Ensign, August 1976, “A New Commandment: Save Thyself and Thy Kindred!”, pg 9; “In what is probably the greatest of all recorded visions, given February 16, 1832, the Prophet saw that those to whom Noah offered the gospel and who were then destroyed in the flood, assuming they repent and accept the gospel in their spirit prison, shall not obtain celestial rest. Theirs is an everlasting terrestrial inheritance because they rejected the truth when it was offered to them in mortality.” – Bruce McConkie
Genesis 6:17; “And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.”
1 Peter 3:18-20; “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”
The passage in First Peter is some of the most hotly debated passages in all the Bible. Some believe Jesus’ spirit went to spirit prison to preach the gospel, but this would contradict what He told the Pharisees in Luke 16:19-31 about a chasm being fixed between those in spirit prison and paradise. Others believe this is in reference to God providing Noah to the inhabitants of the world to warn them of their impending doom which makes more sense.
God had the ability to show grace and preach the gospel long before the cross and He certainly did that through Noah for 120 years while he built the ark. HOWEVER…
When Christians or people in the Bible say that God preached the gospel to individuals like Adam, Enoch or Noah this does NOT carry the same meaning as it does with the Mormons. The Mormons will tell you that these individuals preached Jesus and the atonement from the days of Adam and this just isn’t true.
The prophecies in the OT times allude to Jesus but never mention Him. They mention a Messiah, but not Jesus specifically. The example listed here today is another example of twisting scripture. The Bible never hints that those who died in the days of Noah went to the lowest kingdom of heaven. There’s only one heaven and one hell. You either go to heaven and you’re saved or you’re sent to hell for rejecting God.
This vision Mr. McConkie is referring to is recorded in D&C 76:71-74. The problem with this vision and prophecy is how the Church says you can’t be offered salvation here on earth and reject it and then expect to say yes after you’re dead. Verse 74 shows us how contradictory their teachings are;
“74 Who received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it.”
They’re trying to say they weren’t presented with the gospel but earlier in this discourse of Mr. McConkie he said the gospel was preached to those in the days of Noah. Both statements can’t be right!
As a Bible teacher – I feel compelled to state that the Paradise in that passage of Luke is not heaven. No one went to heaven before Christ – not even Moses. The chasm between the unrepentant and the righteous dead was indeed fixed. But they were still in hell – Abraham’s bosom for the righteous dead. Abraham said he was to be “gathered to his people.” And Christ did, indeed, descend into the lower parts of the earth. In the Hebrew, Paradise means “royal park or garden.” The unrighteous dead went to Gehenna.
http://thevinevigil.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/are-there-two-gospels/