Lessons on the Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ and His Apostles
Lesson No. Thirty-Two
Counsel to My Grandchildren: You Passed the Mid-Term Test Now You are Taking the Final
“You Passed the Mid-Term Now it’s the Final” was the title of a Lesson I prepared for my grandchildren in 2012. As we study Paul’s writings in Romans 8-11 about election and foreordination (see Come Follow Me – For Individuals and Families: New Testament 2019, August 12-18) it seems appropriate to share this Lesson because the doctrine it teaches applies to all of us.
Agency and accountability in the premortal existence – In your pre-earth life you began to develop your personality, interests, talents, and capacities. President Joseph Fielding Smith taught: “The spirits of men…had an equal start, and we know they were all innocent in the beginning; but the right of free agency which was given to them enabled some to outstrip others, and thus, through the eons of pre-mortal existence, to become more intelligent, more faithful, for they were free to act for themselves, to think for themselves, to receive the truth or rebel against it.”
Elder Bruce R. McConkie further explained: “We lived in the premortal life with our Heavenly Father for an infinite period of time. We were on probation; we were being schooled and tested and examined; we were given the laws and the circumstances so that we could progress and advance….along the course leading to exaltation. In the premortal existence we developed various capacities and talents. Some developed talents in one area and some in another. The most important talent we could develop was spirituality. Spirituality is the ability and talent to recognize truth.”
The midterm test – President Joseph Fielding Smith also taught that “men could and did in many instances, sin before they were born…God gave his children their agency even in the spirit world, by which the individual spirits had the privilege, just as men have here, of choosing the good and rejecting the evil, or partaking of the evil to suffer the consequences of their sins…some even there were more faithful than others in keeping the commandments of the Lord.” (The above quotations from Joseph Fielding Smith and Bruce R. McConkie are from The New Testament Student Manual, Life and Times of Jesus and His Apostles, pp.336-37).
Only Jesus was perfect in the pre-earth life. We know this because, as recorded in the Book of Mormon, Jesus said: “I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning” (3 Nephi 11:11). In referring to the beginning, He was referring to the premortal existence.
As we could sin in our pre-earth life, we could also have faith in the coming atonement of Christ, and we could repent and be forgiven through “a preparatory redemption” (Alma 13:3). Our experience in the pre-earth life could be likened to a midterm test.
You scored high on the premortal midterm, and you were well prepared for our mortal final exam – One-third of the spirit children of God, students as it were, failed the midterm and were removed from the course. However, you were “called and prepared…on account of [your] exceeding faith and good works.” In the pre-earth existence you could “choose good or evil; therefore [you] having chosen good and exercising exceedingly great faith, were called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption” (Alma 13:4). This is the doctrine of election and foreordination.
The doctrine of election and foreordination “has reference to one’s situation in mortality; that is, being born at a time, at a place, and in circumstances where one will come into favorable contact with the gospel. This election took place in the premortal existence” (Bible Dictionary, Election, p 663). Because you were righteous and exercised “exceedingly great faith” in the atonement of Jesus Christ in your pre-earth life, you earned the blessing of having the gospel in this life.
You excelled on the mid-term test, and you can do it again on the final – In the pre-earth life you developed your personality and many gifts and talents. The most importantly you developed spiritual capacity and strength. You got an A on the mid-term, you can get an A on the final (an A- will not do).
When you were born into this life you brought with you all your gifts and talents, including your spiritual capacity and strength. You excelled on the mid-term and you are well prepared for the final. As a spirit son or daughter of Heavenly Parents you have inherited great spiritual talent and strength.
If you understand who you really are, and if you have faith in Jesus Christ, like you had in the pre-earth life, you can and will excel on the final in this life. And that is what really matters.