CC #7 Kingdoms of Glory

The transcription is discussing the main points from a talk called "Kingdoms of Glory" by President Dallin H. Oaks. The talk highlights four main points: discussing the kingdoms of glory, understanding the word "abide," explaining the difference between testimony and conversion, and emphasizing that everyone will have the opportunity to accept eternal life. The speaker emphasizes that the doctrine of three kingdoms of glory sets the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apart from other Christian churches. The kingdoms of glory are outlined in the New Testament and represent different levels of glory and rewards in the afterlife. The speaker also explains that the kingdom of glory one receives will be determined by the laws they choose to follow in their mortal life. The term "abide" is discussed, highlighting the importance of accepting and living in accordance with these laws. The speaker gives examples of how earthly laws, like gravity, have consequences when not followed, and Surely, the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets. How blessed we are to have a living prophet today. Brothers and sisters, the Savior declared, whether by my own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same. Welcome to Conference Chronicles, where we systematically take one conference talk per week from the previous conference and dissect it and learn from it. I'm your host, Taylor Lithgow, and I firmly believe that as we listen to and apply the Lord's teachings through His living prophets, we will fulfill the full measure of our creation and we will be prepared for the Lord at His second coming. So please join with me each week as we take this quest called Conference Chronicles. Hello everybody and welcome to Conference Chronicles. I hope everyone had a wonderful week this week. I'm getting pretty excited for Christmas. We'll be driving from California to Utah to visit family, so I look forward to seeing them and spending some good quality time with family. This week's episode is by President Dallin H. Oaks' talk called Kingdoms of Glory. I wanted to highlight four main points in this episode today. First, what are the kingdoms of glory? Second, we're going to discuss the word abide and what it means. Third, we'll talk about the difference between a testimony and conversion. And then last, we'll discuss how all of us, every one of us, will receive every opportunity to accept eternal life and its associated parameters. Okay, so number one, what are the kingdoms of glory? In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul is speaking and he says, There are celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial, but the glory of the celestial is one and the glory of the terrestrial is 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. And then to start President Oaks' talk, he says, Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are frequently asked, How is your church different from other Christian churches? Among our doctrine is the fact that our Heavenly Father loves all His children so much that He wants us all to live in a kingdom of glory forever. Moreover, He wants us to live with Him and His Son Jesus Christ eternally. From modern revelation, we know that the ultimate destiny of all who live on the earth is not the inadequate idea of heaven for the righteous and the eternal sufferings of hell for the rest. God's loving plan for His children includes this reality taught by our Savior Jesus Christ. In my Father's house are many mansions. All the children of God will ultimately inherit one of three kingdoms of glory, even the least of which surpasses all understanding. I find it interesting that this is a major distinction between what we believe in the church compared to other Christian religions, is that we don't believe in the traditional view of heaven and hell, heaven for the righteous and then everyone else goes to hell. We believe in three kingdoms of glory, but it's interesting because the kingdoms of glory are specifically outlined here in the New Testament, right? This is Paul speaking in the Bible, a book that all Christian faiths read and believe, and he explains how there is a celestial kingdom, a terrestrial kingdom, and a telestial kingdom, and the glory of each differs from another, kind of like how the glory of the sun and the glory of the moon and the glory of the stars differ from each other as well. It's important to note, as President Oaks quotes from the Doctrine and Covenants, that even the least of these kingdoms, the telestial kingdom, surpasses all understanding. It surpasses anything we can comprehend in terms of glory and light and love and happiness. Okay, so number two, we know from modern revelation that all kingdoms have a law given and that the kingdom of glory we receive in the final judgment is determined by the laws we choose to follow in our mortal journey. Under that loving plan, there are multiple kingdoms, many mansions, so that all of God's children will inherit a kingdom of glory whose laws they can comfortably abide. Those who do not choose to abide the law of a celestial kingdom will inherit another kingdom of glory, lesser than the celestial, but suited to the laws they have chosen and can comfortably abide. Okay, so President Oaks uses the word abide three times here. All of God's children will inherit a kingdom of glory whose laws they can comfortably abide. Those who do not choose to abide the law of a celestial kingdom will receive a lesser kingdom but it will be suited to the laws they have chosen and can comfortably abide. So let's discuss this word abide and what it means. The first definition I found says this, accept or act in accordance with. To accept or act in accordance with. So let's replace the word abide in one of these sentences with that definition. All of God's children will inherit a kingdom of glory whose laws they can comfortably accept or act in accordance with. What a powerful truth that sheds light on our Father's love and mercy for us. He will