Hey guys, Dave here. You know those quiet moments in life when you're looking at
the stars and you just kind of ask God in your head, "Where do I come from? Why did
you send me here?" Well today we're gonna see how the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints would answer those questions and others.
Where do we come from? Why are we here? What's the purpose of life and where are
we going after we die? The answers to these questions outline what Latter-day
Saints call the Plan of Salvation. Understand going into this, as you'll see,
a lot of these teachings come from extra biblical scriptures so if you're looking
for each of these doctrines to be spelled out plainly in the Bible, you're
probably going to be disappointed. Just forewarning you. So I'm gonna give
you a bird's eye view of the plan and in subsequent videos I'll get into more
detail about each part. First, where do we come from?
Let's answer this with a story. Latter-day Saints believe that before we
existed on earth, our spirits existed and we all lived as a family with our
Heavenly Father. We call this the premortal life or the pre-existence. You
were still you, you developed a personality and attributes and could
make your own choices similar to how you do now.
We were happy but at that point we could not realize our full potential and so
God presented us with a choice he'd formulated, a plan that could help us
become more like him, a way for us to increase in knowledge and power and
capability and enjoy. A plan to maximize and reach our full potential. That plan
included coming to earth, obtaining a physical body, and making choices between
good and evil. You and I agreed to that plan, that's how we ended up here. But
some members of our Spirit family led by a spirit named Lucifer disagreed with the
plan. They thought it would be better if each of us were guaranteed eternal life
despite our choices. It was a flawed plan and God rejected it. Lucifer and his
followers got angry, rebelled and were banished to earth. These spirits are
still here invisibly trying to get us to rebel against God's plan any way they
can. The same believe they had then is still nagging at them now. Talk about holding a
grudge. Adam and Eve were the first of God's children to receive physical
bodies on earth as per the original plan but then something happened. They
disobeyed God and mankind fell. Adam and Eve's decision dropped two obstacles on
our path to returning and becoming more like our Heavenly Father. The first one
is physical death. One of the purposes of earth life was to receive a physical
body but because of death we're gonna lose that body and that sucks.
The second obstacle is spiritual death or the spiritual separation from God
caused by sin. God cannot tolerate sin so the fact that each of us has sinned
is a major problem. So what do we do?Well it's all part of the plan.
God had foreseen the danger these obstacles posed and His Son Jesus Christ
volunteered to help out. Jesus Christ is central, vital, and essential to the Plan
of Salvation. Only through him can we overcome the two obstacles that block
our path back home. Jesus Christ lived a perfect, sinless life, yet in the Garden
of Gethsemane, he took upon himself every sin mankind had has and will have to
offer. He felt them, he experienced them, he suffered for them, he paid the price
for them, and his suffering allows each of us to repent and be forgiven for our
sins. Only through this continual process can we become spiritually clean again.
But there's still one obstacle left: physical death. As you know, Christ died
on the cross. His body was sealed in a sepulcher. Three days later, he took his
body back, he broke the chains of death and extends that same blessing for free
to each of us. Each of us righteous or wicked will receive a resurrected,
immortal physical body one day. If not for Jesus Christ, we simply could not
overcome the obstacles of the fall. We would be worse off than if we'd never
chosen God's plan to begin with. We'd end up as disembodied, sinful spirits like
Satan and his followers forever separated from our heavenly home.
That is why Latter-day Saints and other Christians are so crazy about Jesus
Christ. He saves us. Now, we're not done with the plan yet. We've still got to
cover a few important points about the purpose of life and a ton of stuff about
the afterlife but this is a good stopping point for this video. Check out
the links in the description for more info on this stuff and if you want to
learn more about the rest of the plan, subscribe to the channel and make sure
to watch part 2 coming out in a few days. Once it's published, we'll link it up
here somewhere. See you there.