We should acknowledge Alma’s wisdom in asking a good question. We should also gain perspective by the question that is raised. Alma’s curiosity about the spirit world confirms that the Nephite doctrine of salvation and punishment were concerned primarily with the final state of the soul—that is after the resurrection. Although the Nephites mention no division between the degrees of glory, it is apparent from Alma’s question that when the Nephite prophets referred to salvation, they were referring to the celestial kingdom (2 Nephi 10:25, see also Index for “Kingdom of God”). Furthermore, when they were referring to the punishments of the damned, by and large, they were talking about the fate of the sons of Perdition (Alma 12:16-18; Alma 40:26).
This concern with the final state of man is different than many Christian notions of heaven and hell. Many assume that the state of the soul after death is also the final state of man. This notion fails to take into account the importance of the resurrection and the reality that the rewards for the resurrected are different than the rewards for the disembodied spirits. Some Christians, who do not have the benefit of the Book of Mormon and D & C, stumble with the following question: “what happens to the soul after the resurrection? Does it go back to the same ‘heaven’ it just came from or does it go to some other place?”