Question
Dear Gramps,
Since mortality we inherit half the genes from our mother and half from our father. Do we look like we do now, when we die, or before we were born? Will you recognize people in the spirit world you knew here or will they look totally different. Obviously you won’t be born, grow old and die there, but when we die here will we look like we do in mortality and be able to recognize people that way or look totally different then than we did in mortality? Also before birth did we look like we do now or say in our 20’s or did we look totally different then?
Spencer
Answer
Dear Spencer,
I was there, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what we looked like before we were born. However, I can shed a little light on some of your concerns. The body is in the image of the spirit. However, the spirit existed as a mature adult before entering into the physical body of an infant at birth, and will emerge as such at death. The spirit will have a perfect form, as in the prime of youth. Here are a few quotes on the matter—
“Our spirit body has the same shape and form as the physical body. The spirit body then has arms, legs, a head, and a mind”(Elder Eldred G. Smith, Conference Report, October 1964).
“The loss of memory at the time of mortal birth concerns the fact that the physical or natural body is to be the tabernacle of the spirit eternally. It is organized in the complete image of the spirit body, containing mind, flesh, sinews and bone” (Alvin R. Dyer, Who Am I?, p.139)
“What are some of the major conditions or characteristics in the postmortal spirit world? The spirit body is perfect. Spirits know each other. Spirits have the ability to travel in time and space. Brigham Young: “The brightness and glory of the next apartment is inexpressible. . . . They move with ease and like lightning. If we want to visit Jerusalem, or this, that, or the other place-and I presume we will be permitted if we desire-there we are, looking at its streets. If we want to behold Jerusalem as it was in the days of the Savior; or if we want to see the Garden of Eden as it was when created, there we are, and we see it as it existed spiritually, for it was created first spiritually and then temporally, and spiritually it still remains. . . . Here, we are continually troubled with ills and ailments of various kinds . . . , but in the spirit world we are free from all this” (Daniel H. Ludlow, Selected Writings of Daniel H. Ludlow: Gospel Scholars Series , p.290).
Gramps
