Becoming

This month in Young Women, we have been talking about the Plan of Salvation. A question seems to keep coming up as I have prepared lessons about the plan. I want to put my thoughts about what I believe is an answer to some of these questions. I am not an expert, and I am sure that these answers are not complete, but here they are all the same. The gospel according to Kim. :)

Okay, so premortal life. We are there, Christ is there, God is there, Satan is there. Two plans are presented.

God’s Plan was to help us become like him by

• getting bodies

• gaining experience/being tested

• sending his son to help us become clean/overcome death

• Those who use their agency well get "all that the Father hath" (D&C 84:38)

Satan’s plan was: (Moses 4:1)

• Redeem all mankind

• No agency

To me, there are two things to think about here. The first is this: At face value, Satan's plan looks pretty good. If there is one thing I know about God, it is that he loves his children. All of them. So, this being the case, why wouldn't He want to save all of his children?

I think the obvious (and true) answer is that God DOES want to save all his children. That brings up the next question. Why didn't he go with Satan's plan?

Before I get to a possible answer on that question I am going to pose another question. What does it mean to get "all that the Father has"? On the one hand, we could look at it like $1 million. Some grand prize. But a prize like that doesn't divide too easily, and if that were the case, we may find ourselves hoping that so and so down the street doesn't make it because we don't want to divide it with too many people. I will be honest, that prize mentality doesn't make too much sense to me.

On the other hand, perhaps what the Father means when he says we will have "all that the Father hath" is that we will be able to create the way the Father creates. Heavenly Father has worlds and works without end (Moses 1) and if the true prize is that we can become like Heavenly Father then we would also be able to CREATE (There is a great video and talk about this concept, by Elder Uchtdorf) works and worlds without end. This makes more sense to me, and I believe it is true. This would also explain why Christ tells us to become perfect like the Father.

Okay, so back to the original question: Why didn't God go with Satan's plan? If the ultimate goal is to be like God, then Satan's plan simply wouldn't work. Without agency, it would be impossible to become like God. It also makes much more sense as to why we would need to go through adversity and trials, and gain our own experience. We need to learn how to be like God. That is why we go to church, say our prayers, read our scriptures, and serve others. Why we develop patience, charity, faith and hope. Why we sacrifice and pay our tithing. Why we keep the sabbath day holy and stay morally clean. Okay, this list could go on for awhile, but we do those things not because God wants us to jump through a bunch of hoops to see if we will, but because they help us to understand and emulate God.

Looking at it that way, I can very much see why I would shout for joy over Heavenly Father's plan. What a glorious and exciting opportunity for us to be able to become like the Father, gain bodies, learn how to use them, control them, master them, and then ultimately be able to create our own worlds and kingdoms, learning, growing, and progressing eternally.

Sounds like Heaven to me. :)