The term “spiritual death” is used in the Book of Mormon to refer to a spiritual alienation from God; according to Alma, it occurs when one dies “as to things pertaining unto righteousness.” (Alma 12:16.) One definition of the word spiritual is “of or pertaining to the spirit or things of the spirit”; the definition of death includes the idea of separation. Thus spiritual death rightfully refers to a state of spiritual separation from God; it may or may not have anything to do with a physical separation from God.
The very first spiritual death on this earth occurred when Adam and Eve transgressed one of the commandments of God. By becoming subject to sin, they were cast out of God’s presence because no sinful or unclean thing can dwell with God. Inasmuch as Adam and Eve were in the physical presence of God when they transgressed, they had to be expelled from his presence physically as well as spiritually.
The first spiritual death of Adam and Eve was fully atoned for by the Savior and Redeemer of mankind. Because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, a newborn child on this earth is not spiritually dead but is alive “in Christ, even from the foundation of the world.” (Moroni 8:12.) However, when a person arrives at the age of accountability, learns the difference between good and evil, and then commits sin, he suffers his first individual spiritual death. He becomes spiritually dead because he alienates himself from the Spirit of God. This type of spiritual death is referred to in the scripture as the first spiritual death. If a person fully repents of his sins, accepts the atonement of the Savior, and is baptized of water and of the Spirit, he can be spiritually born again through the cleansing action of the Holy Ghost and thus can regain God’s presence. If he does not meet the requirements of this rebirth, he cannot regain the presence of God. (John 3:5.)
President Joseph F. Smith has explained the first spiritual death and related it to the people in the world today in the following words:
When Adam, our first parent, partook of the forbidden fruit, transgressed the law of God, and became subject unto Satan, he was banished from the presence of God and was thrust out into outer spiritual darkness. This was the first death. Yet living, he was dead—dead to God, dead to light and truth, dead spiritually; cast out from the presence of God; communication between the Father and the son cut off. He was as absolutely thrust out from the presence of God as was Satan and the hosts that followed him. That was spiritual death. But the Lord said that He would not suffer Adam nor his posterity to come to the temporal death until they should have the means by which they might be redeemed from the first death, which is spiritual. Therefore angels were sent unto Adam, who taught him the Gospel, and revealed to him the principle by which he could be redeemed from the first death, and be brought back from banishment and outer darkness into the marvelous light of the Gospel. He was taught faith, repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, in the name of Jesus Christ, who should come in the meridian of time and take away the sin of the world, and was thus given a chance to be redeemed from the spiritual death before he should die the temporal death. Now, all the world today, I am sorry to say, with the exception of a handful of people who have obeyed the new and everlasting covenant, are suffering this spiritual death. They are cast out from the presence of God. They are without God, without Gospel truth, and without the power of redemption; for they know not God nor His Gospel. In order that they may be redeemed and saved from the spiritual death which has spread over the world like a pall, they must repent of their sins, and be baptized by one having authority, for the remission of their sins, that they may be born of God. (Conference Report, October 1899, p. 72.)
Another type of spiritual death mentioned in the scriptures is the “second spiritual death.” This more serious spiritual death occurs when a person commits the sin against the Holy Ghost—“Having denied the Holy Spirit after having received it, and having denied the Only Begotten Son of the Father, having crucified him unto themselves and put him to an open shame… . And the only ones on whom the second death shall have any power.” (D&C 76:35, 37.) The effects of this sin are eternal, for the sinner never can make full payment for the law he has broken. Indeed, by denying the atonement of Jesus Christ and the cleansing power of the Holy Ghost, the sinner has denied the very power upon which forgiveness and redemption are based. These sinners become sons of perdition, and they “shall be chained down to an everlasting destruction” (Alma 12:17) and become “the only ones who shall not be redeemed in the due time of the Lord” (D&C 76:38).