Absolutely. Let’s start with, say, 1 Corinthians 15:40-42. Mormon missionaries will use this on occasion to prove that there are three levels of Heaven. Unfortunately for their position, a little further reading is all that it takes to see that Paul was talking about bodies, not kingdoms, and we see in verse 39, him talking about four different kinds of flesh: human, animal, fish, and bird. And in verse 41, he was referring to the sun, the moon, and the stars. He’s using heavenly bodies to illustrate the resurrection, not the three fictional destinations referenced in D&C 76.
My sources here are my KJV (1981 edition, distributed, coincidentally, by the LDS) and my quad. (1996 edition)
RH,
Great example. Keep in mind that in every case we may discuss, I am a first-hand witness which means I have first-hand knowledge about the doctrine and it is not because I heard it from others–I can read, and I can experience the witness of the Spirit and can also understand the Bible–and do so.
A reader of 1 Corinthians 15:40-42 needs to expand their reading to gather the context, to at least verses 35-44.
35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
So Paul is indeed talking about bodies as you wrote, but what kind of bodies?
The answer is “spiritually quickened bodies as resurrected bodies.”
What he was writing about in verse 40 is in answer to the question he raised in verse 35–“with what body do they come?” Meaning, “with what body do they come back to life as a resurrected body?”
He is saying they come back to life with a glorified, spiritually quickened body, in the kind of body that it “pleased God” to quicken each person with. Among those spiritually quickened, resurrected bodies will be “celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial”–“one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead.”
The body a person is resurrected with is going to be the body that is spiritually quickened with the glory that the person lived to “inherit” through what they chose in mortality. There will be different “amounts” (my word) of glory within the bodies that are resurrected bodies of human beings. The “amount” of glory within each body depends on how the person lived. They have restored to them the “glory” that they lived to receive, and their body resurrects with a bodily glory that reflects that very thing.
A resurrected body will have glory, through the grace of Christ. What kind of glory?
Answer: the glory each person lived to receive. Their resurrected body is going to “reflect” that which they sowed on earth. Those who “shine” the brightest (in glory as reflected in their countenance) will shine with a glory like the brightness of the sun. Those who shine the least bright will shine with a glory like the brightness of a star (thus different levels of brightness from one star to another or in other words one body to another since stars differ in the amount of brightness they have as seen from the earth.)
The Book of Mormon calls this principle the “law of restoration.”
