Do you have an invitation?

As we drove into our chapel’s parking lot last weekend to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Austin Texas Temple, we were asked, no less than four times, to show our invitation tickets. This reminded me about the role of “invitations” or entrance requirements in both time and eternity.

We see this idea of selective criteria to include—and exclude—individuals repeatedly in our day-to-day experience. Many housing developments today are gated. Colleges have varying entrance requirements, from difficult-to-be-admitted “Ivy League” universities to community colleges many can attend. So do professions, such as medicine and law. In modern society, there are a plethora of clubs, professional, academic and business organizations and societies, all with different levels of “exclusivity” and entrance requirements.[1] The factors that separate those who have access to material things, services and opportunities are varied, including where you are born, parentage and family circumstances, innate ability, opportunities for learning, and so forth.

While I was entirely content and prepared to watch the groundbreaking ceremony remotely, I have to admit that my wife and I were very excited, and humbled, when our stake president notified us that we would be receiving an invitation. The desire to be “invited,” to be included, is natural and innate, I believe. Abraham Maslov, in his influential explanation of human motivation, taught that next to physical survival and safety, “humans need to love and be loved,” to feel that they belong and are needed, that they have a contribution to make.[2]

This sense of community and importance is at the heart of the miracle of the restored Church and Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven. All are invited and all have a vital role to play. But what does God require of us to belong eternally to Him and be part of His eternal family?

The existence of invitation or “entrance requirements” in the eternal realm can be seen, for example, in scriptures asserting that “verily, there is a reward for the righteous” (Psalm58:11; see also Proverbs 11:18; Isaiah 40:10; 62:11; Hosea 9:1; Matt. 5:12; 6:4, 6, 18; 10:41-42; 16:27; Mark 9:41; Luke 6:23, 35; Rev. 11:18; 22:12; Alma 29:15; 3 Nephi 12:12; D&C 6:33; 42:65; 54:10; 56:19; 58:2, 28; 59:3, 23; 63:48; 98:25-26; 112:34; 124:16; 127:4), as well as a corresponding yet opposite“ reward [for] the wicked” (Psalm 91:8; see also Isaiah 3:11; 2 Peter 2:13; Alma 9:28; 41:5). Section 76 describes in great detail these varying rewards or “heavens” (verse 6), which Paul also saw (1 Cor. 15:40).

In his near-death experience, Santosh Acharjee described an incomparably “beautiful” city surrounded by a “very high and very thick wall” with “twelve beautiful gates,” all of which were closed to him with angels “protecting those gates.” “I knew this was the ultimate goal of life,” he reported, “to enter” that city, which he longed, more than anything, to do. In the course of his encounter with Deity he perceived that the city was the Kingdom of Heaven. He saw “a very narrow door” or “gate,” “the only gate” open to him to enter the city.[3] Regardless of the source or accuracy of Santosh’s experience as he retells it, Jesus’ command to “enter ye in at the strait [or narrow and low] gate,” “which leadeth unto life” (and not the “wide gate,” which leadeth to destruction), is familiar to all (Matt. 7:13-14). The “narrow gate,” of course, is entered by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God, as Nephi explained: after following the example of the Savior, who was baptized by immersion in the river Jordan by John the Baptist, who held the priesthood authority of God, then “are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate” (2 Nephi 31:17-18). Also familiar to many is John the Beloved’s description in Revelations of the resplendently glorious “holy city” or “new Jerusalem” surrounded by a “wall great and high” with “twelve gates,” entrance into which is restricted to those whose names “are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:2, 12, 27; see also Hebrews 12:22).

The great difference, however, between temporal and eternal entrance requirements is that unlike many invitations in the world, God’s invitations are extended to ALL, “black and white, bond and free, male and female,” for “all are alike unto” Him (2 Nephi 26:33). Moreover, all are invited to be part of this celestial society “without money and without price” (2 Nephi 9:50; 26:25), meaning without any “worldly” or socio-economic price or restriction. Heavenly Father wants all of His children to return home to Him.

