Alma 40 :11
Now,
concerning the state of the soul between death and the
resurrection--Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that
the spirits 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.
Harold B. Lee
“Then
shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall
return unto God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7). What does it mean to
return to that God who gave us life? I had a call from someone who was
disturbed about that question. He said, “Now, does that mean all the
wicked will return back into the presence of God? How shall they be
worthy to stand in the presence of the Lord? Now, how could that be
possible?” Well, that started me on a bit of thinking, and then I found
the prophet Alma explaining to his son Corianton this same matter. You
will find in the fortieth chapter of Alma how Alma explained this matter
to his son Corianton. He said: “Now, concerning the state of the soul
between death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto
me by an angel, that the spirits 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). Now you note the difference? In one place it suggests that
we shall enter into the very presence of; In the next place it says
that we shall go home to that God who gave us life.
In discussing this
matter I have found the quotation from President Brigham Young contained
in his Discourses, which says: “[The scripture] reads that the spirit
goes to God who gave it. Let me render this scripture a little plainer;
when the spirits leave their bodies they are in the presence of our
Father and God, they are prepared then to see, hear and understand
spiritual things. But where is the spirit world?” He answers by saying
this:
“If we go back
to our mother country, the States, we there find the righteous, and we
there find the wicked; if we go to California, we there find the
righteous and the wicked, all dwelling together; and when we go beyond
this veil, and leave our bodies which were taken from mother earth, and
which must return, our spirits will pass beyond the veil; we go where
both Saints and sinners go; they all go to one place.
“If
the wicked wish to escape from his presence, they must go where he is
not, where he does not live, where his influence does not preside. To
find such a place is impossible, except they go beyond the bounds of
time and space.” (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe
[Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1941], pp. 376-77.)
As
I understand what President Young is saying, when we go home to God, it
is just like going back to our home country. We may not go into the
presence of the governor of the state where we live, but we will go to
the home country, and there we shall find our level among the people
with whom we are most accustomed to associate. (The Teachings of Harold
B. Lee, pp. 57- 58)
Joseph Fielding Smith
These
words of Alma as I understand them, do not intend to convey the thought
that all spirits go back into the presence of God for an assignment to a
place of peace or a place of punishment and before him receive their
individual sentence. “Taken home to God,” (Compare Ecclesiastics 12:7.)
simply means that their mortal existence has come to an end, and they
have returned to the world of spirits, where they are assigned to a
place according to their works with the just or with the unjust, there
to await the resurrection. “Back to God” is a phrase which finds an
equivalent in many other well known conditions. For instance: a man
spends a stated time in some foreign mission field. When he is released
and returns to the United States, he may say, “It is wonderful to be
back home”; yet his home may be somewhere in Utah or Idaho or some other
part of the West. (Answers to Gospel Questions, 2: 84)
George Q. Cannon
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. . . . Solomon, makes such a similar
statement: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the
spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” The same idea is frequently
expressed by the Latter-day Saints. (Gospel Truths, p. 73.)
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