Entry into Celestial Glory - What are the requirements?

[Calm]

Not sure if this has been referred to or not, but the Gospel Principles manual identifies baptism as being required for the Celestial Kingdom, not for the Terrestial:

We Must Be Baptized to Enter the Celestial Kingdom

Jesus said,

[Calm]

But vs 74 shows that they are actually bound together (similar to the Mark 19:19 belief and baptism) as the work is also done for souls who end up in the Terrestial.

And we also do the work for those who end up in the Telestial so I don't see that as showing anything special. Baptism must be preceded by a testimony to be effective (as demonstrated by quotes given above), but a testimony does not need to be followed by baptism (one way not to be valiant in one's testimony).

From conference:

Men and women and, as the Book of Mormon promised, even little children can receive the testimony of Jesus Christ (see Mosiah 24:22; Alma 32:23; 3 Nephi 17:25) and of the Restoration of His gospel.

http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,49-1-690-10,00.html

Yet little children are not required to be baptized, right?

[Calm]

So what else could receiving the testimony of Jesus be other than joining His (the LDS) Church (which implies a water baptism requirement)?

D&C 76:50And again we bear record

[Calm]

And yet one last church publication:

WHO WILL INHERIT TERRESTRIAL GLORY? (D&C 76:71

[nicolasconnault]

In the list of those who will receive the telestial glory, one must not forget to include one important category: Trekkies!

[Calm]

BC has been on the board at least twice since the latest responses here, posted several posts in a couple of different threads....yet no response here and I am interested in what he thinks. Hopefully he will not neglect this thread in favour of others.

[Calm]

BC has again been on the board several times and responded to four other threads (at least) besides this one...yet continues to be absent here. I am beginning to wonder. Will PM him to ask for an appearance.

[BCSpace]

BC has been on the board at least twice since the latest responses here, posted several posts in a couple of different threads....yet no response here and I am interested in what he thinks. Hopefully he will not neglect this thread in favour of others.

Thank you for the PM. I get involved in numerous threads on multiple boards and so I may have to be reminded.

Most of your argument centers around the fact that baptism is not specifically mentioned as a requirement for the Terrestial. That is not a very good argument. I would say that it is explicitly mentioned in the sense that (even as per the sources you gave) that such received (afterwards) the gospel. Those people are baptised by proxy and thus we know from that that baptism is required. The other case of inheriting the Terrestial is simply by not being valiant. These also have been baptised.

Note that receiving the testimony and being baptized are viewed as separate steps.

Your best argument and I disagree with that notion (and took care of it pre-emptively), but whether right or wrong, it does not preclude baptism as a requirement for the Terrestial. The context places baptism as a step to receiving the testimony of Jesus. For example, those who inherit the Telestial did not receive the testimony of Jesus yet they are Christians and so do have a testimony of Jesus as it were, but not the same testimony of Jesus described in D&C 76. therefore, the tesitmony of Jesus can only be defined

Just how does verse 74 demonstrates baptism unless one already assumes that baptism is required in receiving a testimony of Christ:

The assumption is that they accepted the gospel in the afterlife and that such acceptance includes baptism (by proxy), but of course they had their chance in mortality (whatever that was), so it's too late to inherit the Celestial.

One could also make the case that baptism is ultimately required to enter any degree of glory considering what the ordinance represents; a cleansing of sin. It simply comes too late for most. And this implies that everything else is simply part of receiving the testimony of Jesus.

So I am going to continue to hold forth that not only is baptism a requirement for the Terrestial, but that only members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or dispensational equivalent) can inherit it. They will be members who were not valiant, or they will have accepted the gospel in the afterlife after having had the opportunity in mortality and rejecting it.