Memo #12
May 1, 2001 (blogged September 1, 2013)
To: All Pratt Adults & selected others
Re: “What Comes Next?”
From Dad, Grandpa etc. Richard M. Pratt
In the memory of man, three
questions have intrigued them:
1. Did we exist before our birth?
2. Why are we here on earth?
3. Where will we go at death?
All of these have been answered by God through His prophets.
Previous memos have answered the first two questions. Briefly reviewing, we did
exist before birth as spirit children of our Heavenly Parents, and we are here
on earth to get a physical body and to prove ourselves. This physical body,
after the changes wrought by death and resurrection, will become immortal and
those who obey all of the laws will even be like God and will be the sons and daughters
of God. Indeed, they will be Gods. Why shouldn’t children become like their
parents?
“Now to the subject, “What happens at death?” Simply, our
spirit bodies leave our physical bodies which return to the earth from whence
they came while our spirits return to the God who gave them life. Or as the
Prophet said:
Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the
resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the
spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea,
the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that
God who gave them life.
And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those
who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called
paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all
their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.
And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of the wicked,
yea, who are evil—for behold, they have no part nor portion of the Spirit of
the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works rather than good; therefore the
spirit of the devil did enter into them, and take possession of their house—and
these shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and
wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and this because of their own iniquity, being
led captive by the will of the devil.
Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in
darkness, and a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of
the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the
righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection.”
Alma 40:11-14
All mankind is free in this life to choose or as the Prophet
Nephi says:
“Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all
things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose
liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose
captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he
seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.
And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the
great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto
his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit.”
2 Nephi 2: 27-28
Many other prophets in all the
scriptures have spoken on the subject, but these must suffice for this brief
page.
In summary, then: Those who have
not chosen the way of life and are not prepared when they die go into a
condition called darkness and not knowing what to expect, wait there in an
awful fear as well as the righteous in Paradise who, knowing what to expect and
prepared, both wait for the resurrection and final judgement. But wait, all is
not lost for the disobedient for in their state of misery, they will be visited
by those from Paradise and they will teach these who are in the grasp of Satan
how to escape. As they refused the teachings of Christ while on earth, now in
their miserable condition, they will have another chance to accept Him and
receive a glorious resurrection and a judgement that will bring them a certain
amount of eternal happiness, but not what they could have had if they had obeyed
God while they were in mortal life.
First as to the resurrection;
Those in Paradise will be resurrected at the Coming of Jesus Christ which is
very soon. And those who accept Jesus in their misery will, soon after, also be
resurrected. And during that long wait, they, too, will learn by their own
sufferings what Jesus suffered. In other words, having refused His sufferings
for their sins, they must pay for their own sins by suffering pain and anguish
as He did.
Now to try and clarify—at the
Coming of the Savior, there will be three groups of people:
1. Those who accepted Jesus while in the flesh and obeyed
His commandments.
2. This group will be the wicked who accepted Jesus in the
Spirit World after their death.
3. And these are the wicked who insist on paying for their
own sins by their own suffering.
The first group will be resurrected
at Christ’s coming; the second group shortly thereafter, while the stubborn
last allotment will have to wait 1,000 years until they are cleansed of their
sins by their own suffering. Finally, every knee will bend and every head will
bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is their Savior and there is
none other.
Then comes the final judgement. God
has prepared at least 3 planets for these 3 groups called, Celestial,
Terrestrial and Telestial. To give we mortals some idea of what they are like,
the Celestial is likened to the sun, the Terrestrial to the moon and the
Telestial to the stars. Any sensible person given a choice of three presents so
compared would, of course, choose the Celestial or Sun.
We know that this earth, after it is
cleansed and purified by fire, will become the Celestial Kingdom. That is what
the Lord meant when He said: “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit
the earth.” Matthew 5:5
Those who refused Christ in
mortality but accepted Him after death, will be placed in a Terrestrial sphere.
While those who resisted to the end and payed for their own sins will be on a
Telestial planet, which, even there, will be more glorious than man can
imagine.
Those of the higher kingdoms may
visit and will govern the lower glories, but the lower can never visit the
higher for they, like a fish out of water, would perish. And God has promised
that none of us will ever cease to exist.
There will be stubborn ones who
will refuse all three glories and will be cast out into outer darkness to dwell
with Satan eternally in Hell (outer darkness). But I have no fear that any of
us will be that stupid.
But I am concerned that quite a few
of our family need to make some changes in their lifestyle or be separated from
the family and be eternally denied a family.
After baptism, there are other
ordinances and covenants to be made with God in His Holy Temples by men holding
authority to do so. This I testify in the Name of Jesus Christ Amen.
My love to each of you,
Dad, Grandpa, brother, uncle,
friend etc.
Richard Marden Pratt
ANY OF YOU WHO SAVED YOUR MEMOS MAY WANT TO GO TO THIS ONE
AND RE read the part titled “Miracle on Ice” the true incident in the lives of
Gibb and Sheryl’s boys, Dustin & Kevin Van Orman as told by Kevin.
God lives his plan is real for each one of us. He put us
here to help each other make it safely back to him and we can!
