(Important Note: In view of the different methodologies (exegesis, eisegesis or hermeneutics) for the translation and interpretation of the scriptures, notably the Bible, the interpretations used in this post are clear, straightforward, intelligible and coherent and therefore support and/or validate the uniformity and totality - not any selective literalism - of the scriptures and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.)
First of all, as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I believe in the literal and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ and not a symbolic and figurative one as most, if not all other Christians believe. The Bible is not ambivalent or inconclusive about this truth because Jesus himself proclaimed and divulged it to His disciples who also had at least a vague understanding and knowledge of Christ’s true nature and identity. Apparently some of them believed that Jesus was exclusively a spirit, even when He appeared to them in body after His resurrection.
“But [the disciples] were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.” (Luke 24:37)
“And [Jesus] said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.” (Luke 24:38-40).The prophet Zachariah also prophesied about this corporeality of Christ after His resurrection:
“And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” (Zach. 13:6)And from The Book of Mormon:
And it came to pass that the multitude went forth, and thrust their hands into his side, and did feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet; and this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come. (3 Nephi 11:15)And if we wonder how Jesus will appear in the Second Coming, Paul gives us a clue and hint citing the moment of Christ's ascension:
Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts 1:11 Emphasis mine)The "same Jesus" who dwelt and ministered among them was taken up and "shall so come in like manner." The people of Galilee did not see a spirit, they saw a corporeal Jesus.
Part two of this subject deals with another puzzle that, again, most people - even ministers and theologians - struggle to answer. When Jesus rose on the third day, Mary Magdalene and others were there to anoint His body as was the custom. But when Mary Magdalene was about to touch the resurrected Jesus, He said to her:
“... Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” (John 20:17 - Emphasis mine)When Jesus said that He has not yet ascended to His Father, a couple of issues arise:
One is the support for the LDS doctrine of the Father and Son being separate as corroborated by Joseph Smith's First Vision in which the Father and Son appeared as separate personages.
The second has to do with the logical and most obvious question: If Christ has not ascended to His Father, where was He (at least His Spirit) during the "three" days? Attempts to answer this question by many span between the derisive and the absurd. One minister says the statement is one of the controversial ones by Jesus, meaning that it's confusing and basically incomprehensible. I will let you (the readers) find out for yourselves the many "answers" that people have devised for the simple question. You would be surprised at how many of them use their own reasoning and interpretations. In fact some of them end up questioning the validity and consistency of the Bible. The truth in fact stares us in the face from the Bible. But before I get to it, let me first quote from the Doctrine and Covenants (a book of scripture in the LDS canon) as to why some are "kept from the truth" as well as the manifestations of truth "from heaven":
For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it —Paul also wrote to Timothy about the same problem regarding those who are "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (2 Timothy 3:7) Yes, even professors of religion still struggle to explain some of the plain and simple things pertaining to the gospel. Interestingly, however, in the same chapter of Timothy, Paul refers to the "holy scriptures" and "all scripture" that are for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, etc. With this Pauline reference in mind, let me proceed to use the scriptures to impart and convey reproof, correction, instruction and doctrine on the question: Where was Jesus during the three days, if He wasn't with His Father?
Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven ...." (D&C 123:12,13 - Emphasis mine)
The Spirit World:
In the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when a person dies, his/her body lies in the grave but his/her spirit (which lives on) goes to an abode for spirits called "The Spirit World". Similar versions of this place (the underworld) in other religious dogma, are referred to by names like Sheol, Hades or Hell. (Incidentally, Samoans and other Polynesians believed in a similar place called Pulotu.) The Spirit World has two divisions: Paradise and Prison - the former for the righteous and the latter for the wicked or those who had not known Jesus Christ. The Spirit World is a temporary abode for spirits of all of God's children to await their resurrection. According to LDS beliefs, Jesus's Spirit went to the Spirit World while His body lay in the tomb during the "three" days.
The most important work that continues in the Spirit World is the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who did not have a chance to have it while in mortality. This part of God's plan is for justice to be fulfilled. Everyone since the days of Noah - and a host of others - who did not have the chance to know Christ and His gospel will find another chance there. When Jesus said to the prisoner/thief who pleaded with Him to remember him when He goes to His kingdom, that "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43), Jesus was referring to the Spirit World, where he (thief) will have the chance to be taught the gospel. The thief was not, as many believe, guaranteed eternal life or went to Heaven. (Note: Do not confuse or conflate Paradise of the Spirit World with Paradise as a metaphor for Heaven, God's habitation as in Revelations 2:7.)
