Mormon doctrine maintains our time on earth is part of a carefully structured plan. God created the plan to provide us with specific experiences and opportunities which would help us become like Him (following in our Father’s footsteps) and find complete and eternal joy. The plan had three segments.

According to Mormon doctrine, in the first segment, our spirits were created by God the Father. They had gender, intelligence, and personality, all of which we brought with us to earth. They took the shape of a human, causing us to look much as we do today, but without bones, blood, and other components of mortality. We were, in other words, ourselves in spirit form.

After our spirits were created, we lived with God in a pre-mortal existence. There we learned to know God and His gospel. We gained skills and our personalities and character began to develop. We grew and progressed, but there were limitations to how far we could progress under those protected and limited circumstances.

With this in mind, God called us all together to explain the next phase of the plan. In this phase, we would be given a new home, created just for us. Each of us would have a turn to come to earth and live. Here we’d receive a body, just like God’s, but unperfected and mortal. We would forget about our lives in Heaven, but bring with us who we had become so far. With this and the various talents and gifts God would give us, we’d be responsible for seeking out truth and then choosing to live it once it was found.

God promised us help. The Holy Ghost would testify to us when we heard truth. Perhaps you’ve met someone and felt you’d known them before, or heard someone express his beliefs and something inside whispered that you once knew this. The Holy Ghost is our guide to remembering what we once knew.

Mormon doctrine confirms God also promised us a Savior. He explained that those chosen to come first, Adam and Eve, would eventually bring upon themselves mortality, through the Fall. We’d all inherit certain conditions because of this necessary fall, and without help, it would mean we could never repent or return to God because we’d never be able to atone sufficiently for our sins; nor could we live a perfect life.

Lucifer wanted the task of saving us. However, he disapproved of God’s plan and wanted to reject it. He proposed to turn us into mere puppets who would act as he chose, with no freedom at all. We’d be unable to sin because we’d have no control over our lives. This would allow us to die perfect. In exchange for this job, Lucifer wanted all the glory for himself. One third of the people in this premortal life preferred the imagined safety of this plan, ignoring that it would render life on earth meaningless. They chose to follow him and were, with Lucifer, cast out of heaven. They have since devoted their time to trying to make everyone else as miserable as they are.

Those with more courage and faith chose instead to follow Jesus, who also offered to be our Savior. Jesus proposed to follow God’s plan exactly. He would come to earth also, living in some ways as a mortal, making Him able to understand our trials and challenges. He, however, would have, besides a mortal mother, God for His Father. This powerful heritage would make it possible for Him to live a perfect, sinless life, and thus be eligible to atone for our sins.

Mormon doctrine maintains when the time came, Jesus would go into the Garden of Gethsemane and take upon Himself the sins of all who had lived or would live on the earth, a painful process He offered freely out of His love for us. This is called the atonement. Then He would allow Himself to be killed, and would die on the cross, to be resurrected three days later.

With this plan in place, we could have the life God planned for us. Our time here would have meaning and purpose, allowing us to have new experiences, grow, and be tested. We’d find out how great our love for our Father really was when we saw how we’d choose to live when we lived on our own, much the way a young adult finds out who he really is only when he leaves home.

In the final stage, we would stand before God and the Savior to have our lives evaluated, with the Savior serving as our advocate. Mormon doctrine states His gift of atonement would make it possible for us all to be risen from the dead. Our commitment to living the gospel, combined with that atonement, would allow us to live with God if we properly prepared ourselves to do so. God even prepared a way for us to learn the gospel after our death if it was never offered to us in our lifetime. Then, as now, we would be free to choose, because agency is a critical aspect of our existence.

According to Mormon doctrine, this <a href=”http://www.mormonwiki.com/Mormon_doctrine
“>plan of salvation God made for us is one of great love, sacrifice, and fairness. He and the Savior do their part; and now it’s up to us to do ours by seeking truth and consulting God on what is true.