Understanding The Hereafter

[zshallr]

HEREAFTER

Christians in general, Latter-day Saints in particular, and most of the world’s religions, for that matter, have in common doctrines and teachings about life beyond mortality. All though I am LDS, most any Christian could substitute his own particular beliefs into the discussion which follows.

When I inquire of my LDS “main stream” acquaintances about their beliefs with respect to what follows mortality, life after death, the conversation is typically as follows:

Prophet: After you die, what are you expecting? What is the sequence of experiences that you expect to encounter? What lies hereafter?

LDS: After I die, I will go into a part of the spirit world called Paradise to await my resurrection. When I am resurrected, I expect to be judged for my actions on earth and sent to one of three degrees of glory. Hopefully, I will qualify for the highest or Celestial Kingdom where I will live with God and the angels eternally. Of course, as a Latter-day Saint, I expect to become a God and do the creative works of God for my children just as my Heavenly Father has done for me.

Prophet: Paradise is for you a part of the spirit world. The other part of the spirit world you call spirit prison. What is the distinction?

LDS: Paradise is the resting place for the righteous while spirit prison is an opportunity for the unrighteous and those who have died in ignorance of the gospel to receive missionaries to teach them the gospel so that they too may repent and be saved.

Prophet: Would you anticipate some element of opposition to be a part of that experience, or do you expect the glory of the angelic missionaries to be obvious and offer a clear and obvious choice to the inmates of the spirit prison.

LDS: We know “there must needs be opposition in all things.”

Prophet: Why do you believe that you will go to Paradise as opposed to the spirit prison?

LDS: Because I am a baptized member of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Prophet: As a baptized member of the Church of Jesus Christ, do you believe that you are now or that you will, by the time you die, be fully repentant, and therefore fully forgiven of sin, and therefore have reached perfection, and therefore have your calling and election made sure?

LDS: No.

Prophet: So you would expect all of that to go on in Paradise? Paradise, therefore has the elements of progression, learning, developing, and the perfecting of your faith?

LDS: Yes, I suppose that would be true.

Prophet: What about opposition in that process? Would you expect some opposition?

LDS: Well, yes, I suppose that could be true and I would also expect that some personal progression and development may happen in each of the Celestial, Terrestrial, and Telestial Kingdoms after resurrection and judgment.

Prophet: So, one does not have to be “perfect” to be admitted into the Celestial Kingdom and progression, opposition, agency, therefore, may be eternal principles?

LDS: Well, uh, I suppose one has to be perfect in some things, but we do not know all the details in this life.

Prophet: Are you resurrected into a Celestial body if you are a candidate for the Celestial Kingdom?

LDS: Yes, of course.

Prophet: Would that not presume some sort of judgment before resurrection as opposed to after resurrection.

LDS: Well, yes, but as I said, here in mortality we do not know all the mechanics and all the fine details.

Many unasked and unanswered questions are raised in this interview, but we can see from it that we arrive very quickly at the limits of our understanding of the hereafter. Though the details remain fuzzy and we never quite get around to the specifics in Sunday School, we might be allowed to explore a few of the more obvious assumptions.

Even the most devout religious people hardly expect to reach perfection before leaving mortality. Some form of life, progression, development, learning, missionary work, agency, change, opposition, judgment, grading and resurrection are all elements of the “hereafter.”

If we consider the ramifications of recurrent mortality, may I ask which of the foregoing elements are not present in our present world? Think about it.

Let me be the first to welcome you to the hereafter!

I apologize for not being there to greet you upon arrival here in the hereafter, but I seem to have been a little late arriving myself. Come to think of it, most of you would not even notice my tardiness, having not yet arrived themselves.

May I suggest that not everyone on this earth is a Telestial being until proven otherwise, even if they do look like everyone else. Adam, Enoch, Noah, Jared and his brother, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Lehi, Nephi, Jacob, Enos, Benjamin, Mosiah, Ether, Alma, Captain Moroni, Samuel, Nephi, Christ, Peter, James, John, John, Mormon, Moroni, William, Martin, Joseph, Hugh, and all the other greater and lesser ringers I have failed to mention have all been down here in the midst of opposition doing missionary work among the captives of this world.

Are the inhabitants of this world, prisoners of walls of stone, or walls of a counterfeit belief system? Are we prisoners of the flesh, or of the mind and spirit. Is this not indeed a spirit prison?

How often we have observed the swarming masses on this planet going to and fro on the freeways, thither and yon in the market place to “work by the sweat of our brow”, or wandering about the streets and shopping malls without the slightest glimmer of critical faculty applied to their own eternal circumstances. We have often asked what purpose this existence serves for so many who are oblivious to its purpose. Why do so many endure the rigors of mortality, and so few come to eternal knowledge, wisdom, and understanding? What purpose does this serve for the vast majority? Why do so few realize the vision? What is the point? What is the purpose of such a world?

