A Telestial State of Mind

 What is it in us that wants other people to suffer? That question is, of course, rhetorical, but stems from several conversations I've had this week about the telestial kingdom that have been surprisingly divisive. So far, in eight conversations with missionaries, fellow MTC teachers and Tara, four have strongly felt that those in the telestial kingdom will have an eternity of regret, while the other four believe even the telestial kingdom is a place of happiness.

My bias toward the belief that a loving God would allow even his most disobedient children to be eternally happy is probably pretty transparent by now. If you're just interested in the punchline, you may already be used to skipping to the end of these long discourse-style posts. Perhaps I'm abusing the blogging concept-- oh, well. Here's a few things I've found to support my bias:

Hell will have an end.

In the institute manual for the Doctrine and Covenants, Elder Bruce R. McConkie explains, "That part of the spirit world inhabited by wicked spirits who are awaiting the eventual day of their resurrection is called hell. Between their death and resurrection, these souls of the wicked are cast out into outer darkness, into the gloomy depression of sheol, into the hades of waiting wicked spirits, into hell. There they suffer the torments of the damned; there they welter in the vengeance of eternal fire; there is found weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth; there the fiery indignation of the wrath of God is poured out upon the wicked. (Alma 40:11–14; D. & C. 76:103–106.)

“Hell will have an end. Viewing future events, John saw that ‘death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.’ (Rev. 20:13.) Jacob taught that this escape from death and hell meant the bringing of the body out of the grave and the spirit out of hell. ‘And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death,’ he said, ‘shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other.’ (2 Ne. 9:10–12.) It was in keeping with this principle for David to receive the promise: ‘Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.’ (Psalms 16:10; Acts 2:27.) “After their resurrection, the great majority of those who have suffered in hell will pass into the telestial kingdom; the balance, cursed as sons of perdition, will be consigned to partake of endless wo with the devil and his angels. . . .

“Who will go to hell? This query is abundantly answered in the scriptures. Since those going to a telestial kingdom travel to their destination through the depths of hell and as a result of obedience to telestial law, it follows that all those who live a telestial law will go to hell.” (Mormon Doctrine, pp. 349–50.)

Telestial kingdom still a kingdom of glory.

Elder James E. Faust taught, "If a man cannot or will not obey the terrestrial law he cannot rationally hope for a place in the terrestrial kingdom. If he cannot live the yet lower law—the telestial law— he cannot abide the glory of a telestial kingdom, and he will have to be assigned therefore to a kingdom without glory. I rejoice in the consistency and order of the Lord’s plan and in His revelations to us.” (In Conference Report, Oct. 1929, p. 69.)

Telestial glory is beyond the understanding of man.

All who receive the telestial kingdom will have paid a price for this glory. The fact that after they pay this price they inherit a telestial glory is evidence of the Father’s love and mercy. Elder John A. Widtsoe wrote: “The [Doctrine and Covenants] explains clearly that the lowest glory to which man is assigned is so glorious as to be beyond the understanding of man. It is a doctrine fundamental in Mormonism that the meanest sinner, in the final judgment, will receive a glory which is beyond human understanding, which is so great that we are unable to describe it adequately. Those who do well will receive an even more glorious place. Those who dwell in the lower may look wistfully to the higher as we do here. The hell on the other side will be felt in some such way.

“The Gospel is a gospel of tremendous love. Love is at the bottom of it. The meanest child is loved so dearly that his reward will be beyond the understanding of mortal man.” (Message of the Doctrine and Covenants, p. 167.) Only the sons of perdition, who deny the truth and openly defy God (see D&C 76:31), will be denied a kingdom of glory (see Notes and Commentary on D&C 76:31–49).

Those in Telestial Kingdom resurrected and spiritually clean. “All liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers and all who love and make a lie,” President Joseph Fielding Smith wrote, “shall not receive the resurrection at this time, but for a thousand years shall be thrust down into hell where they shall suffer the wrath of God until they pay the price of their sinning, if it is possible, by the things which they shall suffer” (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:297).

After they have satisfied the demands of justice by paying for their own sins in hell, they will then be brought forth and resurrected (see D&C 76:103–6). “These do not live during the millennial reign, but during that time are spending their time in torment, or anguish of soul, because of their transgressions. . . .

