Who ends up getting into Heaven? I know tons of people that I think will make it that aren't members of the church. More, in fact, then people in the church who I don't think will make it? That's not really fair, because I really don't think that anybody will NOT make it. For example, if somebody left the church, but are still a good person, does that mean they won't make it? Probably not automatically. I don't know anybody else's circumstances or anything. I can't judge anybody on this topic. Even Hitler can make it into Heaven if he repents. Repented. (Can he still repent? More on that later.) That's a huge hold up for some, that are all like, 'If my ex-husband's in Heaven there's no way I'll ever go there!' and other such silliness. Or Ivan, in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, who says that if God allows evil to exist in the world then he wants nothing to do with God and is giving up his ticket into Heaven. See this video here: The Problem with Evil
So people not in the Church, we know that if they would have accepted it in this life and just didn't because they never heard it or something, they're good to go, right? "Thus came the voice of the Lord unto me, saying: All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God" (D&C 137:7). But that's, like, only people who would have received it. What about those who heard it and didn't accept it for one reason or another? What if it was a good reason? What if they were told Mormon missionaries were of the Devil so they were just doing their best to serve God to the best of their ability by shutting out the Mormon missionaries? They didn't know any better!
So, my own personal opinion is this: Everybody, member of the church and nonmember, will be judged according to the light and knowledge we had. So a Jew eating pork would be held guilty, not because pork is against God's health code (it isn't) but because the Jew thought that is was and did it anyway! If you think that caffeine is against the Word of Wisdom, it doesn't really matter if it is or not, if you drink it you're going against what you think to be the true law and thus it counts against you.
I know what you're thinking, you're thinking, Woah Andrew, calm down, it sounds like you think that things aren't inherently right or wrong, it's just your opinion of them that makes it right or wrong, which is not the Gospel. Right, well what are the commandments? The set of rules that will lead to the most happiness. Some one that follows the true commandments is going to be happier tan someone who does not follow the true commandments.
Plus, everyone has the light of Christ in them, which pretty much tells everyone on some sort of level if a rule they are following is right or not. "For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night. For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil" (Moroni 7:15-16) So really if a person is doing a naturally bad thing, like killing someone or being mean or stealing for greed or etc. there really isn't any excuse. But stealing because you're starving? Killing in order not not be killed? Sacrificing one to save five (like in the trolley problem)? These are more ambiguous.
Another: Helaman 7:23-24: "Now therefore, I would that ye should behold, my brethren, that it shall be better for the Lamanites than for you except ye shall repent. For behold, they are more righteous than you, for they have not sinned against that great knowledge which ye have received; therefore the Lord will be merciful unto them; yea, he will lengthen out their days and increase their seed, even when thou shalt be utterly destroyed except thou shalt repent." The righteousness comes from not not sinning, but not sinning against the greater knowledge.
I am reminded of the character Emeth in the end of C. S. Lewis's The Last Battle, who is a faithful servant of Tash, but is troubled by the Tash priests who obviously don't really believe. In the end, he gets to the other side and meets Aslan, and immediately knows that he was wrong his whole life. However, Aslan says to him that all the good things he did were actually done in Aslan's name, not Tash's, because Tash is evil and Aslan good. Emeth was doing the best he could with the light and knowledge he had.
Now, obviously, we know as Christians that we need to accept Christ and be baptized and such to be saved, but that's why I love that the Gospel teaches us about the Spirit World, where people can come to a full knowledge of the truth and fully accept Christ as their Lord and Savior.
I'm not really sure how this all works, will they get a chance to accept the truth in the next life (Spirit World) even if they got the chance in this life and rejected it? God loves everybody and is super merciful. And yet there's also this whole justice thing. Can mercy rob justice? "I say unto you, Nay, not one whit" (Alma 42:25). So what's the relationship? The true relationship? Well, in reality it doesn't really matter to us, because we are commanded to forgive seventy times seven times (read: infinite) but God can choose who to forgive. My final point on this is: We cannot judge who will get into Heaven or Hell. We can't judge anybody. (Including Hitler. If he wants to repent, let him.)
So how and why on earth would anyone just choose not to go to Heaven, if it is completely up to us? Let's look at Mormon 9:4: "Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell." Love that scripture. But what it means is that in the end we're invited to go as high up as we want to go, but the wicked will be more unhappy in Heaven, so they choose not to go. Sad day.
