I Believe ...

I lived before I was born and I will live again after I die.

All mankind are the direct spiritual offspring of Deity.  We lived with God prior to coming to earth.  We knew God, our Eternal Heavenly Father, and He knew us.  We learned our first lessons in the realm of spirits and sowed our first seeds of character there.  The choices we made, prepared us to become what we are today and qualified us to receive a body.  We chose to accept and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.  We knew of His foreordained mission and sacrifice.  We chose agency, accountability and the opportunity for eternal progression under the direction and sustaining, cleansing, enabling, infinite power of Christ and His atonement.  We rejected the alternative of coercion and subjugation.  I was there and I was not alone.

The plan of coercion and subjugation was presented by Lucifer, a son of the morning, and subsequently rejected by God and His majority.  Lucifer and his followers rebelled against God the Father and His chosen Christ electing rather to embrace darkness and bitterness in the face of perfection.  One third part of the host of heaven (stars of heaven) were thrust to the earth to wander in misery until the day of judgement.  Failing to keep their "first estate", these spirits lost their opportunity to receive physical bodies.  In consequence, their entire existence is dedicated to thwarting God's plan of happiness for His obedient children.

Jehovah (pre-mortal Jesus Christ; God of the Old Testament; God of the Jewish nation), acting under the direction of God the Father, created / organized the earth and all things in it.  The earth was created during 6 creative periods during which time the majesty of this world blossomed in natural order.  Adam and Eve were placed on the earth, within a garden known as Eden.  After their spirits were shrouded in flesh, they passed through a veil of forgetfulness establishing a level of perceived autonomy from God and their previous memories.  This state of innocence was fertile soil for personal character development and self-awareness that could be achieved in no other way.  They were given choices and associated temptations.  They were given charge over the earth and commanded to take care of it, and to multiply and replenish the earth (commands in force today).  They were also told to refrain from partaking of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Satan, formerly known as Lucifer, through all his powers of persuasion and sophistry, convinced Eve to partake of the "forbidden" fruit thinking to interfere in God's plan for His children.  Following Eve's transgression, Adam likewise partook of the fruit.  

Contrary to Satan's ill intentions, Adam and Eve's transgression was a blessing for mankind.  For without their transgression, they would not have had children, lived the purging experiences of mortality, or the joys of personal growth.  In short, they would have been "damned" from their goal of eternal progression.  Mortal experience is essential experience in God's plan of happiness for His children. 

After yielding to the tree of knowledge, Adam and Eve's perfect bodies mingled with corruption.  This corruption introduced mankind's susceptibility to sin and death.  To combat this corruption and in harmony with God's plan and foreknowledge, a Savior was prepared.  Christ and His mission were revealed to man and they were commanded to look forward to the time of His coming and exercise faith in Him as if He had already come.  The Law of Moses, as it was subsequently titled, pointed to the coming of a Savior.  The ordinances and rituals involved highlighted God's love and His power to save.

During what is known as the meridian of time (approximately 4,000 after Adam and Eve's expulsion from the garden), Israel was primed for the coming of their Messiah.  The forerunner was announced and the mother of Christ was introduced through angelic ministration.  Jesus of Nazareth was born to a mortal mother though He was sired by the Eternal Father.  Jesus was quite literally the Only Begotten Son of God.  The powers vested in Him by virtue of His Godly Parentage gave Him power over sin, death, element, and earth.  His maternal heritage introduced susceptibility to temptation, pain, thirst, fatigue and other aspects of mortal existence, including death.  As with other spirits shrouded in flesh, Jesus pasted through the veil of forgetfulness though due to His perfect nature, this veil thinned quickly until He eventually came to a perfect understanding of His purpose and mission.  This perspective reveals the truly spiteful intent of Satan's temptations, 'If thou be the Son of God ...".  

Jesus was born as a man, lived as a man, and submitted to the laws and ordinances of the gospel as a man, though His mission, the infinite and eternal atoning sacrifice, was performed as a God.  For only a God of perfect unimpeachable character with mortal susceptibilities could perform such an act.  Jesus Christ suffered for the sins of mankind.  Likewise, He also suffered for their pains and afflictions.  Because of His exalted lineage, Christ was able to suffer and atone in a manner beyond human comprehension.  In the short space of a few hours, our Savior stepped into eternity and lived each individual experience as though He were physically present.  

Following His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus Christ was tried before wicked men and crucified.  While on the cross, His suffering continued until it culminated in the Father removing His spirit from His Son, finalizing His efforts in mortality.  Following this, the Savior announced the completion of His mortal mission and gave up the ghost.  No man took it from Him, He gave it up freely as an act of love. 

He truly showed us the way for He IS the way, the truth and the life.  No man cometh unto the Father but by Him.  He bore our sins and carried our griefs and with His stripes we are healed.  He suffered pains, and afflictions and temptations of every kind, that He may be filled with mercy so He may know how to care for us according to our infirmities.

Sunday morning, following the crucifixion, Jesus the Christ, the Savior and Messiah of mankind destroyed the bands of death and emerged triumphant from the tomb.  His spirit and His body were re-united in perfect form never to be separated again.  Because of this, I will live again.  All mankind will rise again in the resurrection.  By obedience to the laws and ordinances of His gospel, we all have the opportunity to live with God and His Christ for eternity and through the sealing power of his priesthood, families can be bound together for Time and for Eternity. Jesus Christ is my God, my Savior, my Exemplar and my Friend.  He has shown me the way and through His atonement I am better than I could otherwise be.  He continually lifts, strengthens and perfects me proportional to my willing ness to accept Him and my obedience to His gospel and revelation.  Any errors in my life are the errors of a man.  All things good or commendable in my life are because He lifts me, He guides me, He empowers me, He enables me, and He covenants with me and everything good that I am is because of Him and done in His name, even Jesus Christ, Amen. 

I lived before I was born and I will live again after I die for I am a son of God.