not ask us to be in a position or a situation or circumstance that we won't be able to abide, that we won't be able to accept or act in accordance with. Which leads into the next definition I found which says, to continue without fading or being lost, abide, continue without fading or being lost. Again, our Father doesn't want us to be in a situation where we can't continue forward without feeling drained or lost or faded or out of place. So let's talk about some examples of that first definition, to accept or act in accordance with. There's a lot of earthly laws that we can relate to when it comes to this. If we choose not to accept or act in accordance with them, we can go to jail or prison or receive some sort of punishment from the law, from the land. Here's a law that's universally accepted, the law of gravity. Right, and many of us have maybe used this example before, but if we choose to step off of our roof or step off of a cliff, the law of gravity plays no favorites. Even if we choose not to believe in the law of gravity or even if we choose not to like the law of gravity, it will still ultimately pull us down to our eventual demise or death. Now spiritual laws work in the same way. Even if we don't like them or choose not to believe in them, they are still there and the consequences are still fixed, good or bad, depending on our willingness to accept them or act in accordance with them, aka abide them. Now let's pause for a minute and think of some examples in our own lives of spiritual laws that we have chosen to obey or not obey and the associated consequences with them. What are some examples in your lives? With maybe the law of tithing or the law of chastity or the law of observing the Sabbath day, what positive or negative consequences have you noticed in your life from either obeying these laws or disregarding them? Okay, so now some examples of that second definition, to continue without fading or being lost. So imagine you're in a college math course and you decide to skip out on most of the semester and then at the end you jump in and kind of want to get caught up and take the final exam. Imagine how lost you might feel or if you hadn't taken math your whole life and then when you get to high school, you're expected to practice algebra and geometry. It just wouldn't work, you would feel so faded, lost, out of place because math operates on these rules and principles that build on each other, right? So how would you be expected to understand and practice algebra or geometry if you hadn't learned all of the associated rules that preceded them? It's the same way with spiritual things and with the kingdoms of glory. If we died and were placed in the celestial kingdom but we hadn't abode any celestial laws, we would feel faded and lost and tired, exhausted. We wouldn't be able to keep up, everything would be out of context, it wouldn't make sense to us. We would hope that we would be placed in a different place that we would feel more comfortable with a law that we could abide. Or let's think of this example of maybe a sports team that has been practicing and perfecting their plays all season and then you decide to jump in towards the end of the season. You would feel so out of place, you would feel lost as this definition says. All of the other players would be in harmony, they would be in sync and you would be a clear sore thumb and you would feel so out of place. The same it is with the kingdoms of glory and the final judgment. So I thought of one example in my personal life when it comes to abiding certain rules and laws and the blessings I received. The example I thought of was my mission. Now a little side note on why I think it's so easy to think of examples from your mission. You know, I don't want to be like Uncle Rico and always be living in the past and referring to things that I've experienced in the past or things I've done in the past and you know if Coach only put me in in the fourth quarter he would have won state and I would have gone pro and I'd be soaking it up in a hot tub with my soulmate, right? It's not like that. I think there's an actual reason why missions are so easy to glean from and to learn lessons from and here's why. I think missions are a good representation of life. I think it's almost like a mini life within a life. I think the Lord is brilliant with how he's set up missions. Go figure, he's brilliant. But think of the parallels here. With our missions, we leave home, a place that we're familiar with and comfortable with, and we go to a new place that we're unfamiliar with and we need to get our bearings. So just like this earth, this earth is not home. I want everyone to know that and realize that this is not our home. We left our home and we're living here temporarily. I think another crossover is with missions, everyone chose to be there. Everyone chose to go on their mission. Just like on this earth, all of us chose to be here. Isn't that a beautiful truth that we have in the restored gospel is that everyone here that has received a body, we know that they followed our Heavenly Father's plan in the pre-earth life because they are here and they have a body. So same with the mission, all the missionaries around you with name tags, you know that they chose to be there. With that being said, there might be varying degrees of commitment levels. Some people might have chosen to go because they knew there was going to be some sort of a reward when they came home, like a car or something, which that always makes me kind of cringe inside when I hear of that being some people's reality. But I think you get what I'm saying. There's varying levels of commitment to be there on the mission or in this case to be here on this earth. Also there's a finite time period, either 18 months to two years. There's a clear start and a clear stop. And so it's easy to analyze that period and glean lessons that you learned because you clearly see when it started and you clearly see when it ended. So now I'm back from that little side tangent. Back to the lessons