A spirit body is, according to

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

(LDS Church), the organization of a spiritual element, made into the spiritual form of man, which was made in the same likeness (shape and form) of God the Father.
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by the Biology Department of the College of Life Sciences,

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

This likeness (shape and form) apparently gave rise to the phrase and meaning of, "like father like son," which means the son is in the likeness of the father, which provides meaning to the claim that humanity was made in the likeness of God. Generally, people in the world have commonly used the word "

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...

" to denote this spirit body. According to the LDS Church, when a spirit body enters a mortal body through birth, a temporary joining occurs, creating what is called a "soul." Church members believe that upon mortal death, the spirit body of a person leaves the mortal body and returns to the spiritual realm to await the

resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...

. The resurrection is where God raises the mortal body the spirit personage had lost in mortal death, and converts the mortal body from flesh, bone and blood, into immortal bodies of flesh and bone, then rejoins the two, never to be separated again. This is the meaning of the scripture "...It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:" (see "

incorrupt Incorruptibility is a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief that divine intervention allows some human bodies (specifically saints and beati) to completely or partially avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their ...

") ( 1 Corinthians 15:42 - King James / see First Epistle to the Corinthians) LDS Church members believe that all things created on earth, including humanity, had a pre-existence or pre-mortal origin. This belief of pre-mortal existence, the manner in which mankind existed before entering mortality is an important church doctrine, and is believed to support the existence of separate and distinct personages as seen within their doctrine of the

Godhead (Mormonism) In orthodox Mormonism, the term God generally refers to the biblical God the Father, whom Latter Day Saints refer to as ''Elohim'', and the term ''Godhead'' refers to a council of three distinct divine persons consisting of God the Father, Jesus ...

Joseph Smith Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, ...

, founder of the

Latter Day Saint movement The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by J ...

, believed that "there is no such thing as

immaterial Immaterial may refer to: * The opposite of matter, material, materialism, or materialistic * Maya (illusion), a concept in all Indian religions, that all matter is a grand illusion * Incorporeality * Immaterialism, including subjective idealism ( ...

matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter." This spirit matter always existed and is co-eternal with

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

. It is this spiritual matter that makes the

Holy Ghost For the majority of Christian denominations, the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, is believed to be the third person of the Trinity, a Triune God manifested as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each entity itself being God.Gru ...

. This spiritual matter is also called "

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can be des ...

" or the "light of truth." God the Father organized the "intelligence" to make personages or "spirit children," which includes Jesus Christ. (This shows to support the general belief of

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

that all humanity are all brothers and sisters.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spirit Body Latter Day Saint concepts of the afterlife Latter Day Saint terms Mormon cosmology

See also

References