Plan of Happiness Lesson

Today I taught a lesson from Chapter 3 of the Teachings of the Presidents of the Church series about Joseph Fielding Smith. I love teaching at church and the plan of salvation is one of my favorite topics. My outline followed the chapter pretty well but it seemed less than perfect when trying to follow the pattern of seven. This is the outline that I used:

1) The Plan Presented
2) The Fall of Man
3) The First Death
4) The Atonement of Christ
5) The Probationary State
6) The Resurrection
7) The Second Death or Eternal Life

Step three in my understanding of the seven pattern does not fit in spot number three but rather fits as a subset of number two or possibly in number four. In the past I put resurrection as number five and judgement as number six but that is a little unsettled in my mind at this point. The Atonement has to be number four because of its central nature to all things. This order did work very well in teaching about the plan of happiness. I did not go into the differences of the plans.

In part one I emphasized that it was the Father's plan presented, not Christ's vs Lucifer's. Far too often in the church people say that Christ presented one plan, Lucifer presented another plan and the Father accepted Christ's. This simply isn't true. Heavenly Father presented the plan of happiness which required a central role for a redeemer and savior. I did not mention that both Christ and Lucifer volunteered for the role; but Lucifer wanted to accept the role on condition that the plan be changed or modified to either remove agency or allow filthiness into heaven, both of which are not options. On top of that, he thought his modifications were so good that he wanted to replace God the Father rather than to become one with Him as presented in the plan.

In part three I emphasized how the temporal death and the spiritual death brought about by the fall is in fact one death called the first death and they are not two separate deaths.

In part six I emphasized how in the scriptures the resurrection, like the first death, has two parts which satisfy both parts of the first death. What we typically refer to as the resurrection, the reuniting of the spirit to the physical body, is the first part, which takes care of the second part of the first death - physical death. The second part of the resurrection is judgement, the reuniting of man to the presence of God, taking care of the first part of the first death - spiritual death. The fact that resurrection and judgment are inseparable and not always distinguished in the scriptures is not generally understood.

In part seven I did emphasize how the second death is what we call outer darkness today but I did not emphasize the unity of the kingdom of heaven or how any kingdom in the kingdom of God or heaven constitutes salvation and eternal life - two synonymous terms; this is not something understood well in the church as a whole. It is not understood that baptism is required for any degree of salvation not just celestial glory. It is also not understood in the church what qualifies a person for terrestrial or telestial glory although it is plainly outlined in the temples.
For example, it is not understood that obedience to the law of consecration is required in the celestial and terrestrial kingdoms of glory but not the telestial kingdom, although it is shown in the temple and alluded to through symbolism in D&C 76 and in the New Testament.

On a similar but tangent topic it is not understood by the church as a whole that obedience to the law of consecration is not some future expectation but is a current, present day expectation (and covenant) of all temple attending members of the church who have received the endowment.