Meaning of Life
Many people are struggling to find the answers to these three baffling questions about themselves: where they’ve come from, why they are here, and where they will go when they die. The Plan of Salvation provides answers to these and other deep questions of the soul. Understanding God’s plan for His Children brings greater happiness and purpose into one’s life.
Life’s Divine Origin
The scriptures teach that there is a God, and that He is the father of all men. He is perfect and has all power and the fullness of glory. As a loving father, God wants all of His children to become perfect like Him, and enjoy all the blessings and the fullness of joy that He has. He prepared a plan in order to accomplish this purpose. In the scriptures, that plan is called the great plan of happiness, the plan of mercy, the plan of redemption, and the plan of salvation.
Jesus Christ is the central figure in God’s plan. Through His atonement, all of God’s spirit children may be able to return to His presence and enjoy eternal life with Him together with their families. However, God knew that His spirit children would not be able to progress and develop god-like attributes unless they left His presence for a time and gained experience in mortality.
The Purpose of Life: A Period of Testing
Adam and Eve were chosen to be the first of God’s children to come to Earth and become mortals. God gave them the freedom to choose between good and evil and commanded them not to partake of the forbidden fruit. Because of their transgression, they were cast out from the presence of God. This condition of physical and spiritual separation from God is called The Fall. Because of their fallen condition, Adam and Eve became mortals, subject to sin and death, and so became all of their children.
Life on Earth is both a blessing and an opportunity. Here, Heavenly Father’s children are given the opportunity receive a body of flesh and bones, develop their faith, and be tested. They are blessed if they obey God’s commandments. If they disobey, they suffer the consequences. Only when they use their God-given gift of agency, or
freedom to choose, to obey God’s commandments can they return to His presence.
The Atonement
The Fall of Adam and Eve brought two kinds of death into the world: 1) physical death or the separation of the body and the spirit, and 2) spiritual death or the separation from God. These two kinds of death prevent man from returning to the presence of God. Only through the atonement of Jesus Christ can these two obstacles be overcome.
Because of the fall, mankind was shut off from the presence of God. Man alone could not overcome the effects of the fall without Jesus Christ.
Through his infinite atoning sacrifice, Christ paid the penalty for the sins of mankind so they can receive forgiveness through repentance. He conquered death and made resurrection available for everyone who has lived upon the earth.
Back to God’s Presence
All people must die. Death is part of God’s plan for the salvation of His children. At death, the spirit goes to a place called the Spirit World where it lives either in a state of peace and rest or a state of misery, depending on how it lived in mortality. Spirits in the spirit world anxiously await the resurrection made possible through the resurrection of Christ.
In the resurrection, the spirit reunites with the body in its perfect, glorified form, no more to be separated. Men are then brought back to the presence of God to be judged according to their works and the desires of their hearts. Varying degrees of glory are reserved for all of God’s children according to their faithfulness while on the Earth.
These precious truths about God’s Plan of Salvation were lost several centuries ago, but were restored by God in the last days through God’s revelations to the Prophet Joseph Smith and succeeding prophets.