Bible References About
The Spirit Paradise and Prison
The Prophet, Joseph Smith, received numerous revelations concerning life after mortal death. One of these revelations concerned the spirit world we go to after we die.
This spirit world is a place where everyone lives after they die, hanging out with family and friends while they await final judgment and receive their eternal inheritance. Those people who accepted Christ, received all the necessary ordinances and endured to the end in this world go to a Spirit Paradise. Those people who did not accept Christ, or did not have an opportunity to hear His gospel on earth, and did not receive all necessary ordinances go to a Spirit Prison, where they will suffer for non-repented sins or wait to hear the gospel. The spirits in paradise go as missionaries to the prison to preach the gospel to the people who never had a chance to hear or accept it on Earth. The spirits who accept and receive the Gospel will be admitted in to paradise, and will also act as missionaries. This will go on until the Second Coming and then final judgment.
Here are some bible references to these two states.
Luke 23:42-43
"And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise."
Jesus is dying on the cross. The criminal next to him asks Him to remember him when they die. Notice where Jesus says they'll be. He didn't say Heaven, or His Father's Kingdom. He deliberately said they would be in paradise. This verse also discards the notion that Jesus was going to Hell.
2 Corinthians 12:3-4
"And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter."
Paul is telling about a man who had a vision or out-of-body experience and was taken up to Paradise and heard many things which is unlawful for man to utter. Those must have been pretty incredible. We know he wasn't seeing Heavenly Father's Kingdom because he differentiated this account from another one earlier in the chapter. This world was different.
1 Peter 3: 18-19
"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;"
Peter is teaching that while Christ was dead for those three days He was preaching His gospel to those spirits who hadn't heard it, the spirits who were in the spirit prison. This is also another verse that invalidates the false doctrine taught by some churches that Christ suffered in Hell for the three days. IF He was in hell, He was there to teach not suffer. He had suffered more than enough already.
Revelations 20:13
"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works."
This is a curious verse that doesn't make sense when viewed through a Protestant lens. Their belief is that at death you are immediately sent to heaven or hell for eternity. That's it, there's no getting out of either one. But this verse plainly teaches that death and hell release their captives and THEN the people are judged. Now from an LDS lens this verse makes perfect sense because the hell in this verse refers to spirit prison where people are held waiting to be judged for their works.