The Atonement - The Plan of Salvation Part V

I have put off the typing of this post for a long time because I feel intimidated by it. I don't know if I'm up to the task of doing justice to the topic of The Atonement of Jesus Christ. So here is my confession that this will not be a perfect treatment of the subject, and that it may not be sufficient to help you feel the significance of our Saviour's actions.

Last post: Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit and by so doing allowed each of us to come into this world in a "fallen condition".

As mentioned briefly before, spiritual death is separation from the presence of God, and physical death is the separation of our spirit from our body. In order to become like Our Father after we die we need to a) have our physical body, and b) return to His presence.

When Our Father laid out this plan he called for a Saviour. Jesus Christ volunteered His life for each and every one of us.

He came to the earth in the humblest of settings, born to a carpenter's wife in a stable with farm animals. Not a whole lot is known about His life between 12 and 30 years of age, but when He was 30 he began to teach the Jews (He lived in Jerusalem). He taught many things that upset the local religious leaders, the two greatest of which being that He was the a literal Son of God and that He was Jehovah of the Old Testament. (We may or may not talk about that second one later on, but not here).

The offense taken by the church leaders, and the threat they felt at seeing His influence over so many people led them to drastic actions. When he was 33 they had him arrested, and twisted Jewish and Roman laws to have Him killed.

Before He was taken, however, He went to a grove of olive trees with His apostles. He told them to wait at the gate, and he went in alone. There he knelt down to pray to His Father. Here began the first part of the Atonement. Some of His words to The Father are these:

"And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt." (St. Mark 14:36)

He pleaded with The Father, saying: 'if there is any other way for your plan to move forward, please, let us do it that way. If not, I will do what you need me to.'

Then he suffered.

The shortness of that sentence is such an injustice to the description of what he experienced, yet I have no better way to describe what happened.

He took upon Himself everything that we have ever, ever experienced. He felt every time we are hurt physically. Every time we are bruised emotionally. Every time we are battered mentally and spiritually. When we feel depressed. When we feel alone. When we feel lost or hopeless. When we feel discouraged, scared, stressed, anxious, sick, dizzy, overwhelmed. Most of all He felt when we feel the heavy weight of guilt for things we should not have done, but did.

In the Book of Mormon it says:

"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people." (Alma 7:11)

Even on this earth Christ was begotten by God, and so had the powers of God. Many people suggest that because of His elevated nature He was able to endure this trial with greater ease than any of us could. This is not true. In a book called The Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister (a member of our church) he discusses something most people to do not consider. 

Here it is:

The pain that Jesus endured was well beyond what it would take to knock out and kill a mortal man. It was because he was descended from God that he could hold death and unconsciousness at bay and experience the whole of the suffering. Our weak bodies would flee to sweet comatose and escape the pain. His semi-immortal body was equipped to remain alive and awake for the duration of His torture.

Immediately after enduring this, He leaves the garden to be betrayed by Judas, one of his chosen followers, and arrested. Over the next 24 hours He is put on trial, spat upon, hit, stripped, whipped, crowned with thorns and dragged through the streets. 

He was then nailed to a wooden cross to hang 'til death. After the atonement was complete, Christ allowed His mortal body to die.

Continuing the scripture from above:

"And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." (Alma 7:12)

And so Christ suffered and died for us.

His suffering before the cross had a two-fold purpose. 1) to pay the price of our enormous list of shortcomings. 2) to understand every last ounce of our suffering so that we might go to Him and seek comfort.

We are not and will never be worthy to enter God's Kingdom on our own. Christ suffered so that He may stand for us and declare that we are His. He bought us with his blood and He will bring us in with Him.

And so he repaired our Spiritual Death.

He died on the cross, both as part of the suffering of our pains and our sins, and so that He could cross death's barrier and break its bands.

Three days after his crucifixion He rose from the dead, in a flawless, perfect, glorified, immortal body. He paved the way across the land of the dead into immortal ressurection.

And so he repaired our Physical Death.

"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Corinthians 15:22)

Because of what Jesus Christ did we can all return to God's presence and progress forever with perfect immortal bodies.

I know that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and that He suffered and died for me. I know that He did so for each and every one of us and that He is always there to comfort us in difficult times.

I testify that He lives and that He is the Son of God.

I share these things in His name, even Jesus Christ.

check out mormon.org if you have any questions.

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Next post: Now what? What do we do now that we know this?

