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Job posed the question of the ages when he asked: “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14).
Jesus Christ answered, saying; “Because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19). Like birth, death is a necessary step in our eternal progression—a doorway that leads into the next life. The written accounts we have of early Latter-day Saints visiting the spirit world stand as a witness that life does not end with death. When the Savior came to earth, died, and rose again, He opened the doors of salvation, breaking the bands of death so that we might live.
Brigham Young said, “Our bodies are composed of visible tangible matter . . . What is commonly called death does not destroy the body, it only causes a separation of spirit and body, but the principle of life, inherent in the native elements, of which the body is composed, still continues” (Discourses of Brigham Young, compiled by John A. Widstoe, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book 1954), pp. 368-369).
Since none of us has died, death remains unfamiliar and unknown. However, a few people have visited the spirit world through near-death experiences, dreams, and visions. We can learn much about death and the next life from their accounts.
We Are Not Left Alone When We Die
One such insight we learn from these accounts is that in the first moments after death, newly-departed spirits are often met by a guide who escorts them to the spirit world.
Lorenzo Dow Young, who had a near-death experience in the early 1800s, said:
“In a moment I was out of the body, and fully conscious that I had made the change. At once, a heavenly messenger, or guide, was by me. I thought and acted as naturally as I had done in the body, and all my sensations seemed as complete without as with it,” he went on to say, “the personage with me was dressed in the purest white. My guide, for so I will call him, said ‘Now let us go’” (Marlene Bateman Sullivan, Gaze Into Heaven; Near-death Experiences in Early Church History,(Springville, Utah: Cedar Fort, Inc., 2013), 27-30).
Tom Gibson, who had a near-death experience following a heart attack, shared that his friend Daniel came to escort him to the spirit world. He wrote:
“The world was different from this one. I’m not sure how I got there . . . I just followed Daniel. It seems as if all I had to do was think of where I wanted to be, and I could go there at any speed I wished. . . We continued walking for a while and I noticed someone on the path ahead of us. . . As we got closer to the individual on the path, I could see and feel that he was a magnificent person, and it was . . . I felt overwhelmed as I looked at him. He was bathed in light. Daniel asked if I knew who that was, and I answered, yes; it was Jesus Christ.
“When we got close to the Savior, I felt a tremendous love emanating from him. It’s hard to describe, but you could feel it all around him, and I felt a similar enormous love for him. I fell at his feet—not because I thought about it, but because I couldn’t stand” (Marlene Bateman Sullivan, Gaze Into Heaven; Near-death Experiences in Early Church History, op cit. pp. 89-90).
It is comforting to know that loved ones or angels will greet us when we leave our mortal bodies and help us know where to go.
To read the full article on LDSLiving, click here.
RhodenaJune 21, 2016
I have had the privilege to be with several people in the hour of their passing. I have stayed with people who are terminally ill, in their home, as an act of kindness. I have felt on each occasion the visits of loved ones, preparing the person for death. I can testify to you, that there are in fact personages that come and help the dying to let go, and move into the spirit world. And it does help them, if we are willing to let them go. With one sweet lady, I felt the heavens open up in her room, a light that could not been seen by the human eyes flooded the room, and love was thicker than the air. Her room had the feeling of holy ground for almost an hour. That was my first experience with palliative care giving. From that day forward, I share with people, that death is literally just a doorway we walk through.
GenesisJune 16, 2016
My mom was dying of cancer and in the last few days before she died she started to see relatives who had departed. She would suddenly speak out and talk to them " aren't you dead?" she would ask the unseen. As she was hovering between life and death i asked her what she was seeing, she told me that she was in some holding room with other people and they were told that they can't come in yet and that they'd have to wait a little longer. For me it is a testimony that there is really life after death.