Who am I? Why am I here? Where have I been? And where am I going? The answers to life’s greatest mysteries can be found through understanding the Plan of Salvation. The Plan of Salvation is a map that outlines where we have been and where we are going. Mormons believe that Jesus Christ plays the central and vital role in the Plan of Salvation.
The Plan of Salvation is sometimes called the Plan of Happiness or the Plan of Progression. It is God’s plan to fulfill His central purpose.
For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Pearl of Great Price, Moses 1:39).
Immortality comes with the resurrection; all men will become immortal, because resurrection is a free gift wrought by the atonement of Christ. Eternal life, however, is another thing altogether. It is the life that God lives and includes knowledge, power, and glory in the highest heaven, where He Himself dwells.
God, in teaching His prophets, gave them an explanation of “intelligence.”
…if there be two spirits, and one shall be more intelligent than the other, yet these two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are… eternal.
And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all (Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 3:18, 19).
God is all knowing and all powerful, and all loving. He said,
I dwell in the midst of them all; I now, therefore, have come down unto thee to declare unto thee the works which my hands have made, wherein my wisdom excelleth them all, for I rule in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath, in all wisdom and prudence, over all the intelligences thine eyes have seen from the beginning; I came down in the beginning in the midst of all the intelligences thou hast seen.
Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones (Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 3:21, 22).
The Lord’s desire for these personalities is that they have the oportunity to become like him. That was impossible, if He was to leave them as they were. Before the earth was created, the Lord created all things in a purely spiritual realm, which
Mormons call “Pre-Mortal Life,” or the “Pre-existence.”
For by the power of my Spirit created I them; yea, all things both spiritual and temporal— First spiritual, secondly temporal, which is the beginning of my work; and again, first temporal, and secondly spiritual, which is the last of my work—(Doctrine and Covenants 29:31, 32).
In this pre-mortal realm, we were all spirits created by God, and therefore, God the Father is literally our Father in Heaven. We had personality and agency, free will. If we had stayed in that realm, our progress would have stopped. The Lord planned for us to obtain a physical body, prove ourselves and learn compassion, and then to obtain an immortal body. He planned to send us to earth to experience mortality. In order for us to learn and be tested, and to exercise the agency He guaranteed us, there had to be opposition.
Indeed, there was opposition even in that pre-mortal realm. God knew that in mortality, we would all make mistakes and commit sin, making us unworthy to return to Him and to earn a kingdom of glory. He provided a Savior for us, willing to take upon Himself our sins, if we would only repent. That was
Jesus Christ, God the Son, the first-begotten spirit in pre-mortal life, and the most intelligent and powerful. Lucifer came forward with his own plan to force us to live according to God’s law, which would rob us of our agency and give glory to Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12; Doctrine and Covenants 76:26). Lucifer was cast out to the earth, with one third of the spirit children of God—those who chose his plan over the Lord’s. They became Satan and his devils, and they never will earn physical bodies or be resurrected. They provide opposition on earth, guaranteeing man his free agency. All those who have ever been born on this earth chose to follow the Savior’s plan in the pre-existence.
God created Adam and Eve and gave them two conflicting commandments. He did so, because they dwelled in a paradisiacal state, without the major trials of the lone and dreary world. The Garden of Eden was a static, peaceful state, without death—or birth. As long as Adam and Eve stayed there, no other spirit children of God would be born onto the earth. Partaking of the “forbidden fruit” brought their banishment from the garden, and made them able to multiply and replenish the earth.
And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter (2 Nephi 2:15).
And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient (Moses 5:11).
Mormons believe that Adam and Eve were two of the Lord’s most noble spirit-children, foreordained to their position on earth before the earth was created. Mormons do not believe in orginal sin. Our doctrine is that babies are born innocent. Christ took upon Himself the transgression that occurred in Eden, and it has no hold on the children of men. The Fall was an essential step in the Plan of Salvation.
To overcome the effects of the Fall, which cast men and women into a world where Satan tempts and seeks to destroy mankind, Christ wrought an eternal and perfect atonement that guarantees resurrection and immortality for all and exaltation for the repentant. The atonement of Christ is the pivotal event in earth’s history. Because of the atonement all will be resurrected, and the repentant will be
exalted. The mercy of Christ will be extended to all. Only those who deny the Christ after having received a perfect knowledge of Him will fail to earn a kingdom of glory.
Death is the portal to the afterlife. At death, the spirit and body are separated, and the spirit goes to the
Spirit World to await resurrection. In the spirit world, we still enjoy agency, the ability to learn, and the joy of relationships with those we love. “Felicity” is the word modern prophets have used. In the spirit world, the true gospel is preached to any who have not heard it, or who were deceived on earth. Ordinances performed by proxy on earth may be accepted or rejected by spirits in the spirit world. Prophet Joseph F. Smith saw a vision of the spirit world, which is recorded in
section 138 of the Doctrine and Covenants.
Upon resurrection and judgment people are assigned to a level of exaltation with which they are most atuned. The highest level of exaltation is where
families can be eternal units, and husbands and wives live in a state of
eternal marriage. The Lord has called these heirs to the kingdom where God Himself dwells, “just men made perfect.” These men and women were not perfect human beings. They made mistakes on earth, just as we all do. But by attempting to love, and to live the commandments of God at any cost, they are perfected through the grace of Christ.
Joseph Smith recorded a vision of the kingdoms of heaven in
section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants. He saw that even the glory of the lowest kingdom of heaven “surpasses all understanding.”
The Plan of Salvation teaches us that we are eternal beings, learning to become more and more like our Creator. It verifies God’s great love for us. Understanding the Plan of Salvation can soften the sting of death and separation from loved ones. It teaches us that our progress continues in the afterlife, and that much indeed occurs there to heal and equalize. The Lord understands that earthlife is a serious, difficult trial. Many of us arrive on earth crippled in some way, and others face such horrendous trials that judgment is compromised. Others never have the opportunity to better themselves or to learn of Jesus Christ. Many fail to live up to their own standards, hopes and dreams. Others fail to live up to God’s standards. The afterlife is a place where knowledge is gained, the
purpose of life is understood. Increased perspective helps the disadvantaged obtain justice and mercy, no matter what their trials were on earth.
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