The Temporal Death and Permanent Resurrection of the Body

Daniel H. Ludlow

The Book of Mormon uses the adjective temporal when referring to the death of the body, and the adjective spiritual when referring to a separation from God because of sin. Concerning the temporal or physical death that will come upon every person who has lived on this earth, President Joseph F. Smith has written:

Every man that is born into the world will die. It matters not who he is, nor where he is, whether his birth be among the rich and the noble, or among the lowly and poor in the world, his days are numbered with the Lord, and in due time he will reach the end. We should think of this. Not that we should go about with heavy hearts or with downcast countenances; not at all. I rejoice that I am born to live, to die, and to live again. . . . I am speaking now of the temporal death, the death of the body. All fear of this death has been removed from the Latter-day Saints. They have no dread of the temporal death, because they know that as death came upon them by the transgression of Adam, so by the righteousness of Jesus Christ shall life come unto them, and though they die they shall live again. Possessing this knowledge, they have joy even in death, for they know that they shall rise again and shall meet again beyond the grave. They know that the spirit dies not at all; that it passes through no change, except the change from imprisonment in this mortal clay to freedom and to the sphere in which it acted before it came to this earth. (Joseph F. Smith, Conference Report, October 1899, p. 70.)

However, every person will be resurrected from this physical death, or, as Amulek phrased it, "all shall be raised from this temporal death. The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form . . . they can die no more; their spirits uniting with their bodies, never to be divided." (Alma 11:42-43, 45.) President Charles W. Penrose has explained the immortal qualities of the resurrected body as follows:

. . . we are told in the Book of Mormon, as well as in the Doctrine and Covenants, that in the resurrection from the dead, when all shall be raised, "every man in his order," the spirit and the body will be joined together, and they will "not die after;" we are there told that the resurrection will come to all mankind, the great and the small, the good and the bad, all races and tribes and beings who are of the seed of Adam will be raised from the dead, and their bodies will not die after. (Conference Report, October 1911, p. 50.)

The exact type of body that resurrected beings will have after the resurrection has not been made clear in the scriptures except that it will be an immortal, glorified body animated by spirit. For example, the Book of Mormon prophets clearly teach that the actual physical body will be resurrected; "both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time." (Alma 11:43). Unfortunately, the teachings in the New Testament concerning a resurrected body have been misinterpreted by many Christian theologians; thus many churches teach that the actual physical body is not resurrected. Concerning the false teachings of many of the Christian churches, President Joseph Fielding Smith has said:

These modern blind teachers of the blind have a very false understanding of what is meant by a spiritual body. They have based their conclusion on the statement that Paul makes that the body is raised a spiritual body, and that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. They cannot conceive in their minds a body raised from the dead, being composed of flesh and bones, quickened by spirit and not by blood. When Paul spoke of the spiritual body he had no reference at all to the spirit body and there they have made their mistake. They have confused the spiritual body, or, in other words, the body quickened by the spirit, with the body of the spirit alone. They think that those who believe in the resurrection of the literal body believe that it shall be raised again, quickened by blood, which is not the case. I want to read another verse from the Doctrine and Covenants: (Sec. 88:15-20, 25-30, quoted.)

After the resurrection from the dead our bodies will be spiritual bodies, but they will be bodies that are tangible, bodies that have been purified, but they will nevertheless be bodies of flesh and bones, but they will not be blood bodies, they will no longer be quickened by blood but quickened by the spirit which is eternal and they shall become immortal and shall never die. (Conference Report, April 1917, pp. 62-63.)

A Companion To Your Study of The Book of Mormon

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