SatanWasSetUp wrote:I often hear people of various non-mormon religions talk about deceased spouses and loved ones saying things like "I will see them again in heaven" or "He/she's waiting for me in heaven now." etc. Could it be that Mormons aren't the only religion that believes in eternal families, it's just that most religions don't have an official ceremony for it? It's implied that if there is a heaven, and good people go to heaven when they die, you will be able to live with your family, and anyone else you want to hang out with, in heaven if you were all good. This seems to be a relatively universal theme in most of the religious afterlife beliefs that I'm aware of. So if there is an ordinance required to "seal" families together in the afterlife, what mechanism is in place to prevent those who are not sealed from being with one another? For example, imagine there is a nice non-mormon family, like the Cunninghams on Happy Days. Let's pretend Howard and Marion die. Since they were non-mormon they cannot go to the Celestial Kingdom, but we all know they were good people, loving parents, good Milwaukee citizens, and they were always nice to the missionaries that came to their door. They end up in the Terrestrial Kingdom (or whatever the middle one is). They see each other. They run to one another to embrace. Is there some sort of heavenly police force that would keep them seperated since they weren't sealed and therefore cannot be together forever? A police force doesn't sound very heavenly to me. If not, and they are allowed to spend eternity in the middle kingdom (which would be incredibly amazingly heavenly to them) then they are together forever right? And when Richie and Joanie die, they can meet up in the TK with Howard and Marion and live with them forever. Heck, Fonzie, Potsie and the whole gang could meet up. Arnold could open his restaurant in the TK and the Happy Days theme would roll on forever. So what's the difference between that and a traditional protestant heaven?
Now, I've also heard the theory that when these non-mormons die they'll be in spirit prison where they'll be taught by missionaries until they accept the gospel (prison indeed), and there will not be any non-mormons assigned to the lower kingdoms.
Joseph Fielding Smith said something to the effect that those in the Telestial and Terrestrial kingdoms would be genderless and unable to reproduce, which many have taken to mean no genitalia. Here's the quote:
In both of these kingdoms [i.e., the terrestrial and telestial] there will be changes in the bodies and limitations. They will not have the power of increase, neither the power or nature to live as husbands and wives, for this will be denied them and they cannot increase. Those who receive the exaltation in the celestial kingdom will have the “continuation of the seeds forever.” They will live in the family relationship. In the terrestrial and in the telestial kingdoms there will be no marriage. Those who enter there will remain “separately and singly” forever. Some of the functions in the celestial body will not appear in the terrestrial body, neither in the telestial body, and the power of procreation will be removed. I take it that men and women will, in these kingdoms, be just what the so-called Christian world expects us all to be - neither man nor woman, merely immortal beings having received the resurrection.
(Doctrines of Salvation. vol. 2, pg. 287-288.)
Personally, I've never been able to get a good answer on what the difference will be between me and my sister v. LDS sisters who are sealed in a family unit. How could we ever stop being sisters? As far as I can tell the good LDS folks aren't really sure themselves.