A Vision of Heaven

It's been a while since I've posted in here. Apologies for those who read the only 2 posts I've done so far. After an inspirational meeting yesterday, I've decided to post in here again. Since my last post, I've been called to teach the CTR 10 class. These are children who start the year at 9 years of age and will turn 10 during the year. The lessons this year are on Church History and this week was on the vision that Joseph Smith and Sydney Rigdon of Heaven.

So in order to start off I had the boys (our class is all boys by the way) close their eyes. I asked them how much they could see. They answered very little. I then had them imagine that they had the stars at night to guide them and they said they could see a little better. We did the same with the moon and sun and each time they could "see" better than the last. Of course this also led to a discussion of pupils dilating and showing how that occurs. Did I mention that 9-10 year old boys are easily distracted?

Anyways, once we got back on track we started to discuss the vision of Heaven. It was received in 1832 after Joseph and Sydney were pondering on John 5:29. This verse discusses the resurrection of people who have done good versus those who have done evil. This led to a discussion on being rewarded for what you have done in this life and that there must be multiple places, or kingdoms, in Heaven.

Joseph and Sydney were in the home of John Johnson in Hiram, Ohio. Joseph's family was staying with the Johnson family. There were twelve other men in the room, but only Joseph and Sydney were allowed to behold the vision. The others received commentary of what they were seeing and recorded what took place.

At the end of the vision Joseph looked firm and calm, Sydney sat limp and pale (worn out). Joseph quipped that Sydney wasn't as used to visions as he was and that was why he looked the way he did.

After relating the story we discussed the three kingdoms that were seen in vision. The three are:

1. Celestial - the topmost kingdom where God reigns
2. Terrestrial - The second highest kingdom where Christ will visit, but God will not
3. Telestial - The "lowest" kingdom where the Holy Ghost will visit, but God and Christ will not

We discussed the qualifications for getting into each kingdom. We especially discussed that the Celestial kingdom is further divided into 3 "degrees". The topmost of which allows for the full benefit of God's plan for us. In order to get there though, one must live the commandments, be baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, receive the priesthood (males), and be sealed in marriage in the Temple.

The boys got excited about learning what it would take to get into the topmost kingdom. It was good to see that enthusiasm. Of course, now with the change in missionary age for Young Men I made sure they understood that they would be teaching this on their missions. This made some of them more excited.

All in all a good week in the class. I think the boys enjoyed the account of this vision and understood the basic concepts of the 3 kingdoms of Heaven.