From the archives: Paradise of God

In 2 Nephi 9:13, Jacob starts to say some things that don’t make sense given the universality of the previous verses.

O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect.

Whereas Jacob previously indicated that hell was the resting place of all spirits, he now seems to be indicating that the spirits of the righteous have a separate resting place than the spirits of the wicked. While he doesn’t explicitly state it, perhaps Jacob is implying that hell is for the unrighteous and paradise is for the righteous.

So then, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, maybe spiritual death really is sin. Nevertheless, unless God lives in this spiritual paradise, I’m not to sure we can say scripturally that spiritual death is a separation of us from God.

At the same time, does ‘paradise of God’ man that God dwells there, or does it mean that it’s possessed by God or created by God.

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