"And they who are not sanctified through the law which I have given unto you, even the law of Christ, must inherit another kingdom, even that of a terrestrial kingdom, or that of a telestial kingdom.
For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory.
And he who cannot abide the law of a terrestrial kingdom cannot abide a terrestrial glory.
And he who cannot abide the law of a telestial kingdom cannot abide a telestial glory; therefore he is not meet for a kingdom of glory. Therefore he must abide a kingdom which is not a kingdom of glory."
Doctrine and Covenants 88:21-24
This is an interesting passage, and I think what it is saying is basically that if we can't handle God's law now, we won't be able to handle it later, and that is what heaven is built around. The better we get at learning how to be good people, the closer we get to living the law, and also the more we are preparing ourselves for Heaven.
This makes sense to me, because when we move on from this life it doesn't make sense that if we were cruel and mean all our lives that we would just instantly learn how to treat people kindly ... but obviously in heaven, that is what people would do, and so, as an example, the more we learn to treat people kindly, the closer we will be to heaven. If we can't learn that, then we will have to go someplace where that isn't a rule (or the rule about it is less strict, or whatever). And so if we can be polite, but not kind, we might go to a different place than the people who have learned to be wholeheartedly kind and completely sincere about it. And if we just can't not verbally abuse people, then maybe we go to a place that doesn't have much glory at all.
By the way, I am not mentioning the names of kingdoms/levels of heaven not because there isn't something to be learned there, but just because it doesn't matter to this particular idea. The overall idea being that God is trying to teach us the way to be not just as an ethical exercise, but because we are going to be matched up with other people like us after this life, which is a great opportunity on one hand, and kind of scary on the other.
Today, let's try to be the kind of people that we want to be around... because eventually, that is what we are going to get. :)
For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory.
And he who cannot abide the law of a terrestrial kingdom cannot abide a terrestrial glory.
And he who cannot abide the law of a telestial kingdom cannot abide a telestial glory; therefore he is not meet for a kingdom of glory. Therefore he must abide a kingdom which is not a kingdom of glory."
Doctrine and Covenants 88:21-24
This is an interesting passage, and I think what it is saying is basically that if we can't handle God's law now, we won't be able to handle it later, and that is what heaven is built around. The better we get at learning how to be good people, the closer we get to living the law, and also the more we are preparing ourselves for Heaven.
This makes sense to me, because when we move on from this life it doesn't make sense that if we were cruel and mean all our lives that we would just instantly learn how to treat people kindly ... but obviously in heaven, that is what people would do, and so, as an example, the more we learn to treat people kindly, the closer we will be to heaven. If we can't learn that, then we will have to go someplace where that isn't a rule (or the rule about it is less strict, or whatever). And so if we can be polite, but not kind, we might go to a different place than the people who have learned to be wholeheartedly kind and completely sincere about it. And if we just can't not verbally abuse people, then maybe we go to a place that doesn't have much glory at all.
By the way, I am not mentioning the names of kingdoms/levels of heaven not because there isn't something to be learned there, but just because it doesn't matter to this particular idea. The overall idea being that God is trying to teach us the way to be not just as an ethical exercise, but because we are going to be matched up with other people like us after this life, which is a great opportunity on one hand, and kind of scary on the other.
Today, let's try to be the kind of people that we want to be around... because eventually, that is what we are going to get. :)
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