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CODY - I need some clarification. Let’s say that I have performed all the ordinances required for the highest degree in the Celestial Kingdom, lived a life that merited the same and was “quickened” and brought up in the First Resurrection to be numbered among the Church of the Firstborn………..I would then only receive my inherited Glory AFTER Christ’s 1000 year reign, correct? Now, that being said, my brother-n-law passed away the month before he and my sister were to be sealed. I know he is counted as a “ministering angel” as talked about in D&C, but will he have the opportunity to be sealed to someone and exalted into the highest degree of heaven? Joseph F. Smith said: "When we come forth out of the grave, . . . our spirits shall enter into [our physical bodies] again, and they shall become living souls. . . . And then those who have . . . been subject and obedient to the celestial law will . . . be quickened by the celestial glory.” Sounds like we are “quickened” to our merited glory at the start of the Millennium? And we are taught that after you receive your glory, you “cannot have an increase”. "In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; and in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]; and if he does not, he cannot obtain it. He may enter into the other, but that is the end of his kingdom; he cannot have an increase." (D & C 131:1-4). You said, “Therefore, at the moment we are resurrected our fate has already been decided in regards which glory we will spend eternity in.” That sounds like there isn’t too much hope for him to receive the highest. I know God is fair and just and all things will work out in the end…..I just wanted some scriptural reference that may give us clarity, especially for my sister. I know that after JS saw Alvin in the Celestial Kingdom in vision he wondered how he saw him there (though he wasn’t already there, it was a sure thing a “prophetic perfect”) the D&C 76: 71-79 revelations followed: “who would have received it will be heirs to that kingdom”.
Assuming he can have the opportunity of being sealed sometime after the resurrection and during the millennium, my next question is….why do we do sealing’s by proxy if all those people will have the opportunity to do it themselves? I understand why we do baptisms for the dead (for once baptized by proxy and they are taught and accept the Gospel of Christ they can cross over from Spirit Prison to Paradise), but as far as I understand a Sealing won’t affect them right now anyways. Hope everything I said/asked makes sense.
JOEL - First of all you are trying to understand something about which not all has been revealed. We can only piece together certain things
about the spirit world, resurrection and millennium with a limited amount of revealed doctrine on the subject.
Your brother-in-law does not have to wait for the millennium to be sealed. Your sister can still be sealed to him with someone standing in for him as proxy. Or someone can do the sealing by proxy for both your sister and brother-in-law after she dies. Even if that does not happen, because the Celestial kingdom doesn't exist yet, he is not yet counted as a ministering angel. If he is not sealed to your sister he will have that opportunity during the millennium to be sealed to someone. Even though he is not sealed yet he can still come forth during the morning of the first resurrection with a Celestial-bound body. He will just need to look for a wife to be sealed to after he is resurrected, which will qualify him for the highest level of the celestial kingdom. When people are resurrected their fate is sealed as to which kingdom they will belong to (as Pres. Joseph F. Smith suggests), but that does not mean that they cannot still obtain a higher level within that kingdom after they are resurrected.
President Smith learned in his vision that some of the dead who "are in darkness and under the bondage of sin" could still
become "heirs of salvation." The requirements: that they repent, pay "the penalty of their transgressions," and receive "the ordinances
of the house of God" (D&C 138:57–59). Notice the plural form of ordinance in verse 58. Since the ordinances of the temple are directly
accessible only to those on earth, mortals must perform temple work by proxy for them. So it's not just baptism that frees them from
spirit prison; they must have all ordinances performed for them and they must accept all of them to allow them move to Paradise. That is
how the sealing affects them now and why they would not want to wait to do it themselves during the Millenium.
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