I learned from my mission. My mission changed my life. When I went, I firmly decided that I was going to abide all of the rules and guidelines and principles of the mission. Over time, I learned how to understand and recognize the Spirit and His guiding voice. But I gave everything I had. I didn't hold back even in the slightest when it came to commitment and diligence. And the lessons I learned were so deep and profound and personal. And had I not had the same commitment level, I wouldn't have learned those same lessons. Whereas if I was less committed, if I chose to not fully abide the laws of the mission, I'm sure I still would have had wonderful and beautiful experiences. They just wouldn't have been as deep or rich. I hope all of you also thought of specific examples in your own life. I'm sure you did. To round out this second section, our prophet Russell M. Nelson recently wrote, Mortal lifetime is barely a nanosecond compared with eternity. But what a crucial nanosecond it is. Consider carefully how it works. During this mortal life, you get to choose which laws you are willing to obey. Those of the celestial kingdom, or the terrestrial, or the telestial. And therefore, in which kingdom of glory you will live forever. What a plan! It is a plan that completely honors your agency. Okay, so point number three. Let's briefly discuss the difference between a testimony and conversion. Elder Bednar gives a talk where he says, knowing something to be true is the essence of testimony. Consistently being true to that knowledge is the essence of conversion. President Oak says that this process of life requires far more than acquiring knowledge. It is not even enough to be convinced of the gospel. We must act so that we are converted by it. In contrast to other preaching which teaches us to know something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something. From this we conclude that the final judgment is not just an evaluation of the sum total of good and evil acts, what we have done. It is based on the final effect of our acts and our thoughts, what we have become. We qualify for eternal life through a process of conversion. As used here, this word signifies a profound change of nature. It is not enough for anyone to just go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires for us to become. I know we have touched on this before, but again, it is just so important to realize that our Heavenly Father does not give us laws just so He can sit up there and relish in us obeying Him for the sake of obeying Him. He gives us these laws so we can become converted, transformed, so we can become like Him and experience all He has. That is the sole purpose for His laws. For example, a coach requires his or her players to do drills. You practice and you do drills. You don't do the drills just so the coach can sit back and have some sick satisfaction that his or her players are obeying their drills. The coach gives the drills so that the players can become good at that sport, so they can excel at that sport. Spiritual laws work the same way. The fourth and final point is it is so important to realize that all of us will receive every opportunity to accept and abide the laws of the celestial kingdom. If I know anything, I know this, none of us will ever say at the final judgment that it wasn't fair. All of us will acknowledge and recognize that we have been justly dealt with, that the Lord has been so merciful, in fact, perhaps more merciful than we even deserve. He will ensure that we are all on an equal and level playing field when it comes to the final judgment. Doctrine and Covenants section 138 says, the faithful elders of this dispensation when they depart from mortal life continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption through the sacrifice of the only begotten Son of God among those who are in darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world of the spirits of the dead. The dead who repent will be redeemed through obedience to the ordinances of the house of God and are washed clean, shall receive a reward according to their works for they are heirs of salvation. In addition, we know that the millennium, the thousand years that followed the second coming of the Savior, will be a time to perform the required ordinances for those who have not received them in their mortal lives. What a beautiful and profound teaching that is unique to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We know that if there's an infant who dies without being baptized, without being sprinkled, they are not damned to hell. We know that if there are individuals who never had the opportunity to learn of Jesus Christ or to abide the laws of the celestial kingdom, will have every opportunity to accept and receive them in the next life. We know that during the millennium, temple work will be being performed all day and all night. What a comfort that is in knowing that of course God loves all of his children. Of course he's going to give everyone every opportunity to accept him and to abide the laws of the celestial kingdom. In closing, here's a quote from Elder Holland. He says, Surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don't expect it and often feel they don't deserve it. I testify we have a loving and merciful God who has a perfect plan for all of us to receive eternal life and exaltation if we so choose. In his house are many mansions and there will be a kingdom of glory for every one of us. My invitation is that we come to learn the laws associated with the highest and holiest kingdom of glory so that we can receive a fullness of joy. I know this is what our Heavenly Father wants for us and I say that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you very much for tuning in this week. I hope you learned from and enjoyed this episode and if so, I hope you're willing to share it on social media platforms or just with your friends and family in person. Thank you again for tuning in. I look forward to chatting with you next week and I'll see you then.