Church News viewpoint: Life beyond the grave

At a recent funeral for an elderly man, a mourner was heard to remark how she had noticed that "Mormons are not a cemetery-going people."This was not meant in a disparaging way. Certainly, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints visit the graves of their loved ones. They decorate them on Memorial Day and other special occasions about as frequently as others do.And they mourn for loved ones who have passed on, as admonished in scripture, "Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die.…" (Doctrine and Covenants 42:45).But among Latter-day Saints, there is little obsessing about the resting place. This, the observer meant, was the result of an inner peace and understanding that few others in the world seem to possess.Indeed, among the most important doctrines restored to the earth during this dispensation is the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, with its details of life beyond the grave.The Book of Mormon plainly states, "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" (Alma 40:11).