The Terrestial Kingdom

     Last week’s blog entry focused on the Telestial Kingdom, the kingdom that holds the lowest degree of glory out of the three degrees of glory within Heaven.  This week I want to focus on the Terrestial Kingdom.  This degree of glory falls between the Telestial and Celestial Kingdoms.  The scriptures compare the glory of the Terrestial Kingdom to that of the moon in relation to the stars (Telestial Kingdom) and the sun (Celestial Kingdom). (Doctrine and Covenants 76:71, 81)

     Last week I asked you to stop and think of the comparison being made.  The stars seem so much brighter to us then the earth does.  We have a beautiful earth.  Yet the beauty of the Telestial world, or its glory, is much more beautiful than the earth’s beauty, just as the brightness of the stars exceeds the brightness of the earth in our eyes.

     Now think of the brightness of the moon in relation to both the earth and the stars, especially during the full moon.  The moon carries a brightness that definitely exceeds the brightness of the earth and the stars to our eyes.  The glory and beauty of the Terrestial Kingdom exceeds that of the earth and the stars in the same manner.  This must be an incredibly beautiful place.

     The Terrestial Kingdom is able to exceed the glory of the Telestial Kingdom and our mortal earth because of the presence of God that exists there.  Our earth has been primarily removed from the presence of God for the purpose of testing the children of men.  It is farther from God than the Telestial Kingdom is, so it has less glory.  The Telestial Kingdom is farther from the presence of God than the Terrestial Kingdom, so the Terrestial Kingdom has more glory than the Telestial.

     When you study who resides in these two kingdoms, it makes sense to you why the degrees of glory are so different.  Last week I spent some time describing those who exist in the Telestial Kingdom.  I’ll now turn to those in the Terrestial Kingdom.  Turning to The Doctrine and Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we find modern day revelation on the matter.  We read, “Behold, these are they who died without law…who received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it.  These are they who are honorable men of the earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men…These are they who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus; wherefore, they obtain not the crown over the kingdom of our God.” (Doctrine and Covenants 76: 72, 74-75, 79)

     These verses can easily be misunderstood, so let me clarify a little bit.  There are many good people in this earth who reject paths of wickedness in order to follow higher laws of God.  Many of these people choose to do so because they believe in a just God who has commanded them to do good.  They love God and want to honor Him by being obedient to His laws.  Through this they grow to be better people, more Godlike people, who grow to love those around them as God would.  It doesn’t matter what name they call this God, or if they are a little mistaken as to some of His characteristics.  They are following the One True God and will receive the opportunity to partake of the fullness of His laws when they learn them, whether in this part of our existence or the next.

     There are also many good and honorable people who would follow God if they knew Him and His laws.  Yet many don’t receive the opportunity to know Him in this life.  These people will also get the opportunity to do so in the next part of their existence because they are righteous people with pure and Godlike souls.

     There are, however, good and honorable people who want will not receive God in this life.  These people have many opportunities to receive the testimony of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, many times in their lives.  Yet for whatever reason they continually choose not to accept it and forsake the opportunity to grow more Godlike. 

     These people are not wicked people seeking after the riches, power, and glory of the world instead of good and honorable things.  But they are not righteous people seeking after the will of God.  They are “lukewarm” people who are content to remain in the middle between righteousness and wickedness, and because they are “neither cold nor hot,” God “will spue” them “out of” His “mouth”. (Revelation 3:16, in the New Testament portion of The King James Version of the Holy Bible)  In other words they will receive the Terrestial Kingdom, not the Celestial.

     This kingdom of glory is a beautiful place, far exceeding the glory of the Telestial Kingdom.  There are, however, some downsides to this degree of glory.  We learn in The Doctrine and Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that “these are they who receive of his (Christ’s) glory, but not of his fullness.  These are they who receive of the presence of the Son, but not of the fullness of the Father.” 

     In other words, these people will not receive all that Christ has to offer to those that follow His teachings and laws.  They will not live in the presence of God the Eternal Father.  They will not have the glory of God, nor will they have a life like His.  They will not inherit all that the Father has, as Christ has promised to the faithful disciple who follows Him.