This does not mean, however, as most of Christianity believes, that there are no requirements (or only the minimal requirement of “confessing” or “believing” in Jesus Christ). Entrance to this heavenly kingdom, as Santosh discovered, can only be allowed on God’s terms, which, very simply, is “through the Atonement of Christ,” “by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel” (Articles of Faith 3). Christ illustrated this truth in the parable of the “Royal Marriage Feast,” as Elder Bednar explained so eloquently in his October 2022 Conference message, “Put On Thy Strength, O Zion.” The King, representing Heavenly Father, invited “all” to the wedding feast for his son and furnished each with the required wedding garment, which the man in the parable refused to wear. As “Christian author, John O. Reid, noted, . . . the man’s refusal to wear the wedding garment exemplified blatant ‘disrespect for both the king and his son.’ He did not simply lack a wedding garment; rather, he chose not to wear one. He rebelliously refused to dress appropriately for the occasion. The king’s reaction was swift and decisive: ‘Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

Why does God require obedience (or as described in the temple, the Law of Obedience)? Because, as the Lord explained in the prophesied, latter-day restoration of all things, we cannot be saved (at least “salvation” in the kingdom where He dwells) as we are now. We must be changed to become as He is or to be able to live the laws that govern the kingdom where He is. He will not “impose” these changes upon us against our will. Rather we must desire or actively seek to be engaged in this growth process, that is, voluntarily submit to (obey) the process of spiritual growth He has ordained for our exaltation.

In the revelation known as the “Olive Leaf,” the Lord described His plan for our spiritual growth, or maturation, in terms of His divine law: 

[In this revelation, the Lord] revealed that “there are many kingdoms; for there is no space in the which there is no kingdom,” some of which are “greater” and others “lesser,” but all of which “have a law given” and “unto every law there are certain bounds also and conditions. All beings who abide not in those conditions are not justified” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:36–39), meaning that they are ultimately unable to live in that kingdom. Father’s purpose is to prepare us and to help us grow, line upon line, from “grace to grace” as the Savior did. If we keep our covenants, we also “shall receive grace for grace” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:20) and, ultimately, be able to live the law of a celestial kingdom. For, as the Lord explained, “they who are not sanctified through [or able to live] the law which I have given unto you, even the law of Christ, must inherit another kingdom, even that of a terrestrial kingdom, or that of a telestial kingdom. For he who is not able to abide [keep or live by] the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:21–22).” (Stephen L. Fluckiger, Drawing Upon the Spiritual Treasures of the Temple, 30-31)

Growing from “grace to grace” means exactly what the words suggest—receiving, one measure at a time, “divine means of help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ” (Bible Dictionary, “Grace”).The rationalization that God’s entrance or invitation requirements are “too hard,” which many cling to, overlooks or rejects the simple yet most powerful truth that anything we are unable to do or become using all of our abilities, willpower, or physical or moral strength to meet these requirements will be provided by our infinitely loving Savior and Redeemer. For “it is by [His] grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23).

We are all invited. But we must accept the invitation. That is, we must, with all our hearts, might, mind, strength, our “whole souls” (Deut. 6:5; 11:13; 13:3; 30:6; Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27 D&C 4:2; 59:5) follow Jesus Christ and seek to “do” “the works which [we] have seen [Him] do” (3 Nephi 27:21) so that, in the end, with His divine help, we can “become as He is” (verse 27). May each of us recognize, appreciate and receive by our daily walk the infinite spiritual treasures the Lord offers us through His ordinances and covenants, especially the supernal treasures offered in the House of the Lord.

[1] See, for example, Despina Wilson, “The Billionaire’s Social Calendar: 2024 Event Calendar for the Ultra-Wealthy,” Lifestyle and Travel, November 20, 202, https://ceoworld.biz/2023/11/20/the-billionaires-social-calendar-2024-event-calendar-for-the-ultra-wealthy/; Christel Payseng, “12 Most Exclusive and Expensive Conferences in the World,” Medium, https://kalialaia.medium.com/12-most-exclusive-and-expensive-conferences-in-the-world-45f4b8e03533.

[2] Abrham Maslov, "A Theory of Human Motivation," Psychological Review, as cited in “Maslow's hierarchy of needs,” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs.

[3] Santosh Acharjee, My Encounter with Jesus at Heaven’s Gate, quoted in John Burke, Imagine the God of Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God’s Revelation, and the Love You’ve Always Wanted (Tyndale 2023), 78-79.

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