Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Memo #12 (written May 1, 2001)

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!


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