If I may offer an ex-Mormon's pov*?
So, in LDS doctrine, we were spirit children in the pre-mortal existence in heaven before we came here. LDS believe that God used to be a man of flesh and blood once but was essentially elevated and perfected. So, he has a body still but He's all powerful. We came down here with a desire to get bodies of flesh and bone, to be tested, and to make it back to God by His standards. There is no "Hell" in Mormonism. There's the Celestial kingdom where you can live an exalted life with God and your righteous family. There's the Terrestrial kingdom which is an earth-like place where you go when you were a good person but didn't follow LDS rules. There's Telestial which is a lower glory kingdom but still sorta earth-like where murderers, rapists, Hitler, and "bad" people go. Punishment is just not getting to live with God and knowing that you disappointed Him with your failure. There's also "Outer Darkness" but it's reserved for apostates(guess where Five is going?) and is essentially a dark pit where again, the punishment is "You made God sadface, go live in a dark closet."
"Families can be together forever" is a bit of a hostage situation, because those family members who aren't righteous in this life don't get to be with you in whatever kingdom you end up in. If you do everything right, you get a harem of wives(not joking) and get to become an exalted, perfected being like God. Then you get to go make your own planet and have a bunch of spirit children with your goddess wives(righteous Mormon women only have this to look forward to), and you get to be the orchestrator of this whole earth thing of your very own. And your children can hate you and not call you and not believe in you and you can be vague about existing and be as petty and cruel and demanding as you want, while only talking to your favorites, giving them carte blanche to patronize and tell the rest of your children how naughty and ungrateful they are.
That's the afterlife "reward" in LDS doctrine. You get to be a part of a God factory.
I know! It sounds like Hell!
*
So, in LDS doctrine, we were spirit children in the pre-mortal existence in heaven before we came here. LDS believe that God used to be a man of flesh and blood once but was essentially elevated and perfected. So, he has a body still but He's all powerful. We came down here with a desire to get bodies of flesh and bone, to be tested, and to make it back to God by His standards. There is no "Hell" in Mormonism. There's the Celestial kingdom where you can live an exalted life with God and your righteous family. There's the Terrestrial kingdom which is an earth-like place where you go when you were a good person but didn't follow LDS rules. There's Telestial which is a lower glory kingdom but still sorta earth-like where murderers, rapists, Hitler, and "bad" people go. Punishment is just not getting to live with God and knowing that you disappointed Him with your failure. There's also "Outer Darkness" but it's reserved for apostates(guess where Five is going?) and is essentially a dark pit where again, the punishment is "You made God sadface, go live in a dark closet."
"Families can be together forever" is a bit of a hostage situation, because those family members who aren't righteous in this life don't get to be with you in whatever kingdom you end up in. If you do everything right, you get a harem of wives(not joking) and get to become an exalted, perfected being like God. Then you get to go make your own planet and have a bunch of spirit children with your goddess wives(righteous Mormon women only have this to look forward to), and you get to be the orchestrator of this whole earth thing of your very own. And your children can hate you and not call you and not believe in you and you can be vague about existing and be as petty and cruel and demanding as you want, while only talking to your favorites, giving them carte blanche to patronize and tell the rest of your children how naughty and ungrateful they are.
That's the afterlife "reward" in LDS doctrine. You get to be a part of a God factory.
I know! It sounds like Hell!
*
