By deathbed repentance, we mean a person expressing remorse for their sins and turning to God in the final moments of their life, often just before death. It’s a concept that has sparked much theological, philosophical, and emotional debate throughout history. Deathbed repentance is controversial across various religious beliefs. It is interesting to study them to get a perspective. My study of deathbed repentance reveals a God who is both perfectly just and perfectly merciful, and who looks to our hearts. In His infinite love for us, He honors the desires of our hearts. For me, it is profound and simple but complex to explain, which I will do at the end of this blog article.
Prophet Joseph Smith Taught
“We should take warning and not wait for the death-bed to repent, as we see the infant taken away by death, so may the youth and middle-aged, as well as the infant be suddenly called into eternity. Let this, then, prove as a warning to all not to procrastinate repentance, (Alma 34:32-35) or wait till a death-bed, for it is the will of God that man should repent and serve Him in health, and in the strength and power of his mind, in order to secure His blessing, and not wait until he is called to die.” [Scriptural Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp 223-224]
God revealed to Joseph: “Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men. (D&C 64:9-10)
“Ever keep in exercise the principle of mercy, and be ready to forgive our brother on the first intimation of repentance…” [From a letter to the Saints in Far West, Missouri, in 1838]
Joseph Smith strongly advocated mercy and immediate forgiveness, especially once someone has shown even the smallest sign of repentance. Joseph Smith’s teachings are consistent with Jesus Christ’s counsel in the New Testament (e.g., Luke 17:3–4) to forgive others when they repent–leaving final judgment to God.
Typical Christian View
The typical Christian View (Especially in Catholicism and Protestantism) is that God’s mercy is infinite. Many Christian traditions affirm that sincere repentance, even at the last moment, can lead to salvation. The parable of the thief on the cross (Luke 23:39–43) is often cited, where Jesus tells the repentant thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
In Catholicism, the sacrament of Last Rites and a reconciliation (confession), and the anointing of the sick are ways to prepare the soul for death. Most Christians believe that sincerity matters. What counts is the genuine sorrow for sin and true conversion of heart, not just fear of death.
Skeptics argue that repenting at the last minute can seem insincere or like an easy escape from moral responsibility. Others believe repentance should involve not just sorrow, but a life change — something hard to prove on a deathbed. Some theological debates center on the tension between justice versus mercy. The idea of a just God who holds people accountable and a merciful God who forgives even at the last breath. They warn against presuming one can live sinfully and “just repent later.” That’s seen as testing God.
Different Beliefs
In Islam, sincere repentance (tawbah) is always accepted if done before the “ghargara” — the moment the soul begins to depart. But deliberate delaying of repentance is frowned upon.
In Judaism, teshuvah (repentance) is a powerful theme, and while repentance before death is valid, lifelong righteousness is highly valued.
In Eastern religions, karma and rebirth may not allow for last-minute erasure of past actions — repentance is more about the journey of inner transformation.
Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer, put it in his Pensées, “You would not wager your life on a dying man’s repentance; why wager your eternity on your own?”
What I Believe
WHAT I BELIEVE THE LORD HAS TAUGHT ME AND FROM HIS WORD
The soul is eternal. Our thoughts, words, and deeds are before an infinitely loving God both in pre-mortal, in mortality, and hereafter. The choices we make are all important. Those we made in pre-mortal count greatly. Because of agency, Satan drew a third part of Father’s children after him. Satan said: “Give me thine honor… and also a third part of the hosts of heaven turned he away from me because of their agency. And they were thrust down [to the Earth (Rev. 12:9)], and thus came the devil and his angels; And, behold, there is a place prepared for them from the beginning, which place is hell. And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet—” (D&C 29:36-39)
Our perfect God gave all mortals a conscience to know good from evil: “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man who cometh into the world.” (John 1:9) Because of His perfect love, He also has given us the all-important Infinite Atonement.
