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I was reflecting on the new CHI, and wondered. If we accept that the Church has a divine commission, that the same sociality that exists here, will exist in the celestial kingdom, and that God is not the author of confusion, and that He values order, is it much of a stretch to forecast that life in the Celestial Kingdom will be governed with handbooks, and detailed rules, and the kind of bureaucracy we see in the Church today? Or can we feel some assurance that when we are finally perfect, that we will have greater freedom to make personal choices about how we go about accomplishing God’s work, relatively free of detailed rules and prescriptions of behavior, relying more on general principles to make decisions about administering the work of the Lord? The reason I ask this is that early in my life, I realized that I thrive in environments where I’m not constrained by too many rules all the time. Too many rules, or rules that I have to follow but which make little sense to me (for example, why we can’t have a sign at the front of the Church to advertise events to non-members, from the old CHI) is suffocating to me. Do you think learning to live in that kind of rule and policy-driven environment is part of developing divine-character?
We view Godhood as a personal condition – but we also view the Godhead as a council of sorts. A buraucracy?
I wouldn’t say that.
Total freedom to do whatever we want as individuals, free from all group constraints – because we’re gods?
I wouldn’t say that.
If Heaven is run like the church I’ll go somewhere else thank you. I have this lovely vision of heaven where all the inhabitants will be doing just the right things at the right time so there will be no need for rules, structure or handbooks. We will live in harmony.
I’m not an idealist, not one bit!!! LOL
I view heaven as like a really cool get-together with all your favorite people and especially your family, and you can hang out with all or with one at any given time and do the fun things together that you enjoy. Some of those fun things would be work and some would be play. And, there would be guitars in the room.
Yes, a Stalinist one, and there will be purges… 😈 Guitars are ok, but it won’t be heaven without saxophones and bagpipes. Also, there will be NOBODY learning to play the bagpipes in heaven. That will happen in Hell.
I think we generally envision it as what we’d want for ourselves and what it will be like for the people we don’t care for. I’m a bit concerned it will like a dream my mother had once. She dreamed by dead father came back so she asked him what heaven was like. His answer was, “it’s kind of boring, really.” At the same time I wonder if the tunnel and the bright light and the feeling enfolded in love will be a result of anoxia and breakdown of neurochemicals degenerating and then the light will go out. I guess we’ll find out. canadiangirl wrote:If Heaven is run like the church I’ll go somewhere else thank you.
I second that comment.
I have no desire to spend “eternity” dealing with the frustrations that I’m living right now. IF the CK is run like the COJCOLDS is run today —- count me out.
Heaven will be like when my family gets together. No bureaucracy needed. Love governs all. “…no other government than the government of mutual love is possible in the heavens, and the government of mutual love is heavenly government.” Emmanuel Swedenborg, in Heaven and Its Wonders from Things Seen, and Hell (“Heaven and Hell”, 1758)
It is my understanding that Heaven is where you live with Jesus and God and we are perfected beings. It’s supposed to be where we will be able to communicate by reading each others minds. I think we have a long ways to go before we can reach that stage of perfection without wanting to kill each other. I like the thought that JS said when asked how he runs Nauvoo… ‘I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves.’ Since Jesus said the greatest commandments are to love God and each other, then that is the main principle. So, asking ourselves, “Is this the most loving way to treat myself and my neighbor?” should come foremost Through my experience in life, I’ve observed that when people achieve a certain level of competence, character, and trust from the people above them, they are sometimes allowed to operate more freely, with fewer rules to encumber them. I suspect it will be like that in the Celestial kindgom at a certain level. IN this life, I’ve heard that GA’s talks aren’t reviewed or approved like other talks from leaders below them (although I haven’t an authoritative source on this). Even in my work, in my department we are all competent rank and file people in our department — one of my colleagues is a former president of major corporation who has decided to be a teacher for the last 10 years of his career, the other, a chartered accountant, and then myself. We are all former managers and leaders of some kind, and our boss tends to just leave us alone and let us do our jobs. Rarely is there follow-up about things she asks us to do because the follow-up is in the evident results — she sees when get everything done with good quality and ahead of schedule most of the time.
Therefore, rules and micromanagement aren’t necessary.
I believe it will be like this at some level in the celestial kingdom….
I love that description, SD. I like that description too, and also completely agree with Ray that the learning of the bagpipe is something that must be done in hell. Saxophones? Gotta have them in my heaven, and they will never squeak, reeds won’t break, and that D will always be in tune. If the church is really a reflection of heaven then only the celestial Kingdom will have all the Bureaucracy. The other kingdoms will be more lax and therefore less controlling to personal behavior. I guess the question is where to you want to go. I think SilentDawning is spot on. I haven’t ever really thought about how it would be run because I figured we would all know what we should be doing, and because we are perfect, we would do it. I guess that would be my heaven because I REALLY don’t like to be micro-managed.
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