In his book, Believing Christ, Stephen E. Robinson mentions a very crude woman who has been on the streets for a very long time, uses vulgar language, has a temper and violates the word of wisdom. She meets the missionaries, is converted and is baptized but she still has her established habits. She still uses vulgar language, inappropriately shows her anger and continues to violate the word of wisdom. Over the years she did her best to overcome these inappropriate habits and one by one she overcame all of these weaknesses.
Question: At what point does she qualify for entrance into God’s kingdom?
Answer: She qualified for God’s kingdom the minute she was baptized and was doing the best she could.
· To enter the Celestial Kingdom she still needs the temple ordinances. Certain progress was needed between the time she was baptized and the time she qualified for a temple recommend through a Bishop’s interview by meeting the minimum requirements.
· Once she had received those ordinances and was doing her best, even though she still had many faults, she qualified for the Celestial Kingdom through the atonement of Christ.
Question: What happens if we die before overcoming our faults and weaknesses?
Answer: As long as we have received the appropriate ordinances and are doing our best, no matter how much we still lack, we qualify for the Celestial Kingdom through the atonement of Christ.
Question: How will I know I have done all I can?
Answer: When you have done all you can and cannot do any more. We always think we could have done more. We put a lot of doubt in ourselves but we need to have faith in Jesus Christ that He can accomplish all things. So, we just need to do the best we can and have faith that Jesus Christ will do the rest. The danger is thinking that you can always do more. A person can do more and more in one area of one's life which causes shortages in other. We would not want children to suffer because a parent is spending too much time doing genealogy or church assignments. Probably the best way to know if you are doing all you should is you feel the spirit of the Lord when sacred things are happening. It might happen when you are serving in the temple, when you are partaking of the sacrament or you feel inspired during a talk in Sacrament meeting. If you can feel the spirit, you are probably on the right track.
Question: Will I be perfect at the end of the millennium and am ready to receive the judgment to enter the Celestial Kingdom?
Answer: Probably not, perfection is a process and it is Christ that makes us perfect. Millions of years into the future, after doing our best all of those years, we may discover that we have overcome all of those weaknesses and faults. See Believing Christ, “Individual Perfection” p. 117 in the Spanish version. Being found worthy to enter the Celestial Kingdom and individual perfection are two separate things. Through the atonement of Christ we can become perfect and qualified for the Celestial Kingdom after having received the saving ordinances and long before achieving personal perfection.
