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Mormons
teach that Moses did not die but he was translated and taken into heaven. Here
is what we read in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism:
‘Along with Elijah, he returned to the mount of transfiguration spoke with
Christ, and bestowed certain keys of the priesthood upon the chief apostles.
Because he needed a body of flesh and bones to perform this errand and
because the resurrection was yet forthcoming, Moses was translated and taken
into heaven, like Enoch and Elijah …’ (Encyclopedia
of Mormonism, New York-Toronto 1992, vol. 2, page 959).
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As
for Moses, the Scripture does not teach that Moses was translated and taken
into heaven like Enoch and Elijah, but it teaches that Moses saw death, as it
is written: “And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the
top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the
LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead,
unto Dan, And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all
the land
of Judah,
unto the utmost sea, And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city
of palm trees, unto Zoar. And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which
I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto
thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go
over thither. So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according
to the word of the LORD. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over
against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. And
Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim,
nor his natural force abated. And the children of Israel wept for
Moses in the plains of Moab thirty
days: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua
the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands
upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened
unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses. And there arose not a prophet
since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, In all the
signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to
Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, And in all that mighty
hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all
Israel” (Deuteronomy 34:1-12). To confirm that Moses died I remember you that
God said to Joshua: “Moses, my servant is dead” (Joshua 1:2) and that in the
epistle of Jude we read as follows: “Yet Michael the archangel, when
contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not
bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee” (Jude
9)
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