Joseph Smith - The Great Plan of Salvation

In modern day, the Lord revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith a concept somewhat misunderstood by Christendom - that we are eternal beings and can advance toward exaltation as we obey the laws of God. In revelation, the Lord explained -

"Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be." (Doctrine and Covenants Section 93:29)

The Prophet used this analogy -

“… I take my ring from my finger and liken it unto the mind of man—the immortal part, because it had no beginning. Suppose you cut it in two; then it has a beginning and an end; but join it again, and it continues one eternal round. So with the spirit of man. As the Lord liveth, if it had a beginning, it will have an end. All the fools and learned and wise men from the beginning of creation, who say that the spirit of man had a beginning, prove that it must have an end; and if that doctrine is true, then the doctrine of annihilation would be true. But if I am right, I might with boldness proclaim from the house-tops that God never had the power to create the spirit of man at all. God himself could not create himself. "

We begin to understand the nature and purpose of God himself as the Prophet taught -

“The first principles of man are self-existent with God. God himself, finding he was in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was more intelligent, saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself. The relationship we have with God places us in a situation to advance in knowledge. He has power to institute laws to instruct the weaker intelligences, that they may be exalted with himself, so that they might have one glory upon another, and all that knowledge, power, glory, and intelligence, which is requisite in order to save them in the world of spirits.”

As one contemplates our existence and the nature of this life, that is as we sense the feelings we have in families and our inherant desire to also love and help our children to grow and mature to righteous offspring, we begin to sense our divine nature as children of a Heavenly Father that loves us. Everything within us tells us it is true! For -

"...truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come..." (Doctrine and Covenants Section 93:24)

“We consider that God has created man with a mind capable of instruction, and a faculty which may be enlarged in proportion to the heed and diligence given to the light communicated from heaven to the intellect; and that the nearer man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views, and the greater his enjoyments, till he has overcome the evils of his life and lost every desire for sin; and like the ancients, arrives at that point of faith where he is wrapped in the power and glory of his Maker, and is caught up to dwell with Him. But we consider that this is a station to which no man ever arrived in a moment.”

All this done by the grace of God and the infinite atonement of Jesus Christ.