“This suffering will be a means of cleansing, or purifying, and through it the wicked shall be brought to a condition whereby they may, through the redemption of Jesus Christ, obtain immortality. Their spirits and bodies shall be again united, and they shall dwell in the telestial kingdom. But this resurrection will not come until the end of the world.” (Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 2:298.)

Telestial occupants receive the Holy Ghost.

In April Conference 1995, Elder Oaks taught, "In their final judgment, the children of God will be assigned to kingdom of glory for which their obedience has qualified them. In his letters to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul described these places. He told of a vision in which he was 'caught up to the third heaven' and 'heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter' (2 Cor. 12:2, 4). Speaking of the resurrection of the dead, he described 'celestial bodies,' 'bodies terrestrial' (1 Cor. 15:40), and 'bodies telestial' (JST, 1 Cor. 15:40), each pertaining to a different degree of glory. He likened these different glories to the sun, to the moon, and to different stars (see 1 Cor. 15:41).

"We learn from modern revelation that these three different degrees of glory have a special relationship to the three different members of the Godhead.

"The lowest degree is the telestial domain of those who 'received not the gospel, neither the testimony of Jesus, neither the prophets' (D&C 76:101) and who have had to suffer for their wickedness. But even this degree has a glory that 'surpasses all understanding' (D&C 76:89). Its occupants receive the Holy Spirit and the administering of angels, for even those who have been wicked will ultimately be 'heirs of [this degree of] salvation' (D&C 76:88)".

 Happiness is found in the telestial kingdom.

From Gospel Fundamentals chapter 36 (emphasis added): "[The telestial] kingdom is not as wonderful as the celestial kingdom or the terrestrial kingdom. Neither our Father in Heaven nor Jesus will visit those who live here. Angels will visit these people, and they will have the influence of the Holy Ghost. The people who live in the telestial kingdom are those who did not accept either the gospel or a testimony of Jesus, either on earth or in the spirit world. They will suffer for their own sins in spirit prison until after the Millennium. Then they will be finally resurrected.

"While on this earth, they were liars, thieves, murderers, false prophets, adulterers, and those who ridiculed sacred things. They were people who accepted the beliefs of the world rather than the teachings of Jesus. Many people will live in this kingdom. Our Father in Heaven will give these people the happiness they are prepared to receive."

Conclusion

Those who will inherit the telestial kingdom will suffer in hell until their resurrection at the end of the Millennium. At which point, now clean and resurrected, they will inherit the telestial kingdom. Here, in a place more wonderful than we can comprehend, they will receive the Spirit and live in great happiness. I've found no evidence that they will be regretful, rather their suffering will be completed and they will be happy.

It is troublesome to think of the commentary the opposite view makes about God. Who is this God, who would design a plan that would knowingly bring the mental anguish of regret (i.e. hell) to the majority of His children for the rest of eternity? I'm open to consider that question more carefully if you know of a doctrine that teaches this, but it is troublesome at best. More likely, the often-taught ideals of the telestial eternally regretting their earthly decisions are the conclusions of the natural man, who may feel slighted that the "losers" get eternal happiness also.

Coming

 

In reading the Joseph Smith translation of Matthew 24:34, Christ teaches his disciples that the generation that sees the sign of His coming "shall not pass away" before the Second Coming. This reading of the scriptures may sometimes be seen as impossible. It appears that many signs have been given, including the restoration of the gospel itself, over the last 189 years-- and many generations have also passed on.

Perhaps it is possible that the Savior was referring to one specific sign. Several of those present thought that sign was the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem-- a doctrine which Paul corrected in his famous verse about the coming apostasy in his second letter to the Thessalonians.

