What? Why? Who? Big questions... Answered! Part #1

Heavenly Father's plan of Salvation! 

This week I have been thinking a lot about Out Heavenly Fathers plan
for us. 
The plan of happiness, plan of redemption, the plan of salvation... etc...

This is what we as members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believe about life after death, this plan is what answers so many of life's BIG questions for us; where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? Is there more after this life? I love this plan so much and I decided to make it a series...

 

Where did we come from??

Before any questions get answered we have to know that God is indeed our loving Heavenly Father. He created this plan so that we could in the end be happy. He knew that we needed this mortal experience in order to become like him and in order to reach our full potential.

16 The Spirit itself beareth ^awitness with our ^bspirit, that we arethe ^cchildren of God: 

 17 And if children, then heirs; ^aheirs of God, and joint-heirs withChrist; if so be that we ^bsuffer with him, that we may be alsoglorified together. (Romans 8:16-17)

We all lived with our Heavenly Father in the premortal before we even came to this earth. We lived there together as spirits with personality and agency. Okay what in the world is Agency? Well, Agency is a key part to our Heavenly Father's plan. It is his gift to us to be able to choose for ourselves. He will never allow that to be taken from us. That is why this plan is so wonderful! We got to choose for ourselves!!

"Wherefore, men are ^afree according to the ^bflesh; and ^callthings are ^dgiven them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to ^echoose ^fliberty and eternal ^glife, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be ^hmiserable like unto himself." (2 Nephi 2:27)

While we lived in the premortal life we desired to become like our Heavenly Father. He created this plan for us, he sent his son Jesus Christ to create a beautiful place called earth where we could live and gain the experience needed to return home again. When this beautiful earth was created we all watched and waited, eager to experience life, but first our Heavenly Father would send two of his children to get things going, Adam and Eve were the first of our brothers and sisters to venture out to this new world with this new body. We know the story, they came and God gave them commandments. One of which was broken when they chose to eat the forbidden fruit. All is not lost, in fact it is only beginning...

 

"Adam fell that men might be, men are that they might have joy." (2Nephi 2:25) 

 

Due to the fall of Adam and Eve we were able

to come to earth and to obtain mortal bodies. We all made the choice to follow this plan that is why we are here, we chose to come and gain bodies and gain the experiences that would make it possible to return home!

So here's another age old question:

why are we here? 
What is the purpose

of life?
 (Okay that was two).

Seriously though, life is tough, there

are trials and hard times, stress and depression, pain and death...

Why would a loving God let this all happen?

Well let me see if I can shed a little light to the darkness. First let us touch on our purpose:

"For behold, 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)

We are here to prepare to return home to our father in heaven, not just to return as we were before but as we have become through the experiences we could only live here in mortality. We are here to learn, grow, make mistakes, etc. hold on though cause "no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God." Okay Sister Egbert how does that work? Well, Heavenly Father knew we would make mistakes, he knew we would commit sin. So he provided a Savior for us, someone to volunteer to come and take upon himself all the sins of mortal man,

someone to pay the price for justice.

That Savior is our own brother and the only begotten of out Heavenly Father; Jesus Christ. Before we even came to this earth he volunteered as the sacrifice for sin to satisfy the hungry demands for justice. He came and he suffered what we refer to as the Atonement. The Atonement doesn't just include his death on the cross but also his suffering in the garden of Gethsemane. 

To be continued....