The Fall of Adam and Eve - The Plan of Salvation Part IV

And so the plan was set forth. God and Jesus Christ created the earth for us and sent down our first earthly parents: Adam and Eve. They were placed in the Garden of Eden, made for them by God and Christ. In the garden there were two trees that were special. One was The Tree of Life and the other The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. (Moses 3:9)

Adam and Eve were given two commandments: 1) to multiply and replenish the earth and 2) to not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Here are the scriptures I just summarized above, read or skip them as you please:

--from here--

"And I, God, blessed them, and said unto them: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Moses 2:28)

"And I, the Lord God, commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Moses 3:16-17)

--to here--

And so they lived peacefully in the garden. We have no idea how long they were in there. However, we do know that at some point Lucifer, now called Satan, entered the garden to try to destroy the plan of God.

He did not know the mind of God, nor His plan. All he knew was that Adam and Eve had been commanded to not eat of the fruit, and so he went to tempt them to do so. (Moses 4:6)

Many churches teach that Eve was weak, and so she gave into the temptation before her. When she ate of the fruit, she knew she would be cast out. The subsequent idea is that she convinced Adam to also go with her and so our first parents sinned.

I want to clarify that that is not accurate.

Remember that the first commandment of God was that they multiply and replenish the earth. They were told to have children. They couldn't have children in the Garden of Eden; they were like innocent children themselves and (not least of all) had no idea how to go about it. (See 2 Nephi 2, read from verse 14 on)

Eve recognized (I imagine they were in the Garden for a very very long time) that they would not progress and would not have children if they stayed where they were. She understood that the two laws were juxtaposed to each other and they were required to make a choice. In order to have a satisfying discussion about why God would give them opposing laws, we will need a separate post (no promises, though).

She ate the fruit so that she could begin to understand, and begin to have children: their very calling on earth!

Adam was simpler. He wanted only to do as God said. Don't eat the fruit. Eve needed to help him understand why they needed to leave the garden. And he was convinced.

After they partook of the fruit God cursed the land for their sake, so that they would have to work hard to bring forth food.

Another teaching, common in other beliefs, is that we were meant to stay in the garden and that Adam and Eve screwed it up for all of us, and now we live in this crappy world.

Not only is this not true, it doesn't even make sense.

If it were God's plan for them to stay there, and if they were not supposed to eat the fruit of that tree, then why would God (who knows all) put the tree there at all?

Yes, you may say "well, to test them, and they failed". To which I say that if for them to fail that test were not part of God's plan, then His plan was not very well thought out. When he made the plan, He knew that they would eat it. If part of the plan was for them to not eat it, He would have made it so.

Anyways, on to the most important part of this post.

This event is called The Fall for a good reason. When our spirit leaves our body it is called physical death. When we leave the presence of God it is called spiritual death. Adam and Eve could not die physically or spiritually while in the garden. By being cast out, they assured their physical death (they were now mortal) and a temporary spiritual death (they could not be in God's presence).

This is the condition into which all of us are born. And this is the condition from which all of us must be saved!

I know that Adam and Eve were valiant children of God and that they did not commit a grevious sin, rather they transgressed the law and set God's plan moving along, as He intended.

check out mormon.org if you have any questions.
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For us to be saved from physical and spiritual death we needed (and still need) a Savior. This will be the topic of our next discussion, and is by far the most central, crucial, and incredible part of Our Heavenly Father's Plan.

The Creation - The Plan of Salvation Part III

So after telling us of this wonderful plan, Our Father put it into action.

He directed Jesus Christ in the construction of this world.

As many people know there are Seven Days involved. We'll touch on each of those days and then talk about the creation as a whole and some ideas surrounding it.

Day One: Matter was used to form the earth.

Day Two: The waters and the dry ground were separated.

Day Three: The sun and the moon were created to rule over the day and night respectively. The stars were also created.

Day Four: All types of plants were made. Grass, flowers, trees, bushes, vines, vegetables, fruits, etc.

Day Five: All types of animals were made. Mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, insects, etc.

Day Six: God and Jesus Christ created Adam and then Eve to be the first parents on this earth.

After the creation of man and woman and every other thing on our earth God and Jesus Christ rested from their labors. This is called the seventh day, and is the reason that in the Old Testament the seventh day is a sabbath day. (Exodus 20:8-11).

In my post about why I believe God exists I shared a scripture that talks about how the earth and it's motion and the heavens all testify that there is a God (Alma 30:44). 

