After we are judged and sent to whatever we deserve, then what?

[Guest Gomezaddams51]

OK so after it is all done, everyone has been judged and the dust has settled and the crying is over, then what?   Does God put on his Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirt and grab his fishing pole?  And what do all those who didn't make it to the top level of the Celestial Kingdom do (somewhere I remember someone saying that those who make it to the two lower levels of the Celestial Kingdom are basically gofer's for the Big Three)?  Do those who end up in the two lover kingdoms  just stand around and stack BB's or choose up sides and smell armpits?  Seems like that would be a big waste of a lot of potential and "spirits".   Anyway just wondering.  Personally that was why I always thought re-incarnation would be the best system.  You keep doing it over and over again until you get it right.  So just wondering...

Edited May 12, 2018 by Gomezaddams51

[zil]

@BJ64 posted a quote from the King Follett sermon in another thread.  In that sermon is this quote:

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God found himself in the midst of spirits and glory, and because he was greater, he saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have the privilege of advancing like himself--that they might have one glory upon another and all the knowledge, power, and glory necessary to save the world of spirits.

When we combine that with Moses 1:39:

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39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

That, IMO, is the answer to your question.  All who have inherited any degree of glory will work with God "to save the world of spirits" - to help them progress as we did through pre-mortal, mortal, and post-mortal existence.  Certainly there will be different details depending on the glory you inherit, but the work [ETA: the purpose or goal of the work] itself will be the same.

Edited May 12, 2018 by zil

[Grunt]

I haven’t seen anything to suggest we’ll be stacking BBs.  

[BJ64]

1 hour ago, Gomezaddams51 said:

OK so after it is all done, everyone has been judged and the dust has settled and the crying is over, then what?   Does God put on his Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirt and grab his fishing pole?

God’s work is never done. It goes on for eternity. After all, he has created worlds without end. 

[Anddenex]

4 hours ago, Gomezaddams51 said:

 Personally that was why I always thought re-incarnation would be the best system.  You keep doing it over and over again until you get it right. 

And then when you get it right, then what? Choose the answer(s) which best apply:

1) Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirt and grab our fishing poles.

2) We now gofer our spirit children around along with the Big Three

3) There is now "[one] lover kingdom" where we stack BBs and smell armpits. (emphasis mine)

4) Still wasted Spirits who are stacking BBs and smelling armpits.

5) None of the above

* Choose wisely, for why will ye die.

Honestly though, it is really hard to take this question seriously. As @zil mentioned God will continue to perform his labor, his work, his glory; and thus, it is wise we choose to live a life that these questions become irrelevant to us. Once we become like God, we will grow and become like Him and then we will know how perfect the plan truly was and how truly blind we are today, especially if we think reincarnation is a better plan. I am good with one death, don't need multiple.

[Vort]

4 hours ago, Gomezaddams51 said:

OK so after it is all done, everyone has been judged and the dust has settled and the crying is over, then what?   Does God put on his Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirt and grab his fishing pole?  And what do all those who didn't make it to the top level of the Celestial Kingdom do (somewhere I remember someone saying that those who make it to the two lower levels of the Celestial Kingdom are basically gofer's for the Big Three)?  Do those who end up in the two lover kingdoms  just stand around and stack BB's or choose up sides and smell armpits?  Seems like that would be a big waste of a lot of potential and "spirits".   Anyway just wondering.  Personally that was why I always thought re-incarnation would be the best system.  You keep doing it over and over again until you get it right.  So just wondering...

To rephrase:

Question: What is the nature of life in the resurrection, especially eternal life?

Answer: That has not been revealed to us, except that "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

[BJ64]

8 minutes ago, Vort said:

To rephrase:

Question: What is the nature of life in the resurrection, especially eternal life?

Answer: That has not been revealed to us, except that "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

It has been revealed is as much as that if we become exaulted beings like our Heavenly parents we will live and do as the scriptures reveal they do. 

[wenglund]

6 hours ago, Gomezaddams51 said:

Personally that was why I always thought re-incarnation would be the best system.  You keep doing it over and over again until you get it right.  So just wondering...

To me, reincarnation makes the least sense for several reasons.

1) it is hard to improve and finally get things right if you can't remember what you got wrong in earlier lives?

2) Eating becomes a serious problem as elements towards the bottom of the food chain/web reincarnate to higher elements in the food chain, leaving the bottom vacant.

3) If you think the world is close to over population with 7.3 billion people on earth, Image what it would be like were the 10 quintillion insects to eventually reincarnate to humans.

Thanks, -Wade Englund-

Edited May 12, 2018 by wenglund

[lostinwater]

6 hours ago, Gomezaddams51 said:

OK so after it is all done, everyone has been judged and the dust has settled and the crying is over, then what?   Does God put on his Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirt and grab his fishing pole?  And what do all those who didn't make it to the top level of the Celestial Kingdom do (somewhere I remember someone saying that those who make it to the two lower levels of the Celestial Kingdom are basically gofer's for the Big Three)?  Do those who end up in the two lover kingdoms  just stand around and stack BB's or choose up sides and smell armpits?  Seems like that would be a big waste of a lot of potential and "spirits".   Anyway just wondering.  Personally that was why I always thought re-incarnation would be the best system.  You keep doing it over and over again until you get it right.  So just wondering...

