The plan, part 2: why mortality, what comes after, and becoming like Christ

The traditional Christian picture of heaven is the beatific vision: seeing God face to face, forever, in a state of perfect happiness. The Catechism describes it that way (paragraph 1023), and it draws on Augustine and Aquinas. It is a beautiful idea. It is also a static one: the blessed behold God; they do not become like Him.

It was not always so. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon around the year 180, wrote that the Son of God became what we are so that He might make us what He is. Athanasius, the great defender of Nicaea, wrote in the fourth century that God became man so that man might become God. Eastern Orthodox Christians still teach this under the name theosis, deification, and they read 2 Peter 1:4 exactly the way we do. Western Christianity, Catholic and then Protestant, gradually let the idea fade until heaven became a place to arrive rather than a way to keep becoming.

The Restoration did not invent exaltation. It recovered the end of the plan that the earliest Christians still remembered.

Second estate. Mortality, in the language of Abraham 3:26. The first estate was premortal life. Keeping the second estate brings glory added for ever.

Spirit world. Where spirits go between death and resurrection (Alma 40:11–12). Paradise is the state of the righteous there; spirit prison is the state of those still waiting or resisting. Both are in the same world, and the gospel is preached from one to the other (D&C 138:30).

Resurrection. The permanent reunion of spirit and body. Universal: everyone who has ever lived receives it, because of Christ, without condition (1 Corinthians 15:22). Immortality is free. Eternal life is not the same thing.

Degrees of glory. The celestial, terrestrial, and telestial kingdoms of D&C 76, named after Paul's sun, moon, and stars in 1 Corinthians 15:41. Almost everyone inherits a kingdom of glory; the question is which.

Exaltation. The highest degree of the celestial kingdom: eternal life in God's presence, in families, becoming as He is. Joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).

Theosis. The early Christian and Eastern Orthodox term for becoming partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). The closest word outside our faith for what we mean by exaltation.

• c. 55Paul writes to Rome: joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). To Corinth: bodies that differ in glory as sun, moon, and stars (1 Corinthians 15:41).
• c. 180Irenaeus of Lyon: the Son of God became what we are so that He might make us what He is.
• c. 318Athanasius, On the Incarnation: God became man so that man might become God. Still quoted in Orthodox and Catholic teaching today.
• 400s–1200sAugustine and then Aquinas describe heaven as the beatific vision, seeing God's essence. Western theology keeps deification as a phrase but loses it as a destination.
• 1054East and West divide. The Eastern churches keep theosis at the center of salvation; the West does not.
• 1530s–1640sReformation confessions define the afterlife as heaven or hell, with Reformed churches adding predestination. No purgatory, no degrees, no becoming.
• Feb 16, 1832Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, working through John 5:29 in the John Johnson home in Hiram, Ohio, receive the vision of the three kingdoms (D&C 76). About a dozen people are in the room.
• Apr 7, 1844The King Follett discourse in Nauvoo: Joseph teaches plainly that the faithful can become as God is.
• Oct 3, 1918Joseph F. Smith's vision of the spirit world (D&C 138) fills in what happens between death and resurrection.

The pattern is the same as Lesson 3. The idea was there at the start, faded in the West, survived in the East, and was restored with names and dates attached.

D&C 76 is the most beloved revelation in the book today. In 1832 it nearly split the Church.

Most early members had come from Protestant churches that taught heaven or hell, and a vision saying that nearly everyone would inherit some kingdom of glory sounded to them like universalism, the very heresy their old pastors had warned about. Brigham Young later said that when the Vision first came to him it was directly contrary to his former education, that he said to himself, wait a little, and that he did not reject it but could not understand it until he had thought and prayed about it. Some members in Missouri and Ohio left over it. Joseph asked that it not be preached too aggressively for a time.

