Resurrection

My son has all kinds of questions about the resurrection lately. 

"Will we get cold?"

"Will we sleep?"

"Will there be war?"

"Will we need food?"

"Could we stick a knife in ourselves and not die?"


You know, eight-year-old kind of questions. 

But they are actually very good ones, and they have caused me to think about the subject.

Jesus Christ broke the bands of death, that we might all be resurrected:

1 Corinthians 15:20   But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

In answer to my son's question about whether or not we will eat, Christ showed us an answer.  After his resurrection, he appeared to his disciples.

Luke 24:
36 ¶And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

 37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.

 38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?

 39 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.

 40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.

 41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?

 42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.

 43 And he took it, and did eat before them.

He showed that a resurrected person can eat. (I think he was just proving to them that he was really back, in the flesh). 


From the Book of Mormon:

Alma 11:
42 Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death.

 43 The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; and we shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and have a bright recollection of all our guilt.

 44 Now, this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but every thing shall be restored to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body, and shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God, to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil.

Resurrection is a free gift that will come to all of us as a result of Christ's atonement.  

In the book of John, chapter 5, we read:

29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

This means that according to the way we lived our lives, we will be resurrected with different groups.

I have wondered why it is so important that we are resurrected.  Why couldn't we just live on and on as spirits and be happy?  The Book of Mormon provides an answer in 2 Nephi 9:8-9:

 8 O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more.

 9 And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness.

In other words,  if we were to never be resurrected, we would become angels to a devil and like unto him, the great deceiver.  He will never have the privilege of getting a body.  There is something very sacred and precious about having a tangible body.

In the Doctrine and Covenants we read a revelation about those who have passed on to the other side of the veil:

Section 138:50 For the dead had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage.

These spirits wanted their bodies back.  There are many things you can only do if you have a physical body.

We also learn from the Doctrine and Covenants what the Father and the Son look like:

130:22 The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also...

God the Father and the Son both have bodies that are tangible.  We could touch them and see them and embrace them.

From the Bible:

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

I have hope in a glorious resurrection!