Today we have another example of how Mormons love to cherry-pick random verses in the Bible to “back up” their position, taking them entirely out of context.
1 Corinthians 15 is about the resurrection. Paul is explaining how there’s a certain type of body for humans, and how the glorified version will be so much different, even as the sun differs from the moon and stars.
In the King James Version, the fancy word for sun is “celestial,” and the earth “terrestrial.”
“There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.”
But the minute Mormons see those words, their brains go immediately to kingdoms of glory!
“Oh! This Bible verse recognizes the 3 kingdoms of glory!”
Well. First of all, it only mentions two of those special buzz words. Secondly, this passage is not about salvation or places of destination at all!
This passage is about BODIES. Resurrected bodies verses earthly bodies. The word “celestial” means heavenly. The word “terrestrial” means earthly. It’s not complicated.
“There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable. it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” (1 Cor 15:40-44)
This has nothing to do with kingdoms of glory, or heaven at all. This is a metaphor to show that just as the sun differs from the moon, so will the resurrected body differ from the mortal body.
Read the whole context please. We have to let go of the LDS bias of how Bible scriptures are cherry-picked and abused.
What’s funny is that this conversation I had was with someone on a Facebook group of people leaving the Mormon church! But they are holding onto their old beliefs like nobody’s business! I see posts all the time about heaven or about the Godhead or the plan of salvation—all false doctrine.
It’s a major upheaval for people to realize they’ve been wrong their whole lives.
It’s also complicated because one of those life-long held beliefs are that Christians don’t know much. So they’re not very open minded to have Christians teach them.
It’s a tricky thing to teach truth to a Mormon.
I am eager to keep untangling myself!
All I Possess 