Digital Only: Answers from an Apostle
How Should We Teach People about the Plan of Salvation?
The plan of salvation is the best answer to many of the questions that are troubling young people and their non–Latter-day Saint peers.
From an address given at the seminar for new mission leaders on June 23, 2023.
The plan of salvation shows our Heavenly Father’s love for all His children. God loves His children so much that in His plan, He gave His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior and Redeemer, to suffer and die for us. God’s plan shows us how He views the purpose of mortal life and the divine judgment that follows it and the ultimate, glorious potential of all of His children.
Where We Are Going
The revealed doctrine of the restored Church of Jesus Christ teaches that all the children of God—with exceptions too limited to consider here—will finally wind up in a kingdom of glory. In the end, each of us will be judged according to our deeds and the desires of our hearts. Before that, we will need to suffer for our unrepented sins. The scriptures are clear on that. Then our righteous Judge will send us to one of those three kingdoms of glory.
The purpose of the plan—expressed in the doctrine and policies of the restored Church—is to prepare God’s children to achieve exaltation in the celestial kingdom, the highest degree of glory. But not all will desire and qualify for this. Because of our Heavenly Father’s great love for all of His children, He has provided two lesser kingdoms of glory.
We know from modern revelation that “all kingdoms have a law given.” The kingdom of glory we receive in the Final Judgment is determined by the laws we choose to abide by in our loving Heavenly Father’s loving plan. Under that plan there are three kingdoms so that all of His children can be assigned to a kingdom of glory where they can “abide.” Each of these is more wonderful than we can comprehend. The Atonement of Jesus Christ makes all of this possible.
Insight and Comfort through the Plan
Some other inspired teachings relating to the plan of salvation give insight and comfort. In ways that have not been revealed, our actions in our premortal life have influenced our circumstances in mortality. Similarly, many of the most important deprivations of mortality will be set right in the postmortal world. There will be a millennium in which the great plan of happiness provides time for fulfilling all that is incomplete in the lives of any of our Father’s worthy children.
For now, God desires all of us to use our time in mortality to strive for His highest possible blessings by keeping His commandments, covenants, and ordinances, all of which culminate in His holy temples that are being built throughout the world.
“Jesus Christ’s Atonement is the most glorious event in all human history. Through His atoning sacrifice, Jesus made the Father’s plan operative. We would be helpless without the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”
As our prophet has declared, the Atonement of Jesus Christ is “the central act of all human history.”
I am persuaded that our primary object in preaching the restored gospel of Jesus Christ today should be to convert people to Christ.
The Focus of Our Teaching
Today, as fewer and fewer people understand the great mission of our Lord and Savior, the theme of Jesus Christ needs to dominate our teaching.
The predominance of Jesus Christ in our current missionary teaching is inspired. Increasing numbers—especially youth and young adults—need to be reclaimed from denying the existence of God or a Savior or from saying that Jesus Christ was only a mortal—a great teacher but not the Son of God with the unique mission outlined in the scriptures and taught by the prophets.
Others believe that while there is probably a God, He makes no commandments that require accountability, so there is no sin. A variation of this is that a person is free to surrender to every impulse because God made them that way and therefore won’t punish them for their choices. Similarly, Nephi taught that Satan has three methods for corrupting the children of God, two of which are self-satisfaction (“all is well in Zion”) and indifference to commandments (“there is no hell”).
The most effective method to counteract any of those anti-Christ ideas is teaching and testifying of the reality of Jesus Christ and the necessity of His mission. Similarly, teaching the plan of salvation is also essential. The plan of salvation is the best answer to many of the questions that are troubling young people and their non–Latter-day Saint peers. The plan highlights our Restoration doctrine as focused on qualifying for exaltation in the celestial kingdom. It also shows us to be committed to loving relations with those not committed to that doctrine.
In this mortal life, we should concentrate on qualifying for the highest degree of glory in the celestial kingdom, for which Jesus Christ will lovingly guide us and strengthen us. The covenants provided in the plan of salvation give us access to His redeeming power. As we seek to know Jesus Christ and come to Him in that covenant relationship, He will give us the power and the guidance to make the right choices, for He is the way, the truth, and the life.