es and went to
the same place in the realm of the departed.[1341] On the third day
following, Jesus, then a resurrected Being, positively stated to the
weeping Magdalene: "I am not yet ascended to my Father." He had gone to
paradise but not to the place where God dwells. Paradise, therefore, is
not Heaven, if by the latter term we understand the abode of the Eternal
Father and His celestialized children.[1342] Paradise is a place where
dwell righteous and repentant spirits between bodily death and
resurrection. Another division of the spirit world is reserved for those
disembodied beings who have lived lives of wickedness and who remain
impenitent even after death. Alma, a Nephite prophet, thus spake of the
conditions prevailing among the departed:

"Now concerning the state of the soul between death and the
resurrection. Behold, it has been made known unto me, by an angel, that
the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal
body; yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are
taken home to that God who gave them life. And then shall it come to
pass that the spirits of those who are righteous, are received into a
state of happiness, which is called paradise; a state of rest; a state
of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all
care, and sorrow, &c. And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits
of the wicked, yea, who are evil; for behold, they have no part nor
portion of the Spirit of the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works
rather than good; therefore the spirit of the devil did enter into them,
and take possession of their house; and these shall be cast out into
outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of
teeth; and this because of their own iniquity; being led captive by the
will of the devil. Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked:
yea, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful, looking for the fiery
indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this
state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of their
resurrection."[1343]

While divested of His body Christ ministered among the departed, both in
paradise and in the prison realm where dwelt in a state of durance the
spirits of the disobedient. To this effect testified Peter nearly three
decades after the great event: "For Christ also hath once suffered for
sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put
to