We use death as a punishment- the capital of punishments, in fact. Isn't that interesting? I've been thinking about that a bit recently. As mortals, we can't grasp the true meaning of death. Christ had to die in order to be resurrected, and open the gate for everyone else-- death plays an integral role then in the atonement, our reconciliation with God.
Elder Oaks, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, talks about the hope in death in his talk "Resurrection." "The 'lively hope' we are given by the resurrection [1st Peter 1:3] is our conviction that death is not the conclusion of our identity but merely a necessary step in the destined transition from mortality to immortality. This hope changes the whole perspective of mortal life. The assurance of resurrection and immortality affects how we look on the physical challenges of mortality, how we live our mortal lives, and how we relate to those around us."
Mormon's final words in the Book of Mormon, excluding his son Moroni appending a compilation of some of his correspondence into his own book, are recorded in Mormon 7. These are his final words, then, basically. And he uses this space to talk about how Christ's atonement swallows up the sting of death. This is one of the reasons I chose this topic-- Mormon's a prophet, of course, writing in a religious work eventually canonized as scripture, so it's no surprise that he'd chose some kind of similar message, but, there's something about that: his final words are messaged toward the remnant of the Lamanites, exhorting them to believe in the Book of Mormon, designed to provide supporting evidence toward the Bible. And so he testifies of Christ's atonement.
"...he was slain by the Jews, and by the power of the Father he hath risen again, whereby he hath gained the victory over the grave; in him is the sting of death swallowed up. And he bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead, whereby man must be raised to stand before his judgment-seat. And he hath brought to pass the redemption of the world, whereby he that is found guiltless before him at the judgment day hath it given unto him to dwell in the presence of God in his kingdom..." (Mormon 7: 5-7.)
There's a universal level and a personal level, here. We're all given restoration from physical death, but we can still remain spiritually dead. Alma 41:10 explains that something can't be "restored" from sadness to happiness, or from sin to happiness in other words. Restoration is to put something back the way it was, but perfected. Made whole. In Mosiah 16: 5, the prophet Abinadi explains that even with the atonement made, "he that persists in his own carnal nature, and goes on in the ways of sin and rebellion against God, remaineth in his fallen state and the devil hath all power over him. Therefore he is as though there was no redemption made, being an enemy to God; and also is the devil an enemy to God."
Which brings me to judgement. In art class, when we were discussing Michelangelo's wall of the Sistine Chapel (that's right, the wall-- they liked the ceiling so much that they decided to call Michelangelo back years later, when he was an old man, to paint the wall of the alter at the apse as well.) An interesting thing-- the end wall deals with the final judgement of man, but Michelangelo had developed some unorthodox ideas over his life-- nobody was about to argue with him, though, because, he was Michelangelo, you know, and so his ideas got a chance to come across in his artwork.
The really interesting thing was how Michelangelo dealt with the torment of hell. There's a fine Western tradition of brimmy fiery stone, with the torment being literal, but Michelangelo depicts torment here as being... mental.
I'll just close here by quoting Alma 12:10-11, where Alma is defining the meaning of the chains of hell:
10 And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full.
11 And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction. Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell.
I'd say, then, given what we've been discussing here, that Mr Buonarroti had it dead-on, wouldn't you? It all comes down to our receptiveness to the word, whether we decide to accept the Atonement of Christ into, not just our deaths, but our lives as well.
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