Talk:3 Ne 12:16-20

From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.

Verse 20

Then Guide to the Scriptures on the Church's website suggests kingdom of heaven refers to the Celestial kingdom (or the Church):

"The purpose of the Church is to prepare its members to live forever in the celestial kingdom or kingdom of heaven. However, the scriptures sometimes call the Church the kingdom of heaven, meaning that the Church is the kingdom of heaven on earth."

The Bible Dictionary also makes this implicit:

"Generally speaking, the kingdom of God on the earth is the Church. It is a preparation for the greater kingdom - the celestial or kingdom of heaven."

Somewhere I heard that there are varying degrees of the Celestial kingdom, and that you need to be baptized to get into the Celestial kingdom but married in the temple to achieve the highest degree (and that the term exaltation refers to the highest degree; I'd be really curious to find where/if any of this is taught in the scriptures, or even where/if it's been taught by Church leaders.) If this is true, and if the commandments mentioned here in verse 20 refer to (or at least include) 3 Ne 11:33 where Christ talks about baptism, it would seem sensible to interpret "kingdom of heaven" as the Celestial kingdom (the lowest degree, not necessarily the highest degree I would argue...).

--RobertC 11:09, 19 Dec 2005 (UTC)