God supremely loves His children and wants them all to be saved. Thus, He will appeal to us at whatever level we function at to get our attention and hopefully, to eventually win our hearts. To the fear motivated, He warns of everlasting damnation, to the reward motivated, He promises the greatest of all gifts, and of course to the love motivated, God simply expresses what He desires and that is sufficient. In fact, if all God’s children were motivated by love for Him, then whether or not there will be progression between the post resurrection kingdoms would be irrelevant, for none of the other kingdoms would even be inhabited.
However, given that the vast majority of humanity are motivated by selfish desires, the Lord through his prophets has warned and forewarned His children of the end result of their choosing to disobey His precepts, to violate His commandments, to choose to live the worldly life. God’s prophets have, and continue to, teach accountability and consequences, in the hopes of convincing God’s children to act in the way that will bring about the most desired eternal end state…their exaltation.
Satan’s antidote to the teachings of the prophets is to seek the adoption of a type of spiritual socialism, the growth of a mindset that everyone will eventually be saved, and so current actions don’t really matter much, if at all.
For example, I often tell of the Drill Sergeant I once counselled with who was committing fornication regularly, but who also professed to be a saved Christian. When I pointed out the sinfulness of his activity, he simply told me that he was saved, and so whatever he did no longer mattered. Once God’s children convince themselves that their actions do not matter, that they have escaped the consequences of their choices, then they cannot be reached, nor stirred up to repentance.
The doctrine of Agency rests on two pillars, one is the power to choose, but the other is that those choices matter, in other words all choices have consequences. It was Satan ingenious, though dishonest, plan from the beginning to destroy the agency of humankind, by seeking to convince us that we could make choices and escape the consequences of those choices. It was a powerful deceit as evidenced by the 1/3 hosts of heaven who believed and supported that false doctrine. That same false doctrine is still taught among God’s children today, as outlined by the Prophet Nephi who identified it thus:
“…And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God. 2 Nephi 28:8-9.
As Nephi points out that this is a false, vain, and foolish doctrine. Believing it to be true, has, and will continue to, destroy the eternal potential and desired exaltation, of many of God’ precious children. The truth is that our choices do matter, and based on choices we make in our 1st and 2nd estate, and for some, those made in the spirit world, we will be assigned an eternal, unchanging, kingdom of Glory, or outer darkness. In short, God’s desire is not just the salvation of His children, but their exaltation, and that status is inseparably connected to their choices.
Anyone who loves the Father, must also love His children. Filled with the pure love of Christ we cannot but wish that every living soul would be saved. Like Ammon and his companions, the very thought of any soul perishing should cause us to tremble. However, no matter how great our love, no matter how deep our righteous desires, we cannot change the truth. Mercy, even when based in the deepest and purest love, still cannot rob justice. If we allow our love to create a false narrative, and then teach that narrative to the world because it is pleasing to our hearts, we may thereby become enablers, and end up helping to destroy the very souls we want to see saved.