A possibility that I will suggest, recognizing that I am neither a scholar nor much less a prophet to whom it is given to interpret scripture and reveal the will of God, is that the major sign will be the fulfilling of the Abrahamic Covenant. This suggestion is made based upon the significance of the Abrahamic Covenant to all audiences with whom Christ addresses this issue, Christ's "Law and Covenant" discourse (3 Nephi 15:1-17:4) and the Lord's teaching that the first will be last and the last will be first. The Abrahamic Covenant was given to Abraham around 1900 BC and promised innumerable posterity, a special land and that the nations of the Earth would be blessed through his seed. The Law of Moses was given roughly 600 years later and was fulfilled at the First Coming of Christ. Of their relationship, Christ taught, "Behold, I say unto you that the law is fulfilled that was given unto Moses. Behold, I am he that gave the law, and I am he who covenanted with my people Israel; therefore the law in me is fulfilled, for I have come to fulfil the law; therefore it hath an end. Behold, I do not destroy the prophets, for as many as have not been fulfilled in me, verily I say unto you, shall all be fulfilled. And...I do not destroy that which hath been spoken concerning things which are to come. For behold, the covenant which I have made with my people is not all fulfilled; but the law which was given unto Moses hath an end in me" (3 Nephi 15:4-8). Thus,the Law of Moses was given last and has already been fulfilled at the first coming of Christ, while the Abrahamic Covenant was given first and will be fulfilled last, perhaps at the time of His Second Coming.

Third Nephi chapter 21 is part of a sermon LDS scholars call the "Father Covenant" sermon because Christ is delivering a message from the Father to covenant peoples both in ancient America and in the present-day Church. The chapter begins with a seven-verse sentence about a sign. It is worth noting that the first reference to the sign is given in future tense, while the sentence concludes with a reference to the same sign in the past tense.

Sandwiched between the past and the future must be the present-- the sign-- to which the Lord places great emphasis by prefacing its disclosure with "verily, verily." Exchanging pronouns for the nouns they represent, we read, "Verily, verily, I say unto [the Lehites], when the [Book of Mormon] shall be made known unto [the Gentiles] of the Father, and shall come forth of the Father from [the Gentiles] unto [the Lehites]..." This is the sign. Christ repeats it again in verses four and five for clarity, for obviously a Book of Mormon people could get confused being told the Gentiles would bring them the Book of Mormon. Verse seven continues, again exchanging nouns for pronouns, "... when [the Lehite remnants] shall begin to know [the things of the Book of Mormon]-- it shall be a sign unto [the Lehite remnants], that [the Lehite remnants] may know that the work of the Father hath already commenced unto the fulfilling of the [Abrahamic] covenant which he hath made unto the people who are of the house of Israel." 

3 Nephi 16:10-11 says, "At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations; and if they shall do all those things, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them. And then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them." This seems to confirm the previous idea that the preaching of the gospel and its acceptance among Central and South American peoples is a direct fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant and perhaps the sign the Savior referred to in Matthew 24:34.

If this is true, it would be worth noting when that activity really began to happen. The early Church tried to send missionaries among the Native American tribes with little success in the mid-1800s. After the Saints moved to Utah, surrounded by Native American tribes, they tried again with similar results. The exciting, dramatic and maybe even true reality is that the sharing of the gospel with Native and Latin American peoples didn't really catch on until the 1970s, shortly prior to the revelation that blacks could receive the priesthood (many in South America are of mixed descent).

Bringing this all together, the scriptures seem to say that within the generation of that time period-- the 1970s-- will be the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant, perhaps by the Second Coming of Christ.

I hesitate to say any of this decisively, because of my acknowledged weakness. I also admit my inspiration for this study was given by my professor at BYU, Victor Ludlow. I do not attempt to be a sign seeker, for the scriptures clearly teach against that. But I do try to recognize the signs that have been given and accept correction where it may be needed. Recognizing that I was born only a decade later than this potential sign was given, it is an exciting reaffirmation that my generation may, in fact, witness something very special. No man can know the hour, but it is worth hoping to see in my lifetime.

An aside: Isaiah 54 and 3 Nephi 22 are essentially the same. They prophesy that when the Gentiles go sour, the Lehite remains will inherit the land once again. There can be little debate whether the Gentiles are going sour-- it is obvious and often repugnant just how sour they already are. So it should be no surprise that census predictions show Latin Americans and new immigrants from Mexico and further South are growing much faster than the 'Gentile' populations. This influx of Latinos appears to be a fulfillment of prophesy-- and as such, is not worth resisting, rather should be welcomed. This thought needs further development, but that much seems clear.