Yes, I know, the idea that God doesn't say to anyone 'You can't come in here to Heaven' sounds totally like "there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God--he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for they neighbor; there is no harm in this; and so all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it is so be that we are guilty, God will bat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God" (2 Nephi 28:8), but it's not! Because what those people saying that stuff failed to realize is that going to Heaven isn't just going to Heaven; going to Heaven is Being like God.
And those people, once they actually come face to face with God, will be so ashamed of their own sins, being brought "to stand with shame and awful guilt before the bar of God" (Jacob 6:9) that they "would fain be glad if [they] could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon [them] to hide [them] from his presence" (Alma 12:14). In other words, all these guys that eat and drink and be merry and think that they'll get into Heaven anyway won't even want to go there.
As Brad Wilcox says, "Heaven will not be haven for hose who have not chosen to be heavenly." Link to his awesome talk here: His Grace is Sufficient
Much of my justification for my way of thinking comes from scriptures, of which I'll just share a few. Alma 32:19: "And now, how much more cursed is he that knoweth the will of God and doeth it not, than he that only believeth, or only hath cause to believe, and falleth into transgression?" In other words, those with more knowledge about the truthfulness of a commandment will be punished more for breaking it than someone with less knowledge that it was a true commandment, even if it was the exact same commandment, it was the follower's belief in it that causes the reward or punishment.
So if God knows the true character of a person and she's all like, 'I'm not gonna repent,' and then she dies, can she still choose to? I would argue yes, but that she probably just won't choose to. Evidence: Alma 34:34: "Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world." The reason given for not being able to repent is because the person will still be a non-repentant person, and therefore will choose not to.
My theory on this is this: Everyone that chooses to go to Heaven will, and everyone that chooses not to go to Heaven will not. That's it. God loves everyone so much that if someone chooses to come, He will not kick him out. 2 Nephi 26: 25-27: "Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price. Behold, hath he commanded any that they should depart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay. Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance." So God does not say to anyone 'Get out of Heaven!' (Except, you know, Satan.)
How do we prove that we do want to go to Heaven? How do we prove that we would be comfortable living with God and being like God? Well, to be like God we need to, you know, be like God. In other words, be righteous. But once again, how do we prove that we really are righteous? Answer: The same way that someone proves to you anything: through their actions. How can I prove that I love games? By playing them. How do I prove that I love my wife? By serving her. If I didn't show Heather any sort of love, you could argue that I didn't love her, because if I truly did, I would prove it! "They do not love who do not show their love" (Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 1, scene 2). So if we truly wanted to be like God we would rove it by being like God. If we don't prove it, then there's no good argument that you even really wanted it in the first place. And you can later prove it by repenting, which of course, involves changing your behaviors.
You see, repentance is more than just saying you are sorry, or feeling you are sorry, it is changing yourself because of your sorrow. According to the Bible Dictionary under "Repentance": "The Greek word of which this is the translation denotes a change of mind, a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world." Okay, so this might be super hard for some, but my opinion of repentance is that if you ave truly repented of an act, if you were to suddenly go back in time to that very instant before you did it, you would not do it again a second time. Harsh, right? Because that means if I say I'm sorry but would still do it again if I had the chance, then that's not really repentance.
We've all hear that the analogy is wrong which says: sin is like nailing a nail into a board and repentance is like digging out the nail and filling in the hole. Why? Because what repentance actually does is give you a new board. Okay, let me just find the quote. Okay, got it: "In However Long and Hard the Way, President Holland discussed the analogy of life being a board. Each time we sin we drive a nail through that board. Unfortunately, many people think that when we repent the nails are removed, but the nail holes remain. He stated that no holes remain because after repenting we have an entirely new board" (Forgiven but not Forgotten). An entirely new board. That means that the person I am right is is literally different than the person who made past mistakes that have been repented of. And this is also how God can let people into Heaven, because everybody is imperfect, but no imperfect thing can get into Heaven, so how on earth are we supposed to do it? By through the Atonement becoming completely new people, new "boards."
In other news, the five take-aways from President Uchtdorf's talk last night: (1) Be patient. (2) Be faithful. (3) Be obedient. (4) Haters gonna hate. (5) Make the best decisions you can by following the promptings hat come to your hearts and mind God will consecrate your honest efforts. His talk was kind of about how sometimes we have questions and need answers right now! but God works in His own time and we need to sometimes be patient. Also, some decisions He just doesn't care which one we do. I've heard it said, "God doesn't care about which breakfast cereal you eat." and sometimes it's the same for other things too, like who you marry or which job you get.
