These posts on Repentance are best read in order beginning with Repentance: Introduction. At the bottom of each post is a link to the next post. This is another postscript on repentance.
I have been thinking a lot lately about some departed friends. Their obituaries described them as active church members, kind and loving, having held many callings in the church. They were noted as being loving husbands, fathers and grandfathers or loving wives, mothers, and grandmothers.
I would describe them as good friends whom I loved and enjoyed. Each was the kind of person we would describe in the church as nice people or good people. And I wonder in what category¹ are they in the spirit world?
Knowing them very well, and having spent many hours with them over the years, I knew they were not very familiar with the words of God, and were not desirous of searching them. Each had been raised in the church and had remained active and involved. They were good neighbors and thought highly of by others. We spent many enjoyable years together, reminiscing, laughing, talking, traveling and sharing.
But try as best I could, I was not able to teach them much about the word of God, about the Book of Mormon prophecies and about repentance. They just didn't seem to understand the language. Like with any language, the tongue of angels requires that both participants know or are learning the language, in order to communicate even a little. And, with the exception of one friend, they did not seem to desire to learn what the Lord had to say.
I think they believed they knew, and could recite the traditional gospel, but the word of God seemed to have very little impact in their lives, except perhaps what they believed and gave lip service to. Most figured they were good people, and while they had made mistakes, because the Lord loved them, they would be welcomed into His presence.
What happens to these good and decent friends, and all the others like them, in the spirit world? I wanted to know, and so I asked the Lord. He did answer me by directing me to what He has already revealed (a lot), and based on what He has revealed the answer was quite clear. There are many scriptures, each adding something to the present picture.
Alma inquired of the Lord about the space between death and the resurrection. He describes his answer in Alma Chapter 40. He said that "concerning this space of time, what becometh of the souls of men is the thing which I have inquired diligently of the Lord to know; and this is the thing of which I do know" (Alma 40:9).
He further states "Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the ¹spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life" (Alma 40:11).
This is what we normally hear and hope for, in addition to meeting departed loved ones and reuniting with others. But then Alma says "that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow" (Alma 40:12). He does not define who the righteous are.
Nor does he define the wicked when he says, "that the spirits of the wicked, yea, who are evil--for behold, they have no part nor portion of the Spirit of the Lord; for behold they chose evil works rather than good; therefore the spirit of the devil did enter into them, and take possession of their house--and they shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and this because of their own iniquity, being led captive by the will of the devil" (Alma 40:13 emphasis added).
Alma further says that he learned that "the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection" (Alma 40:14).
Except perhaps for those spirits who have a portion of the Spirit of the Lord, there seems to be no middle ground in what was revealed to Alma. It is either the righteous or the wicked. Who are righteous spirits and who are wicked spirits according to the Lord? Does He tell us? Are my deceased friends' spirits righteous, in a state of happiness, or wicked and in outer darkness where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth? In which camp are my friends?
He has revealed elsewhere that we can know the righteous from the wicked. He even defines the righteous and the wicked. This He does in many scriptures, but one in particular is quite clear.
"And the whole world lieth in sin, and groaneth under darkness and under the bondage of sin.
And by this you may know they are under the bondage of sin, because they come not unto me.
For whoso cometh not unto me is under the bondage of sin.
And whoso receiveth not my voice is not acquainted with my voice, and is not of me" (D&C 84:49-52).
And by this you may know the righteous from the wicked, and that the whole world groaneth under sin and darkness even now" (D&C 84:49-53 emphasis added).
The righteous He describes as those
1) who are acquainted with His voice and receiveth His voice,
2) come unto Him, and
3) are not under the bondage of sin.
The wicked He describes as those
1) who are receiveth not His voice, because they are not acquainted with His voice,
2) they come not unto Him, and
3) they are under the bondage of sin and are in darkness.
Remember Amulek telling us to not procrastinate the day of our repentance (turn to and come unto our Savior), because "that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world" (Alma 34:34).
Those who are righteous in this life (repenting and relying wholly upon Christ's merits) are those who are righteous in the spirit world.