A second thing worth knowing. Our clearest statements that God was once as we are and that we can become as He is come from the King Follett discourse, a funeral sermon Joseph gave in April 1844, two months before he died. We have it only from notes taken by four listeners, later combined. It is not in the standard works. The Church's Gospel Topics essay Becoming Like God, linked below, says plainly that very little has been revealed about the details, and that members should be careful not to speculate beyond what scripture says. That is good advice for this lesson. What scripture says is enough: joint-heirs, gods even the sons of God, sit with me in my throne, partakers of the divine nature. Teach that, and let the rest wait.

Athanasius, the bishop who saved the doctrine of Christ's divinity at Nicaea:

"He was made man that we might be made God."Athanasius, On the Incarnation, section 54, fourth century

The Lord, to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, about those who inherit the celestial kingdom:

"Wherefore, as it is written, they are gods, even the sons of God."Doctrine and Covenants 76:58

And C. S. Lewis, an Anglican, closing the chapter of Mere Christianity on what God intends for us: he wrote that the command to be perfect is not idealistic gas, and that God means to make us into creatures He can call gods and goddesses. Most members are surprised that line is his. Most Anglicans are too.

The Catechism teaches that at death each person receives a particular judgment (paragraph 1022), that the saved enter heaven and the beatific vision (1023–1029), that those who die in grace but imperfectly purified pass through purgatory (1030–1032), and that those who die in mortal sin go to hell (1033–1037). Catholics also teach a general resurrection and last judgment. The Catechism quotes Athanasius on deification (460), so the idea is not foreign to them; it has simply become a way of talking about grace rather than a description of what the saved become.

The strongest thing a Catholic friend will say: Purgatory already covers what you are describing with your spirit world, and the beatific vision is the highest thing a creature can receive. To become like God is to stop being a creature, which is impossible.

A fair answer: agree that the spirit world and purgatory overlap more than either side usually admits; both say the state after death is not final and that the living can help the dead. Then point to their own Catechism, paragraph 460, where Athanasius says God became man so that we might become God, and ask what that means if not what Paul said: joint-heirs. We do not say we stop being God's children. We say that is precisely why we inherit.

Protestant confessions simplify the afterlife: at death the soul goes immediately to heaven or hell (Westminster Confession, chapter 32), followed by resurrection and a last judgment (chapter 33). There is no purgatory and no spirit world where anything changes. Reformed churches add unconditional election: God chose, before creation, whom He would save (chapter 3). Most Evangelicals hold heaven and hell without the predestination.

The strongest thing a Protestant friend will say: Hebrews 9:27 says it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. There is no second chance. And the idea that men become gods is the serpent's lie in Genesis 3:5.

A fair answer on Hebrews 9:27: yes, judgment follows death, and Alma says the same (Alma 40:21). The question is when, and 1 Peter 3:19 and 4:6 say Christ preached to spirits in prison so the dead could be judged as men in the flesh. That is a New Testament spirit world with preaching in it. On Genesis 3:5, notice what the serpent actually lied about: he said they would not die. He did not lie about knowing good and evil; God confirms that in verse 22. The promise to become like God is not the serpent's; it is Christ's, in Revelation 3:21, and John's, in 1 John 3:2. Then give them their due: the Reformers were right that no one earns any of this. Grace makes joint heirs. Effort is how we accept it, which is Lesson 5.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 460, quoting Athanasius: For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.

Westminster Confession, chapter 32, section 1: souls of the righteous are received into the highest heavens, and souls of the wicked are cast into hell; besides these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.

Doctrine and Covenants 76:58–59: they are gods, even the sons of God; wherefore, all things are theirs.

Three traditions, three sentences. Only one of them has no room for a spirit world, and it is the one written most recently.

The natural pushback: "So you think you'll be a god?" Do not dodge, and do not overclaim. Say: "I think what Paul and John said. Joint-heirs with Christ. When He appears we shall be like Him. I don't know the details, and my church tells me not to guess. But I know a Father wants His children to grow up to be like Him, and I believe mine does too." Then ask what they think Romans 8:17 means. Most people have never been asked.