Good question - thank-you for posting.

i believe in re-incarnation (as humans again).  i think in Revelations (which is a book i typically avoid like the plague  - but will cite here/indulge in the very common practice of scriptural cherry picking as it advances this particular narrative)  it talks about people who overcome as "going no more out".  i've sort of interpreted that to mean that you'll have to do something till you get it right.

And i've read a bunch of near death experiences where some people who attempt take their own lives are told that if they stay, they will just have to go back later and experience everything that led them up to that point over again.

But i agree - the ways in which we typically experience joy and happiness make heaven sound like a pretty boring place.  i guess a lot of what we do here on earth that makes us happy has an expiration date.  We love the park or the hike or the song the first dozen times, and then it grows old.  Helping others/feeling liked and appreciated i guess are exceptions here.  But hopefully you take my meaning.

But i read once someone say that in heaven, there are fountains of joy - like it is just joy itself - not a bunch of experiences from which joy/happiness have to be extracted.  And i also heard once that heaven is so vast, you'd be able to spend eternity and still be experiencing things for the first time - enjoying the novelty of it all.

And my idea as to what the final judgment will be like is i know very unorthodox.  i think good and bad will be sorted.  People/souls will go to the place of whatever they cling to - and if they can get over things/let go of the bad, will have the opportunity to move "up".  CS Lewis' The Great Divorce is probably my favorite depiction of what i believe the afterlife will be like.  i think you'd enjoy that book - from the tone of your post.  

But i guess nobody really knows (least of all me, despite all the guessing i've done).

Edited May 12, 2018 by lostinwater

[Guest Gomezaddams51]

LOL yeah I know the question was kind of tongue in cheek, but seriously from what I have been told, there are three degrees, Celestial, Telestial and Terestrial (yeah I know I probably misspelled them) and the Celestial also has 3 levels, the lower two, those sent there are supposed to act as servants and only those in the highest are able "to become Gods" and create new worlds.  As for the other two kingdoms, Only Jesus and  the Holy Ghost will visit the second one and only the HG will visit the lowest one.  So if those who go to the second and third kingdom are cut off from God, so how can they work for God if they never see him.   "God found himself in the midst of spirits and glory, and because he was greater, he saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have the privilege of advancing like himself--that they might have one glory upon another and all the knowledge, power, and glory necessary to save the world of spirits"  From what I have heard, "Those advancing like himself" would only pertain to those who end up in the top level of the Celestial Kingdom.

And another thing, something just I recently heard in church, is that "Immortality" and "Eternal Life" are two separate things.  Everyone receives "immortality" but only those who go the the Celestial Kingdom will have "Eternal Life" (I think I got that right, I might have mixed them up, but basically that was what I was told).     So just trying to figure it all out.  I won't even go into what I think of only having this earthly life to be judged.  

Edited May 13, 2018 by Gomezaddams51
Fixing an oops

[BJ64]

9 minutes ago, Gomezaddams51 said:

And another thing, something just I recently heard in church, is that "Immortality" and "Eternal Life" are two separate things.  Everyone receives "immortality" but only those who go the the Celestial Kingdom will have "Eternal Life" (I think I got that right, I might have mixed them up, but basically that was what I was told).     

Yes, you got that right. Immortality is merely being resurrected never to die again. Eternal life is to live as God lives. 

This is where other Christians got it right, sort of. When someone says that all you have to do to be saved is say you believe in Christ and that works don’t matter they are right in the sense that everyone will be “saved” so far as resurrection and immortality are concerned. They don’t believe you can become like God so they are expecting no more than to be “saved”. However where they got it wrong is that you don’t even have to believe in Christ to be “saved” in that sense since all mankind will receive immortality regardless of beliefs or actions. 

However, if you want to progress to become like God you have to do more than profess a belief in Christ. You have to back up your beliefs with good works and sacred ordinances. 

[zil]

36 minutes ago, Gomezaddams51 said:

only the HG will visit the lowest one.  So if those who go to the second and third kingdom are cut off from God, so how can they work for God if they never see him.

Does it not make sense that the HG could instruct them?  The D&C also says that the celestial will minister to the terrestrial, and the terrestrial to the telestial, so there will be ways to send messages, just as there are now.

38 minutes ago, Gomezaddams51 said:

And another thing, something just I recently heard in church, is that "Immortality" and "Eternal Life" are two separate things.  Everyone receives "immortality" but only those who go the the Celestial Kingdom will have "Eternal Life" (I think I got that right, I might have mixed them up, but basically that was what I was told).

