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G R Kane - I'm wondering if I will be allowed to atone in the next world for the sins of a close member of our family? They have quit the church and spent the goof part of their life in sin. No horrible sins like murder, but minor sins like never attending church, word of wisdom problems and carousing around for the past say 30 years.
JOEL - Nobody can atone for the sins of anyone else. Only Jesus has done that for all. He has atoned for the sins of those who have repented in this life. If they at one time were taught and accepted the gospel in this life and turned away from it and have not repented of sins committed and then die in their sins, they will have to suffer for it in the next life in spirit prison.Spirit prison may not be an actual separate place but more of a state of mind that sinners will be in.
In Alma 34: 32-34 Amulek said:
"For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.
Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world."
Amulek was talking to people who had already had a sufficient chance to hear and accept the gospel. Such people may not get a second chance. And even if they were "that same spirit" they have would probably still prevent them from fully accepting it again anyway.
If they were an otherwise good person they can at least inherit the Terrestrial kingdom in heaven and they will be happy to be there.Having said all that, only God knows the hearts of all people and who really had a fair chance in this life to accept the gospel. So we really can't make any definite judgments on anyone about what they will be able to do in the next life and where they will end up.
President Joseph Fielding Smith provided some hope when he said:
"children born in the covenant, who drift away, are still the children of their parents; and the parents have a claim upon them; and if the children have not sinned away all their rights, the parents may be able to bring them through repentance, into the celestial kingdom, but not to receive the exaltation." (Doctrines of Salvation)
So the parents may be able to help them obtain the Celestial Kingdom, but the children will still have to repent.
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