The Spirit World

[blackstrap]

As I read the current threads and many from the past year,I wonder what the spirit world will be like ie.pre judgement and resurrection. Will there still be debates and opinions and discussions about what really happened? Will we be subject to the persuasions of others or will we be able to access all knowledge as per the NDE experiences? If there are going to be the same endless debates and opinionfests in paradise then perhaps it is better to just move to the sun where the intense heat will drain the energy needed to stir controversy.

[Garden Girl]

I thought that the main work of the Spirit World is missionary work, where everyone will be able to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ... don't think that lends itself to debates, etc., because all have to be able to make the choice to follow Christ, i.e., every knee shall bend and every tongue confess... so that judgment will be fair and just. Our current Gospel Principles manual has Chap 41 titled "The Postmortal Spirit World that gives a description of LDS teaching on this topic.

GG

[Aliwe]

As I read the current threads and many from the past year,I wonder what the spirit world will be like ie.pre judgement and resurrection. Will there still be debates and opinions and discussions about what really happened?

We are "in" this Internet forum now (at least our egos are), but we don't have bodies here. It's just debates and opinions and discussions, no wrassling, no dancing. So if you want to know what it will be like, take a look around.

[CV75]

I wonder what the spirit world will be like ie.pre judgement and resurrection. Will there still be debates and opinions and discussions about what really happened?

I think there is struggle in every level of spirit prison and spirit paradise. In prison it is a struggle against the light, and in paradise it is the struggle to share the light and to progress. Each kind of struggle carries an attitude. In prison it is hate, divisiveness and control, and in paradise it is love, unity and freedom.

How this plays out in debate, opinion and discussion: the hold of prison is in debating (facts), opining (not knowledge) and disputing truth; the power of paradise is in teaching, testifying and inviting truth.

[theplains]

I think there is struggle in every level of spirit prison and spirit paradise. In prison it is a struggle against the light, and in paradise it is the struggle to share the light and to progress. Each kind of struggle carries an attitude. In prison it is hate, divisiveness and control, and in paradise it is love, unity and freedom.

I think a more appropriate word to use might be "bondage".

Doctrine and Covenants 138:49-50 considers the disembodied spirits as being in bondage - "All these and many more,

even the prophets who dwelt among the Nephites and testified of the coming of the Son of God, mingled in the vast

assembly and waited for their deliverance, For the dead had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their

bodies as a bondage".

Looks like those in paradise are suffering to some degree too. Unless they are resurrected first and then sent back to

spirit prison like verses 51 and 52 seem to say.

Regards,

Jim

[Calm]

Suffering....no, feeling limited and looking forward to being able to progress, yes.

[JAHS]

Of course there's the Alma scripture:

"Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world." (Alma 34: 33)

So even though when we die and realize that there is indeed a heaven and hell, that knowledge is somehow not going to make it any easier for us to change who we are, which will no doubt lead to more debates and opinions.

Elder Melvin J. Ballard said,

"Do not let any of us imagine that we can go down to the grave not having overcome the corruptions of the flesh and then lose in the grave all our sins and evil tendencies. They will be with us. They will be with the spirit when separated from the body. So, men won't know any more when they are dead than when they are living, only they will have passed through the change called death. They will not understand the truths of the gospel only by the same process as they understand and comprehend them here. . . . When you die and go to the spirit world, you will labor for years, trying to convert individuals who will be taking their own course. Some of them will repent; some of them will listen. Another group will be rebellious, following their own will and notion, and that group will get smaller and smaller until every knee shall humbly bow and every tongue confess." (Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin J. Ballard, 240, 245)

Elder Neal A. Maxwell made it clear that we continue to walk by faith in the postmortal spirit world:

"We do not now know precisely how God handles things in the spirit world so that life there is an extension of walking by faith. Death does not suddenly bestow upon the disbeliever full awareness of all reality, thereby obviating the need for any faith. Instead, what follows death is a continuum of the basic structure in mortality—until the Judgment Day, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ (see Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10; D&C 76:110). Until then, we 'walk by faith, not by sight' (2 Corinthians 5:7).

(Maxwell, That Ye May Believe, 94)

Edited June 26, 2012 by JAHS

[blackstrap]

So I might be getting a visit from the JWs or find tamborine shakers in the mall on the other side? From the NDE experiences,there seems to be the idea that all knowledge is open to them,that their questions are answered. I suspect,at the least,one will remember who he was in the pre-mortal existence.

[The Nehor]

So I might be getting a visit from the JWs or find tamborine shakers in the mall on the other side?

Yep.

From the NDE experiences,there seems to be the idea that all knowledge is open to them,that their questions are answered.

I admit I do not trust NDE experiences as an indicator of what lies beyond death. If they are actually the Spirit leaving the body then I suspect they are about as accurate and helpful as a newborn dying in the womb and then going back to the PreMortal World to explain what mortality is like. The account would be vague, incomplete, and completely useless in preparing others for mortality. I suppose it might convey something to the person who actually had the experience but even that would be vague and hazy.

I suspect,at the least,one will remember who he was in the pre-mortal existence.

I doubt it. It wouldn't help those in paradise much and would just increase the torment of the damned.

[CV75]

I think a more appropriate word to use might be "bondage".

Doctrine and Covenants 138:49-50 considers the disembodied spirits as being in bondage - "All these and many more,

even the prophets who dwelt among the Nephites and testified of the coming of the Son of God, mingled in the vast

assembly and waited for their deliverance, For the dead had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their

bodies as a bondage".

Looks like those in paradise are suffering to some degree too. Unless they are resurrected first and then sent back to

spirit prison like verses 51 and 52 seem to say.

Regards,

Jim

Yes, I agree--thank you!

[Lightbearer]

I think the spirit world will be much like is indicated here:

"Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life. And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow. And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of the wicked, yea, who are evil—for behold, they have no part nor portion of the Spirit of the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works rather than good; therefore the spirit of the devil did enter into them, and take possession of their house—and these shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and this because of their own iniquity, being led captive by the will of the devil. Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection."

(Book of Mormon | Alma 40:11-14)

I do not think there will be any debating in paradise, or spirit prison. I think that there will be many who accept the Gospel in the spirit world, but I think there will also be those who will be blinded by the devil because they will be in his power. But I do not believe there will be those of other faiths doing Missionary work.

[fatherofone]

there probably won't be much debate about life after death

[The Nehor]

there probably won't be much debate about life after death

I thought that and then I read one of C.S. Lewis's stories that had a materialist ghost going around telling all the other spirits that is no life after death and the whole is a delusion. At first I chuckled. Then I wondered. Now I believe it is actually likely that there are materialist spirits. People are crazy including me.

[blackstrap]

I thought that and then I read one of C.S. Lewis's stories that had a materialist ghost going around telling all the other spirits that is no life after death and the whole is a delusion. At first I chuckled. Then I wondered. Now I believe it is actually likely that there are materialist spirits. People are crazy including me.

I had a similar thought regarding Chris Hitchens. At first hearing of his death,I thought," well,now he knows" ,but currently I think it is possible he is wondering just when his neurons will quit firing.

[fatherofone]

I had a similar thought regarding Chris Hitchens. At first hearing of his death,I thought," well,now he knows" ,but currently I think it is possible he is wondering just when his neurons will quit firing.

lol guess that is possible