 If you are watching this video, there's a really good chance you have a question about death. Why do we have to die? And you're not the only one. There was recently an article written about the top questions per state that were of a spiritual level. And I believe the state of California, the top question was why do we have to die? And so I'm going to use right here the book of Mormon to help explain that along with a talk by Russell M. Nelson, who is an apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he does a masterful job of explaining why it is we have to die. I'm going to jump right in, one explaining that life doesn't begin with birth and it doesn't end with death. We lived prior to our birth with our Father in heaven as spirit children. And so we came to this earth to receive a few things. One, we came to receive a body, a mortal body, but we also came to gain experience. And so this life is a time to prepare to meet God. And in Alma chapter 12, it actually explains that saying that this life became a probationary state, a time to prepare to meet God, a time to prepare for that endless state which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead. Okay, so death was part of this, this plan, and life was a probationary state. And this plan, that death is part of, is called the plan of salvation. Now Russell M. Nelson does a really good job of explaining death in this scenario. He talked about if you were going on a vacation somewhere, and you wanted to return home, you'd want to make sure you got a round trip ticket. And he talked about returning from earth to our home in heaven. It's kind of like our round trip ticket. So when we were in heaven, we came to earth through birth. That was our, the first leg of our journey. But death is that return or the second leg of the round trip ticket, which I think is a great way of looking at it. But we can't get back to God. The only way we can do that is through those doors of death. There's a scripture again in Alma, chapter 12 verse 27, it says it was appointed unto men that they must die, and after death they must come to judgment, even that same judgment of which we have spoken of. And so again, after after death, we will be judged and we'll talk about that in maybe a future video, but death actually the act of death separates our physical body from our spiritual body. So if you imagine my hand, one good analogy is if I had a glove on and if I was moving my hand the glove would be moving as well, but we know that the glove is in what has the life is my hand. As you pull off the glove, if you were dropped out to the floor, that's like our mortal body. When we die, our physical body stays on earth, but our spirit goes and returns to live with our father in heaven. Now, imagine if we didn't die. Russell M. Nelson explains this kind of, kind of any humorous way, but if we didn't die, he said imagine the traffic jam. There'd be like 70 billion people who've ever lived on earth and they'd all be here. So imagine that traffic jam. And so death is something necessary. There's a quote that he shared, which I think is fascinating. He said, we need not look upon death as the enemy. With full understanding and preparation, faith supplants fear. Hope displaces despair. The Lord said now in a book of scripture that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints use as well. It's called doctrine and covenants. It explains more of the doctrine of Christ and covenants and promises. It says fear not, even unto death, for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full. And so we can't obtain a fullness of joy in this life. And so that should give us something to look forward to and not be so scared of death. I actually had a friend of mine whose friend recently, excuse me, sibling recently passed away and she told me, she said, I really wish I had your crutch to lean on to believe that there was something after this life. Because she's going through despair and just being wracked with sadness with no hope of seeing her family member again. Of course, I don't believe it's a crutch. I believe it's the reality. I want to read one more scripture from the book of Mormon. It's in 2nd Nephi and Nephi again was a prophet who lived on the American continent. He said, for as death hath passed upon all men to fulfill the merciful plan of the great Creator there must needs be a power of resurrection. So death fulfills God's plan and it's a plan of a merciful God. And so sometimes we don't think about death as merciful. You know, people will often say that there is no God because how could he let children die all over the world? How could you let innocent people die? If you look at death as an act of mercy, that through that death someone can return back into God's presence. And I think your, you know, your attitude would shift a little bit towards whether there's a God or not or whether to blame God or not. Now one thing I want to make very clear is we should never take death into our own hands. I have a sibling and other family members who have committed suicide and we don't condone that. And I don't think anybody who's committed suicide once they get to the other side ever thinks that was a good choice. There's regret there. So we want you here on this earth. You belong here. The earth is better. Life is better here with you. Stay strong. Be here. But for those who God has called home through death, that's a merciful act of the Creator. So in some upcoming videos, we're going to talk more about what happens after we die and also about the resurrection. But just wanted to take this short minute, a couple minutes to talk about what why we die that is part of God's plan. And hopefully that answers some questions. I'm going to leave a link to Russell M. Nelson's talk called Doors of Death down below. So if you'd like to read the whole thing, which I recommend is a masterful job about teaching about why it is that we die. And again, if you'd like a free copy of the Book of Mormon, there's a link for that below in the description as well. And you can request one of those to be sent to your home. Thanks guys. We'll be back again. I'm answering some more questions of yours.