Now, today's biggest opponent to belief in the creation is the Big Bang Theory. I should clarify something: scientists do not use the term "theory" the same way regular people do. In physics a theory is something that is well established, and basically accepted as a fact. There may be some missing pieces. There may be some unfinished mathematics. But the theory is set in its place until something may or may not come along to prove it wrong. So, the argument that "well it's just a theory" is a weak one, since we don't use the term the same way (it just becomes a debate of nomenclature at that point). And, as someone who is learning more and more about matter and motion and forces I definitely do not wholly disregard the big bang theory as an explanation of the creation of this universe.

The discrepancy I don't understand is how this eliminates God as a factor. 

Now I want to clarify something. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints does not have any official stance on the big bang, and has not explicitly taught what I'm sharing right now. This is what I believe, and while it does not in any way go against the teachings of the church, you won't find it in any books written or sermons given by leaders of the church. (However, I've never found anyone in the church that rejects this idea, leader or otherwise).

I personally believe that God created the universe by means of the big bang.
I did not come up against this wall where I believe in God but the big bang theory makes sense so now I needed to rectify them. Not at all. God must have formed the earth in some way. God has certain laws to govern all that exists. The laws of physics are some of these laws. Doesn't it make sense for Him to use the same laws in the creation of the earth as those that will govern it afterwards? There is no reason, whatsoever, to believe that He could not have done it this way.

I don't know that God provoked the big bang and thereby made this universe. I think it, but I don't know it. However, I do know that He created this Earth, and that he did so for our eternal progress and our eternal happiness. I know also that He loves us very much.

check out mormon.org if you have any questions.
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Next post: The Garden of Eden and The Fall of Adam and Eve

Premortal Life and The War in Heaven - The Plan of Salvation Part II

Before this life we were spirit beings. We were (and are) literal sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. We lived with Him and we were happy.
So why on earth would we leave his presence? (Pun fully intended).

One way that we know that we existed before the earth is a verse in Jeremiah in the Old Testament: Jeremiah 1:5 which says that before God created Jeremiah's body, He knew him.

Well, while we were happy, we did not experience the same complete joy that our Father did. In order for us to become equally happy as He, we needed to become like Him. 

There were three distinct differences between us and Him:

-He was perfect, we were not
-He had a body of flesh and bone, while we were just spirits
-He had children, we did not


So God presented a plan that would change each of these points. He told us that He would create a world for us to live, where we would be given physical bodies. He told us that on this world we would pass through many trials and difficulties. Part of the experience would be to live in faith. In order to do that, we needed to forget our life with our Heavenly Father, and so he placed a veil between us and him, to make us forget. This makes perfect sense; how easy would it be to always make the right choice if we remembered our life with Him and what it was like? It's like taking an exam with all of the answers on the board. We'd all get a perfect mark, but none of us would learn a thing.

After living our lives, if we did our best to follow God's Laws, given to us by His prophets (who he promised to send) then we would go back to live with Him, where we could continue to learn and progress (but now having physical bodies and having had personal experiences, and probably children too).

But then He told us about one problem. Only those who are pure can dwell in His presence. No unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God. So the moment we sin, we would be disqualified to return to live with our Father.

Well that stinks. Especially considering that part of the whole thing was our lack of perfection, so we're pretty much doomed to fail.

It was at this point that God told us about the most wonderful (and awful) part of His plan. He needed a Savior for His children. He needed someone who would go to the earth and live a perfect life. Someone who would be the ultimate example of love and purity. Then that person would need to pay the price, that none of us could pay, for all of our shortcomings. It truly is a wonderful, and awful, idea. That one man would love us so much to endure temptations, pains, and trials for us (and endure them perfectly). And then that that person would suffer at the hands of all of the places where we failed, and die for us.

I know that God's plan is perfect. And that it works.

Our eldest brother, the first born of our Heavenly Father said "I Will Go. I will resist all temptation. I will endure a life as difficult as any of my brothers and sisters." (I'm paraphrasing) "I will teach them exactly how they must live. And then I will pay the ultimate price for all of them, because they could not live as I. And let all the glory be The Father's"

How beautiful is the love of Jesus Christ for each of us?

Well, the part of the title that describes a "war in heaven" probably caught your eye. Here's where it starts.

Another son of God, named Lucifer, said "I have a better idea! I will be the Savior. I will ensure that each and every one of these our brothers and sisters will return to live with us by forcing them to obey. And when I have brought all of your children back, Father, give the glory to me."

