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Question: Do Mormons believe that there is there progression between the three degrees of glory?
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Question
Is there progression between the three degrees of glory?
Answer
There is no official pronouncement on this question. Some leaders of the Church have, however, expressed deep skepticism about this idea.
Elder Bruce. R. McConkie made it one of his "Seven Deadly Heresies," concluding:
- They neither progress from one kingdom to another, nor does a lower kingdom ever get where a higher kingdom once was. Whatever eternal progression there is, it is within a sphere. (Full text here).
A major scriptural argument against this idea comes from the Doctrine and Covenants, speaking of the telestial kingdom:
- But behold, and lo, we saw the glory and the inhabitants of the telestial world, that they were as innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the seashore;...And they shall be servants of the Most High; but where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end. (D&C 76:109–112).
This seems to suggest that for telestial residents, at least, there can be no advancement to terrestrial or celestial.
There is a further reference to the eternal state of those who do not reach a full celestial glory:
- Therefore, when they are out of the world they neither marry nor are given in marriage; but are appointed angels in heaven, which angels are ministering servants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory. For these angels did not abide my law; therefore, they cannot be enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved condition, to all eternity; and from henceforth are not gods, but are angels of God forever and ever. (D&C 132:16–17).
This scripture again seems to state that there can be no further progression for those who have not accepted all the necessary ordinances and covenants.
Further reading
FAIR wiki articles
- Bruce R. McConkie, " Seven Deadly Heresies," 1 June 1980, BYU Marriot Center. Print version available in Bruce R. McConkie, "The Seven Deadly Heresies," 1980 Devotional Speeches of the Year (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1981), 78.