Abstract: Based on Doctrine and Covenants 131:1, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that there are three degrees within the celestial kingdom. There has been a proposal that this teaching is incorrect and instead this scripture should be interpreted as a reference to the three kingdoms described in Doctrine and Covenants 76 (celestial, terrestrial, and telestial). This proposition is based on two claims. First, the word celestial, in Joseph Smith’s day, meant heavenly or belonging to heaven, so Doctrine and Covenants 131:1 should be interpreted to mean “in heaven there are three degrees.” The second claim is that interpreting Doctrine and Covenants 131:1 as referring to three degrees in the celestial kingdom is a twentieth-century innovation based on one sermon by one Apostle, with almost no other apostolic support before or after that sermon. This article shows that the first claim is very likely incorrect and the second is demonstrably false. The article then briefly addresses the question of degrees in the terrestrial and telestial kingdoms.

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