THE PLAN

 

“In the theology of the restored church of Jesus Christ, the purpose of mortal life is to prepare us to realize our destiny as sons and daughters of God – to become like Him….. through the Atonement of the Only Begotten of the Father, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ” (President Dallin H. Oaks, “Apostasy and Restoration”, Ensign May 1995, 86-87).

Even though the Doctrine and Covenants describes our latter-day theology of our ultimate destiny, it does not give it a name. The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, refers to it by many names among which is the name we use in the Church, “the plan of salvation” (Jarom 1:2; Alma 24:14, 42:5).

Among other names given in the Book of Mormon are these: “the merciful plan of the great Creator (2 Nephi 9:6); the plan of our God (2 Nephi 9:13); “the great and eternal plan (2 Nephi 11:5); “the great plan of the Eternal God (Alma 34:9); “the plan of happiness (Alma 42:8,16). The “plan of redemption” appears fifteen times in the Book of Mormon. You could write books about this subject.

We are told one of the reasons we are here is to learn lessons through mortality that we could not otherwise learn while we were spirits, that mortality alone can propel us into further progression in our quest for godhood. I have come to see throughout my life that through opposition and conflict one truly does need a body to overcome and learn resistance, wisdom, and most importantly the process of cause and effect, in other words, consequences that come through exercise of free will.

I have a fourteen-year-old grand-daughter who claims she is old enough to make her own informed decisions. If only she could see that her brain is still so under-developed she can’t grasp life at all. Later she will learn that obeying parents when you are young trains you for higher obedience to God when you are an adult.

We are so eager for the adventure called life when we are young but we tend to miss many lessons when we need them most. And some of those we miss tend to repeat themselves a few times until we get it, thanks to God’s mercy. I marvel how merciful, tolerant and forgiving He is towards our humanity. Where would we be without Him?

When Moses encountered God on Mount Sinai, God revealed Himself to him and Moses saw the glory of God and every particle of this earth and all the children of men (Moses 1:8,27) that have ever been created. The vision of God's power was overwhelming to a man who grew up in an Egyptian court believing that Pharoah was god and there was none greater than him so he exclaimed that now he could see that man is nothing (v 10).

God, however, didn't want Moses to miss the point so He showed him the same vision again and He ended it with the sum of what we call The Plan of Salvation: “For behold, this  is my work and my glory – to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39)….because Moses, among all of God’s creations, none are greater than man, man is everything.

The lessons of my life flowed like a river

Winding through days, months and years;

I rescued a few but missed so many

From the currents as I saw them passing;

They drowned in the daze of my ignorance,

Unwanted and ignored but yet abiding.

I fish them now from the pool of my memory

And give them life everlasting.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Moses by Greg Sargent)