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The brethren direct me to say that the Church has never announced a definite doctrine upon thispoint. Some of the brethren have held the view that it was possible in the course of progressionto advance from one glory to another, invoking the principle of eternal progression; others of thebrethren have taken the opposite view. But as stated, the Church has never announced a definitedoctrine on this point.

-Secretary to the First Presidency in a 1952 letter; and again in 1965

None would inherit this earth when it became celestial and translated into the presence of Godbut those who would be crowned as Gods all others would have to inherit another kingdom they would eventually have the privilege of proving themselves worthy and advancing to acelestial kingdom but it would be a slow process [progress?].

-Brigham Young, in Wilford Woodruff Journal, 5 Aug 1855

Once a person enters these glories there will be eternal progress in the line of each of theseparticular glories, but the privilege of passing from one to another (though this may be possible forespecially gifted and faithful characters) is not provided for.

-Joseph F. Smith, Improvement Era 14:87 [November 1910]

I am not a strict constructionalist, believing that we seal our eternal progress by what we dohere. It is my belief that God will save all of His children that he can: and while, if we liveunrighteously here, we shall not go to the other side in the same status, so to speak, as thosewho lived righteously; nevertheless, the unrighteous will have their chance, and in the eons of theeternities that are to follow, they, too, may climb to the destinies to which they who are righteousand serve God, have climbed to those eternities that are to come.

-J. Reuben Clark, Church News, 23 April 1960, p. 3

It is reasonable to believe, in the absence of direct revelation by which alone absolute knowledgeof the matter could be acquired, that, in accordance with Gods plan of eternal progression,advancement from grade to grade within any kingdom, and from kingdom to kingdom, will beprovided for. But if the recipients of a lower glory be enabled to advance, surely the intelligencesof higher rank will not be stopped in their progress; and thus we may conclude, that degrees andgrades will ever characterize the kingdoms of our God. Eternity is progressive; perfection isrelative; the essential feature of Gods living purpose is its associated power of eternal increase.

-James E. Talmage, The Articles of Faith [1899 edition] pp. 420-421

You that are mourning about your children straying away will have your sons and your

daughters. If you succeed in passing through these trials and afflictions and receive aresurrection, you will, by the power of the Priesthood, work and labor, as the Son of God has,until you get all your sons and daughters in the path of exaltation and glory. This is just as sureas that the sun rose this morning over yonder mountains. Therefore, mourn not because allyour sons and daughters do not follow in the path that you have marked out to them, or giveheed to your counsels. Inasmuch as we succeed in securing eternal glory, and stand as saviors,and as kings and priests to our God, we will save our posterity. When Jesus went through thatterrible torture on the cross, He saw what would be accomplished by it; He saw that Hisbrethren and sistersCthe sons and daughters of GodCwould be gathered in, with but fewexceptionsCthose who committed the unpardonable sin. That sacrifice of the divine Being waseffectual to destroy the powers of Satan. I believe that every man and woman who comes intothis life and passes through it, that life will be a success in the end. It may not be in this life. Itwas not with the antedeluvians. They passed through troubles and afflictions; 2,500 years afterthat, when Jesus went to preach to them, the dead heard the voice of the Son of God and theylived. They found after all that it was a very good thing that they had conformed to the will of

God in leaving the spiritual life and passing through this world.Lorenzo Snow, MS 56:49-53; Collected Discourses 3:364-65.

The question of advancement within the great divisions of glory celestial, terrestrial, andtelestial; as also the question of advancement from one sphere of glory to another remains tobe considered. In the revelation from which we have summarized what has been written here,in respect to the different degrees of glory, it is said that those of the terrestrial glory will beministered unto by those of the celestial; and those of the telestial will be ministered unto bythose of the terrestrialthat is, those of the higher glory minister to those of a lesser glory. Ican conceive of no reason for all this administration of the higher to the lower, unless it be for

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the purpose of advancing our Fathers children along the lines of eternal progression. Whetheror not in the great future, full of so many possibilities now hidden from us, they of the lesserglories after education and advancement within those spheres may at last emerge from themand make their way to the higher degrees of glory until at last they attain to the highest, is notrevealed in the revelations of God, and any statement made on the subject must partake moreor less of the nature of conjecture. But if it be granted that such a thing is possible, they who atthe first entered into the celestial gloryhaving before them the privilege also of eternal

progresshave been moving onward, so that the relative distance between them and thosewho have fought their way up from the lesser glories may be as great when the latter havecome into the degrees of celestial glory in which the righteous at first stood, as it was at thecommencement. Thus: Those whose faith and works are such only as to enable them to inherita telestial glory, may arrive at last where those whose works in this life were such as to enablethem to entrance into the celestial kingdomthey may arrive where these were, but neverwhere they are.

B. H. Roberts, New Witnesses for God 1:391-392.

Some years ago I was in Washington, D.C., with President Harold B. Lee. Early one morning hecalled me to come into his hotel room. He was sitting in his robe reading Gospel Doctrine, byPresident Joseph F. Smith, and he said, Listen to this!Jesus had not finished his work when his body was slain, neither did he finish it after hisresurrection from the dead; although he had accomplished the purpose for which he then cameto the earth, he had not fulfilled all his work. And when will he? Not until he has redeemed and

saved every son and daughter of our father Adam that have been or ever will be born upon thisearth to the end of time, except the sons of perdition. That is his mission. We will not finish ourwork until we have saved ourselves, and then not until we shall have saved all depending uponus; for we are to become saviors upon Mount Zion, as well as Christ. We are called to thismission.There is never a time, the Prophet Joseph Smith taught, when the spirit is too old toapproach God. All are within the reach of pardoning mercy, who have not committed theunpardonable sin.

Boyd K. Packer, The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness, Ensign, Nov. 1995, 18