     The Terrestial Kingdom is a beautiful place, as we know from the scriptures.  But it is not the best Christ has offered to those who follow Him.  And only those who are righteous people, who actively forsake sin and seek after righteousness, will receive the best.  That best is found in the Celestial Kingdom.  Next week I will focus on this, the best of all.

The Telestial Kingdom

     Last week I focused on Outer Darkness.  This week I would like to turn my focus to the different kingdoms of Heaven.  As a reminder, this includes the Celestial Kingdom, the Terrestial Kingdom, and the Telestial Kingdom.  The scriptures teach us these differ in glory just as the sun, moon, and stars differ in glory (Doctrine and Covenants 76:96-98).

     The lowest of these kingdoms, whose glory is likened unto the glory of the stars, is the Telestial Kingdom.  Think for a minute about the comparison being made here.  The glory of the Telestial Kingdom is like the glory of the stars, whose brightness and glory we can see from the earth despite the fact they are billions of miles away from the earth.  And their brightness and glory is far greater than the earth.  That’s the case with the Telestial Kingdom as well.  The Telestial Kingdom lives in glory that far exceeds that of the earth. 

     But as you look at the stars, you notice they have differing degrees of glory as well.  Each gives off a different amount of light than all the others, shining differently than all the others as well.  This is also the case with the Telestial Kingdom.  Those who will dwell in the Telestial Kingdom will have a different glory than everyone else that dwells in the Telestial Kingdom.

     Why do you suppose that would be the case?  The explanation rests in a description of those that dwell in the Telestial Kingdom.  Turning to The Doctrine of Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we read, “These are they who say they are some of one and some of another.…but received not the gospel, neither the testimony of Jesus, neither the prophets, neither the everlasting covenant….These are they who are liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whosoever loves and makes a lie.”  (Doctrine and Covenants 76:100-103)

     This is teaching us that those who dwell in the Telestial Kingdom are those who give themselves over to sin, living a life of indulgence rather that a life worthy of God.  Reading this gives you the impression this kingdom is reserved for the most wicked people in the earth. 

     What is the difference between these people and those in Outer Darkness?  Those in Outer Darkness are purely evil and fight against Christ, seeking to destroy that which is good.  They completely reject Him.  This means they love and dwell in that which defies all righteousness and glory.

     On the other hand, those in the Telestial Kingdom will confess Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Atoning One, recognizing His glory and power, and choose not to fight against Him.  They won’t completely reject Him.  However, they seek after power, money, lust, and the other idols of men rather than the glory of God.  They don’t completely reject all that is righteous and of God.  They just view other things as more important than God and the paths of righteousness.  So they choose not to partake of the covenants of God in this world or the world to come because it would mean giving up the idols they dearly love.

     This is why there are so many differing degrees of glory in the Telestial Kingdom.  The scriptures teach us those in the Telestial Kingdom are “as innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the seashore…” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:109)  And each of these individuals has a different personality with a different set of idols and sins, giving that person a different glory from all the others. 

     Now you may wonder if it wouldn’t be great just to reach this lowest kingdom if the glory of the Telestial Kingdom is so much greater than the glory of this earth.  But there are several reasons to seek for higher glories.  The most important of these is that the Telestial Kingdom does not contain the full majesty of God, as evidenced by the fact the glory of this kingdom is so much less than the glory of the Celestial kingdom, just as the glory of the sun exceeds that of the stars.

     In addition to having the full majesty of God, the Celestial Kingdom holds many blessings for those that obtain it that will not be received by those in the Telestial or Terrestial Kingdoms.  These will be discussed in more detail in a later post, when I write about the Celestial Kingdom.  But there are conditions specific to the Telestial Kingdom that make it less than desirable in spite of how much the glory of this kingdom exceeds that of our world.

