Danielle

Forum Replies Created

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • in reply to: Mormons, Heaven and Hell #26830

    Danielle
    Participant

    And here’s yet more . . . The Celestial Kingdom is heaven in the strict sense. People here can continue to progress–there aren’t specific details now on specifically what they will be doing next, but you may have heard the statement made by Joseph F. Smith, ‘As man is so once was God, as God is, so man can be’. So essentially at some point later, I imagine much later, in the process we all get to be in charge of our own worlds and creations. I know that’s both mind boggling and incredibly cool at the same time. I don’t think that’s the last stage. It’s entirely possible that our own God is still progressing Himself. Again, very mind boggling and very cool. That’s primarily it to the best of my knowledge and ability. I hope I made some sense. The details are vague in some areas, mostly due to my lack of coherence I’m sure, because what goes on after the final judgement is not an everyday church topic. Not that it’s a secret, or wierd or anything, it’s just for now we’re better off focusing on doing our best to live our lives correctly and helping others to do the same. Since Mormons are definitely human too, this takes up quite a bit of time. to be concluded

    User Detail :  

    Name : Danielle, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Mormon, Age : 28, City : Salt Lake City,, State : UT, Country : United States, Occupation : Writer/Grad Student/ etc., Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 
    in reply to: Mormons, Heaven and Hell #33845

    Danielle
    Participant

    Short answer: We believe in them both. The longer answer is more complicated. The first part isn’t going to answer your question directly, but I think it’s necessary for context. Essentially, Mormons believe that we existed in spirit form before this life. The next step in our development was to come to this life to learn and to be tested. The next step occurs after we die, and I’ll go into that in more depth later since it is to some extent the answer to your question. God had a plan for how things would work when we came to earth. He needed someone to help administrate that plan and in essence to be our Savior–the one who came to earth to perform the atonement as Jesus did when he took our sins upon him. There were two spirits who wanted to fulfill this role. One was Jesus and the other was Lucifer, who became Satan. Jesus propsed he would carry out the plan by performing the atonement, but we would be free to choose whether or not we would obey the laws and conditions that would be required to take advantage of the it. He said all the glory would go to God. Satan on the other hand, said he would force everyone to obey and not one person would be lost–sounds good on the surface until you realize that means that we would have no choice in how we lived our lives (this is different from there being consequences, mind you). Satan also wanted all the glory for himself–he wanted to be worshipped and in some extent to take the place of God. to be continued

    User Detail :  

    Name : Danielle, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Mormon, Age : 28, City : Salt Lake City,, State : UT, Country : United States, Occupation : Writer/Grad Student/ etc., Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 
    in reply to: Mormons, Heaven and Hell #34539

    Danielle
    Participant

    And finally. . . If you want to know more about the church, you might want to get in contact with the Mormon Missionaries in your area. You could ask your Mormon friends, if you have any, to try to explain things to you too. We’re usually both thrilled and scared out of our minds that someone wants to hear more about our religion. I would suggest the missionaries not because they’re trained to give you some sort of party line, but because they’ve prepared to spend two years of their lives teaching people about the church and they’ve usually been taught how to present material in a more organized and understandable manner than I just did. I believe you can request that the missionaries visit you off of the church’s official website http://www.lds.org., or if you’ve seen the commercials that come on sometimes advertising a free copy of the bible, or the book of mormon that are sponsored by the church, you can call the number and at least get a copy of the Book of Mormon. It will explain some of the things we believe and I’m quite sure the people who answer phones for that could tell you how to get in touch with the missionaries in your area. If you have polite questions, you can ask and I’ll try to answer. I hope, speaking to everyone here, not just G. Gomez, that you know what I mean by polite. Basically if you really want to know about something, not just want to tell me I suck, or my religion sucks, or bible bash with me, go ahead and ask.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Danielle, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Mormon, Age : 28, City : Salt Lake City,, State : UT, Country : United States, Occupation : Writer/Grad Student/ etc., Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 
    in reply to: Mormons, Heaven and Hell #40561

