...if I wasn't perfect. Since I wasn't I knew I wasn't going to end up there. That took a lot of purpose out of trying to be a good Mormon.

I read or heard somewhere that quiet a few mormons believed they wouldn't get to the celestial kingdom

Never had a testimony, not to mention that I was going through prepubescence... A shameful era in my life... When I was ordained a deacon in tscc I was given a long talk about the "sacred" duty in passing the sacrament and how partaking of the Sacrement unworthily was tantamount to the worst thing you could do. After a while I decided that I didn't want to provoke god anymore (I mean I was a questioning youth who spent too much time in the shower violating myself) and so I decided to sit at the family bench and not pass, when my dad didn't see me sitting at the deacons bench, I had my but blistered when we got home, never sat for the Sacrement after that.... Something that STILL ebbs at me is when I was a priest, blessing bread and water with a priesthood I knew was phony, and even if it wasn't, mine was.

No testimony here either...and I never paid attention to any of the preaching that came with an ordination up the ladder. And the whole multilevel parking deal in heaven sounded bogus from the get go...so no I never worried much about it.

I don't think I really thought too much about that. I figured God would put me in the kingdom to which I was best suited. If I had to bust a gut to get into the celestial kingdom, I probably wasn't going to enjoy being there very much. Since all the degrees were "degrees of glory" I wasn't fearful of where I'd end up.

Sure hope you didn't waste too much time worrying about that rather large bit of fiction.

I remember so many lessons in Sunday school, young men's and later elders quorum stating that in order to reach the celestial kingdom you had to be absolutely perfect. It seemed to me that only people like apostles would make it. I knew about Paul Dunn, and thought that even a general authority could fail. If that was true, then what hope was there for me? It actually made me feel like my life was absolutely pointless. Why was I even in this life if the end goal was so unreachabke? Now I know better.

I also thought God knows my heart and I'll wind up where I'd be most comfortable. I also thought (remembering some of the creeps who tried to mess with me and family) if these are the people who are going to be in the Celestial Kingdom, I don't want any part of it.

Neither I nor my broken, dysfunctional family had little chance in becoming perfect. At an early age, I relegated myself to achieving the middle glory.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2017 09:25AM by messygoop.

in the CK, I didn't want any part of it. After going to the temple, I assumed that is what the CK would be like and I also wanted no part of it. I just worried about being with family.

I never really thought about whether or not I'd be denied entry into the CK.

I became philosophical at an early age, and decided that I didn't like the atmosphere in the Mormon meetings, and was happy enough on this planet, in this life. It wasn't a spiritual feeling, but a reasonable deduction, that people who obeyed the laws of the land and obeyed the Golden Rule were the happiest.

I think I also picked up this belief from my parents, who had high church positions, but avoided the temple.

My mother was the daughter of a member of the First Presidency. We went to visit his grave, and I said, "Where do you think Grandpa is?" She gave me a look, and said, "In the ground."

We are of this planet. Terrestial beings.

What's all this hooey about visitation between kingdoms, that you can visit a kingdom lower than you, but not higher than you. Will there be Mormon angels (sans wings) guarding the gates and passages, asking for ID's of some kind? These rules would have to constantly be enforced by someone or other, and if you sneak in, what is the punishment? You're already dead. Why would God want to ban you from seeing a loved one, anyway? It isn't Hell, but the Mormon heaven sure sounds like Hell to me.

IMO, There is only ONE kingdom in heaven, which (by default) is referred to as the Celestial kingdom. Ol' J.S. made up the rest(!), and he was *ignorant*(!) regarding such affairs. So no, I do not fear you will be denied entry in God's kingdom --(especially in that your time here was but a schooling, and of which you undoubtedly learned a lot! "Even the least of these---" will make it back (except the blackest of the black sinners).

Also in your favor (as can be observed on earth), most scientists appear to believe that all matter is recycled--which includes the physical and spiritual partnership of mankind on earth (including you).

Science notes that *nothing* (as it appears) just disappears into nothingness--including bones (which gradually disintegrate into into dust, if left alone to do so); while one's spirit-self (which includes the mechanism know as our brain, the flesh of which contains the 'spirit' part with which we were born), remains. Hence we can't--for good or bad--get rid of you. I shall look forward to making your acquaintance in the heavenly world. :-)

The spirit remains (in heaven--IMO, a real place), while the flesh dissipates on earth.

Remember the first astronauts who returned back to earth and reported the 'heavenly' atmosphere they experienced in space? (More than one of which was converted in his belief due to this phenomenon). Not even Mormon hierarchy rantings and threats can change this.

'Oh ye of little faith'---put your trust in what the astronomers experienced 'in person', and shared with the rest of we mortals.

When I was about 15 years old, my stake president saw me drinking a Dr. Pepper. He told me, brother spintobear, you will never go to the celestial kingdom if you drink that.

My former nanny was a convert at the age of 11, and ,my parents say, tried harder than anyone they knew to do everything the church asked and to be therefore perfect. My mom said the wife of a counselor in the BYU-Hawaii stake presidency, during the Relief Society session of ward conference, used my nanny as an example in her talk to that university ward's relief society sisters. "Take Megan, for example," the counselor said. "Megan is a GOOD girl, and she tries, REALLY tries, but sometimes trying isn't enough. Not all of us are cut out for the celestial kingdom, and not all of us will end up there, even as servants. My guess is that Megan is one of those who will not quite make the cut, bless her heart, but she'll serve valiantly in a lower kingdom, where she will be needed."

My older sister was there with my mom and said my mom almost had a coronary and challenged the stake presidency counselor's wife about what point exactly she was trying to make and what scripture backed it up, but the damage was done. (I heard the lady was called on the carpet to explain why she would say such a thing, but again, it was too little too late.) It just validated what Megan already knew, which was that she could try her hardest, but she would never truly be one of them, If there really was a celestial kingdom, which she believed there was with all her heart at the time, she wasn't getting into it no matter what she did or didn't do. Now, of course, she's very happy not to be one of them and knows the celestial kingdom is a poorly-authored fairy tale, but at the time it stung.

I knew I was bad from the moment I could think it. I was never going to the Celestial Kingdom, and I might even drag my righteous parents down if they failed to force me to be good.

I knew it was spin...
So I just spun out!

M@t

Forget sunglasses. You're gonna need welding goggles if you want to crawl into God's holy bung hole. The endowment gave me taste enough. Deciding I wasn't a megalomaniac was the first crack in my shelf.