All About Mormons

Many wonder about life after death. The next life isn’t about fire, brimstone, pitch forks, and daemons. It isn’t about white-robbed harp players sitting on clouds for all eternity. The next life is far more awesome and inspiring than any mortal mind can imagine. It’s an eternal journey of personal progress, personal improvement. It’s about becoming more like God Himself. Beginning this journey comes at a cost; it requires a very great and very specific commitment.

What happens at death?

At death, the human spirit and body are separated. The spirit goes to a comfortable place after death. Most spirits will not have made the specific commitment required to continue on their eternal journey, mostly because they were never taught how. They will be stuck. Those few spirits who learned how to make this commitment while alive on Earth will eagerly share what they know. God Himself will also see to it that every one of His children has every opportunity to commit themselves to eternal progress. Given this opportunity, each spirit will choose the level of commitment with which they are most comfortable, according to their own desires and passions.

Jesus Christ will be the final judge.

The Day of Judgment

Once all have had the opportunity to commit themselves to eternal progress, whether while alive on Earth or after death, God will judge each spirit individually. He’ll look at the things we did on our own while alive on Earth, back when we were not in His immediate presence and under His immediate influence. He’ll judge us based on the knowledge we possessed. He’ll also evaluate our level of commitment to eternal progress. How much do we really want it? How much are we willing to sacrifice for it? Only God can know our hearts completely; His judgment will be entirely just.

A very few of God’s spirit creations will have completely abandoned Him. These few will be cast out of His presence. Their progress will be barred or damned. Their spirits will spend eternity in a place of darkness.

The vast majority of God’s children, however, will demonstrate at least some commitment to continued personal progress. For these, God will reconstruct physical bodies. Spirit and body will once again be reunited and will remain united for all eternity. Unlike our frail mortal bodies, these new bodies will be free of all disease and weakness.

Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins.

Though all of God’s children are undeserving, having rejected God’s will in varying degrees, the divine Father has provided a way to pay the spiritual debts we have all incurred through our sins. Because our debts will be paid, the vast majority of us will go to a place of peace and happiness, a place much better than this world. The vast majority of us are going to heaven.

The Final Destination

Some families will demonstrate an extraordinary commitment to eternal progress. They’ll be willing to sacrifice any personal desire or passion that is not in harmony with God’s will. These will feel a strong desire to let their own wills be caught up in and made one with God’s will. Some of these families will be among those few who first committed themselves to eternal progress while still alive on Earth. Most will make the commitment after death, when the opportunity is first presented to them.

The eternal fate of these families will be to spend all of eternity under God’s careful tutelage. They will spend all of eternity obtaining new knowledge and growing in power and glory; it is God Himself that will show them the way. As they grow greater and greater, God will trust them enough to allow them to access His divine power. Under God’s careful direction, they too will be allowed to participate in Creation itself. It will bring God indescribable joy to see that some of His children have evolved to the point that they can be entrusted with such great responsibility. It is to obtain this joy that God first initiated Creation. This process of personal progress and learning will continue for all eternity.

For the most committed of God’s children, then, it turns out that the afterlife is a lot more like a university than a vacation. Who knew?