    Danielle
    Participant

    Boy, am I long winded. Here’s yet more: People who have heard and accepted the gospel go to what is known as paradise. It’s pretty much like the conventional definition of heaven. I’m not sure exactly what we do there all day, and I don’t think anyone really is entirely, but it’s actually quite a bit like what we do now, but without the bad parts eg. getting sick, being in pain. People who have not heard the gospel or have heard it, but not accepted it go to Spirit Prison. This is not as happy a place as you might imagine from the name. Though it’s not a Gothic sort of hell with lakes of fire, and pitchforks and the whole deal. Basically, once you’re dead you remember what you knew before you were born (the whole plan, essential, eternal truths, that kind of thing) and you realize what you could have had. As for people who didn’t get a chance to hear the gospel, it’s not all over for them. People from Paradise are allowed to visit Spirit Prison and one of the things they will be doing is teaching those people the gospel. If they accept it, then it will be the same as if they had heard the gospel and accepted it while they were alive. The same may go for others too depending on their reasons for not accepting the gospel–the important thing to remember is that God is loving and caring and fair. No matter what happens it will be entirely fair for all involved. As a side note, babies and children who die before they are eight–which is what the church considers the age of reason–are not responsible for any sins they may have committed, so they will go to Paradise. During the millenium after Jesus returns to the earth, their parents will get to raise them to adulthood BTW–but that time and what will happen during it is a whole other, long discussion. to be continued, again

    User Detail :  

    Name : Danielle, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Mormon, Age : 28, City : Salt Lake City,, State : UT, Country : United States, Occupation : Writer/Grad Student/ etc., Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 
    in reply to: Mormons, Heaven and Hell #41252

    Danielle
    Participant

    Here we go again. . . After Jesus’ second coming, and the succeeding Millenium, is the final judgement. That, as the name implies, is final. There are four places that someone could wind up. The three degrees of glory and ‘outer darkness’. Pretty much no one goes to outer darkness. That is ultimately where Satan and his angels will go and anyone who rejects the holy ghost. The thing is in order to reject the holy ghost you need to have an almost perfect understanding of everything. Possibly, if one of the Presidents of the church were to go completely apostate, he might end up there, but that’s about it. Outer Darkness could definitely be considered hell. Although again, not the Gothic, Dante inspired type. You would however be subject to Satan, which would be unlikely to be a pleasant experience. So now, for the three degrees of glory: Telestial, Terrestrial, and Celestial. The lowest of these is the Telestial Kingdom. It would be compared to the glory of the stars as opposed to the Terrestrial Kingdom, which compared to the glory of the moon, and the Celestial Kingdom, which is compared to the glory of the sun. In some ways it’s both heaven and hell. Despite it being the least degree of glory, it’s apparently still a very nice place–I’ve obviously never been there, although apparently various people have seen visions of it and the other degrees of glory. The problem is at this point we will know everything we did before we came to earth and will realize what we could have had. Also, people in this kingdom can never be in the physical presence of Jesus, or God. In addition, they can’t progress to the next step in their growth. Apparently, people from higher degrees of glory can visit them though. There will be quite a few people going here. Next is the Terrestrial Kingdom. Again, a very nice place, but not the best. These people do not get to progress either. They do get to be in the physical presence of Jesus, but not of God. They can visit people in the Telestial Kingdom, and people from the Celestial Kingdom can visit them. So again, both heaven and hell.

    User Detail :  

    Name : Danielle, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Mormon, Age : 28, City : Salt Lake City,, State : UT, Country : United States, Occupation : Writer/Grad Student/ etc., Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 
    in reply to: Mormons, Heaven and Hell #41374

    Danielle
    Participant

    Apparently my post was too long for the forum so here’s the next part: After Satan and Jesus both proposed their plans, something that Mormons call ‘the war in heaven’ occurred. It wasn’t a physical war, but rather a war of ideas, sort of a proselyting war. To some extent like a politcal campaign with each side trying to convince people that their idea was the way things should be. Of course, Jesus’ plan was the correct one–there was no doubt about that really, but some were rebellious and they convinced others I suppose–and everyone who is now, has been, or will be, on this earth voted in favor of that plan. However, Satan and his followers convinced 1/3 of the population of heaven to support him. He and his supporters were cast out of heaven–you can read about that in Revelations where it talks about Michael the Arch Angel throwing the ‘dragon’ out of heaven. Satan and those people essentially failed at the first step and they have never, nor will they ever get to live on earth and have bodies. They’re very miserable because of this. I often wonder what’s so great about having a body, especially during flu season, but the experience of having one is necessary for us to continue in our development.As I said, the devil and his followers, his angels, as they are sometimes called, are not happy because they missed out. They are damned. In this case it relates to a word that sounds similar dammed. When you dam water it can’t progress so to speak. When a person is damned they can’t progress either. For them the saying that misery loves company is true, and this is stated in the Book of Mormon. Satan wants us to be as miserable as he is, so he tempts us to do things that are wrong so that we too will be unable to progress. In other words, we will be damned too. So, now for the next part, what happens after we die. We are judged on a preliminary basis then. to be continued

    User Detail :  

    Name : Danielle, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Mormon, Age : 28, City : Salt Lake City,, State : UT, Country : United States, Occupation : Writer/Grad Student/ etc., Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 
Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)