“Introduction: Our Heavenly Father’s Plan,” New Testament Stories (2005), 1–5
“Introduction,” New Testament Stories, 1–5
Introduction
Our Heavenly Father’s Plan
We lived in heaven with Heavenly Father before we came to earth. We are His spirit children and had spirit bodies. We loved Him, and He loved us.
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 354
Heavenly Father taught us about His plan for us. It is called the plan of salvation. If we follow His plan, we can become like Heavenly Father. The plan was for us to come to earth and have bodies of flesh and blood. We would be tested to see if we would choose to obey God’s commandments.
The plan of salvation provides a way for us to live with Heavenly Father again. We would need to keep the commandments. But we would also need help. We would need to have our sins taken away, and we would need resurrected bodies. Because we cannot take away our own sins or resurrect our own bodies, we needed a Savior to do this for us.
Heavenly Father chose Jesus Christ to be our Savior. Jesus loved Heavenly Father. Jesus also loved us. He agreed to come to earth to show us how to be righteous. He would provide the way for all of us to be saved. He agreed to suffer for our sins. He would also die and be resurrected so we would be resurrected too.
Satan also wanted to be our savior. But he did not love Heavenly Father. He did not love us. He wanted to change Heavenly Father’s plan so that he would have Heavenly Father’s power and glory.
Some of Heavenly Father’s spirit children chose to follow Satan. This made Heavenly Father very sad. He made Satan and his followers leave heaven. Satan is the devil. He and the spirits who followed him want us to sin.
Heavenly Father told Jesus to make an earth for us. Jesus did. He made the sun, the moon, and the stars. He put plants and animals on the earth. Now we had an earth to come to where we would have bodies of flesh and blood.
Many people come to live on earth. Some of them choose to obey God’s commandments; some do not. The ancient prophets taught the people about Heavenly Father’s plan and about Jesus Christ.
The prophets said Jesus’s father would be Heavenly Father. His mother would be a very good woman named Mary. He would be born in Bethlehem.
The prophets said that many people would not believe that Jesus was the Savior. He would look like other people and not be rich. Many people would hate Him.
The prophets also told about John the Baptist. He would come before Jesus to tell the people about Him. John would baptize Jesus.
The prophets said that Jesus would be kind and perform many miracles. Before He died, Jesus would suffer for the sins of all people so they would not have to suffer if they would repent.
Many prophets knew that Jesus Christ, our Savior, would be crucified. He would be nailed to a wooden cross and give His life for us.
After three days, He would be resurrected. His spirit would come back into His body. Because Jesus would die and be resurrected, we would all be resurrected too.
The New Testament shows that the words of the prophets are true. It is the story of Jesus Christ and His Apostles. They lived in the Holy Land. Many of the people who lived there were called Jews. The Romans had captured the Holy Land, and they ruled over the Jews.