“A Redemption from an Endless Sleep”
The spirit body is eternal and cannot die. Even if there had been no resurrection from the dead-in which case, as Jacob reminds us, all would have become devils and angels to the devil (see 2 Nephi 9:8-9)-even then the spirits of men and women, so far as we now know, would have forever remained alive. Moroni seems to be speaking here in figurative language. There is no sleep at the time of death, nor would the spirits of mankind have remained literally in “an endless sleep.” Had there been no atoning sacrifice and thus no resurrection from the dead, the physical body would have slept, that is, remained in the grave. This is the same sense as that in which Paul speaks of Jesus becoming the “firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20), that is, the first to overcome death and come forth from the gave.
References
