Main Page: Biblical Supports for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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Multiple Degrees of Glory in Heaven
When you took tests in high school or college, were you given no leeway between an A+ and an F? Would God would do such a thing with heaven and hell, potentially consigning mass murderers and shoplifters to the same eternal fate? Or does it make more sense that heaven is divided into kingdoms of varying glory, depending on where people are suited to go? It isn't our place to judge hearts, but I think we all know that the world isn't divided into just "good" and "bad" people. The Bible doesn't say much at all about this, but the clues it offers are most interesting. The three kingdoms are all a part of one big "heaven" and are usually referred to in that broad sense, but not always.
John 14:2; "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." Admittedly this passage is rather vague, but it strongly implies a separation of people into different spots.
1 Corinthians 15:39-41; "All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial, [and bodies telestial]; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another, [and the telestial, another]. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory." The bracketed words are added by the Joseph Smith Translation The passage makes more sense with them, because in the King James Version only two kingdoms are listed yet it goes on to describe three glories (sun, moon, and stars).
2 Corinthians 12:2; "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven." Surely it's not ridiculous to assume that if there is a third heaven, there just may be a first and second as well. Although Latter-day Saints generally think of the "third" heaven as the Telestial Kingdom, the lowest one where true men in Christ will probably not go, I don't find it far-fetched that Paul could have considered the Celestial Kingdom as the third one in a "best-for-last" kind of way.
John 14:2; "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." Admittedly this passage is rather vague, but it strongly implies a separation of people into different spots.
1 Corinthians 15:39-41; "All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial, [and bodies telestial]; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another, [and the telestial, another]. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory." The bracketed words are added by the Joseph Smith Translation The passage makes more sense with them, because in the King James Version only two kingdoms are listed yet it goes on to describe three glories (sun, moon, and stars).
2 Corinthians 12:2; "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven." Surely it's not ridiculous to assume that if there is a third heaven, there just may be a first and second as well. Although Latter-day Saints generally think of the "third" heaven as the Telestial Kingdom, the lowest one where true men in Christ will probably not go, I don't find it far-fetched that Paul could have considered the Celestial Kingdom as the third one in a "best-for-last" kind of way.