Immortality - the ability to live forever - is accomplished for all, through the resurrection.  Eternal life - God's life - is granted only to those who are exalted in the celestial kingdom.

39 minutes ago, Gomezaddams51 said:

I won't even go into what I think of only having this earthly life to be judged.   

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In one of his fascinating scientific survey books, this time dealing with the latest discoveries about the brain, Nigel Calder notes, “Two of the most self-evident characteristics of the conscious mind [are that] . . . the mind attends to one thing at a time, [and] that, at least once a day, . . . the conscious mind is switched off.”¹ Both of these operations are completely miraculous and completely mysterious. I would like to talk about the first of them. You can think of only one thing at a time!

...

Let us remember that quite peculiar to the genius of Mormonism is the doctrine of a God who could preoccupy himself with countless numbers of things: “The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine” (Moses 1:37).

Plainly, we are dealing with two orders of minds. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are . . . my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

But why this crippling limitation on our thoughts if we are God’s children? It is precisely this limitation that is the essence of our mortal existence. If every choice I make expresses a preference, if the world I build up is the world I really love and want, then with every choice I am judging myself, proclaiming all the day long to God, angels, and my fellowmen where my real values lie, where my treasure is, the things to which I give supreme importance. Hence, in this life every moment provides a perfect and foolproof test of your real character, making this life a time of testing and probation.

Hugh Nibley, Approaching Zion, chapter 3: Zeal Without Knowledge (emphases mine).

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The test for this life is not for knowledge; it is not for intelligence, or for courage, or for anything like that. That would be a huge joke. None of us knows very much, none of us is very brave, none of us is very strong, none of us is very smart. We would flunk those tests terribly. As Alma said, we are only to be tested on one thing—the desires of our heart (Alma 41:3); that is what we are really after. And in that way we betray ourselves completely. Anyone who knows the signs, who knows what to look for—not just our Heavenly Father, but even a good psychiatrist (another subject that interested Don immensely)—can spot it just like that. You yourself can see your own life; you can test yourself. Thus we don’t need to go on forever suffering the same nonsense in order to see the things we can be tested for, namely the two things and the only two things we are good at: we can forgive and we can repent. These are the two things the angels envy us for, as the church fathers said.

ibid, chapter 10: Funeral Address

Nibley isn't doctrine and wasn't a prophet, so obviously he could be wrong in his understanding, but his words ring true to me.

[JohnsonJones]

On ‎5‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 6:42 PM, Gomezaddams51 said:

OK so after it is all done, everyone has been judged and the dust has settled and the crying is over, then what?   Does God put on his Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirt and grab his fishing pole?  And what do all those who didn't make it to the top level of the Celestial Kingdom do (somewhere I remember someone saying that those who make it to the two lower levels of the Celestial Kingdom are basically gofer's for the Big Three)?  Do those who end up in the two lover kingdoms  just stand around and stack BB's or choose up sides and smell armpits?  Seems like that would be a big waste of a lot of potential and "spirits".   Anyway just wondering.  Personally that was why I always thought re-incarnation would be the best system.  You keep doing it over and over again until you get it right.  So just wondering...

We don't really know, but there are many opinions.

Some thoughts...I recently felt that people get what they are expecting or wanting.

For example, in Protestant religions one is taught that there is no marriage after death (not believed by all their members, but it is taught) and that it is a time of peace and rest.  They will get to live with the Lord (the Messiah is specified), and that they will see angels and perhaps be angels (depending on the religion).  In many ways it sounds a LOT like the Terrestrial Kingdom. 

So, those who believe as such may get exactly what they have been aiming for in this life.  They get to live in heaven and see the Lord and his angels.  They get that Terrestrial Kingdom, but they will not have the ordinances or rejected them when offered and as such will not get exaltation or eternal progression in the same way that those who are in the Celestial obtain it.

However, I think they still can grow and progress.  In the same way we grow and progress here in this life, so can they progress in the Telestial and Terrestrial...but they will not have children and be able to create additional worlds for those children.  They could probably still write, make music, discover about the universe and various other ways to grow.

Those who expect a lesser reward to their objectives, and have faith that instead the afterlife is perhaps a more perfect form of this world may end up in the Telestial.  For example the individual that tosses aside all the commandments and lives in sin, but believes that you will still go to a happy place after this life where it's a perfect world with peace and happiness..well...they will get that in the Telestial.

And of course, those who make the commitment, and obtain their ordinances, and endure to the end, will get their expectation of exaltation and eternal life.

[CV75]

On 5/11/2018 at 8:42 PM, Gomezaddams51 said:

OK

Life simply goes on, as always. From D&C 130:1-2, "When the Savior shall appear we shall see him as he is. We shall see that he is a man like ourselves. And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy." This may refer to the Millennium, but I think the "there" extends further into the future, and some glories are simply less than others.

D&C 63:64 can be taken individually and collectively, and that is a key to learning in the first place and then in getting more answers that really count.