Now, God didn't leave the plan open for discussion. He laid out the plan and called only for a willing Savior. So when Lucifer suggested they change the plan God declined, and chose Christ to perform the task.

Lucifer became very angry (I don't really know why, to be honest) and rebelled against God. He went about convincing many of our brothers and sisters to follow his plan instead of the father's.

Many of our siblings gave in and followed him.

For rebelling against Him, God cast them out of the Celestial Kingdom, and they became "angels to the devil" (Matthew 25:41).

Do you want to know how I know that you chose to follow our Father before this life? Because you're sitting here reading this. Everyone on this planet chose, at least before birth, to follow their Father's plan. Otherwise they wouldn't be here.

God created this plan for the happiness of His children, and if we live according to His plan, we will not only return to Him, we will come to know a perfect joy as we could never experience on this earth.

check out mormon.org if you have any questions.
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Next post we will talk about the creation of the earth.
I will also touch on The Big Bang Theory, which I am not disregarding as possible.

The Plan of Salvation - Part I

Have you ever asked yourself the big questions?

Where do I come from?
Why am I here?
Where do I go when I die?

Well, I have the answers to these questions.

The answer to these questions is known as The Plan of Salvation.

I am going to tell you exactly where we come from, and why we came here (which also answers where we are going).

This post is going to be a bullet treatment, a summary, of the subject. Each following post will talk about one part of this plan.

-Before this earth existed we lived with God and He told us of His plan for us to obtain a perfect joy, by becoming like Him

-He created the earth for us

-He sent Adam and Eve to the earth to begin this mortal family

-Jesus Christ was sent to pay the price for all of the sins and mistakes each of us would make (the absolutely most crucial part of the plan)

-We are given God's Laws in order to return to Him, thanks to the mediation of our Savior.

-After we die we will live for a time in a place known as the spirit world awaiting the resurrection. Jesus Christ will return to the earth and begin The Millennium, and we will be resurrected (reunited with our bodies to never again be separated). We will face judgment and will either return to live with God or will go elsewhere.

My subsequent posts will, in turn, treat each of these points. I will use some scriptures in order to give validity to what will be discussed. However to save space and your reading time I will not give an exhaustive reference of verses to read.

I know that the plan laid out above (and in more detail soon) is the plan developed by our Immortal and Perfect Father. I know that this plan is the perfect plan of happiness and that we will obtain eternal joy if we follow His instructions.

check out mormon.org if you have any questions.
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The next post is about our life with our Father before, and something called the war in heaven.

The Bible and Other Scriptures

So.
God Lives.
He is Our Father.
He Loves us.

If you don't agree with me, that's fine, but this is the premise on which I'm going to talk about why Scriptures are written, so be ready for that.

All member of the human race are God's children.
God loves his children and wants them to return to live with Him.
In order to return to the presence of God we need to do our very best to live by His standards.
In order for us to have His standards, He must reveal them to us.

So God appears to a prophet and tells him what His standards are.
Rather than appear to each and every church leader, God commands said prophet to write down the things God teaches him.

Now, He could have said "here's list of do's and don't's, it's a couple pages long, publish this across the globe"

But instead He said "I want all my children to know the story of how the earth was created. I want them to know of their first parents on the earth. In fact, I want a thorough history of my people written down, so that future generations can learn from both their marvelous experiences and their grievous mistakes."

And so Moses (first) was commanded to make a record. The first five books of The Old Testament were written by Moses. The Old Testament is the history of the people of Israel. But it's not a cohesive whole.

Let's take a break and discuss the origin of the word "Bible" according to Mirriam-Webster's Dictionary.

In ancient Greek the word Biblion means Book, and the word Bible is it's plural.

So the word Bible literally just means "Books". This kind of explains why we call it the The Holy Bible, ("The Holy Books") since the word Bible in and of itself does not even imply a relationship to anything sacred.

Okay, so the Bible is just a collection of books, which makes sense since every section of it is referred to as "The Book of..." (i.e. The First Book of Moses Called Genesis, The Book of The Prophet Jeremiah, etc).

in fact, the majority of the New Testament is a collection of letters written by Paul. Not at all a sequential narrative kept by one person. Rather, someone took all these letters and copied them into a "Bible" ("Books").

Now, over hundreds and thousands, of years these books were kept, copied, translated, stored, hidden, burned, re-copied, re-translated, etc.

