Temple Preparation Lesson 1a: Introduction: The Doctrine and Christ and the Plan of Salvation

 

Temple Preparation Lesson 1a: Introduction: The Doctrine and Christ and the Plan of Salvation

Sharing and opening prayer.

 I am so glad that we can discuss what a privilege it is to go to the temple, to make covenants with our Heavenly Father, and to receive additional blessings and gifts of power from Him. This will not only bless our lives, but in turn bless the lives of so many others.

You have arrived at this point because of your love for your Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. You’ve made many righteous choices and given up many past habits to establish a relationship with God and communication with Him through the Holy Ghost.

How has that blessed your life?

The Doctrine of Christ

You have been living the Gospel or the Doctrine of Christ.

What is the Doctrine of Christ? Joseph Smith wrote it very simply in The Articles of Faith, number 4:

4 We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The next part of that doctrine is continuing in faith throughout our entire lives by renewing and keeping our covenants.

Our understanding of that doctrine will become more complete through further scriptures study, through living the gospel, and through partaking of the sacrament each week to renew our covenants with the Lord. You can read more about the Doctrine of Christ in 2 Nephi 31-32.

The Doctrine of Christ is not a one and done deal, it is a pattern to follow our entire lives through dedication to the Lord and adherence to His commandments.

How has your choice to enter the waters of baptism changed your life?

The Plan of Salvation

Let’s talk about our Heavenly Father’s Plan for our Happiness.

There’s a little Primary song that teaches us about that plan in simple verses:

I Lived In Heaven (by Janeen Brady)

I lived in heaven a long time ago, it is true;

Lived there and loved there with people I know. So did you.

Then Heav’nly Father presented a beautiful plan,

All about earth and eternal salvation for man.

 

Father said he needed someone who had enough love

To give his life so we all could return there above.

There was another who sought for the honor divine.

Jesus said, “Father, send me, and the glory be thine.”

 

Jesus was chosen, and as the Messiah he came,

Conquering evil and death through his glorious name,

Giving us hope of a wonderful life yet to be

Home in that heaven where Father is waiting for me.

Essentially, we wanted to be able to progress further than we had in our pre-mortal state. We wanted to gain physical bodies like our Heavenly Father has. His body is a resurrected and eternal body, and when we lived with Him in our pre-mortal state, we were His spirit children.

We were taught that in order to become more like him, we would need to enter into mortality, receive the blessing of having a body and having agency. There would be opposition to His plan, but we would be given the ability to reason, practice faith, and make choices according to our desires.

Heavenly Father knew that we’d make mistakes. I make them every day. So with the plan He presented, He said we needed a Savior, who would help us come back into His presence more whole and complete, through faith in Him.

Ultimately, Jesus, our Father’s firstborn spiritual Son was chosen, because He had already become like our Father in ever particular, but He also needed to gain a physical body. Father knew He could trust Jesus to bring us home, because He adhered to Heavenly Father’s will in every particular.

So Adam and Eve became our first parents. But in the Garden of Eden they lived in a paradise attended to by God. They had no struggles or problems, but lived in a state of innocence. Partaking of the forbidden fruit actually opened their eyes and introduced God’s gift of agency, where we can decide for ourselves whether we’ll follow God’s Plan of Happiness and seek to have the Holy Ghost as our guide, or if will choose the world’s bath of carnal pleasures. But once they partook of the fruit they had to leave the garden and had to practice the Doctrine of Christ. They were taught by angels, and they made sacred covenants with God, just like you (their children) have done and will do in the temple.

In the temple you will learn more about the Plan of Salvation.

Like Adam and Eve, we have the opportunity to live according to this Plan, to receive with thankful hearts Jesus as our Savior, and to enter into further covenants with God that will give us additional power and guidance as we live out our lives with guidance from heaven.

Someday we will die and then go to a place of rest and further opportunities for growth before our resurrection. For as surely as Christ died and rose again, we will too; because of Him.

We will either be among those in paradise, or among the spiritual beings who are in prison, or time out chairs, until they learn the gospel plan and accept or reject it for themselves.

That’s where we can help, by going back to the temple, not only for our personal growth but for them. In the temples, we can offer the Savior’s gift of salvation to all who accept our Father’s plan, repent and our baptized and accept Jesus as their Savior.

In the temple, we can participate in baptisms for the dead, where we stand in as proxy for each individual, opening the gate of salvation for them, if they want to enter. They can receive the power and blessings that are promised to us for themselves. Isn’t that beautiful?

We are living in a day with we are waiting for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. When He comes again He will live here and rule here for 1,000 years. Temple work will continue at an even more rapid space during this time. All need to hear the gospel, so that they have a chance to repent and live God’s Plan of Happiness for us, learn and live the gospel, and accept Jesus as their Lord and redeeming by living God’s laws and keeping the commandments.

All of Heavenly Father’s children, who entered mortality, will rise again as immortal beings.

1 Corinthians 17:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

And then we will be brought to judgment. Christ will be both our Judge and Mediator with the Father. Then we will all be assigned to a kingdom of Glory according to our choices and the grace of our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

The temple becomes our preparatory schooling to help us choose the path to exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom of God.

 

Testimony and Closing Prayer

 

 

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, 
that whomsoever believeth in Him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life."

(John 3:16)

 

 

"We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved,
by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel." 

(Articles of Faith 1:3)