“Lesson 2: The Plan of Salvation,” Old Testament Seminary Student Material (2018)
“Lesson 2: The Plan of Salvation”
Lesson 2
Plan of Salvation
Prepare to Learn
Prepare your mind and heart to learn. As you prayerfully study the scriptures, you can be guided, inspired, and taught by the Holy Ghost. You can receive personal revelation about your needs and circumstances.
Begin your study with prayer.
Our journey through mortality can be confusing and difficult. We seek happiness but sometimes struggle to know where to find it. Fortunately, Heavenly Father has revealed to us through His prophets the way to find happiness. It is through His plan of salvation. Listen to this statement made by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf while he was serving in the First Presidency. What does he teach about Heavenly Father’s plan?
When have you worked to improve in some way? How did it feel when you accomplished your goal?
We have been improving and progressing since the premortal life, before we came to live on earth. This is part of Heavenly Father’s plan for us.
In the premortal life, we lived in the presence of our Heavenly Father as His spirit children. While there, we grew in understanding and expanded our spiritual abilities. We learned that Heavenly Father would provide us with an opportunity to become like Him. We did not have physical bodies or the knowledge and attributes of Heavenly Father.
Read Moses 1:39, looking for Heavenly Father’s purpose for His children. Moses 1:39 is a doctrinal mastery passage. You may want to mark doctrinal mastery passages in a distinctive way so you can locate them easily.
Immortality and Eternal Life
From Moses 1:39, we can learn that Heavenly Father’s purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of His children. You may want to mark the words immortality and eternal life in Moses 1:39.
Immortality is living forever with a resurrected body. Eternal life is becoming like our Heavenly Father and living as families eternally in His presence.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie (1915–85) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained eternal life in this way:
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Bruce R. McConkie
“Eternal life is the name given to the kind of life that our Eternal Father lives. … God’s life is eternal life; eternal life is God’s life—the expressions are synonymous” (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966], 237).
Essential Elements of God’s Plan
Heavenly Father’s plan consists of three main elements that make it possible for us to become like Him.
President Russell M. Nelson identified the three essential elements of Heavenly Father’s plan:
President Russell M. Nelson identified the three essential elements of Heavenly Father’s plan:
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President Russell M. Nelson
“A great council in heaven was once convened, in which it seems that all of us participated [see Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith (1976), 348–49, 365]. There our Heavenly Father announced His plan. … The enabling essence of the plan is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. As it is central to the plan [see Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 121], we should try to comprehend the meaning of the Atonement. Before we can comprehend it, though, we must understand the Fall of Adam. And before we can fully appreciate the Fall, we must first comprehend the Creation. These three events—the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement—are three preeminent pillars of God’s plan, and they are doctrinally interrelated” (Russell M. Nelson, “Constancy amid Change,” Ensign, Nov. 1993, 33).
What did President Nelson say are the three “pillars” of Heavenly Father’s plan?
Heavenly Father’s plan for our immortality and eternal life includes the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. You will study the doctrine of the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ in greater detail throughout this year of seminary. For a brief summary of these elements of Heavenly Father’s plan, read paragraphs 2.6, 2.11, and 3.3 in the Doctrinal Mastery Core Document.
How do the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ help us to receive immortality and eternal life?
Quiz 1
Match the statements on the left with the correct answers on the right.
This part of the plan made it possible for Adam and Eve to have children and experience opposition.
This part of the plan provided us with a place where we could obtain a physical body.
This part of the plan made it possible for us to be resurrected and be forgiven of our sins.
Choose the Creation, the Fall, or the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and answer the following question in three or more sentences:
1. What difference does it make in your life to know about the Creation, the Fall, or the Savior’s Atonement and how that part of the plan of salvation fills a vital place in the rest of Heavenly Father’s plan?
Notice in this diagram that we leave the presence of God to come to earth. Mortal life provides a way for us to progress toward immortality and eternal life. When we are born into mortality, we receive a physical body and have experiences that allow us to develop faith in the Lord. Jesus Christ showed us how to progress through mortality toward eternal life (see John 14:6; 2 Nephi 31:7–10, 19–21).
Mortality and Eternal Life
Elder L. Tom Perry (1922–2015) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught what we must do in mortality to progress toward eternal life.
Elder L. Tom Perry (1922–2015) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught what we must do in mortality to progress toward eternal life.
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L. Tom Perry
“We are now being tried and tested to see if we will do all the things the Lord has commanded us to do. These commandments are the principles and ordinances of the gospel, and they constitute the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every principle and ordinance has a bearing upon the whole purpose of our testing, which is to prepare us to return to our Heavenly Father and become more like Him. …
“… Only through the gift of the Atonement and our obedience to the gospel can we return and live with God once again” (L. Tom Perry, “The Plan of Salvation,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2006, 71).
What principle can we learn from Elder Perry’s statement about what we must do to progress toward eternal life?
Think about a commandment or standard you need to obey more fully. In a scripture study journal or in your Notes on LDS.org, write a goal to live that commandment or standard. You may want to keep your goal in a place where you will see it often and be reminded of what you have determined to do.
Every effort you make to be more obedient to the commandments brings you closer to your Heavenly Father and a life like He lives.
