when that day shall come, if they are here to share in it, they will not be found like these Jews in the days of Ezra, but will have their names written in the book of remembrance.”
(Church History and Modern Revelation, 2 vols. [1953], 1:352.)
