Plan Salvation
The Plan of Salvation
God is our Heavenly Father. He loves us and wants us to be happy. Everything He does is for the benefit of His children. He said, “For behold, this is my work and my glory–to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). God’s plan for his children is called the Plan of Salvation, the Plan of Mercy, the Plan of Redemption, and the Plan of Happiness.
In these Latter-days, God, in his loving kindness and desire to teach His children, has revealed the answers to many of the questions of the soul. Four of these most profound questions are: Who am I?; Where did I come from?; What is the purpose of life?; and What will happen to me when I die? In this article, I will briefly answer these four questions according to the doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Birth Was Not the Beginning
Before we came to earth, we lived as spirits and we dwelt in heaven with our God, our Heavenly Father. We are his spirit children and are all a part of His family. A spirit looks like a body. Abraham had a vision of this premortal life, a council in heaven, and one of the purposes for the creation of the earth. Abraham wrote,
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;
And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.
And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell;
And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them. (Abraham 3:22-25)
The scriptures say we were so happy that we “shouted for joy” (Job 38:7) when we heard of the creation of the earth and that we would have a chance to receive a body and be proved. To be proved or tested is one of the reasons we are on this earth. We knew it would be hard. We knew that we would have to learn to walk by faith and not by sight; we knew that there would be a veil of forgetfulness given to us so that we would not be able to remember our life with God (hence, the need for faith). But we also knew that a Savior would be provided for us. That Savior was the premortal Jehovah, the Firstborn of the Spirit children of Heavenly Father. On earth, He would be known as Jesus the Christ.
Thus we were born on this earth and clothed with a physical body. And hence, “this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors” (Alma 34:32).
Death is Not the End
Because we are mortal, we die. Since birth is a spirit body becoming united with a physical body, death means the separation of the spirit body and the physical body. But death is not the end; our spirits are eternal. Though our bodies die and “though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:26). Because Jesus Christ was resurrected, all who have ever lived or will yet live on the earth will be resurrected, shall “be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22), shall receive their physical body again. But where do the Spirits go while they wait to be resurrected? The prophet Alma had this same question, and received this answer:
Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.?
And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.
And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of the wicked, yea, who are evil—for behold, they have no part nor portion of the Spirit of the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works rather than good; therefore the spirit of the devil did enter into them, and take possession of their house—and these shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and this because of their own iniquity, being led captive by the will of the devil.
Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection. (Alma 40:11-14)
The scriptures also teach what will happen when we are resurrected.
Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death.
The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; and we shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and have a bright recollection of all our guilt.
Now, this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but every thing shall be restored to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body, and shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God, to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil. (Alma 11:42-44)
Finally, after our spirit bodies and physical bodies are reunited, never to be separated, we will be judged. John saw
the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. (Revelation 20:12-13)
Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you” (John 14:2). Many means more than just two. LeGrand Richards has written about the problem with only one heaven and one hell:
Such a doctrine does not have the motivating and stimulating power to impel or encourage men to do the best they can, but rather to satisfy themselves by doing as well as the average man. Such a doctrine places no value on anything more than average devotion and obedience to the commandments of the Lord, or the development of one’s talents and their useful devotion to his service. (A Marvelous Work and a Wonder. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book. 1976. 253.)
But even if the doctrine of one heaven and one hell did not have any philosophically problematic baggage attached to it, it is not what the scriptures teach. The Apostle Paul wrote about a man he knew who was “caught up to the third heaven . . . and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter (2 Corinthians 12:2,4). Richards continues, “It is obvious that there could not be a third heaven unless there is also a first and a second heaven” (Ibid. 254). Modern revelation confirms the Bible’s claim that
There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 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. (1 Corinthians 15:40-41)
Furthermore, the scriptures teach that we will be judged “according to [our] works [and] according to the desire of [our] hearts” (Doctrine and Covenants 137:9). This is not possible unless there were “many mansions” (John 14:2) as Jesus taught.
The glory of the sun is the Celestial Kingdom, the glory of the moon is the Terrestrial Kingdom, and the glory of the stars is the Telestial Kingdom. The Celestial Kingdom is where God dwells. It is where the most faithful go:
They are they who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on his name and were baptized . . .
That by keeping the commandments they might be washed and cleansed from all their sins, and receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the hands of him who is ordained and sealed unto this power;
And who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true
. . .
Wherefore, all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. (Doctrine and Covenants 76:51-53, 59)
Those who inherit the Terrestrial Kingdom are those
who are honorable men of the earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men.
These are they who receive of his glory, but not of his fulness.
These are they who receive of the presence of the Son, but not of the fulness of the Father.
Wherefore, they are bodies terrestrial, and not bodies celestial, and differ in glory as the moon differs from the sun.
These are they who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus. (Doctrine and Covenants 76:75-79)
Finally, there is the Telestial Kingdom,
which glory is that of the lesser, even as the glory of the stars differs from that of the glory of the moon in the firmament.
These are they who received not the gospel of Christ, neither the testimony of Jesus.
These are they who deny not the Holy Spirit.
These are they who are thrust down to hell. (Doctrine and Covenants 76:81-82, 84)
Some may find it strange that those who are “thrust down to hell” will actually receive a kingdom of glory or a heaven, though it is the least of the three kingdoms of glory. This kingdom is hell because those who go here cannot progress. They are damned in the literal meaning of that term–their progression is stopped. However, even the Telestial Kingdom, the least kingdom of glory and the place for those who do not accept the gospel, “surpasses all understanding” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:89). This is further proof that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16), though He is also just. And since the lowest kingdom surpasses all our current understanding, the second kingdom, the glory of the terrestrial goes beyond all things that are telestial (Doctrine and Covenants 76:91). Finally, the “glory of the celestial” simply “excels all things” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:92).
There is, however, another place one may go after one dies, one that is not a kingdom of glory. This place is known as Outer Darkness. Note that those who receive the telestial glory “received not the gospel of Christ, neither the testimony of Jesus,” but they are also those “who deny not the Holy Spirit” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:82-83). Those who deny the Holy Spirit go to Outer Darkness.
They are they who are the sons of perdition, of whom I say that it had been better for them never to have been born;
For they are vessels of wrath, doomed to suffer the wrath of God, with the devil and his angels in eternity. (Doctrine and Covenants 76:32-33).
It is therefore true, that what one reaps, so one will sow. Or, in other words:
Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.
And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.
There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated–
And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. (Doctrine and Covenants 130:18-21)