No Hookshot Into Heaven

In Institute not long ago, a handful of students, including myself, were taught an analogy about getting into heaven by climbing a ladder, with each rung representing one thing that brought us closer to God. Every gospel principle, every saving ordinance, every character-building experience, was another rung of the ladder, and we needed to grasp each of those rungs to reach the top. One student, who was either trying to be funny or who didn't want to learn the lesson of the analogy, asked "what if I had a hookshot (a grappling hook used by Link in the Legend of Zelda games)?" In essence, he was asking if he could skip any of the rungs of the ladder, if he could choose some Christlike attributes not to develop or some saving ordinances not to receive, and still reach the Celestial Kingdom. And the answer, of course, was no.

There are no shortcuts into heaven. Despite the ladder analogy, you can't build or climb or fly your way up there, as the people at Babel had tried, and you can't sneak in through the back gate either, because there isn't one. The only way to get into heaven is the way our Heavenly Father has taught us, and each step is vital. In order to get to heaven, we need to accept all of the saving ordinances. To become like God and Jesus, we must develop every Christlike attribute. Granted, we don't have to develop them all at once - we have time - but we do have to work on it, and eventually, we will have to develop them all. We can't skip any of the rungs on the ladder to heaven.

As much as many of us would like for there to be, there is no easy way into heaven. The only road that will take us there is long and hard, or, to use the scriptural terms, "strait and narrow," and every step is necessary. Some of the steps can be taken in any order, and we have more than one lifetime to get it all done, but none of the necessary qualifications for heaven are optional. We need to grasp every rung on the ladder. There's no easier way to get to heaven. In fact, there's no other way at all.