If someone were to ask you, "You Mormons always talk about a plan of salvation; well, what is it?" would you be able to answer? What would you say? Would you be able to remember all of the details you've learned over the years about the exact location of the Spirit World and how long a spirit stays in spirit prison? Would you recall the differences between the kingdoms? And after drawing out for them all of the details, would they be closer to understanding God's plan, or just confused at the number of circles and lines?


The illustration we so often refer to when speaking about the Plan of Salvation might, more accurately, be called "the Map of the Plan of Salvation." Just like a map does, it shows us where we were before this life, where we are now, and where we aim to go after this life. However, (and I can say this because the above illustration is mine) it's not that good of a map because it shows things way out of proportion. A better map might be more like this:

 Before we came to Earth we lived with God in a premortal existence that extends further back than we may often think (see Abraham 3:22-23 and combine with D&C 93:29; if we were in that premortal world and were either "intelligences" or, at least, comprised of "intelligence" which cannot be created, where then was the beginning? See also Abr. 3:18.) We know that we will live forever, and if we have already lived forever, this Earth life becomes a small but important hinge in our much-larger-than-first-glace-would-show existence.

The Real Plan of Salvation

However, even this map, drawn more to scale, is still just a map. What then is the Plan of Salvation. Imagine being in that premortal life with God, knowing and being known by him on a personal level that comes with an eternity of proximity, and yet noticing between you and Him inherent differences: Ha has a glorified and glorious body; He has power and knowledge borne from experience and obedience; He creates worlds and life and children; He has joy that surpasses all comprehension. As any good father would, He desires that you may become like Him. So, He created a PLAN to help each of His children gain SALVATION and ultimately Eternal life, or in other words, a life like the one that He himself has (Eternal or "Endless is [God's] name" Moses 1:3.)

This Plan required the creation of a world whereon God's children would dwell. It would be necessary for mankind to fall from that innocent created state to a state in which men and women could sin and experience misery and, subsequently, repent and experience joy. This repentance and the eventually overcoming of death would all come because Jesus, the "Beloved and Chosen from the beginning" would go to Earth, live a mortal life, sacrifice himself in a godly atonement for sin, suffer an ungodly death on the cross, and resurrect so that all God's children would rise from death and could arise from sin.

So what is the Plan of Salvation? It is God's plan fro helping us become like Him; and I, for one, am indebted and grateful to Him for it.

Questions:  

• How would the truths of the Plan of Salvation affect somebody's life were they to understand, believe, and act on them?
• How have these truths impacted you?