To put it simply, this is a warehouse!

All of God’s children have to be somewhere. None of God’s children have to do, perform, progress, achieve, accomplish, look, listen, or obey, but all of God’s children must be put somewhere.

If we were to imagine ourselves in our LDS friend’s spirit prison, we would not even ask why there are so many people wandering around without purpose or direction. It is only for want of our own eternal “grid coordinates” that we even ask such a question.

“In my Father’s house are many mansions,” said the Lord. Our last significant prophet clarified that comment for us. In His Father’s house are many way-stations, many inns or apartments along the traveler’s way. In straight forward terms, in the Father’s house are many warehouses.

Welcome to the hereafter, family, for indeed, we are here!

You may recall Hugh Nibley’s single-question, Honors class, midterm question: “Assume that you have been guaranteed a thousand uninterrupted years of life here on earth, with all your wants and needs adequately funded: How would you plan to spend the rest of your lives here?” Notice that it really is a “midterm” question, and just who here in hell would be asking that question – for heaven’s sake?

If I were to answer that question, I would first recall another of Brother Nibley’s comments in Breakthroughs I Would Like to See, November 8, 1984: “Anything I discuss with anybody from this time on must be within the framework of the scriptures. Why? …The scriptures, with modern revelation added, are far more explicit and detailed than people realize. …Above all, we are obliged to – because there is no other framework available to appeal to.”

With that in mind, I would answer:

Look for messengers.

Seek the further light and knowledge promised.

Pray Always.

Meditate on Gospel Principles and Doctrines.

Repent and Forgive.

Live the Gospel.

Love one another as [He] has loved [us].

Be one with Him.

Search the scriptures and especially the words of Isaiah and the Book of Mormon.

Serve, assist, and call to your fellow travelers to do the same. Is that not the mission of a missionary?

I am sure you will identify other important points. As we contemplate this short list, we can see the multitude of examples set for us by the prophetic ringers who have come among us countless times. Though they look like everyone else and suffer the same infirmities while they come to themselves in a hostile environment, yet they stand before us having prevailed. Having prevailed, do they not stand before us as the way itself?

What better way to show us - than to simply, show us the way?

[MaidservantX]

I simply disagree.

When I experience the hellishness of the present existence (I like the term mortal probation), I figure this is the only hell we will know. And 'knowing' is the key. It's a privilege. It's a privilege to experience first hand the oppressive forces in the universe and yet after a set time, be allowed to leave that, relatively unscathed. We will have knowledge. We will know God. Not merely know him, as we have the teaching that we are already familiar with him as our Father. But we will have partaken of the fruit of the tree.

This is a limited set of time and space. It was created to have certain properties that certainly do not qualify as being 'the real world' if we consider the spaces and times (or the transcendence thereof) that our Father enjoys Life as being 'the real world'.

I accept the simple explanation that this life is a test. That is the best way to put it, in my view. We were sent here. Our Father is individually aware of us. Death and into the spirit world continues the mortal probation timeline, the only difference being a separation of the body from the spirit briefly.

The test is not merely about who will be 'good' and who will be 'bad'. It is not to see if we get the gold star called 'celestial kingdom' stamped on our forehead.

We are here to create our first world.

That is the test.

It looks like we might be screwing it up, lol!!! Not really . . . even a failure is a success if learned from.

[CrimsonKairos]

LDS: We know “there must needs be opposition in all things.”

This is a pet peeve of mine, so do indulge me. This statement about opposition is a common fallacy in our Church. It's a misreading of 2 Nephi 2:11 which states:

For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. (emphasis added)

It does not say, "For it must needs be, that there is opposition in all things." All Lehi was teaching was that everything has a diametric opposite (good vs. evil, pleasure vs. pain, wealth vs. poverty, etc...). Anyway, it's a small point but one which I had to correct.

Prophet: What about opposition in [Paradise]? Would you expect some opposition?

Heck no. Otherwise I'd just coast and head for spirit prison! It's a place where the saints rest from their cares, sorrows, and pains. No temptation. No sin. No opposition. Now in spirit prison, that's another matter.

Prophet: So, one does not have to be “perfect” to be admitted into the Celestial Kingdom...?

Um, yes. Enoch laid it out for us in Moses 6:58-60 as here:

Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children, saying:

That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory;

For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified; (emphasis mine)

The process is straightforward. We repent and our sins are forgiven. This however merely leaves us guilty of sinning but forgiven. No imperfect being may dwell with God. The last step, sanctification, is where Christ literally infuses us with his record of perfect obedience...he changes our hearts, our natures, and crowns with success our personal struggles to become the kind of being that he and Father are. In this state of perfection we may enter into the Father's presence.

Of course we must be perfect to gain admittance to the Celestial Kingdom. It is through Christ's grace and our voluntary submission that we attain perfection of character and partake of the divine nature.

[MaidservantX]

good stuff, CK.