The Three Deaths

We often speak about two types of death: physical death and spiritual death.  We tend to summarize it by saying that Christ’s atonement saves us unconditionally from the first, but we must follow His gospel and make and keep covenants to be saved from the second.  In the scriptures and in particular the Book of Mormon, though, we learn that there are three types of deaths: physical death, the first spiritual death, and the second (spiritual) death.  The first spiritual death came as we left God’s presence, and physical death obviously comes at the end of this life.  Christ’s atonement and resurrection save us unconditionally from both of these, but the second death is what we must be worried about.     

Jacob taught us well about the first two types of death in his words about the atonement.  He said, “And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel” (2 Nephi 9:12).  In other words, because of the resurrection the grave can’t keep us and hell won’t be able to keep us either.  We will all be saved from physical death—we will each be resurrected and receive a perfect body: “All men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls” (2 Nephi 9:13).  We will likewise all be saved from the first spiritual death because Christ “redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord” (Helaman 14:17).  No matter what kind of life we live, we will return to God’s presence to be judged, and thus our separation from Him will have ended.  Christ “redeemeth all mankind from the first death—that spiritual death; for all mankind, by the fall of Adam being cut off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as dead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual” (Helaman 14:16). Christ’s atonement saves us from eternal banishment and brings us back to our Father in Heaven.  The important question, though, is whether we will stay there.  Only those who inherit a celestial glory  shall “dwell in the presence of God and his Christ forever and ever” (D&C 76:62). 

The scriptures speak about the “second death” in numerous places, and I think we can understand it in two ways.  The first way is that the second death is only for those who are sons of perdition and who obtain no kingdom of glory.  The Lord said of this group that they are “the only ones on whom the second death shall have any power” (D&C 76:37).  I think that what is meant here is that this group is the only one who will have to permanently endure the second death—they will be forever in God’s punishment.  But I think that the rest of us risk to be partakers of the second death if we do not choose righteousness.  John spoke of those who would “not be hurt of the second death” and how the for the righteous “the second death hath no power” (Revelation 2:11, 20:6).  This of course implies that some will be “hurt” of the second death and it will have some power over them.  I believe this is referring to those who will be forced to suffer the penalty for their sins and not necessarily only the sons of perdition.  Samuel the Lamanite said that “whosoever repenteth not is hewn down and cast into the fire; and there cometh upon them again a spiritual death, yea, a second death, for they are cut off again as to things pertaining to righteousness” (Helaman 14:18).  The Lord used pretty strong language in the Doctrine and Covenants: “Wherefore, I, the Lord, have said that the fearful, and the unbelieving, and all liars, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie, and the whoremonger, and the sorcerer, shall have their part in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (D&C 63:17).  So these people who are wicked and who fit the description of those who will inherit the telestial kingdom are those who will “have their part” in the second death.  They will not be forever cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, but they will have to enter it, suffer the price of their sins, and then (unlike the sons of perdition) they will come out of it.  We need not dwell on that, though—if we accept and follow the Savior, His atonement will cover the price of all three deaths and bring us back permanently to the presence of God.