The spirits of all men… are taken home to that God who gave them life] Alma’s language is similar to that of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Both of these scriptural writers are speaking in broadest terms, and their statements should not be interpreted to mean that the spirit, at the time of death, goes into the immediate presence of the Lord.
President Brigham Young explained that to speak of the spirit returning to the God who gave it means that “when the spirits leave their bodies they are in the presence of our Father and God” in the sense that they “are prepared to see, hear and understand spiritual things” (JD 3:368). To go into the “presence of God” is not necessarily to be “placed within a few yards or rods, or within a short distance of his person” (Orson Pratt, JD 16:365).
President George Q. Cannon explained: “Alma, when he says that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body… are taken home to that God who gave them life, ’ has the idea doubtless, in his mind that our God is omnipresent- not in His own personality but through His minister, the Holy Spirit. He does not intend to convey the idea that they are immediately ushered into the personal presence of God. He evidently uses that phrase in a qualified sense.” (Gospel Truth, p. 58.)
“As for my going into the immediate presence of God when I die,” President Heber C. Kimball observed, “I do not expect it, but I expect to go into the world of spirits and associate with my brethren, and preach the Gospel in the spiritual world, and prepare myself in every necessary way to receive my body again, and then enter through the wall into the celestial world” (JD 3:112-13).