     The Doctrine and Covenants teaches us these people “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…. 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 to suffer the wrath of Almighty God, until the fullness of times, when Christ shall have subdued all enemies under his feet, and shall have perfected his work…”  (Doctrine and Covenants 76:85, 104-106)  We further learn that “…if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit…”  (Doctrine and Covenants 19:17-18)

     Those in the Telestial Kingdom fall into the category of those who would not repent.  Thus they will suffer the wrath of God in order to atone for their own sins.  The point here is that those who choose their wicked desires over the righteousness of God have rejected the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.  They have chosen not to take part in it because they refuse to do that which is required, repentance and faith in the Son of God, in order to have a part in His sacrifice.  So they will have to pay the price of their sins themselves, even though He already paid it.  The justice of God demands it. 

     Keep in mind the suffering these people will face because of their choices was so great that even Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the greatest of all, trembled and quaked, bleeding at every pore.  It is too much for our mortal minds to grasp.  And those in the Telestial Kingdom will pay this price for their own sins. 

     So they may obtain great glory, greater than that of the earth.  But they do not obtain the greatest glory, and they pay a terrible price for that which they do gain.  There are better ways to live in this life that bring to us better glory and a much better cost, for the cost is merely faith in Jehovah, repentance, and a path of righteousness.

Complete Spiritual Death: Outer Darkness

    In this blog entry, I want to focus on the separate courts of heaven.  Within the culture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we often refer to these as the degrees of glory.  This is because those who obtain higher degrees of glory through obedience to the laws set forth by Christ have more glory.  Those in the highest degree have the same glory as God the Father, given to them by Him through Jehovah.

     Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recognize four distinct degrees of glory.  These are called the Celestial Kingdom, the Terrestial Kingdom, the Telestial Kingdom, and Outer Darkness.  The Doctrine and Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will help us better understand these degrees of glory.  Chapters 76 and 88 contain detailed revelation given through the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. specific to these degrees.

     I want to start with the lowest degree of glory and work my way up.  For this reason, I will start by focusing on Outer Darkness. 

     Outer Darkness carries a very distinct characteristic separate from the other degrees.  Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recognize all other degrees of glory as a part of heaven.  Yet Outer Darkness is considered separate from the others because there is no glory of God there.  Those who find themselves consigned to outer darkness will not have any glory from God accompanying them throughout all eternity.  Yet the other three kingdoms have some degree of the glory of God accompanying those who dwell therein.

     Doctrine and Covenants 76:31 explains why those in Outer Darkness do not have any part in the glory of God.  It reads, “Thus saith the Lord concerning all those who know my power, and have been made partakers thereof, and suffered themselves through the power of the devil to be overcome, and to deny the truth and defy my power…”  A careful study of this helps you understand that those who are consigned to Outer Darkness know God and His power, but choose to reject Him.

     There are people in this world who gain a full knowledge of God.  These people become intimately familiar with His power as they see it around them and in their lives.  But everybody always has their agency no matter how much they learn about God.  Those who are wise always follow Him and His laws, especially as they become more intimately familiar with Him. 

     Some, however, grow intimately familiar with the Lord and His power, but still choose to forsake the path of righteousness in order to pursue temptations of the flesh.  They learn how good, wholesome, and right the ways of God are, and with full knowledge choose to pursue evil and not good.  This means they knowingly choose to have no part of God in this life, and so they have no part of God forevermore.

     So who are those that will ultimately dwell in Outer Darkness?  They include the devil and his angels, who fully knew Jehovah in the Premortal Existence and chose to reject Him there.  They include those who know the Holy Spirit, but deny it and openly shame Jesus Christ.  They include those who intimately know God and His power, but chose to reject Him, deny the truth, and defy His power.    (See Doctrine and Covenants 76:30-38 for more details.)

     Now let’s focus on the condition of Outer Darkness.  Take a minute and think about what is often taught about Hell.  Many think of it as a massive furnace full of fire and brimstone.  It is a place of misery where your worst nightmares become your living reality for the rest of forever.  It is the worst possible place you can imagine. 

     I don’t know how much of this popular belief is in fact reality.  But it is at least based in fact, as we learn in Doctrine and Covenants 76:30-38, 44-48.  These verses proclaim that those consigned to Outer Darkness will find an endless torment awaits them, where they will suffer the wrath of God.  It is a place of endless punishment, a lake of fire and brimstone, where the fires of consequences for their evil actions will not be quenched.  Nobody but those consigned to this torment and misery can understand the depth of misery that will take place therein.

