Oaks october 2023 general conference
President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency, speaks during the Saturday morning session of the 193rd Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on September 30, 2023. © 2024 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.
By Aimee Cobabe, Church News
President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency, posted a video to social media on Thursday, November 21, that includes clips of his October 2023 general conference address “Kingdoms of Glory.”
The talk detailed the kingdoms of glory that await God’s children after mortal life.
“Our Heavenly Father loves all His children so much that He wants us all to live in a kingdom of glory forever,” he wrote in a short message accompanying the video, which is on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. “He wants us to live with Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, eternally.”
Jesus Christ said in John 14:2: “In my Father’s house are many mansions.”
The video shows beautiful scenes of nature with President Oaks saying, “All the children of God will ultimately inherit one of three kingdoms of glory, even the least of which ‘surpasses all understanding.’”
Modern revelation teaches that “the ultimate destiny of all who live on the Earth is not the inadequate idea of heaven for the righteous, and the eternal sufferings of hell for the rest.”
The three kingdoms — celestial, terrestrial and telestial — were taught by the apostle Paul and the Prophet Joseph Smith. These kingdoms are inherited by God’s children according to their desiresIn his talk, President Oaks taught that a unique doctrine and practice within the restored Church is the revealed commandments and covenants that offer the sacred privilege of qualifying for the highest degree of glory.
“The purpose of this restored Church is to prepare God’s children for salvation in the celestial glory and for exaltation in its highest degree,” President Oaks said in the video, while video of temples and a bride and groom are shown.
God’s plan requires the covenants of an eternal marriage between a man and a woman in the holy temple as a requirement for exaltation. This marriage will ultimately be available to all the faithful, President Oaks teaches.
Everyone will be resurrected and proceed to the Final Judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ.
President Oaks continued: “The Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts — what we have done. It is based on the final effect of our acts and thoughts — what we have become.”
President Russell M. Nelson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, taught: “Mortal lifetime is barely a nanosecond compared with eternity. But what a crucial nanosecond it is. Consider carefully how it works: During this mortal life you get to choose which laws you are willing to obey — those of the celestial kingdom, or the terrestrial, or the telestial — and, therefore, in which kingdom of glory you will live forever. What a plan!”
President Oaks quotes President Nelson in saying this “is a plan that completely honors your agency.”
President Oaks concludes by testifying that the Lord Jesus Christ is “‘the author and finisher of our faith,’ whose Atonement, under the plan of our Father in Heaven, makes it all possible.”
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