What is the afterlife like?

[creekster]

The thing these visions all seem to have in common is that the seer of them has a very hard time articulating what exactly it is he sees,

I have long felt this explains discrepancies we find in scriuptures. a seer/prohpet has a vision or revelatory experience and then casts that experience in terms he or she is comfortable with and that spring fomr his or her own experience. Being temporal and finite intelligences these persons struggle to describe and define the eternal. Thus, the specifics can vary greatly but the core concepts, such as love or charity, resonate across cultures and prophetic utterances. Like all of us, they are just doing the best they can.

Just my opinion.

[SteelBlue]

I'll never forget in mutual one night we had this bogus activity where the RS room was made to look like the fuselage of an airplane. The plane crashes and we all die. Then we get taken to the chapel where we are taught and instructed. Part of that instruction were people coming in representing the different degrees of glory. The first group looks like hell. Nobody is interested. My dad comes in dressed in his basketball clothes representing the second group. He talks about how great it is to play ball all day with his perfected body. The celestial group is all dressed in temple whites and they are very reverent and solemn and talk about all the work they have to do. It was the ultimate back fire as everyone wanted to play basketball.

I had this activity all ready to roll for our combined activity in September of 2001. Then 9/11 happened and I felt it was inappropriate to be pretending to crash a plane the next week. I'm glad we never did it and I'm kind of embarrassed that I ever set it up.

[DrumNFeather]

Just like prelife?

Ah, that's right. Lousy veil...

[Jarid in Cedar]

You must have a very good life...

My life is far from perfect, but it is what it is and I wouldn't trade it. Too many people spend too much time wishing for more, wishing for better, wishing for change(). Life is very good and worth living living it today. There has been tragedy, heartbreak, and sufffering in my life, but it has made me who I am and I have learned good and bad from those experiences. So I prefer an afterlife that allows me to grow and advance as a person to one that is pristine and perfect.

[RC Vikings]

My vision of the afterlife is:

It looks like California

It has the population of Wyoming

The cost of living of North Dakota.

[Jarid in Cedar]

My vision of the afterlife is:

It looks like California

It has the population of Wyoming

The cost of living of North Dakota.

I endorse this view

[BigPiney]

My vision of the afterlife is:

It looks like California

It has the population of Wyoming

The cost of living of North Dakota.

I've got 2 out of 3, that ain't bad.

[Borg]

I've got 2 out of 3, that ain't bad.

Are you dead????

[Tex]

I think the answer to the question is "we don't know."

I certainly don't know other than very, very broad strokes. That's okay with me.

Wrong. The answer to the question is: the early prophets were old white racists.

Wait, wrong discussion.

[Indy Coug]

But were they insular?

[wuapinmon]

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Man, JL put me directly on the "Pay No Mind" list. That's cold.

[Blueintheface]

I remember when I was young, the concept of heaven, degrees of glory, and "earning an eternal reward" was very compelling to me. As I grow older, I am less and less interested in this concept. Perhaps it means that I find it less believable. The parts of the gospel associated with service, love, family, etc. are what resonate with me now.

Interested to know if you feel the same way lo these many years later (for me, a thread bump affords us all the ability to see our perspectives either change or become even more galvanized with the passage of time)

[clackamascoug]

As a person not afraid to ask questions like this I have my own thoughts.

The three kingdoms all offer an eternal version of continued existence. What then separates the three kingdoms? It has to be access to opportunity, with different levels of exclusivity. I view the Celestial Kingdom as if everyone there was like a multi-billionaire here. When money is not an object of consideration on a day-to-day basis, it comes down to choices of how you choose to spend your capital. So living in the Celestial Kingdom is about choices you would like to pursue. If you want to create a solar system out of matter, it might take you a very long time to learn the intricacies of controlling said matter. As such you would continue to learn and grow in your desired path of "glory" and you would could become an "Omniscient Expert" in a particular field. Perhaps a few "experts" would like to band together and pool their knowledge into a greater good, while enjoying the same "sociality" that Joseph Smith says will exist in the CK. Perhaps you could go it alone, but there is fun in a cooperative effort.

Opportunity to have "eternal families" that will continue to grow would be another advancement or side benefit in the progression to "expert" status. And as loving Heavenly Parents we would would probably like to see our heavenly prodigy progress on their own paths to where we are. To do so we follow a pattern that is older than time itself and we know that there is peril in the transformation from intelligence/spirit/human/ to an eternal being, and we know that a Savior must be provided for our children to help usher them through this transition. One of your children steps up and says - he will do it. So you let him be a sacrificial lamb for their sins during this trial and sinful mortal probation. When your children come back one-by-one you greet them, and they thank their parents for the opportunity, and they will eternally love their brother who stepped up and atoned for their mistakes, enabling them to be clean in the presence of of other clean individuals.

As you continue, you are glorified by your children who follow in your footsteps and now are having Spirit Children of their own, and you find joy and happiness in their creation of worlds and people without end, because at the end of the day, love does not diminish when it is spread out, it multiplies, and multiplies.

Worlds without end!

[Jeff Lebowski]

Interested to know if you feel the same way lo these many years later (for me, a thread bump affords us all the ability to see our perspectives either change or become even more galvanized with the passage of time)

No change. I am still on Team Cardiac on this issue. Kind of tough to get worked up about the specific rules for salvation and who goes where when we can't seem to formulate/articulate a coherent doctrine on the matter.

http://www.cougarstadium.com/showthread.php?66701-This-Is-My-Doctrine-The-Development-of-Mormon-Theology&p=964727&viewfull=1#post964727