LDS Faith and Beliefs | The Plan of Salvation

February 20, 2015

Today I wanted to share with you what Mormons believe about heaven and hell, where we came from, where we’re going, and how we get there. We call this information the Plan of Salvation or the Great Plan of Happiness.

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We believe that before we came to earth we all lived together in heaven (or the pre-mortal existence) as spirit brothers and sisters. Heavenly Father was there as he is the father of our spirits, and Jesus Christ and Lucifer (Satan) were there also, as our elder spirit brothers. We believe that there was a big meeting, a council, and some important issues were discussed — and I’ll quote right from scripture: (Taken from Abraham 3:24-28)
“24 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;
25 And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;
26 And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever.
27 And the Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first.
28 And the second was angry, and kept not his first estate; and, at that day, many followed after him.”
And in Moses 4:1-4:
“1 And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.
2 But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me—Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.
3 Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;
4 And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice.”
From reading those scriptures (which are from the Pearl of Great Price, which I will have to talk about another time) we learn that Jesus’ plan was to give God the glory and to allow us to choose and have agency. Lucifer’s plan, however, was to force everyone to do the right thing, and he wanted the glory for himself. Heavenly Father choose Jesus’ plan, which made Lucifer angry, so he was cast down and become the Devil and his followers went with him.

So, Jesus’ plan was chosen, the world was created, and we were sent down to gain bodies, use our agency, learn and grow, and ultimately be resurrected and return to live with Him again.

Once we die, we are separated and will either go to Spirit Paradise or Spirit Prison. In Spirit Prison, missionary work continues and those who didn’t have the opportunity to hear the Gospel or those who didn’t accept it are taught once again and given the choice to accept Christ. We are able to help them out on earth, by attending the Temple and doing the ordinances for them by proxy. (I’ll talk more about the Temple and those ordinances in a later post.)

Once Christ comes again and we are all resurrected, we will then be judged. We believe there are 3 degrees of glory — we don’t believe in the traditional heaven or hell. We do believe in a type of hell, I suppose, which we call perdition or outer darkness. That is the place reserved for those who have had a testimony of the Gospel, who have seen and heard God, and then denied and rejected Him. As for heaven, we believe in three degrees of glory — the highest being the Celestial, then the Terrestrial and then the Telestial. You can read all about them here, and I suggest you do, since that teaches about them much better than I could do.
I know that the topics I am writing about might be confusing or I might not be answering all the questions you have about them. I’d love if you would visit this web page which details the Plan of Salvation and other aspects that I haven’t discussed here. I just also want to say that I grew up in the church and so I have been learning this information my whole life. It’s a lot to understand and take in. Feel free to ask any questions below, but again, I would really encourage you to visit this web page and see if your questions are answered there.
(This might have been a good time to discuss what we believe about grace and works, but I’ll have to write about that another time since this is getting long and I want it to go up today 🙂 )
More in the LDS Faith and Belief Series:Intro and I am a Christian (<– Here you may also find a google form you can fill out if you have any questions you’d like me to address in an upcoming post.)Joseph Smith, the Restoration, and the Book of Mormon
If you’d like to know more about what Mormons believe, request a copy of the Book of Mormon, or request a meeting with the missionaries visit mormon.org.