THE PLAN OF SALVATION
WHERE WERE WE
BEFORE WE WERE BORN?
We all lived in a premortal existence, as spirits,
with our Father in Heaven before birth.
God lives, Jesus is the Christ, and the Kingdom of God is on the earth.
WHERE DID I COME FROM?
Your life did not begin
at birth, nor will it end at death. You are made up of a spirit body
(sometimes called the soul) and a physical body. Your Heavenly Father
created your spirit, and you lived with Him as a spirit before you were
born on earth (1). You knew and loved Him, and
He knew and loved you (2). This period is called
pre-earth life or a "preexistence."
Throughout your pre-earth
life, you were taught the principles and commandments that would lead to
happiness. You grew in intelligence and learned to love the truth.
You were taught about the plan of salvation. During this pre-earth
life, Jesus Christ was chosen as the Savior; you learned that through Him
you would be able to overcome the effects of your wrong choices.
An important part of God's
plan was for you to come to earth to receive a physical body and to learn
to make correct choices. You would not remember living in Heavenly
Father's presence, but He would give you the ability to know right from
wrong. You would be able to recognize His love and truth. Through
your experiences and trials, you could learn to make right choices consistently.
With the help of Jesus Christ, you would be able to return to live with
your Heavenly Father when your life on earth was over.
In your pre-earth life,
you learned that only by choosing to follow God's plan could you receive
lasting peace and satisfaction in this life and for eternity. Because
He loves you, your Heavenly Father gave you agency, or the power to make
choices. He let you choose whether you would follow His plan and
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Satan, one of God's spirit
children, rebelled against our Heavenly Father and did not accept His plan.
He wanted to force us all to do his will. Sadly, many of our Heavenly
Father's children chose to follow Satan. Satan and his followers
were sent away from God's presence and were not allowed to be born on earth.
They continue to exist as spirits. They are miserable, and they want
you to be miserable. They tempt you and all God's children to do
things that bring unhappiness and that are not pleasing to God.
In the pre-earth life,
you chose to have faith in Jesus Christ and to follow God's plan.
Because of your choices, you were born on earth. Only by making these
same choices can you find peace in this life and be able to return to live
with your Heavenly Father after this life is over.
Although your
memory of your preexistence is withheld, before you came to this earth you lived
in the presence of God, your Eternal Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ.
You shouted for joy when given the privilege of coming to this earth to receive
a body and to follow God's plan for your happiness.
Much of the information given
to mankind in the history of this earth, is through a past and living Prophet.
Knowledge, or Faith, in this concept is very important. Understanding that
the Lord loves his people today, by giving us a voice from God, as much
as in Old and New Testament days, can give us many answers to our questions,
again, "Where did I come from?" "Why am I here?" or "Where am I going after
this life is over?"
It is because of revelations by modern Prophets that many of these questions
can be answered.
To recap...
-
We
lived in what is known as the "preexistence" or the "premortal existence"
with our Father in Heaven.
-
Every
person ever to be born on this earth lived in this premortal existence.
-
In
the preexistence we did not have physical bodies of flesh and bones as
we now have.
-
We
lived as spirits, children of our Heavenly Father.
(3)
-
A
spirit,
is a personage, and has the same form as a person.
-
As
spirits we were able to communicate, move about, make decisions and choices,
and recognize the difference between good and evil.
How exciting is it to know
that God is the father of our spirits? Have we all wished to be born
in some Royal Family at some time in our life?
We are all of Royal
Birth! (4)
A modern Prophet, Joseph Smith, learned for himself that God is not
merely a spirit, but has a body that is tangible, like man’s, though it
is glorified and perfected. When praying for an answer to a question
about which church he should join, Joseph Smith was visited by God the
Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ.(5)
When Joseph saw and talked with them, he learned that the Father and Son,
Jesus Christ, are separate and distinct individuals (6) and
not just manifestations of the same person.(7)
He learned that they each have a body of flesh and bones.(8)
Their bodies are much like ours, but are glorified and perfected, and they
can’t die.
As his spirit children, we could see in our premortal existence that
our Heavenly Father had a glorified body of flesh and bones, which was
necessary to progress eternally. We really wanted to be like our Father
in Heaven.(9) Because of his great love
for us, he prepared a way for us to obtain physical bodies like his.(10)
This plan (11) required that we obtain these physical
bodies by coming to this earth to live. This earth life is one of
the first steps toward reaching eternal perfection.(12)
Just as our earthly mothers and fathers want us to experience and learn
life’s lessons as we grow older, our Heavenly Father wants us to become
more like him. An interesting scripture: Jeremiah 1:5 (Old
Testament)
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;
and before thou camest forth out of the womb
I sanctified thee a prophet unto the nations. (1)
|
I am a child of God,
And He has sent me here,
Has given me an earthly home
With parents kind and dear. |
Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with him someday. (13) |
Go to the Next Concept
What is my purpose in life?
|
(1) Job 38:4-7
(2) John 1:2,14
(3) Ecclesiastes 12:7
(4) Acts 17:26-29 |
(5) John 17:3-5
(6) Acts 7:55-56
(7) John 16:27-28
(8) Luke 24:36-40 |
(9) Hebrews 12:9
(10) Genesis 1:26-27; 5:1-3
(11) Revelations 12:7-9
(12) Romans 8:16 |
(13) I Am a Child of God, 1st verse, by N. W. Randall
& M. T. Pettit - (Hear
the piano music to this song)
"The plan of [salvation] ...was prepared
from the foundation of the world, through Christ, for all whosoever would
believe on his name." Alma 22:13
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Dear God,
So far, today,
I've done all right. I haven't gossiped or lost my temper.
I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, or self centered. I'm really
happy about that so far. But in a few minutes I'm going to be getting
out of bed and then I'm going to need a lot of help. Thank you!
Amen
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