We were taught the TRUTHs of God in our pre-mortal epoch. Our intelligence has these TRUTHs stored, and we have access to them and a lot more as we ask, seek, and knock. (Matt. 7:7-8) And “Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.” (D&C 10:5) Christ profoundly declared: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12
Three Degrees of Glory
The Apostle Paul tells of three degrees of glory, and Section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants shares a vision of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery giving significant details to these: Celestial, Terrestrial, and Telestial degrees of glory. Traditional English language uses terrestrial for the earth. The Lord has given it the name, telestial. We learn that even the lowest kingdom, the telestial, is beyond our comprehension. “And thus we saw, in the heavenly vision, the glory of the Telestial, which surpasses all understanding;” (D&C 76:89)
But “These are they who received not the gospel of Christ, neither the testimony of Jesus. These are they who deny not the Holy Spirit. These are they who are thrust down to hell [Spirit prison until the end of the millennium]. These are they who shall not be redeemed from the devil until the last resurrection, until the Lord, even Christ the Lamb, shall have finished his work… But received not the gospel, neither the testimony of Jesus, neither the prophets, neither the everlasting covenant. Last of all, these all are they who will not be gathered with the saints, to be caught up unto the church of the Firstborn, and received into the cloud.
“These are they who are liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whosoever loves and makes a lie. These are they who suffer the wrath of God on earth. These are they who suffer the vengeance of eternal fire. These are they who are cast down to hell and suffer the wrath of Almighty God, until the fulness of times, when Christ shall have subdued all enemies under his feet, and shall have perfected his work; When he shall deliver up the kingdom, and present it unto the Father, spotless, saying: I have overcome and have trodden the wine-press alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.” (D&C 76:82-86, 101-107)aul
Because of Choices
Because of their choices, all the telestial folks will be destroyed at His Second Coming. If He were to let them continue in wickedness, their lot would be harder in the day of judgement for them at the end of the millennium. Then they will bow the knee gratefully before the Lord in gratitude for His Infinite Loving Atonement for them. The number of them will be as the “sands of the sea.”
Religion
Everyone has a religion—even an atheist has a set of beliefs! Regardless of religion, all who are living terrestrial or celestial lives will make it into the millennium. This is our fair and perfectly merciful and perfectly just God. This is a major insight into God’s infinite love for us. Those who have a sincere deathbed repentance will be there. Jesus, the Great I AM, who is not limited by time and space, is there for them as well as for us as they and we truly repent. The understanding of true repentance has been distorted by the translators of the New Testament.
True Repentance
True repentance means to forsake and never turn back. We receive the full blessings of the Infinite Atonement as we truly repent and are fully Christ-centered. The words for repentance in Hebrew and Greek are profound and most heartwarming from an Infinite loving God: שוב, shuv (or shub), which is pronounced shewv in Hebrew and μετανοέω (metanoeō) in Greek, with the beautiful invitation and meaning to turn to God, never turn back, and live the abundant life promised. (Alma 37:47; John 10:10)
Elder Theodore Burton shares this satanic distortion that has occurred in the New Testament Bible translation regarding “repentance,” when it was translated into Latin and thence into English. The translators improperly used the Latin verb poenitēre. As Elder Burton points out, this Latin verb has evolved into meanings in English of punish, penance, penitent, hurting, punishing, whipping, cutting, mutilation, disfiguring, starving, or even torturing. We see these un-Christian kinds of acts during the Dark Ages of Christianity. And today, repentance still has distorted meanings from the profound ones given to us anciently with the Greek and Hebrew meanings that share a loving and kind invitation from God to return to Him.
As the Savior told the woman taken in adultery, “Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.” (John 8:11)
As Elder Burton shares from Ezekiel 33:9, 11: “[I]f thou warn the wicked of his way to turn (shub) from it; if he do not turn from (shub) his way, he shall die in his iniquity… Say unto them. As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from (shuv) his way; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Then he shares, “I know of no kinder, sweeter passage in the Old Testament than those beautiful lines.
