What Do Mormons Believe Happens After You Die?
Latter-day Saint Doctrine of the Resurrection and Life after Death
Apr 14, 2009
Most religions offer some way to answer the question, “What happens when a person dies?” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints draws on Biblical and modern-day revelation to answer vital questions about spirits, resurrection, and heaven.
LDS Vocabulary - Bodies and Spirits
To understand Latter-day Saint doctrine about the afterlife, a few Mormon vocabulary words must be introduced.
- Body – Latter-day Saints use the word "body" to mean the tangible, physical, flesh-and-bone part of a person. The body is susceptible to hunger, thirst, sickness, injury, and death.
- Spirit – A "spirit" is the immortal, invisible, and intangible part of a person that thinks and feels. All people lived as spirits with God before living on the earth. A spirit dwells in a body while on the earth and goes on living after the body dies.
Separation of Body and Spirit
After the body dies, the spirit goes to a temporary place known as the spirit world. There are two divisions in the spirit world: spirit paradise and spirit prison.
Spirit Paradise
Spirit paradise is reserved for those who have accepted the gospel and lived it faithfully to the best of their ability. Young children who aren’t yet old enough to be held responsible for their actions also go to spirit paradise.
Spirit Prison
Spirit prison is for those who:
- Have rejected the gospel
- Haven’t yet heard the gospel
- Accepted the gospel on earth but weren’t obedient to God’s commandments.
In prison, each spirit will have the opportunity to hear the gospel. Those that accept Christ’s Atonement will be cleansed of their sins and move to spirit paradise to await resurrection. Those that reject Christ's suffering are in essence choosing to suffer for their own sins before being resurrected.
Missionary Work in the Spirit World
New Testament scriptures say that after Christ died, He “went and preached unto the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:19.)
Latter-day Saints believe that Christ organized the righteous spirits in paradise to be missionaries to the spirits in prison.
Vicarious Temple Ordinances for the Dead
The LDS church’s official website reads that “many in the spirit world [will] embrace the gospel." However, they cannot receive priesthood ordinances for themselves because they do not have physical bodies. In holy temples, we have the privilege of receiving ordinances in their behalf.”
Latter-day Saints are baptized, confirmed, endowed, and sealed on behalf of those who have died, and each spirit is free to accept those ordinances or reject them.
Resurrection to a Kingdom of Glory
Resurrection is when the “spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form” (Alma 11:43). LDS church members believe that every person will eventually be resurrected because of Jesus Christ, the first person to be resurrected. Almost everyone, both in spirit paradise and spirit prison, will be resurrected to one of the three kingdoms of heaven.
Latter-day Saint beliefs about the afterlife are fairly complex. Mormons believe that at the death of the body, the spirit goes to a temporary paradise or prison to wait for resurrection. People are resurrected to a kingdom of glory after their wait in this postmortal spirit world.
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