Joseph Smith
The righteous and the wicked [upon death] all go to the same world of spirits until the resurrection. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.310)
Brigham Young
• When you lay down this tabernacle, where are you going? Into the spiritual world. Are you going into Abraham’s bosom. No, not any where nigh there, but into the spirit world. Where is the spirit world? It is right here. Do the good and evil spirits go together? Yes, they do. Do they both inhabit one kingdom? Yes, they do. Do they go to the sun? No. Do they go beyond the boundaries of this organized earth? No, they do not. They are brought forth upon this earth, for the express purpose of inhabiting it to all eternity. Where else are you going? No where else, only as you may be permitted. (Journal of Discourses, 3:369)
• Spirits, when they leave their bodies, do not dwell with the Father and the Son, but live in the Spirit world, where there are places prepared for them. Those who do honor to their tabernacles, and love and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, must put off this mortality, or they cannot put on immortality. This body must be changed, else it cannot be prepared to dwell in the glory of the Father. (Discourses of Brigham Young, p.372)
Ezra Taft Benson
Another of the purposes of man’s mortal probation is to pass through the experience we call death. This experience is necessary “to fulfill the merciful plan of the great Creator” (2 Nephi 9:6). In death, the body returns to the earth or the elements from which it was created, and the spirit goes into the world of spirits -- there to wait the day of resurrection. (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p.30)
Orson F. Whitney
• That there is a Spirit World, and that it is closely connected with the material world—the one we now inhabit—has been a tenet in the religious philosophy of wise and good men all down the ages. In the minds of many people, the Spirit World and Heaven are synonymous terms, indicating one and the same place. But in reality there is a wide difference between them. A State of rest, such as the spirit life is understood to be for the righteous—though “rest” should not be interpreted as idleness or want of occupation—might easily pass for heaven, when contrasted with this life of pain, sorrow and trouble. But that is only relative. It is not saying too much—indeed it may be saying too little—to affirm that there is just as much difference between the spirit world and heaven, as between the mortal and the spiritual phases of man’s existence. (Cowley & Whitney on Doctrine, p 483)
• Thus we see that the Spirit World is not Heaven, except in a relative sense, and then only in part. It is a temporary abode for God’s children, while undergoing processes of purification and development, as a preparation for better things beyond. Heaven, on the other hand—heaven in the highest degree—is the permanent. home of the perfected and glorified. (Cowley & Whitney on Doctrine, p 489)
Spirit World Part of the Second Estate
Neal A. Maxwell
We tend to overlook the reality that the spirit world and paradise are part, really, of the second estate. The work of the Lord, so far as the second estate is concerned, is completed before the Judgment and the Resurrection.
Since those who go to the celestial kingdom include, as revealed, those who “overcome by faith” (D&C 76:53), the same efforts and triumph would need to occur in the spirit world before they receive resurrection and the entitlement to enter the celestial kingdom.... He gave us our spirit birth, bringing the first estate to all. He gave the gift to us of mortality, or the second estate, where all might be “added upon,” leaving one third of the host free to be rebels! (Abraham 3:26; Revelation 12:4). He provides in the spirit world a continuum of mortality’s probation, the great opportunity for all. (The Promise of Discipleship, p. 111)
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