What Happens When We Die?

Eventually all of us will pass from this life. Our bodies will die and remain on earth, and our spirits will leave and go to a place call the Spirit world. There are two divisions in the spirit world. "the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise...  the souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness..." (Alma 40:12-14) So those who have faith, repent, are baptized, receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end to get to Paradise. Those who were rebellious or didn't do these things will go to Spirit Prison. As I'm sure you can tell from the names, Paradise is a good place, and Spirit Prison is not so good. 

There are many people in this life who never have the opportunity to accept the gospel. Because God loves all of this children he provided a way for everyone to hear about and have the choice to accept it. For those who don't have that opportunity on earth, it is provided in the Spirit World. "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: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;" (1 Pet 3: 18-19). After Christ's death, and before his resurrection he went to the Spirit World and sent missionaries to those who had never heard the gospel. They are then given that choice.

This is one of my favorite doctrines. Heavenly Father does love his children, and he is going to give everyone that chance to return to him.

What Now?

We have now been born onto this earth, and we are in a bit of a mess. Because of the Fall of Adam we are all mortal. At some point, every one of us is going to die, and that means losing the body that we wanted so badly before we came here. We also are free to choose, and because of that every single one of us sins and becomes unclean. In 1 Nephi 10: 21 we read that "...no unclean thing can dwell with God;" This means that we can't return and live with our Heavenly Father again. Physical and Spiritual Death are major obstacles in the Plan of Salvation, and they are something that we cannot overcome by ourselves.

So what is the point of being here? Is there anything that we can do? We can get answers to questions like these from the scriptures. Alma 34: 32 tells us "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors." We are here to prepare ourselves to meet God, by learning from our choices. We have to choose to make the right choices and repent when we make the wrong ones.

Heavenly Father knew the Fall of Adam would happen, so he prepared a way for us to return to him. He planned to sacrifice his Only Begotten Son, and make it possible to Overcome Physical and Spiritual Death. I am grateful for a Father who loves all of us enough to do this and I know this is true.