Bruce R. Mcconkie And Mormon Doctrine

[jwhitlock]

I think the following on the "Second Chance Theory" is his personal interpretation and is incorrect even though he supports it with (or rather, derives it from) scripture:

Here's a quote from p.686 that is printed in italics in the book to emphasize it:

Salvation for the dead is limited expressly to those who do not have opportunity in this life to accept the gospel but who would have taken the opportunity had it come to them.

He seems to base much of this on D&C 128:5 - which only talks about those who die without a knowledge of the gospel. The quote above is an opinion extrapolated from the scripture and stated as fact. There are far too many complications to "opportunities" people have of receiving the gospel in this life to make the narrow kind of generalization he does here. He does go on further in this entry on "Second Chance Theory" to qualify it a bit, but it still comes across in a very hard line manner.