People have been asking the question of what happens after you die for tens of thousands of years, for millions of years. As long as humans have existed. It has been said that if you could bring someone back from the dead and ask them about what, if anything, happens next it would be the most important thing any of us ever could learn.
Well, you don’t have to wonder anymore.
It has happened.
People have died.
They have had intimate visions of what happens after death.
And they have returned to life to explain what they experienced and what we need to do to prepare in this life for the next.
One such man was Jedediah Morgan Grant and his experience is unique among all the modern reports given by people when they experience so-called “near-death experiences.” What exactly makes Grant’s experience so unique and so uniquely trustworthy?
Because by the time of his vision, Grant had been an ordained Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and had been for years. He was a modern prophet, seer, and revelator, blessed by God to know with a surety the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to be able to teach them to others. And just as the Lord led His ancient Prophets and Apostles through prophetic dreams and revelatory visions, so too does He still lead them today. Grant, on his death bed, was given just such a vision as his eyes were opened and he was allowed to not only see into, but also journey through the spirit world and to interact with the spirits of people already there. He was given a vision by God of the next life.
And what did he see? I won’t paraphrase too much here as a photocopy of the original report of his vision is below for everyone to read. I will simply say that he saw what the spirit world was like, what the conditions of the righteous and the wicked are there, what happens to plants and animals, the status of family relationships beyond the grave, the kind of work which takes place there, what happens to children who die as babies, the buildings there, how people are organized there, the spiritual conditions of the living, and what we must do to qualify for the blessings of peace and joy which await the righteous in the life to come. If you’ve ever had questions about any of these things, then the vision from God given to a modern day Prophet of God and shared with us in this lost LDS Classic will give you some answers.
Note: This article was original published in the December 10, 1856 edition of the Deseret News and can be found here.