LETTERS AND E-MAILS
Your Most Recent Correspondence
Greetings from India
Greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is a great source of blessing and inspiration to browse your Web site. I am from Bangalore India, blessed with a ministry called "Evangelists for Christ." I would like to coordinate with your ministry to reach the unreached here in Bangalore, India. I look forward for your reply.
Rathnakumar
Via e-mail
Global Christian Outreach is pleased to hear from pastors from around the globe. (We replied to Pastor Rathnakumar personally). We’re edified by their commitment to proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, of protecting their church members from cults, and for their overall service to mankind. As the Bible admonishes, we stand behind our brothers and sisters who are in Christ.
Loren Franck
Three Degrees of Glory?
I was miffed by a Mormon guy at the gym, who said the Bible discusses Mormonism’s three degrees of glory in the hereafter. He cited 1 Corinthians 15:41 to prove his point. I’m a Christian who believes that only the Bible is scripture, and I’m familiar with Paul’s writings on the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. But three kingdoms of glory in the hereafter? I don’t see it from those verses.
Darrel
Via e-mail
The reason you don’t see Mormonism’s concept of three kingdoms of glory taught in 1 Corinthians 15:41 is that it’s not taught there—or anywhere else in the Bible. In fact, when you study 1 Corinthians 15:35–55, it’s clear the chapter concerns the resurrection, not Mormonism’s celestial, terrestrial and telestial kingdoms.
Throughout verses 35–55, Paul says there are different types of physical bodies: mortal, immortal; physical, spiritual; those of animals, birds, fish and humans; and various levels of glory among the sun, stars and moon. Verse 42, which Mormons use to substantiate their belief in the celestial, terrestrial and telestial kingdoms, merely says, “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory” (ESV). Essentially, Paul is explaining that our resurrected bodies will possess more glory than our earthly bodies.
It’s spiritually and intellectually dishonest for anyone, especially Mormons (who insist they’re the only true Christians) to claim 1 Corinthians 15:35–55 teaches their concept of the three degrees of glory. It’s simply not there. Unmistakably, however, the Bible teaches that all who die will go to one of two eternal destinations—heaven or hell. All who believe in Christ from the heart, trusting his work on the cross and not their own efforts, will live forever in heaven. John 3:16 assures that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (ESV). Two verses later, readers are warned that “whoever does not believe [in Jesus] is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (v. 18 ESV). John the Baptist taught the same doctrine in verse 36. Jesus and John said nothing about three kingdoms of glory. After death, depending on your belief in Christ, you go to heaven or you go to hell.
One Bible verse I quoted during my two-year Mormon mission is John 5:29. It testifies of mankind’s resurrection. And with equal conviction, it confirms all men will go either to heaven or hell after death—heaven if righteous, hell if wicked. Echoing this theme, Peter wrote that “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment” (2 Peter 2:9 ESV). Again, there’s no hint of three degrees of glory in any of these passages (also see Matthew 25:46; 1 Corinthians 1:18 and Revelation 20:15).
Sometimes, vainly attempting to support their notion of three degrees of glory in the hereafter, Mormons cite 2 Corinthians 12:2, where Paul mentions “the third heaven.” I’ve heard Latter-day Saints argue that if there’s a third heaven (the celestial kingdom), there must be a first and second heaven too (the telestial and terrestrial kingdoms respectively). In reality, though, the third heaven Paul discussed is the heaven where God dwells. The second heaven is where the planets and stars are positioned, and the first heaven is the space within the earth’s atmosphere. In 2 Corinthians 12:2, Paul was simply saying he was caught up into God’s presence.
Praise God that Christians have the Bible for our sole source of religious doctrine. If led astray by Mormonism’s nonbiblical notion that there are three kingdoms of glory in the hereafter, we’ve wandered light-years away from God’s word.
Loren Franck
You Said It!
I can’t thank you enough for your January 17 blog, “He Alone is God.” You proved that the LDS church says there are many true gods, but that the Bible reveals only one. As a Christian, holding fast to God’s word, the Bible is my book of doctrine. Thanks to Global Christian Outreach for being true to “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). There’s no doubt that you’re doing what you say: defending and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Morris
Garland, Texas
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