This truth that the gospel is taught in the Spirit World is also endorsed by the apostle Paul who reminds us that we can be accursed and condemned if we think that we can only have hope in Christ in this life: "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." (1 Cori 15:19). What was Christ - while "quickened by the Spirit" - doing in the Spirit World? He was preaching and teaching His gospel. Where do we find this answer? In the scriptures.
The most important work that continues in the Spirit World is the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who did not have a chance to have it while in mortality. This part of God's plan is for justice to be fulfilled. Everyone since the days of Noah - and a host of others - who did not have the chance to know Christ and His gospel will find another chance there. When Jesus said to the prisoner/thief who pleaded with Him to remember him when He goes to His kingdom, that "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43), Jesus was referring to the Spirit World, where he (thief) will have the chance to be taught the gospel. The thief was not, as many believe, guaranteed eternal life or went to Heaven. (Note: Do not confuse or conflate Paradise of the Spirit World with Paradise as a metaphor for Heaven, God's habitation as in Revelations 2:7.)
This truth that the gospel is taught in the Spirit World is also endorsed by the apostle Paul who reminds us that we can be accursed and condemned if we think that we can only have hope in Christ in this life: "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." (1 Cori 15:19). What was Christ - while "quickened by the Spirit" - doing in the Spirit World? He was preaching and teaching His gospel. Where do we find this answer? In the scriptures.
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah .... (1 Peter 3:18-20 - Emphasis mine)That was Peter's account. Do we have one where Jesus Himself address this time during His death? Yes. During the time when His death was certain and close, Jesus said this:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. (John 5:25 - Emphasis mine)And other scriptures (re: Paul's admonition on "all scripture"):
Thus was the gospel preached to those who had died in their sins, without a knowledge of the truth, or in transgression, having rejected the prophets. (Doctrine and Covenants 138:32 Emphasis mine)The prophet Isaiah - whose writings and prophecies often deal with the "last days" and the coming of The Messiah - did prophecy about this event and time when Jesus will visit the captives or those in prison, in the Spirit World.
And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. (Isaiah 24:22 Emphasis mine)
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. (Isaiah 61:1 - Emphasis mine)This same pit or spirit prison is mentioned in the story of Lazarus and the rich man and referred to as the Bosom of Abraham (Luke 16). The story tells of the two characters who, after their deaths, went to a place with two sides or divisions - Lazarus to Paradise and the rich man to Prison. The two sides were also separated by a chasm or gulf that cannot be crossed.
And beside all this, between [Lazarus and the rich man] there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. (Luke 16:26 Emphasis mine)The good news is that the gulf between Paradise and Prison has been bridged by Jesus Christ (after Good Friday) when He "descended below all things" and into "Hell". The Atonement is the single event that has made this possible and now the gospel of Jesus Christ continues to be preached in the Spirit World. Some of the ordinances performed by proxy in the temples of the LDS Church are directly linked to the salvation of those in Spirit Prison. For example, without a doubt many of my own ancestors who had not known about Jesus Christ are - or have been - beneficiaries of the gospel being preached in the Spirit World. This is another proof of a merciful and just God in providing a chance and opportunity equally for all His children, even in the afterlife.
For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. (1 Peter 4:6 Emphasis mine)For example, temple baptisms for the dead are some of the work done "according to men in the flesh," but still have efficacy for them in the Spirit World and thereby "live according to God in the spirit." Again, just as Paul said that things concerning hope in Christ, are not limited only to this earthly and mortal life.
(NOTE: According to a latter-day revelation, Christ did not personally visit the Prison side but instead commissioned some of His servants to do so. Re: Doctrine and Covenants 138:29-31.)
For those of you who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ, I hope that what I've discussed here, together with the help of the Holy Ghost, will help you in your own quest for finding The Truth.
Here's a diagram that simplifies and outlines man's journey in God's Plan of Salvation according to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When time permits, I will also write about other stages.
Disclaimer:
My use of the abbreviation LDS in place of the official name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or The Church of Jesus Christ, is for ease, simplicity and brevity.
(Bible verses are taken from the King James Version (KJV))
