Do Mormons hold a trump card into heaven?

Question

Gramps,

Why do we, as Mormons, think we have the only trump card on death and returning to our pre-mortal world?  While billions of people past and present don’t have a chance unless they obey the Lord’s commandments.  I will never treat my children like this.  I taught them  to do unto others like you would want to be done to you.  Seems like a simple answer. Not a dictatorship.

Kerry

Answer

Kerry,

For the sake of this discussion, let’s define your use of ‘heaven’ as the Celestial Kingdom.  The LDS concept of heaven includes two other kingdoms of glory, the least of which has been described as unimaginably better than this life we are in right now. We also believe that the overwhelming majority of God’s children will be given one of these three degrees of glory. The LDS concept of hell would equate to what we call Outer Darkness, and is not a kingdom of glory at all. More to the point, very few of God’s children will be doomed to go there.

So then, heaven, or the Celestial Kingdom has requirements that must be met in order for any of us to obtain it. I don’t think anyone has a ‘trump card’ into heaven as you state it. Obedience to the commandments of God has always been required in order to receive exaltation. What needs to be remembered is that several dispensations of God’s word have been in effect since the beginning. In any of those dispensations, those who were as faithful as they could be to the commandments they had been given were given the associated blessings.

This dispensation is different, however, in that it is the final one. The ordinances that have been given to us in this dispensation are necessary for every one of God’s children, past, present, and future. This is why temple ordinance work is so vital, so we can extend these ordinances to those who could not receive them during their lives. This is why genealogy is so vital, so we can find out the names of those who have passed on, that we can perform the ordinances for them and give them a chance to accept the work done on their behalf. This is why missionary work is so vital, so we can extend these ordinances to everyone on the earth while they’re here to take advantage of them.

It’s not that we have an ‘in’ with Heavenly Father. Far from it. Because we have access to these ordinances and blessings, it is our immediate responsibility to extend them to whomever else is willing to follow in obedience to the requirements. The requirements for entry to God’s presence apply to everyone. If we felt we had the ‘in’ route and wanted to be arrogant about it, why would we work so hard to give everyone else a chance to share in the blessings?   Indeed, doing unto others as we would have done unto us is very much in play. I would very much want those who know to share with me if I didn’t.

Gramps