Mormon Musings

In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’  I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night…’   In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation.  Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented…It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty…“If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things- praying, working, teaching, readin...

Every person who dies will go into a world known as the spirit world. Those who have lived righteous lives here in mortality will find there a paradise, a heaven, a place of peace, of joy, of opportunities, of progression. On the other hand, those who have lived wicked lives will find themselves in the spirit world somewhat as if they were in prison. In fact, the prophets speak of that world as a prison. We read in Second Peter that at the time the Savior's body lay in the tomb, his spirit went to the spirit world and opened the doors of the gospel to those who were drowned in the flood at Noah's time 1 Pet. 3:18-20 Those people had been detained from hearing the gospel, being in prison during that long period of time of more than two thousand years. Some people that I have talked to have the concept that when they die that suddenly, their sins will all be washed away, and they will become white and glorious, pure and clean, in somewhat of an automatic or miraculous way. Such i...

Some anxieties are understandable common to life's exit routes leading to death.  Later, when we look back after the trip through the veil, our anxieties will turn out to be naive and even amusing. . After all, in gospel grammar, death is not an exclamation point, merely a comma.  Nevertheless, dying is a new, individual experience.  For those paradise-bound, what seemed to be the grim ballet of separation, with but one pirouette, turns out to be a resplendent separation. Elder Neal A. Maxwell, "Moving in His Majesty & Power", page 91.

Henry Scott Holland (27 January 1847 – 17 March 1918) was Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford

Here is a great talk on the purpose and process of death (by Elder McConkie): https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1976/10/the-dead-who-die-in-the-lord?lang=eng

How strange this fear of death is! We are never frightened at a sunset. George MacDonald

“More painful to me are the thoughts of annihilation than death.  If I have no expectation of seeing my father, mother, brothers, sisters and friends again, my heart would burst in a moment, and I should go down to my grave. “The expectation of seeing my friends in the morning of the resurrection cheers my soul and makes me bear up against the evils of life.  It is like their taking a long journey, and on their return we meet them with increased joy.” Joseph Smith - History of the Church , 5:362

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video?v=1838710831001

There will be no end to the r ipples  of the Resurrection resu lting  from the infinite  Atonement.  Neal A. Maxwell, (Ensign, November 1988, p.   33.)

What is death like? Here is a simple incident as told by Dr. Peter Marshall, chaplain of the United States Senate: In a certain home, a little boy, the only son, was ill with an incurable disease. Month after month the mother had tenderly nursed him, but as the weeks went by and he grew no better, the little fellow gradually began to understand the meaning of death and he, too, realized that soon he was to die. One day his mother had been reading the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and as she closed the book the boy lay silent for a moment, then asked the question that had been laying on his heart. “Mother, what is it like to die? Mother, does it hurt?” Quick tears filled her eyes. She sprang to her feet and fled to the kitchen, supposedly to go get something. She prayed on the way a silent prayer that the Lord would tell her what to say, and the Lord did tell her. Immediately she knew how to explain it to him. She said as she returned from the kitchen, “Ke...

"The name the Savior has given to His Church tells us exactly who we are and what we believe. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior and the Redeemer of the world. He atoned for all who would repent of their sins, and He broke the bands of death and provided the resurrection from the dead. We follow Jesus Christ." —M. Russell Ballard, " The Importance of a Name ",  Liahona and Ensign , November 2011 Topics:  Jesus Christ

...I say to each and every one of you, whether I die in this city, or wherever I die, when my spirit leaves my body, know ye that that tabernacle is of no use, until the command comes for it to be resurrected; and I do not want you to cry over it, nor make any parade, but give me a good place where my bones can rest, that have been weary for many years, and have delighted to labor until nearly worn out; and then go home about your business, and think no more about me, except you think of me in the spirit world, as I do about Jedediah. I have not felt, for one minute, that Jedediah is dead; I feel he is with us just as much as he was a week or a month ago.... I want you all to remember this; when I die, let your flags remain in their proper places, omit your parade, and lay me away where I can rest. And I do not wish any of you to cry and feel badly, but prepare yourselves to fight the devils while you live, and after you pass through the veil; and let me tel...

The veil of mortality (from Mormon Stuff)

Since life is such a brief experience, there must be regular exit routes.   Some easy.   Some hard.   Some sudden.   Others lingering.   Therefore, we cannot presume, even by faith, to block all exits, all the time, and for all people.   Nor, if possessed of full, eternal perspective, would we desire so to do. Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, May 1982, p.22 At funerals our tears are genuine, but not because of termination—rather because of interruption.   Though just as wet, our tears are not of despair, but are of appreciation and anticipation.   Yes, for disciples, the closing of the grave is but the closing of a door which will later be flung open with rejoicing.   Neal A. Maxwell, “All Hell Is Moved” p. 181 As we wait with those who are dying we brush against the veil, as goodbyes and greetings are said almost within earshot of each other. Neal A. Maxwell, “Patience” p. 219 On the other side of the veil, there are perhaps seventy bill...