I Can Tell You What Your Final Judgment Looks Like

I shared what follows with my family earlier this week. One daughter responded that she thought it was the best thing I had ever written. It was high praise coming from one whose opinion matters a lot to me. So I will be bold this morning and pass it along to the world comprised of my faithful readers.

I wrote last week, I reminded them, about having equal access to the Savior's atonement regardless of how "big" a sinner we might have been. The argument was raised by one of their friends that only those who had sinned, left the Church, then returned, could possibly appreciate and value the atonement. The premise was the biggest sinners love the Savior most. 

On the heels of that personal missive to them, I offer this post in logical sequence. It is prompted by the report I read and watched of a Q&A session with Elder David A. Bednar among the saints in Chile where he was ministering last week:

He boldly and simply declared, “You don’t have to die to find out where you’ll go on the day of judgment.” I hope you will enjoy watching that brief clip cited above.

President M. Russell Ballard

Then on Monday morning I opened the Google browser to see the report of the death of President M. Russell Ballard. He was 95 years young, a valiant servant of the Lord to the moment he drew his last breath. His October 2023 General Conference address, spoken without any written text in front of him because he could no longer read the teleprompter, gave us all the sense of a final benediction in his simple, plain and powerful witness of the Restoration. He is a direct descendant of Hyrum Smith, and he always bore a powerful testimony of the Prophet Joseph. 

His death now opens another vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve. A new junior member will be named in due time by President Russell M. Nelson, and everyone else will move up one seat in seniority, making Elder Jeffrey R. Holland the new acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve if precedent is followed. 

None of these things is surprising to us, since the kingdom of God on the earth today is well-ordered, predictable and in harmony with divine guidance. Under the direction of a loving and powerful living prophet, the work is accelerating at a rapid pace. 

Temples are dotting the earth. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has 335 temples in various stages of announcement, construction, dedication and full-time use. Imagine when that number goes to 3,000 temples and beyond! Some of the younger members of our family will live to see the day and it will be glorious!

Which brings me back to the topic of the day. If you love the Lord and His Church, and you love living the gospel, you will inherit the highest degree of the Celestial glory in your final judgment. There are details like entering into the new and everlasting covenant of marriage, but that broad sentence will suffice for our purposes today. 

If you love gathering each week at your home ward for sacrament and other meetings and mingling with the saints, you will be thinking celestial, as President Nelson has encouraged you to do. 

If you love reading and studying the scriptures and the words of the living prophets, there can be little doubt that you would love spending eternity with those prophets and you will! 

If you love your family members and are constantly looking for ways to bless their lives and the lives of others within your sphere of influence because it brings you such joy here, then think of those blessed acts of charity for an eternity up ahead, and you will have a glimpse of life in the Celestial Kingdom.

On the other hand, if living the gospel in this life is simply too much, or seems hard to do and you are more comfortable with skipping your meetings and being with other like-minded people in your telestial world here and now, then God isn’t going to force any of His children into a life in the resurrection that makes them uncomfortable. Yes, He wants every one of His children to return home to Him and live eternal life with Him, but He will never compel us even in the slightest way against our will. We get to choose our own path. What a plan! Indeed, it is the plan of happiness and we will all be happy with what we choose.

He extends the covenant path to us through His prophets and through the collective experiences of all the prophets who have recorded their teachings in the scriptures, but if it’s just too much to do, there isn’t the least bit of compulsion in His plan. He honors everyone’s choices, whatever they may be. 

There may be a compelling reason this topic appeals to me right now. That reason is there is nothing I would rather do than live life eternally with my cherished companion of mortality (only a “nanosecond” in eternity). That’s what I choose, and that is what I am living for each day that remains. 

I went to the temple last Friday in Ogden with daughter Allie, then we had lunch together. It was a heavenly outing. 

Ogden Temple

I went to tithing settlement Sunday with our new bishop, Brent Edmunds. The numbers aren’t really very exciting like they were once when I was earning income, but the total doesn’t really matter as much as the intent in my heart to do good. We rejoiced together in that interview. 

Our sacrament meeting featured a report of their mission by Brent’s parents, Steve and Liz. It was heavenly to hear their testimonies over the pulpit. I thought as I listened to them, “These are the kinds of people I want to associate with in the future of the spirit world and the resurrection.” 

It’s what motivates me now - to be like them and to be with them. It’s what my final judgment will look like, and it’s not a mystery to me anymore. I can see it up ahead, just over that next horizon. It’s the culmination of everything I have lived for, hoped for and longed for. It’s where I am most comfortable, and that vision includes all of you as my family!

I can’t imagine being in company with anyone I love more than you. I know who you are. I know from whence you came, one at a time as you entered mortality. Now look at how our posterity has multiplied because of your faithfulness! 

I know Patsy and I linked arms with God who created your spirits as we created your bodies, and in each case you brought us so much joy as you came into this world. I can only imagine the joy that Patsy must have surely experienced as she went through the veil of death and was welcomed into the embrace of her Savior. (2 Nephi 9:41). It’s where she always wanted to be, and I desire nothing less for myself.

I want to be with her and with all of you. It’s what I choose freely and without any compulsion whatsoever. I love God and His Son. They are my best friends because I know Them. I love the gospel Christ taught and lived by example for each of us. 

I love the thought of my paltry few dollars paid in tithing that are joining with billions of other dollars  spreading comfort and relief all around the world. 

I love the temple ordinances, again offered freely to all God’s children, securing to all who claim those supernal blessings for themselves the promise of eternal life. 

Isn’t it curious that we know so little about the glory of the Terrestrial and the Telestial kingdoms? I have always felt that is because all the revelations point us instead to the Celestial Kingdom. 

There is hope, always and forever, that all of us will choose whatever suits us best, and that it will be life with Patsy and our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. 

Brigham Young

President Brigham Young (1801–77) spoke of the extent of the Savior’s efforts to save mankind: “This is the plan of salvation. Jesus will never cease his work until all are brought up to the enjoyment of a kingdom in the mansions of his Father, where there are many kingdoms and many glories, to suit the works and faithfulness of all men that have lived on the earth. Some will obey the celestial law and receive of its glory, some will abide the terrestrial and some the telestial.” (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe [1954], 56, emphasis mine).

The "covenant path" is not hard. Instead, it is a path highlighted by generous promises. I love those promises, and I know each of you will find them as compelling as I do. Repentance is the key to understanding how to obtain them. We don’t have to be perfect, we simply need to do our best and repent when we fall short. It isn’t hard to understand at all. Christ lived the only perfect life and His perfection rescues each of us when we repent.

The final judgment is right in front of you for choosing today. You don’t have to wait until you die to know exactly what it will be, because you are choosing it every day here and now. I love you. Choose well.