In reading them, can you think of a kind, wise, gentle, loving Father in Heaven pleading with you to shub, or turn back to him—to leave unhappiness, sorrow, regret, and despair behind and turn back to your Father’s family, where you can find happiness, joy, and acceptance among his other children.” [Theodore M. Burton, “The Meaning of Repentance.” ENSIGN: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Aug. 1988, 6-9] I highly recommend his talk that is both in the ENSIGN and in BYU devotionals.
One of the interesting perspectives in his talk is he shares what repentance is not:
It is not suffering;
It is not punishment;
It is not confession;
It is not remorse; and
It is not sorrow.
It is a life turned to God (shub) filled with love, service, and focus on doing good. Repentance is a joyful word because your life has changed to keeping all the commandments–the first one of which is to LOVE. (Matt 22:36-40)
Brian Nettles did a podcast with me: “David W. Allan shares the infinite atonement…” Starting at minute 17 to 25 I discuss the perfect balance that the Infinite Atonement brings to–overcoming the effects of the fall of Adam and Eve and bring cosmic wholeness and AtONEness to the universe. It is enormous.
Terrestrial
Section 76 in the D&C gives many details of the characteristics of terrestrial folks. Specifically, verse 75 states, “These are they who are honorable men [and women] of the earth, who have been blinded by the craftiness of men [and women and by Satan and his minions].” But they live good lives. These will make it into the millennium because they hearken to their conscience (John 1:9) sufficiently not to be like the Telestial folks, who will be destroyed at His Coming.
Verily I Say Unto You
During His ministry, Christ shared, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” (John 5:25) The three days Christ’s Spirit visited Paradise, while His body lay in the tomb, are an incredibly important part of the Infinite Atonement. He preached the gospel to the righteous who were there back to Adam and Eve. “For the dead had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage.” (D&C 138:50)
They were all gloriously resurrected when Christ broke the bands of death that Easter morning. I estimate there were over a million so blessed and gloriously came forth from their tombs that spectacular, most amazing morning from across the globe. This is beautifully described in Section 138 of the Doctrine and Covenants and in the Gospel of Joseph of Arimathea, which he took with him to England and which was written before the four gospels.
When the mother of the Son of God, Mary, witnessed what they did to her Son that Thursday, when He was crucified, how can we imagine what she felt as she witnessed those horrific events? His incomprehensible suffering probably came close to breaking her heart like her Son’s heart was broken, as He finished the infinite suffering for all of Father’s children, as that part of the Infinite Atonement. Most don’t know there are seven critical steps to the three days of the Infinite Atonement—from Gethsemane to His Glorious resurrection.
Gospel of Joseph of Arimathea
The Gospel of Joseph of Arimathea describes some of her heart-rending feelings. And then, when the Savior finally appeared to her as a Glorious resurrected being, her heart went from the deepest depths of despair to the highest heights of ecstasy. He showed her the countless number who were also resurrected that morning and that He was going to present them to the Father in the celestial realms of glory.
“Then the Virgin-Mother looked behind Him, and she saw the great number that He had taken up, out from the graves, all dressed up, in their pure white robes.” (Chapter 25:167, of this gospel). The Apostle Peter also refers to Christ’s visit to the spirit world. (1 Peter 3:18-20; 4:6) “For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.”
But for the spirits in prison, he did not go, but organized the work for them and for all who desired to hear the glorious gospel message. In the perfect fairness of God, everyone gets to hear the gospel (the GOOD NEWS; for me, it is the BEST NEWS The temple blessings will be carried on into the millennium and will also be made available to all who desire them, who are living in that grand millennium epoch.
At the end of the millennium, the telestial folks will be judged, and the Savior will deliver His Kingdom to the Father with all those who are living celestial lives or who are innocent. I love how our perfectly infinitely loving God honors our free choice and the desires of our hearts. I cannot imagine a more perfect plan designed to bring a fullness of joy to the faithful in Christ.
David W. Allan
Photo: EliYah Ministries