And those who are wicked in this life (not repenting and relying on their own goodness) are those who are wicked in the spirit world.
This applies to my friends. They have chosen either Good or Evil, and are therefore defined by their choice. They cannot say they didn't know or were not taught, because they had all that God had chosen to reveal, and treated it lightly. Or in other words, did not hear His voice because they were not acquainted with His voice.
My friends are not those who died without the law or were not like Joseph's brother Alvin (D&C 137:5-8), but they had revealed to God their works according the "desires of their hearts" for their entire lives (D&C 137:9).
But there is more. Joseph F. Smith's vision of spirits kept in prison at the time of Noah, which is recorded as D&C 138, adds more to picture. In this revelation we learn that there are, like Alma saw, two categories of spirits, the righteous and the wicked, but in this vision President Smith saw that the righteous spirits were teaching Christ's Gospel to the spirits kept in prison, who were willing to be taught, "who died in their sins, without a knowledge of the truth, or in transgression, having rejected the prophets."
In this vision, the righteous are the teachers, and the wicked are those who have the opportunity to be taught. I would include here those who may have a portion of the Lord's Spirit. We learn that many of these spirits were taught and repented of their sins, were baptized vicariously and received their reward.
But there is a major difference between those who were repenting (came unto Christ) when they died, and those who were not repenting (came not unto Christ) when they died, but did repent in the world of spirits.
For those who are righteous when they die, Christ paid the demands of justice for them, and they will be found guiltless at judgment following their resurrection (3 Nephi 27:13-21).
For those who die in their sins, who die under the bondage of sin, but repent, pay the demands of justice. Read this carefully:
"The dead who repent will be redeemed,
through obedience to the ordinances of the house of God,
And after they have paid the penalty of their transgressions,
and are washed clean,
shall receive a reward
according to their works,
for they are heirs of salvation" (D&C 138:58-59 emphasis added).
Heirs of salvation are all those except Sons of Perdition. See D&C Sections 76 and 88.
If they needed to, could my friends repent in the spirit world, and if so would they have to pay "the penalty for their transgressions" while those who were repenting and not under the bondage of sin, when they died, be found guiltless because Christ would pay the penalty for them? From what has been revealed, I would answer yes. Amulek was right by admonishing us to not procrastinate the day of our repentance!
Many other scriptures add to the picture, but Alma's description of the chains of hell is worth noting because it adds to what the Lord means by those who hear His voice. He says:
"And now Alma began to expound these things unto him, saying: It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God;
nevertheless they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of his word which he doth grant unto the children of men,
according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him.
And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word;
and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word,
until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full.
And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word
until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and
then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction.
Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell" (Alma 12:9-11 emphasis added). Note the link in Alma 40:13 to "lead captive" by the will of the devil. It seems that Alma describes is no middle ground--it is more or nothing.
If they die in this state, they die under the bondage of sin, they die in their sins, and would be described as wicked. These both Alma and Joseph F. Smith saw in the spirit world and described them as wicked.
The phrase 'bondage of sin' coupled with being "saved from our sins" link to help understand what being under the bondage of sins mean. Again Alma adds more.
"For, said he, I have repented of my sins, and
have been redeemed of the Lord;
behold I am born of the Spirit.
And the Lord said unto me:
Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea,
born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness,
being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters;
And thus they become new creatures; and
unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God" (Mosiah 27:24-26 emphasis added).
These are the "righteous" and they are called righteous because they have been changed by God from their lost and fallen and carnal state to a state of righteousness.
'...our awful, sinful and polluted state,' is a state of being under the law and not under grace. Hence the need to be born again and become new creatures, a state where we find ourselves under His righteousness
Not under the law, but under grace.
"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:3-4).
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Galations 2:20-21).
Could I say of my friends that because of their unbelief they "remained so ever after, even in their carnal and sinful state" (Mosiah 26:4)?
Everything He teaches leads to this conclusion. His Gospel (3 Nephi 27:13-21); His teachings on Justice and Mercy (Alma 42); His teachings on Death and Hell (2 Nephi 2); and His teachings on repentance. Everything, even in death, is linked to repenting now!