Alma has it on good authority—an angel of God—where our spirits go when they depart this life. The spirit world has two venues: paradise for the righteous and outer darkness for the unrighteous. Think of the joy in the spirit world for choosing righteousness and obtaining peace and rest. Think of the anguish and fear of those who are consigned to the dark side of the spirit world. We must remember that those who choose evil are truly tenants of a hell-like “spirit prison” until the Resurrection. We need to realize that we are blessed or punished according to our works. The Lord stands ready to bless us if we but choose righteousness.
The scriptures teach us the answers to the grand queries of life: Where do we come from? Where do we go after death? What is our ultimate destiny? Alma’s counsel to his son Corianton lifts us to a fuller understanding of the future stages of human life along the way to perfection. How does one counsel a son (or daughter) who chooses to travel on byways rather than highways, who lapses into unrighteous behavior and misses the mark when it comes to understanding the plain and precious truths of the gospel? Alma’s handling of this delicate situation in the case of his son Corianton is a model of both exactitude as well as compassion. He introduces the dialogue with this charitable understatement “For thou didst not give so much heed unto my words as did thy brother” (Alma 39:2) and then (quoting an angel of God) teaches his son concerning righteousness, death, the spirit world, the Resurrection, and the God-bestowed freedom that mortals have to choose the right. Understanding these doctrines is critical to covenant fidelity.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught: “The great misery of departed spirits in the world of spirits, where they go after death, is to know that they come short of the glory that others enjoy and that they might have enjoyed themselves, and they are their own accusers” (Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith, comp. Alma P. Burton [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1977], 126).
Elder Bruce R. McConkie clarifies many details about the spirit world and the spirit prison:
There are two distinct senses in which the expression spirit prison is used: 1. Since disembodied spirits cannot gain a fulness of joy until their resurrection (D. & C. 93:33–34), they consider their habitation in the spirit world as one of imprisonment, and so the whole spirit world (including both paradise and hell) is a spirit prison. It was to the righteous spirits in prison, those who were in paradise that our Lord preached while his body was in the tomb. (1 Pet. 3:18–21; 4:6; D. & C. 76:73–74).
In the vision of the redemption of the dead, President Joseph F. Smith saw that during his ministry to the spirits in prison, “the Lord went not in person among the wicked and disobedient who had rejected the truth,” but that he went “declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful,” to the vast assemblage of the righteous, for they “had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage.” (Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed., 472–476).
Now that the righteous spirits in paradise have been commissioned to carry the message of salvation to the wicked spirits in hell, there is a certain amount of mingling together of the good and bad spirits. Repentance opens the prison doors to the spirits in hell; it enables those bound with the chains of hell to free themselves from darkness, unbelief, ignorance, and sin. As rapidly as they can overcome these obstacles—gain light, believe truth, acquire intelligence, cast off sin, and break the chains of hell—they can leave the hell that imprisons them and dwell with the righteous in the peace of paradise. (Mormon Doctrine, 2d ed. [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966], 754–755)
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; Those Who Are Righteous Are Received into a State of Happiness; the Spirits of the Wicked … Shall Be Cast out into Outer Da
Alma has it on good authority—an angel of God—where our spirits go when they depart this life. The spirit world has two venues: paradise for the righteous and outer darkness for the unrighteous. Think of the joy in the spirit world for choosing righteousness and obtaining peace and rest. Think of the anguish and fear of those who are consigned to the dark side of the spirit world. We must remember that those who choose evil are truly tenants of a hell-like “spirit prison” until the Resurrection. We need to realize that we are blessed or punished according to our works. The Lord stands ready to bless us if we but choose righteousness.
The scriptures teach us the answers to the grand queries of life: Where do we come from? Where do we go after death? What is our ultimate destiny? Alma’s counsel to his son Corianton lifts us to a fuller understanding of the future stages of human life along the way to perfection. How does one counsel a son (or daughter) who chooses to travel on byways rather than highways, who lapses into unrighteous behavior and misses the mark when it comes to understanding the plain and precious truths of the gospel? Alma’s handling of this delicate situation in the case of his son Corianton is a model of both exactitude as well as compassion. He introduces the dialogue with this charitable understatement “For thou didst not give so much heed unto my words as did thy brother” (Alma 39:2) and then (quoting an angel of God) teaches his son concerning righteousness, death, the spirit world, the Resurrection, and the God-bestowed freedom that mortals have to choose the right. Understanding these doctrines is critical to covenant fidelity.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught: “The great misery of departed spirits in the world of spirits, where they go after death, is to know that they come short of the glory that others enjoy and that they might have enjoyed themselves, and they are their own accusers” (Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith, comp. Alma P. Burton [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1977], 126).
Elder Bruce R. McConkie clarifies many details about the spirit world and the spirit prison:
There are two distinct senses in which the expression spirit prison is used: 1. Since disembodied spirits cannot gain a fulness of joy until their resurrection (D. & C. 93:33–34), they consider their habitation in the spirit world as one of imprisonment, and so the whole spirit world (including both paradise and hell) is a spirit prison. It was to the righteous spirits in prison, those who were in paradise that our Lord preached while his body was in the tomb. (1 Pet. 3:18–21; 4:6; D. & C. 76:73–74).
In the vision of the redemption of the dead, President Joseph F. Smith saw that during his ministry to the spirits in prison, “the Lord went not in person among the wicked and disobedient who had rejected the truth,” but that he went “declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful,” to the vast assemblage of the righteous, for they “had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage.” (Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed., 472–476).
Now that the righteous spirits in paradise have been commissioned to carry the message of salvation to the wicked spirits in hell, there is a certain amount of mingling together of the good and bad spirits. Repentance opens the prison doors to the spirits in hell; it enables those bound with the chains of hell to free themselves from darkness, unbelief, ignorance, and sin. As rapidly as they can overcome these obstacles—gain light, believe truth, acquire intelligence, cast off sin, and break the chains of hell—they can leave the hell that imprisons them and dwell with the righteous in the peace of paradise. (Mormon Doctrine, 2d ed. [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1966], 754–755)