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Dear Gramps, Some say it is somewhat more difficult to accept the Gospel in the spirit world while another school of thought says it would be much easier inasmuch as we would have more knowledge after we pass through the veil. I was wondering which is correct. Paul, Kentucky |
Dear Paul,
When we pass through the veil we are the same person. The mind is of the spirit
and the brain is the physical entity that houses the mind. At death the mind, as
part of the spirit, enters the spirit world. We are the same person as we were
before, with the same likes and dislikes, with the same passions and desires.
The vices of the flesh may not be satisfied in the spirit world. The drunkard
will have the same longing for drink, but no way to satisfy that longing. Will
repentance be easier or more difficult? Who is to say? How can we judge another
even when we are familiar with the person's surroundings? How much more
difficult it would be to try to judge how a person would react to the teachings
of the gospel in an environment that we know nothing about. There are some
thoughts on the subject written by the General Authorities that might be worth
considering--
"So-called deathbed repentance is not part of the divine plan. It is an
attempt to live after the manner of the world during the years of vigor and
virility, and then to gain the rewards of the blessed without ever overcoming
the lusts of the flesh, lusts that, with old age and death, cease to burn in the
mortal soul. Thus Amulek continues: "Do not procrastinate the day of your
repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to
prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life
then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed."
There are no redeeming doctrines, no saving ordinances, no promised kingdoms of
glory for such. Those who reject the gospel in this life -- having heard the
word from the lips of a legal administrator and having been made aware of its
glories and truths -- and who then accept it in the spirit world shall go to the
terrestrial kingdom" (Bruce R. McConkie, A New Witness for the Articles of
Faith, p. 230.)
"There is another question that arises here. If men can hear the
Gospel in the spirit world, can they obey it fully in the spirit world?
Let us look at that a little. Here are the Gospel ordinances. Are
ordinances of any effect? Yes, they are. "Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God."
Just the same as if an alien does not obey the naturalization laws he cannot
become a citizen of the United States. God's house is a house of order.
He has a way of His own, and he that will not accept that way cannot obtain the
blessing. Then can those spirits who hear the Gospel in the spirit world
obey the Gospel fully? Can they believe? Yes. Can they repent? Why not? It
is the soul of man, or the spirit of man in the body, not the body, that
believes. It is the spirit of man in the body that repents. What is it
that obeys the ordinances? Why, the spirit. But these ordinances belong to
this sphere in which we live, they belong to the earth, they belong to the
flesh. Water is an earthly element composed of two gases. It belongs to
this earth. What there is in the spirit world, we know little about. But here is
the water in which repentant believers must be baptized. Can they be baptized in
the spirit world? It appears not" (Charles W. Penrose, Journal of
Discourses, Vol.24, p.96 - p.97.)
Gramps