Question
Dear Gramps,
To what form will our bodies be resurrected? I had always thought that we would be have our perfect form, but recently was told that we would resurrect the same body we died with, that perfecting that body would be part of our job during the millennium. Please help me understand this. Thank you.
Trish
Answer
Dear Trish,
You are both right. We will be resurrected with the same body that we died with. However, that same body will be rejuvenated to a perfect form. Here is an excerpt from a funeral sermon by President Joseph F. Smith of the Mormon Church that suggests that the body will be restored somewhat as it is laid down, and will grow to a perfect form and stature–
“I look for the time, I say, when Brother Staines will be restored. He will not remain the crippled and deformed William C. Staines that we knew, but he will be restored to his perfect frame-every limb, every joint, every part of his physical being will be restored to its perfect frame. This is the law and the word of God to us, as it is contained in the revelations that have come to us, through the Prophet Joseph Smith. The point in my mind which I desire to speak of particularly is this: When we shall have the privilege to meet our mother, our aunt, our sister, this noble woman whose mortal remains lie here now, but whose immortal spirit has ascended to God from whence it came, when that spirit shall return to take up this tabernacle again, she will be Aunt Rachel in her perfection. She will not always remain just as she will appear when she is restored again to life, but she will go on to perfection. Under that law of restoration that God has provided, she will regain her perfection, the perfection of her youth, the perfection of her glory and of her being, until her resurrected body shall assume the exact stature of the spirit that possessed it here in its perfection, and thus we shall see the glorified, redeemed, exalted, perfected Aunt Rachel, mother, sister, saint and daughter of the living God, her identity being unchanged, as a child may grow to manhood or womanhood and still be the same being.” (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, p.23)
We also learn from Joseph F. Smith that children who die will be resurrected as children, and will then grow to a perfect maturity.
“Would we be satisfied to remain forever and ever in the form of infirmity incident to age? No! Would we be satisfied to see the children we bury in their infancy remain as children only, throughout the countless ages of eternity? No! Neither would the spirits that did possess the tabernacles of our children be satisfied to remain in that condition. But we know our children will not be compelled to remain as a child in stature always, for it was revealed from God, the fountain of truth, through Joseph Smith the prophet, in this dispensation, that in the resurrection of the dead the child that was buried in its infancy will come up in the form of the child that it was when it was laid down; then it will begin to develop. From the day of the resurrection, the body will develop until it reaches the full measure of the stature of its spirit, whether it be male or female.” (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, p.24)
Gramps