     This is the condition of Outer Darkness, where none of the glory of God is present and full spiritual death takes place.  All others have some degree of the glory of God, and no one else suffers full separation from God. 

Separation from God

     The last few blog entries have focused on the salvation we can gain through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  The last of these is salvation from separation from God, which is spiritual death.  Today’s entry will focus on this salvation.

     Let me start by explaining how separation from God is a spiritual death.  Think about the death of your body.  Your spirit is what gives energy to your body, lighting up your eyes with the essence of life.  So your spirit can be thought of as the light of your body.  When your body dies, your spirit leaves your body and the body loses its light.  So upon death your physical body becomes an empty shell incapable of growth or progression.   This body will lie in decay until the resurrection, when your spirit returns to your body and reanimates it. 

     Separation from God has many similarities to your physical death.  The Old Testament teaches us that “…the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light…” (Isaiah 60:19).  Other verses of scripture (such as 2 Nephi 10:14) support this teaching.  Our spirits are everlasting and God can be thought of as the Light of our spirits. 

     Separation from God, then, brings about the separation of your spirit from the Light of your spirit.  Your spirit then suffers similar effects as those your body suffers when your spirit leaves your body.  The impact depends on the amount of separation.  Complete separation from God, for example, completely stops your ability to grow or progress.  Any other level of separation limits your ability to grow or progress.

     Many of the spirit children of God suffered complete separation from God in the Premortal Existence.  These spirits rejected Jehovah (who would come to earth as Jesus Christ), choosing not to place any faith in Him in the beginning.  Because of this they lost the ability to progress beyond spirits.  The rest exercised faith in Jehovah and were guaranteed physical bodies.  This includes all of us that are born into earth.

     For those of us born into this world, our separation from God begins at the time we are born into this world.  At this time we are placed within a veil that separates our minds from the knowledge we obtained in the Premortal Existence, hindering our ability to grow and progress.  This veil is weakened or strengthened throughout our lives depending on the amount of faith we place in Jesus Christ, or by how much we reject Him and His teachings. 

     Let me clarify this a little bit.  Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recognize that a veil separates us from the Spirit World.  There are those for whom this veil is weak.  These people see spirits or other manifestations of the spirit world frequently.  Your level of faith does not necessarily have an impact on the strength of this veil.  Only God can determine this, and only He knows why it is weaker for some than it is for others. 

     The veil that will be weakened or strengthened depending on your faith in Jesus is the veil that separates you from all the knowledge you gained in the Premortal Existence.  As you exercise your faith in Jesus Christ, you learn more of the eternal truths you knew before coming through the veil.  If you reject Him, you lose what knowledge you have.

     This carries over into your separation from God as well.  If you choose to go through life exercising faith in the Son of God, you will grow closer to God.  This means the degree to which you are separated from Him is lessened.  Thus your ability to progress is increasing because you are growing closer to God and becoming more like Him.  If, however, you reject the laws of God and choose to pursue paths of wickedness, you will grow further and further away from God and increase the degree of spiritual death you face.  This means you will be making your progression more and more difficult. 

     Let me point out that any and all sin is a form of rejection of the laws of Jesus Christ.  Repentance, on the other hand, is using the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ through faith to increase your ability to follow the laws of God.  So sin separates you from God and decreases your ability to progress, while repentance exercises faith and brings you closer to God so that your ability to progress increases.

     This all comes to an end when we stand before the judgment bar of Jesus Christ.  Here we stand to be judged, and it is determined to what degree we will ultimately be separated from God for all time and all eternity. 

     This degree of separation is entirely dependent upon the degree of separation from God we attained through the choices we made in life.  Those who focused their life on eliminating separation from God will be granted access to the highest courts of heaven, where they will have the ability to fully eliminate their separation from God.  Those who exercised less faith will find themselves dwelling in lower courts of heaven, or even entirely separated from heaven so their separation from God is complete.  In following entries I will focus on what the various courts of heaven are, and thereby describe the degrees of separation from God.

Salvation from Sin

     In this blog entry, I will continue my focus on salvation, particularly salvation from sin.  Next week I will focus on salvation from spiritual death (separation from God).

