Last week I was entranced with luscious apricots. This week I loved hearing the clear explanation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Doctrine and Covenants section 76 as explained by Jared Halverson on his Youtube channel, Unshaken. If you don’t have 3 hours to listen to it I took some notes and would love to share them with you. The link is at the very end.

We Latter-day Saints believe in three degrees of glory in heaven. They are named the telestial, the terrestrial and the celestial kingdoms of glory as laid out below. They move in progression from lowest to most desirable as you will see, the celestial kingdom is compared to the glory of the sun.

As I was talking to my husband about this he said there may be a thousand different degrees of glory but this simple explanation of what heaven is like was given in a vision to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon at Hiram, Ohio in 1832. There were twelve other men in the room. One man, named Philo Dibble said this:

“Joseph would, at intervals, say: ‘What do I see?’ as one might say while looking out the window and beholding what all in the room could not see. Then he would relate what he had seen or what he was looking at. Then Sidney replied, ‘I see the same.’ Presently Sidney would say ‘what do I see?’ and would repeat what he had seen or was seeing, and Joseph would reply, ‘I see the same.’

“This manner of conversation was reported at short intervals to the end of the vision, and during the whole time not a word was spoken by any other person. Not a sound nor motion made by anyone but Joseph and Sidney, and it seemed to me that they never moved a joint or limb during the time I was there, which I think was over an hour, and to the end of the vision.

“Joseph sat firmly and calmly all the time in the midst of a magnificent glory, but Sidney sat limp and pale, apparently as limber as a rag, observing which, Joseph remarked, smilingly, ‘Sidney is not used to it as I am.’” (Juvenile Instructor, May 1892, pp. 303–4.)

Here are my notes:

The Testimony of Jesus Christ-What We Do With It?–From Jared Halverson–D&C 76

Telestial	Terrestial	Celestial
Stars (the glory of) v.81	Moon v. 71,78	Sun v. 70
The Holy Ghost (who ministers to each) v.86	Jesus Christ v.77	God v.92,62
Rejected (Testimony of Jesus)v.101	Relented v.74	Receivedv.51
Willfully Blind v.100-103	Blinded v.75	See as They are Seen v.94
Wicked v.103	Honorable v.75	Valiant v.79
Won’t Do	Have to Do	Love to Do
Idleness and Idolness	Slothful Servants	Agents Unto Themselves (God’s power is in them)
Sins of commission	Sins of Omission	No Sins thru Jesus Christ’s Atonement (If we truly repent, we are forgiven)
Condemnation	Justification	Sanctification
Guilt	Innocence	Holiness
Fall	Creation	Atonement

Brother Halverson said, “What kind of Being would reveal this reality? What kind of Being would create this reality?” and, “All that Jesus wants us to do is to love Him and to show that love by receiving all He wants to give us, beyond our wildest dreams.”

Finally from Wilford Woodruff:

“I was taught from my childhood that there was one Heaven and one Hell, and was told that the wicked all had one punishment and the righteous one glory. …’

“When I read the vision…it enlightened my mind and gave me great joy. It appeared to me that the God who revealed that principle unto man was wise, just, and true–possessed both the best of attributes, and good sense and knowledge. I felt He was consistent with both love, mercy, justice and judgement; and I felt to love the Lord more than ever before in my life.”

Here is the link:

This is how I felt as well. In the first part he explains what “Sons of Perdition” are. At the one hour mark for the next hour, he explains the three degrees very clearly. . If you can only listen to that middle hour, do it! 

At two hours and forty nine minutes Brother Halverson goes into the above chart, which I feel like you could explain easily to children so they understand why it is important to be valiant in our testimony of Jesus. If this true doctrine could go deep into the hearts of our children before they are teenagers it would help them to navigate their lives better. This understanding is the why we choose to follow Jesus and try to be like He is.