The End of God’s Love
As Meriweather has said, God never stops loving. He does all he can to help us have the best eternal existence that we possibly can. All mankind are guaranteed resurrection and immortality. This means that we will all live eternally forever and ever in bodies of flesh and bones. However, for there to be a heaven, God cannot permit those who are not willing to abide by a celestial law to live in his kingdom or else it would not be a heaven. God respects free will to choose how one will live but cannot allow them to decide where they will live without abiding by the law but must base it upon what law they are willing to abide. He must place each of us into kingdoms based upon the laws we are willing to abide by. There are certain people in this life who are willing to be enemies to God and turn against Him even after coming to know that He truly exists and have tasted of his Holy Spirit. Those are they who are beyond redemption and have sinned against the Holy Ghost. They do not inherit a kingdom of glory but a kingdom of darkness. They cannot receive forgiveness in this world nor in the world to come once they have committed the unpardonable sin. All others will inherit a kingdom of glory. There are kingdoms with varying degrees of glory and varying degrees of law. The degree of glory our bodies are resurrected to is according to the kingdom we will be resurrected to inherit. There are three major degrees of kingdoms, the telestial, the terrestrial, and the celestial. The kingdom of heaven is a celestial kingdom. To those who inherit outer darkness or perdition the scriptures say:
Matthew 12:31-32
31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
So what becomes of these souls who commit blasphemy against the Holy Ghost? Does God torture them for eternity? Are they thrown into an actual lake of fire and brimstone? I don't think so. I believe the fire and brimstone is a symbol of the torment they receive. I think the lack of the Holy Spirit of God in their lives is a torment and the thought that they have lost the possibility of ever being forgiven and giving themselves over to a dark existence torments them eternally. It may be hard for we who have never sunk so low to comprehend the evil and depravity these people have taken upon themselves and how they have turned against God Himself after coming to a knowledge of his reality and goodness. Satan and his angels took this route in the premortal war in heaven as spoken of in Revelation 12. Satan became Perdition and all who follow after him and come out in open rebellion against God and his Christ by denying the Holy Spirit once they have received it become sons of Perdition. They who become such have lost all possibility of having a repentant heart and hate God eternally. There is a point where we can become beyond redemption. What I do find interesting about Matthew 12:31-32 is that Jesus mentions that they neither receive forgiveness in this world nor the world to come. This makes me wonder if there is forgiveness for those who do not sink so low in the world to come. Maybe over a much longer period of time in the eternities there may be forgiveness and progression to higher kingdoms.
I believe that God's love is very far reaching and probably unfathomable by all of us. In this world we have a chance at gaining a very high eternal existence if we so choose to do so. But for there to be a heaven, God cannot allow wickedness to exist there. Those not willing to abide the law of a celestial kingdom will be placed in a lesser kingdom where he/she is willing to abide by that kingdom's law. Perhaps some will be perfectly content to exist in a lower kingdom while others might seek to live in a kingdom of higher glory. The degrees of glory are spoken of in
Doctrine and Covenants 76.