Mormon Musings

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

“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

http://www.lds.org/ensign/1993/04/because-i-live-ye-shall-live-also?lang=eng&cid=facebook-shared

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...

We have, reason to have the greatest hope and consolations for our dead of any people on the earth; for we have seen them walk worthily in our midst, and seen them sink asleep in the arms of Jesus… I have a father, brothers, children, and friends who have gone to a world of spirits. They are only absent for a moment. They are in the spirit, and we shall soon meet again. The time will soon arrive when the trumpet shall sound. When we depart, we shall hail our mothers, fathers, friends, and all whom we love who have fallen asleep in Jesus. There will be no fear of mobs, persecutions, or malicious law-suits and arrests; but it will be an eternity of felicity. Joseph Smith,  King Follett Discourse, Journal of Discourses  6:9