Sister Everton, would you please give our opening prayer? Thank you.

Today, we are covering a somewhat difficult topic, The Kingdoms of Glory. There is much dogma in the church regarding this topic, some of which we will explore today. I would suggest that there may be another view related to the degrees of glory, which may be related to our hearts and how we live our lives today. Let's see how things go today. Please feel free to chime in whenever you want.

D&C 76 is the main scriptural text from which we draw today's lesson. I found verse 12 to be particularly enlightening with regards to the process by which Joseph and Sidney received this revelation. "By the power of the Spirit our eyes were opened and our understandings were enlightened, so as to see and understand the things of God." Their understandings were enlightened. This clearly fits many of my personal conceptions related to how revelations were received. What is your understanding of how revelations are received?

Thanks Sandra, like you, for many years I had this concept of revelation that was much like how God spoke to King Arthur in Monty Python's Holy Grail. This included God's appearing and speaking in a big booming voice to King Arthur. Joseph certainly gave us the impression that he saw and spoke with God and other heavenly messengers on a regular basis. What Joseph is telling us here fits more closely with Gordon's media interviews where he said that revelation was a feeling. Both sets of revelation seem pretty vague and subject to the interpretation of those writing the revelation...

Anyways, back to the lesson. Three Kingdoms... what are they?

Thanks Sam, yes the telestial, terrestrial, and celestial kingdoms. What about heaven and hell?

The people in the church office building have clarified that hell is spirit prison. Joseph said that heaven is where the faithful saints go, so that kind of means celestial kingdom.

Who goes where and what are the criteria?

Yes Jane, the telestial kingdom is for the bad people, the terrestrial kingdom is for the good people that either didn't accept or would not have accepted the 19-20 year old boys on bikes as teaching the one and only truth in the whole wide world. The celestial kingdom is for the people who were baptized Mormons who went through the temple and prayed, paid, and obeyed. There is another element to the terrestial kingdom that Brother Bruce taught us. He said that "those members who are lukewarm members of the true church and who have testimonies, but who are not faithful in all things," would also be candidates for this kingdom. Does Bruce's description fit many of us?

Joseph also taught us that each of these kingdoms was quite a bit better than the condition in which we live now. Not bad.

Last week, we talked about how life may be in the celestial kingdom. How many of us would really want to go there? What is the biggest draw to want to go there?

Fred, although I think there are some men that may agree with you there are many who would not. Never-ending sex may be a draw for some.

Most of us are drawn to the celestial kingdom for the continuation of our marriages and families. Please think carefully about this point. Do you think God would keep people apart who were married and devoted to each other simply because of their considered judgment not to accept that the boys on bikes offered unique and complete truths? I have a very hard time accepting that. It does not make logical sense and it causes me to feel confusion in my heart. So since a feeling of confusion is related to a non-truth, I submit that this is not true. As Darth Vader said, "Search your feelings..." I think if we are honest with ourselves, we cannot accept this. I'd submit that if there truly is a hereafter we could choose to continue our marriage and family relationships if we desired. For those who have lived in a bad marriage situation, I would submit that they will be able to choose to not continue that marriage relationship. In other words, just because they married someone in the temple, they won't be bound to them eternally if they decide doing so would not be beneficial. Could you imagine being eternally stuck with a spouse who demeaned you and minimized you in this life simply because you were married in the temple?

Let's take a look at the concept of kingdoms of your mind and heart as a metaphor for capturing how we live our lives today. What kind of state of mind and associated actions would relate to a telestial state?

Thanks George, I think you have something here. A telestial state of mind would be self-centered without regard for others, their feelings, or physical well being. Could it also be excessive focus on your "tribal" unit? What if you only focused on the needs of those with whom you associated and ignored or even despised others? Is that a telestial mindset? That is a little more difficult to categorize, isn't it. How about terrestrial?

Thanks Beverly. I appreciate your bringing up the concept of the Golden Rule and our primary yardstick against which we may measure these metaphorical kingdoms. I would agree that a terrestrial mindset would be someone who is pretty good at understanding and applying the Golden Rule, but maybe is a little more self-centered or tribal. I suspect this is where many of us are through much of our life. This is certainly not a bad space at all. In fact, I would say this is a very good space. Perhaps we never really occupy one kingdom continuously, but spend time in each. Just a thought. How about the celestial state of mind?

I vote for a woman for bishop next time. They seem to have really good answers this week. Cheryl has a pretty good thought on this. Building on the Golden Rule notion, the celestial state of mind is not only applying the Golden Rule consistently, but paying attention to the nuance that focuses on how we perceive the person in question would like to be treated and not just focusing on how we would like to be treated. Getting to this state of mind and practice with other people is easier for some than others and is not likely to be a constant state for many if any of us. It includes an outward focus from ourselves, not an inward focus. Many of us find joy in true service and charity. In the Korean bible, the word love replaces the word charity. I like that. Love those around us.

Well, we are out of time. Thank you for your participation. Next week's lesson is on the Second Coming... Maybe some of you could give me some hints on how to deal with that one metaphorically....