Lessons on the Plan of Salvation
Lesson No. Eight
Funerals and the Plan of Salvation
Teach and testify of the plan of salvation at funerals – Latter day Prophets have encouraged us to teach and testify of the plan of salvation at funerals. This brings the Holy Spirit into the meeting. Hearts are touched, and people do not easily forget this experience. Our Prophets have set the example of teaching and testifying of the plan of salvation at funerals. Two examples follow:
“As man is God once was; as God is man may become.” Lorenzo Snow wrote this couplet. It sums up the purpose of this life and the plan of salvation. Joseph Smith introduced this doctrine in a sermon at the funeral of King Follett. Joseph spoke for 2.25 hours, and this great doctrinal sermon, Joseph’s valedictory message, was delivered just three months before he was martyred:
“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible – I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form….
“In order to understand the subject of the dead, for consolation of those who mourn for the loss of their friends, it is necessary we should understand the character and being of God and how he came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God….
“It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God… that he was once a man like us; yea, God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did….” (My comments that follow are in italics)
Add to this our knowledge that God is literally our Father, and that as His children if we grow and mature as we should we will become like Him. This is the purpose of the plan of salvation.
“If we are prepared it is better to go hence.” Joseph Smith first taught this doctrine. This doctrine was more fully expounded by President Joseph Fielding Smith at the funeral of Elder Richard L. Evans, and recorded in the Ensign, December 1971. President Smith’s sermon is short and provided in full below. What he said, I believe, is one of the greatest doctrinal sermons given in this dispensation:
“Brother Evans has been taken by the Lord to another field of labor, where his great talents will be multiplied a hundred-fold; where he will continue to use them in the furtherance of the Lord’s work; and where they are now needed even more than they were here among us.
The spirit world is a place of great growth where talents are greatly multiplied and used in continued service to the Lord and His work.
“And may I say for the consolation of those who mourn, and for the comfort and guidance of all of us, that no righteous man is ever taken before his time. In the case of the faithful Saints, they are simply transferred to other fields of labor. The Lord’s work goes on in this life, in the world of spirits, and in the kingdoms of glory where men go after their resurrection.
No righteous person dies before their work on the earth is finished, but when it is finished “it is better to go hence.”
“Life and labor and love are eternal, and Brother Evans is now assigned to continue his work in the spirit world, until that day when he shall come forth in glorious immortality to receive his place in the mansions that are prepared.
“He held the holy priesthood in this life and was ordained to stand as a special witness of the Lord’s name; he holds that same priesthood in the world of spirits and is there assigned to continue his labors for the salvation of our Father’s other children who have passed on without a knowledge of the saving principles of eternal truth which have been restored in this day.
“The church on earth has lost the services of one of its most able and competent leaders who was endowed with special talents and abilities which are seldom equaled. But the same Church, which has an even more perfect and effective organization among the righteous dead, has gained another pillar of strength to use in the great labors that are performed there.
“His influence in this life extended to the ends of the earth, and we shall miss his voice, his counsel, and his wisdom as it was heard and felt among us. But in that sphere where the limitations and restrictions of mortality no longer curtail the spirit children of our Father, his voice, his counsel, and his wisdom will influence greater hosts who seek and need the words of life and truth found only in the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Testimony – In a coming day, through the sealing power of the priesthood, righteous people will be resurrected and enter into their Father’s kingdom. There, with their family, they will “be crowned with immortality and eternal life” (D&C 138:51).