Modern religious people are increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of there being “one true” church. As we associate more and more with people of other faiths, whether they be friends, family, or acquaintances, we are uncomfortable with the idea that God would send them to everlasting fire and torment just for checking the wrong box on the heavenly multiple choice test. I read a quote expressing this discomfort in an article by Peter J. Boyer entitled “Frat House for Jesus” (originally published in the New Yorker, but I read it in the collection Best Spiritual Writing 2012). In it Doug Coe, a quasi-religious leader of a loose group, known to its members as the Fellowship, claims that if only Christians can go to heaven, then “Isaiah could never go to Heaven, Mary could never go to Heaven, Jesus could never go to Heaven. It’s crazy.”
Yet, even in this “big tent” religious climate, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints maintains its position that it is “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth” (D&C 1:30). We maintain that the priesthood authority from God, necessary in order to perform sacred and essential ordinances such as baptism, was lost from the earth soon after Christ’s Ascension and was restored in modern times to Joseph Smith. But can Isaiah, Mary, and even Jesus go to heaven, even if they weren’t “Mormons”?
In short, yes. For many reasons. First, because Isaiah, Mary, and Jesus essentially were Mormons, at least in the most important sense of the term. A Mormon is, essentially, someone who has been baptised with the proper priesthood authority, authority that is only found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jesus is the source of that authority, and was baptised by John, who held it. Isaiah held that authority, and was surely baptised with it. I concede that we have no record of Mary being baptised or holding the priesthood, but I’ll assume here that she was baptised. Just because the label “Mormon,” or to respond to Mr. Coe’s argument, “Christian,” didn’t exist when they were alive doesn’t mean that these people didn’t meet the essential qualifications to earn it.
Second, life isn’t an eternal multiple choice test. We won’t be surprised to by being thrust down to hell if we checked the wrong box (like the people in this clip). God’s plan is far more just, and far more nuanced that that overly simplistic possibility. The mainstream notions of heaven and hell are incorrect.
The variety of eternal reward is hinted at in 1 Cor. 15:40, but it took modern revelation, found in D&C 76, to fully explain it. The highest reward is the Celestial Kingdom. This is what the scriptures call “eternal life.” It is a life like the one God himself lives. Those who achieve this glory will have made and kept all of the covenants that God has required. These are “just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through the shedding of his own blood” (v. 69).
The next highest reward, the Terrestrial Kingdom, is for “the honorable men of the earth” (v. 75). “These are they who receive the presence of the Son, but not the fullness of the Father” (v. 77). While this kingdom isn’t eternal life, or exaltation, I understand that it matches fairly closely the common mainstream description of heaven. It is my belief that good people who do not receive the fullness of the gospel, found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will essentially earn the reward that they expect.
The rest of the people, the bad people, for lack of a better word, will suffer for their sins in what could be termed as hell. Since they do not accept Christ and his Atonement, they bear the punishment for their own sins from the time of their death to the last resurrection. Once resurrected, they will receive a Kingdom of Glory, which, even though it differs from the Celestial Kingdom to the same degree that the light of a star differs from the light of the sun, is still glorious. In short, these people will receive more than they expect.
Believing that one church is true does not mean that you have to also believe that anyone who doesn’t belong to that church will be thrust down to hell. God wants to give us all of the blessings that we are willing to accept and all of his children, everyone, will be given the opportunity to consciously accept or reject the fullness of the gospel. That opportunity could come in this life, or it could come after, but God is perfectly just, and we will all feel justly dealt with when given our eternal reward.
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