It's a miracle so much of the Bible survived at all.

Now, considering whether or not there can be more scriptures than just the Bible:

If we consider the map of the world

The Bible was mostly written in the circled area (1). These teachings could then spread across most of Africa, Europe, and Asia from there. In fact, some of Paul's letters are written "to the saints in Asia", but there was no air mail to send these teachings to the Americas (2).

Remember when we talked about The Book of Mormon? This is why God also revealed His standards to the Nephites on that continent. So that His children all over the world would have His Word.

Another reason is because God knew that through all of the copying, translating, changing, extracting, re-translating, etc. that the Bible would not remain in its original form. I mean, how could it? The fact that there are hundreds of versions of the Bible attests to this.

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we also believe that two books called The Doctrine and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price are scripture. The Doctrine and Covenants is a series of revelations given to the prophet Joseph Smith while he was organizing the Church once again on the earth.

God has not closed Heaven, and there is no reason for us to believe that He cannot reveal more scripture if He chooses to. In fact, there are some verses in the Book of Mormon that put it a little strongly:

Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.

And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever. (2 Nephi: 29: 8-9)

For the whole chapter follow this link: 2nd Nephi Chapter 29

I believe that God reveals His will to His children, and that his inspired prophets have written these things down for us to read in these days. I also believe that He can reveal more if He so chooses. 

check out mormon.org if you have any questions.

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The next few posts I will address The Big Questions.

Why am I here?

Where do I come from?

Where am I going after this life?

I know these are clichés, but don`t you want to know the answers?!?!

I know that the teachings of the Church are true, and that we have the real answers to these questions.

Why I Believe God Exists

In my first post I promised to talk about why I, personally, am convinced that God exists.

Every time I learn more about the Earth, and more about our bodies, and animal life, and vegetation (and on and on) I am more and more convinced that there is a God.

In a TV series called Planet Earth we learn about a group of trees called the Boreal Forest, also known as The Tiger. This massive forest is found 500 miles south of the Arctic Tundra. "[It] contains A THIRD of all of the trees on Earth, and produces so much oxygen that it changes the composition of the atmosphere." (Planet Earth).

I remember watching this for the first time and wondering at the incredible "coincidence" that there should be almost all the trees we need tucked away up in an uninhabitable part of the world where man would never settle and de-forest. 

This is one small thing (of the many) that testifies that there is a God.

I'm reading a book called The Physics of Superheroes. It was written by Physics Ph.D. James Kakalios, a professor at The University of Minnesota.
During one chapter he talks about the Sun and how it literally supports all life, in many, many ways.

Two of the ways that the Sun provides life are: by creating wind currents which brings water from the ocean onto the main land. And the rays of sunlight that carry energy, which plants photosynthesize into energy that they can use. This is how animals (including humans) get energy by eating these plants.

The nuclear fusion that happens in the core of the Sun only happens because (if you don't like physics just read the bold text) the nucleus of a Helium atom has a mass slightly less than that of two deuterium nuclei. In fact, The Helium nucleus is exactly 99.3 percent the mass of two deuterium nuclei. If it were 99.4 percent of the mass then the deuterium nuclei would not form and nuclear fusion would not proceed. Stars would be dim and would not be hot enough to create wind currents, or provide energy to plants. If the Helium nucleus were 99.2 percent the mass then too much energy would be expelled from the Sun. And in the early universe too much nuclear fuel would have burned and very few stars would have been able to form. (information taken from The Physics of Superheroes, by James Kakalios)

This is mind-blowing!!! In fact, at the end of the paragraph where this information is found, the author (an atheist) writes "The source of this amazing fine-tuning of the basic properties of nature is the subject of current investigation." (Kakalios) 

The source is God. 
It is generally understood that the majority of scientists do not believe in God. I find this incredible. That those who best understand the perfect system in which we live can disregard the possibility of creation by design.

In The Book of Mormon, one of the prophets spoke about this:

...The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator. (Alma 30:44)

I have had many spiritual experiences that have caused me to strongly feel that God not only exists but that He is my Father and that He loves me very much. Many times I have received an answer to my prayers. Things that I have asked for have happened, and I've received answers to questions.

I testify that God lives, and that He loves me. I know also that He loves all of His children. This knowledge has brought so much comfort and guidance in my life. 

check out mormon.org if you have any questions.
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In my next post I want to talk about The Bible and other scriptures like The Book of Mormon.