Skip to content
Feast

Topics / Plan of Salvation

The architecture everything else sits inside

The Plan of Salvation

Premortal life, creation, the Fall, mortality, the Atonement, the spirit world, resurrection, judgment, and degrees of glory. Scripture calls it the plan of happiness, the plan of redemption and the plan of mercy — three names for the same design, each naming a different part of it.

25 min2 sections

1

The shape

DiagramThe plan of salvation
The plan of salvationPremortal lifeOrganised, taught, andgiven a choicebirthMortalityA proving, with agency andcovenantsdeathSpirit worldParadise and prison; thegospel taughtResurrectionSpirit and body reunited —for everyoneJudgmentCelestialThe presence of the Father;exaltation by covenantTerrestrialThe presence of the SonTelestialThe ministration of the SpiritMoses 1:39 · Abraham 3:24–26 · Alma 40–42 · D&C 76 · 1 Corinthians 15:40–42

Where we were, why we came, and where it goes — with the two veils marked, and the judgment fanning out into three degrees rather than two outcomes.

Abraham 3:24–26 · Alma 40–42 · D&C 76

The plan, stage by stage
StageWhat happensKey texts
Premortal lifeSpirits organised, taught, and given a choice; a council at which mortality is proposedAbraham 3:22–26; D&C 93:29; Jeremiah 1:5
CreationAn earth organised from existing materials, for a stated purposeAbraham 4:1; Moses 1:39; D&C 49:16–17
The FallTwo deaths introduced — physical and spiritual — and mortality begun2 Nephi 2:19–25; Alma 42:6–9; Moses 4
MortalityA proving, with agency, opposition, covenants and ordinancesAbraham 3:25; 2 Nephi 2:11, 27; Alma 34:32
The spirit worldParadise and prison; teaching, and the chance to accept the gospelAlma 40:11–14; D&C 138; 1 Peter 4:6
ResurrectionSpirit and body reunited permanently, for everyoneAlma 11:42–45; 1 Corinthians 15:22; D&C 88:15–16
JudgmentAccording to works and desires, by One who has been where we areRevelation 20:12; Alma 41:3–5; 2 Nephi 9:41
Degrees of gloryCelestial, terrestrial, telestial — and outer darkness for a very fewD&C 76; 1 Corinthians 15:40–42
Alma 42:8, 15bofm

8Now behold, it was not expedient that man should be reclaimed from this temporal death, for that would destroy the great plan of happiness.

15And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also.

2

Three names for one plan

  • The plan of happiness (Alma 42:8) — named for its purpose. Joy is the aim, not a side effect.
  • The plan of redemption (Alma 12:25–33) — named for its mechanism. Something had to be bought back.
  • The plan of mercy (Alma 42:15) — named for its problem. Justice had claims, and mercy had to satisfy rather than waive them.

Principle

The plan is not a rescue improvised after a failure; the Fall was anticipated and the Redeemer prepared from the foundation of the world.

Moses 5:9 · 1 Peter 1:19–20 · Ether 3:14 · Alma 12:25

What this topic holds

  1. God's stated purpose is the immortality and eternal life of man, and the plan is the method.

    Moses 1:39 · 2 Nephi 2:25 · John 17:3

  2. Mortality is a proving with a purpose, not a punishment or an accident.

    Abraham 3:25 · 2 Nephi 2:21 · Alma 34:32

Check your reading

3 questions

  1. 01Why does Alma say man could not simply be reclaimed from temporal death?

  2. 02What are the three scriptural names for the plan?

  3. 03Was the Atonement a response to an unforeseen failure?

Where to go next

Chains

Lessons

Topics

Sources

  1. Gospel Topics, "Plan of Salvation"
  2. Alma 40–42; D&C 76; Abraham 3 — The primary texts.