Translated Beings — Still Among Us

Translation is a real doctrine with named individuals — some of them are still walking the earth.

What Translation Is

Translation is not death. It is not resurrection. It is a state between them — a condition in which a person's physical body is changed so that it is no longer subject to death, disease, or pain, while still remaining in a mortal-adjacent state. The person continues to live, continues to work, and continues to age in some sense — but not toward death.

Joseph Smith taught that translated beings will eventually experience a version of death — a momentary change rather than the dying process — before resurrection. They are not yet resurrected. They do not yet have a permanent, glorified body. They are, in a sense, held in reserve — preserved by God for purposes He has not yet completed.

This is not a peripheral doctrine. The Bible names translated individuals. The Book of Mormon names more. The Doctrine and Covenants gives specific details about their current state and mission. Translation is a real category in the Lord's economy — and it is still in use.

Why God Uses Translation

Translation solves a problem that death cannot. If a person is needed for a long mission — one that spans centuries, one that requires continuity across dispensations, one that depends on a living witness rather than a written record — death is an obstacle. Translation removes the obstacle without bypassing mortality.

The Three Nephites asked to tarry on the earth to bring souls to Christ until Christ comes again. That is not a decade-long mission. It is a two-thousand-year mission. No mortal body could sustain it. Translation was the solution.

God does not translate arbitrarily. Every known case of translation is tied to a specific, ongoing purpose that required the individual to remain in an embodied, active state beyond normal mortality.

The Three Nephites

Near the end of His ministry among the Nephites, Christ asked the Twelve what they desired of Him. Nine asked to come to Him when their ministry was complete. Three asked for something different:

3 Nephi 28:6–7

“And they sorrowed in their hearts, for they durst not speak unto him the thing which they desired. And he said unto them: Behold, I know your thoughts, and ye have desired the thing which John, my beloved, who was with me in my ministry, before that I was lifted up by the Jews, desired of me.”

They wanted to stay — to minister among the people until Christ's return. Christ granted it. He changed their bodies so they could not feel pain or death. They are, as of the writing of the Book of Mormon, still ministering — unseen, unrecognized, working among the nations.

Mormon, writing near the end of his life, noted that he had ministered with them and that they were still active. They were not legends. They were colleagues in ministry, known to the Nephite leaders, operating in the world.

John the Beloved

The same desire was at the heart of a long-running dispute among the early apostles about John. Peter asked Christ what would happen to the beloved disciple, and Christ's answer was cryptic enough to generate a tradition:

John 21:22

“Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.”

The tradition that arose was that John would not die — and Christ did not correct that tradition. He merely said “what is that to thee?” Doctrine and Covenants 7 resolves the question by revealing the actual content of the promise John asked for and received: to minister and bring souls to Christ until He comes. Translation, not death.

Key References

• D&C 7 — The actual record of John's request and Christ's grant of it
• John 21:20–23 — The New Testament passage and the ambiguity Christ left

John the Beloved and the Three Nephites hold the same commission: remain in the world, bring souls to Christ, minister among the people until He returns. John works among the nations at large. The Three Nephites minister particularly among the house of Israel and among Lamanite peoples.

Moses and Elijah

The Old Testament records that Elijah was taken up into heaven by a whirlwind and a chariot of fire — not through death, but through a change of state. Moses's death is recorded in Deuteronomy, but in a way that is deliberately unusual: no one saw him die, no one found his body, and the Lord buried him in a place no one knows.

2 Kings 2:11

“And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”

Both Moses and Elijah appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration in embodied form. Peter, James, and John saw them. They were present, conversing with Christ about His coming death. Translated beings can appear. They are not ghosts or spirits — they have bodies. They carry keys. They have work to do.

Both Moses and Elijah appeared in the Kirtland Temple in 1836 and restored their specific dispensation keys to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery — a fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy that Elijah would return before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

The City of Enoch

Translation was not limited to individuals. An entire city was translated — taken up, people and all — because of the righteousness of Enoch's people. The Pearl of Great Price describes this event in detail. The people of Enoch built Zion so completely that God took them up:

Moses 7:27

“And Enoch and all his people walked with God, and he dwelt in the midst of Zion; and it came to pass that Zion was not, for God received it up into his own bosom; and from thence went forth the saying, Zion Is Fled.”

That city is not gone — it is translated, existing in a state reserved for its return at the Second Coming, when it will come down to meet the New Jerusalem. The people of Enoch are still in existence. They are still waiting. And they are coming back.

Why This Doctrine Matters

The doctrine of translated beings is not a curiosity or a folk tale. It is one of the most concrete demonstrations of God's active, ongoing governance of this earth. He is not watching from a distance. He has agents in the field — living, embodied, commissioned servants who have never left.

The Three Nephites are not a legend. John is not a metaphor. Elijah returned in 1836 — not as a ghost but as a resurrected, embodied being who shook hands with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple and restored the sealing keys. That event changed everything about how families are sealed and how temple work functions.

God is not finished. He does not leave His work undone. Every translated being still in existence is evidence that there are missions not yet complete, keys not yet returned, work not yet finished. And when it is complete, they will finish their mortal-adjacent journey and receive their resurrection.

Translation is not mythology. It is administration.