     One of the ways the faithful follower of Christ is saved from sin comes many times throughout that individual’s life.  Faithful followers of Christ recognize they aren’t perfect and devote their lives to overcoming their weaknesses and sins in order to become more like Him.  Many times throughout their lives, they will witness the miraculous healing power of Jesus Christ as it grants them the strength to overcome their weaknesses.

     I can speak personally of this healing power because I’ve seen it in my life.  One instance that comes to mind is a weakness of mine that I struggled with for years.  During these years of struggle, I found myself constantly infuriated with myself because I would give in to the enticements of this weakness and fail to measure up to the standards a disciple of Christ should carry.  I would find myself on my knees often, asking for forgiveness for my mistakes and pleading for the strength to eliminate this weakness from my life.

     Suddenly, without any warning or preamble, I found there came a day when my desire to give in to this weakness was simply gone.  The weakness itself wasn’t gone.  I still have it and am still trying to fully eliminate it from my life.  But I no longer carried the desire to act upon that weakness.  I fought for years without making any progress, and finally a day came when there was a significant step closer to complete freedom from that weakness.  That step came through the power of Jesus Christ as He granted me the strength to be free.

     There are many ways freedom from our sins and weaknesses come through the strength of Jesus Christ.  In this case it came suddenly after years of fighting the weakness with no apparent progress.  In some cases an individual learns something is wrong and just suddenly gives it up, without any apparent struggle.  In most cases, it seems, people fight their way out of the problem one step at a time, gradually gaining more and more freedom.  In all cases that freedom from sin is only possible through the Savior Jesus Christ.

     Another form of freedom from sin is freedom from the consequences of sin.  Usually in life we still suffer the consequences of the sins in which we choose to indulge.  If you choose to indulge in smoking, you will likely suffer the consequence of lung cancer.  If you choose to participate in physical intimacy outside the sacred bonds of marriage, you may have to suffer the consequence of having a child outside of wedlock.  If you lie, cheat, steal, or indulge in pornography, you will have to endure lack of trust from those around you.  These consequences carry over even after you have repented, though some with far less duration than others.

     There are times when God may remove the consequences from sin in this life without requiring the repentant sinner to suffer through those consequences.  Only He knows when He will do so, and only He knows why.  His purposes are just, and if He chooses to do so, it is for a just purpose.  This seldom seems to be the case, however.  It seems we are usually required to suffer through the consequences of sin in this life.

     But the more dire consequences of sin that come after judgment are a different matter.  These are the consequences that Jesus promised would not fall on the repentant soul.  In The Doctrine and Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which contains the prophecies of God given through His prophets called in modern days, we get a glimpse into the severity of the consequences that come after judgment.  Turning to chapter 19, verses 15-18, we read:

                15. Therefore I command you to repent—repent, lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore—how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not, yea, how hard to bear you know not.  

                16.  For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;

                17.  But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;

                18.  Which suffering cause myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup...

     This teaches us that, if we choose not to repent for our sins, we must face the same consequences of sin that Jesus faced in the Garden of Gethsemane.  These consequences caused Him to tremble and bleed at every pore, suffering pain so great that only Jesus could endure because of the combination of divine and mortal qualities only He possessed.  Yet any who choose not to partake of the Atonement of Jesus Christ will suffer this same and pain for their own sins when their judgment is meted out.

     This may seem unfair, but in fact it is completely fair.  Think about it.  Jesus suffered for your sins and offers you the opportunity to repent, return to the path of righteousness, and have your sins covered through His atonement.  But if you reject this offer because of your own foolish pride, laziness, or self-indulgent nature, you must pay the price yourself.  You chose to so suffer because other things were more important to you and you weren’t willing to make sacrifices for redemption.  So isn’t it fair that you should pay the price yourself?  It is.  Only those who repent, sacrificing the wickedness of this world in order to follow in the righteous footsteps of Jesus Christ, have claim to the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

     Another consequence of sin that we are saved from through obedience to the laws of God is separation from God.  This is the salvation from spiritual death that becomes the third type of salvation we can receive because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  As I stated earlier, I will cover this salvation next week.