The Taste of Death

The living sometimes fear death. Depending on their beliefs about the afterlife, they may see it as a great unknown or an oblivion. Jesus Christ broke the bands of death when he passed through. (Mos 15:8) The use of the word bands being a reference to the bondage of being in a state without a body. Jesus ended the bondage by providing the gift of resurrection and the possibility of redemption.

There are two deaths: a physical one and a spiritual one. Jesus said that those who die “in me” with faith in his promised resurrection “shall not taste of death for it shall be sweet unto them.” (D&C 42:46) The two deaths is explained in the Book of Mormon Alma chapter 42 which book was prepared to bring to the world additional information about life and death. The first point is that the soul can never die. Human beings have a spiritual element called the soul that was made by God and is eternal, it cannot die. Adam and Eve were placed on the earth as the first humans in an eternal state where they could not die. However, the tree of knowledge of good and evil was also placed in the garden of Eden and they were commanded not to eat of it. When they did eat of that tree, they were changed so that their physical body could die. All humans brought into this world have a physical body that can die.

Adam and Eve were also cut off from the presence of the Lord when they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge. In this way they experienced spiritual death. To the extent that you and I have lost our connection to our Heavenly Father and Mother, we also experience spiritual death. Jesus Christ redeems us from our state of disharmony with God by offering himself as proxy to take the punishment for our sins and mistakes. Through his gift we can be made whole and regain the perfection that is required to be in God’s presence.

Those who do not accept Jesus Christ’s gift whether through rebellion to his cause or to apathy regarding the truths of redemption will taste the “sting of death.” No one will be denied access to the knowledge of Jesus Christ as a Redeemer. How can death taste “bitter?” (D&C 42:47) Death is a change brought about by the corruption of the physical body due to disease or injury. In death, the soul loses it’s vehicle for interaction and becomes a silent not un-sentient bystander. This loss seems bitter to all who have experienced the sights, sounds and sensations of physical life on earth who have no hope of regaining those sensations.

As in life, your perception of reality greatly influences how you understand and explain events that occur to you. In death, many are confused by the fact that they are still sentient because they were taught in mortality that they will sleep or be reduced to oblivion. According to one account, “There is a heightened spiritual sensitivity that comes from being dead that I had. Never anticipated or heard of before. I knew what everyone was thinking. Actually, it was greater than just knowing what they were thinking. I also knew every detail of their lives. I knew if they were good people or bad, if they were honest or corrupt, and I knew every act that had brought them to that state. It wasn’t something I felt or could see, it was just knowledge that was in me. What was more interesting to me was that I felt no judgement of them. I simply knew these things. It was like knowing a rose is red…it is just the way that flower is.” (Pontius)

I will end with the words of God himself for you to ponder. I know it seems odd to hear Him speak, but these are his words exactly and you can take it or leave it.

D&C 29:41 “Wherefore, I, the Lord God, caused that he should be cast out from the Garden of Eden, from my presence, because of his transgression, wherein he became spiritually dead, which is the first death, even that same death which is the last death, which is spiritual, which shall be pronounced upon the wicked when I shall say: Depart, ye cursed.

42 But, behold, I say unto you that I, the Lord God, gave unto Adam and unto his seed, that they should not die as to the temporal death, until I, the Lord God, should send forth angels to declare unto them repentance and redemption, through faith on the name of mine Only Begotten Son.

43 And thus did I, the Lord God, appoint unto man the days of his probation—that by his natural death he might be raised in immortality unto eternal life, even as many as would believe;

44 And they that believe not unto eternal damnation; for they cannot be redeemed from their spiritual fall, because they repent not;

45 For they love darkness rather than light, and their deeds are evil, and they receive their wages of whom they list to obey.”

Pontius, John. Visions of Glory. Cedar Fort. 2012.