Apostasy

The Lord provides truth, priesthood authority, ordinances, and organization through His prophets.

Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, ^abut he ^brevealeth his ^csecret unto his servants the ^dprophets.

God has an order and a way of communicating with us here on earth. It is either by revelation given to good men that are called of God as prophets, or by revelation given to each of us personally. But it is good to know that for any major event, we can look to the prophets past or present to prophecy and tell us what we need to do to prepare.

2 Thessalonians 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, ^aby the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, ^aor be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by ^bletter as from us, as that the ^cday of Christ is at hand.

3 Let no man deceive you by any means: ^afor that day shall not come, except there come a ^bfalling away first, and that ^cman of ^dsin be revealed, the son of perdition;

Amos 8: 11 ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a ^afamine of bread, nor a ^bthirst for water, but of hearing the ^cwords of the Lord:

12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall ^arun to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

The day of the Lord will com after a falling away. There shall be a famine of the word of the Lord. How could we get any more obvious? This is why things needed to be restored. Seekers of truth have found that a falling away has already come to pass, and they have led others in an honest pursuit of the word of the Lord.

■ Elder M. Russell Ballard explained how God helped create an environment where the gospel could be restored:

“In 1517 the Spirit moved Martin Luther, a German priest who was disturbed at how far the church had strayed from the gospel as taught by Christ. His work led to a reformation, a movement that was taken up by such other visionaries as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, John Wesley, and John Smith.

“I believe these reformers were inspired to create a religious climate in which God could restore lost truths and priesthood authority. Similarly, God inspired the earlier explorers and colonizers of America and the framers of the Constitution of the United States to develop a land and governing principles to which the gospel could be restored” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1994, 85; or Ensign, Nov. 1994, 66).

Degrees of Glory

Heavenly Father prepared degrees of glory for His children.a
1 Corinthians 15: 40 ^aThere are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the ^bcelestial is one, and the glory of the ^cterrestrial is another.

41 There is one glory of the ^asun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the ^bstars: for one star ^cdiffereth from another star in ^dglory.

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in ^acorruption; it is raised in incorruption:

Without modern revelation, this statement is really unclear to me. I can see that many of the plain and precious truths really have been taken out of the bible. Whether by intention or mistranslation, it's hard to be sure.

D&C 98: 18 Let not your hearts be troubled; for in my Father’s house are ^amany mansions, and I have prepared a place for you; and where my Father and I am, there ye shall be also.

Joseph Smith quoted the words that the savior said in John 14:2 when he was explaining the afterlife.
I am grateful for this knowledge. There are still many things that I do not understand, but I believe that that is to be expected in anyone that is trying to get a grasp on our infinite lives and purposes.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ makes it possible to overcome the obstacles of spiritual and physical death.

2 Nephi 2: 25 ^aAdam ^bfell that men might be; and men ^care, that they might have ^djoy.

26 And the ^aMessiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may ^bredeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are ^credeemed from the fall they have become ^dfree forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the ^elaw at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.

27 Wherefore, men are ^afree according to the ^bflesh; and ^call things are ^dgiven them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to ^echoose ^fliberty and eternal ^glife, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be ^hmiserable like unto himself.

This is a perfect representation of the doctrine of the Church about the plan of Salvation. We are here to progress, to learn, and to be like our Heavenly Father. We are given the means and the choices to do so, and are judged only according to what we know.

Alma 34:8 And now, behold, I will ^atestify unto you of myself that these things are true. Behold, I say unto you, that I do know that Christ shall come among the children of men, to take upon him the ^btransgressions of his people, and that he shall ^catone for the sins of the world; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

9 For it is expedient that an ^aatonement should be made; for according to the great ^bplan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are ^cfallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made.

10 For it is expedient that there should be a great and last ^asacrifice; yea, not a ^bsacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an ^cinfinite and ^deternal ^esacrifice.

This one not only talks about the Atonement that Christ made, but also the fulfillment of the Law of Moses. I still don't understand how all of that worked or why, but if one reads throught the Old Testament one can find countless similarities between the sacrifices that were made and the eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father's Plan

There are three stages of Heavenly Father's plan: premortal, mortal, and postmortal.

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I ^aformed thee in the belly I ^bknew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I ^csanctified thee, and I ^dordained thee a prophet unto the ^enations.

God is confirming the idea that we exist before we are born, before we are even formed in the womb. Things like this, plain and simple things, cannot be denied and cannot be questioned if one believes that the Bible is the word of God.

Alma 12:24 And we see that ^adeath comes upon mankind, yea, the death which has been spoken of by Amulek, which is the temporal death; nevertheless there was a space granted unto ^bman in which he might repent; therefore this life became a ^cprobationary state; a time to ^dprepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead.

25 Now, if it had not been for the plan of redemption, which was laid from the foundation of the world, there could have been no ^aresurrection of the dead; but there was a plan of ^bredemption laid, which shall bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, of which has been spoken.

This speaks of all three staged of our existence. It is a hard thing to come to a real understanding of what all of these things really mean. Contemplating the infinite within a finite existence is something that man has been trying to do since we came here.
Ultimately, all that we can do is find out if these words came from God, and then trust God and leave it at that.

This life is a probationary state, we are given trials and tests to determine where we will stand in the next life. All of us will fall and fail miserably, and without this great plan of redemption it would be impossible for us to live with God again.

I know this only because I have been given a sure witness that God lives and that these are His words.