Why Three Degrees of Glory?

As just a brief background, LDS theology believes in "paradise" and "hell" as a limited, transitory state until resurrection and judgment. After that, people will be assigned or pass onto three degrees of glory: the telestial, terrestial and celestial. The names, as I understand it, merely reflect differences of magnitude between the three kingdoms. The telestial kingdom is describes as being a place of such joy that if people were to know what it was like, they would gladly commit suicide just to get there. Yet, it is the lowest of the kingdoms, where even murders and tyrants will end up. The terrestial kingdom is whole orders of magnitude greater than the telestial--like the moon compared to the starts; and the celestial is a whole orders of magnitude even above the terrestial--like the sun above the moon.

I have wondered why should evil people--even the most evil that have ever lived--be rewarded with the telestial kingdom. I have come across the answer in a book I have been reading called The God That Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life by Terryl Givens and Fiona Givens. Their book is much more than just this issue, but since it is something that I've wondered about, it was extraordinary to find such a loving, just explanation of this particular point.

To understand the answer, you have to understand another point of LDS theology--that we existed prior to our mortal life. That is, all people are spirit children of our Heavenly Father, and existed with him in a pre-mortal existence. However, due to our nature as spirits, we were stymied in our growth and development. We needed mortal bodies and to pass through a mortal existence, to continue to grow and develop. The problem is that by entering this mortal existence, we would be subject to mortal foibles and sin. Thus, the need for a plan of salvation that would, at least potentially, provide us the ability to return to our Heavenly Father's presence and continue our growth and advancement. Two plans were presented. Without going into more specific details, there was a conflict--a war--in heaven. One third of the heavenly hosts followed Satan, and the remainder followed Christ and his plan. The key is that under Christ's plan, we had hope for greater glory, but we also faced greater consequences and responsibility.

What the authors of The God That Weeps demonstrate is that it would be unjust and unequitable for us to give up our pre-mortal existence and what we had there, following Christ, without at least getting back as good as we had before. That is, by choosing mortality, we did not choose or risk worsening our position, but only obtaining more. Simply by following Christ, we are entitled to an eternal existence at least as good as what we had before. Thus, even evil people such as Hitler, Stalin, and Moe, who are responsible for the deaths of millions, will obtain the telestial kingdom. However, for those people that are better--that follow the light of Christ and his commandments--there is the terrestial kingdom or, even, the celestial kingdom.