A Divine Plan and Christ's Voice Today

In conjunction with what I have written the past two days, the new Proclamation to the World

also says that the Book of Mormon teaches “that [God] has a divine plan for our lives, and that His Son, Jesus Christ, speaks today as well as in days of old.”  The theme of God’s plan of salvation for His children is indeed prevalent in the Book of Mormon.  Jacob taught about “the merciful plan of the great Creator” in which a power of resurrection comes to all men.  He testified of the “the great plan of our God” and how through it “death and hell must deliver up their dead” bring us all back to God’s presence (2 Nephi 9:6, 12-13).  Alma testified to the people of Ammonihah that Jesus Christ is at the center of this plan: “Therefore God conversed with men, and made known unto them the plan of redemption, which had been prepared from the foundation of the world….God did call on men, in the name of his Son, (this being the plan of redemption which was laid) saying: If ye will repent, and harden not your hearts, then will I have mercy upon you, through mine Only Begotten Son” (Alma 12:30,33).  This divine plan for all of us includes repentance, not hardening our hearts, and receiving the mercy of the Savior.  Amulek declared to the Zoramites that “according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made…. And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety…. Therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption” (Alma 34:9).  This “divine plan for our lives” is centered in the atonement of Christ through which mercy can take hold on us as we have faith in Christ and exercise repentance.  Alma also emphasized to his son Corianton that this is the “great plan of happiness” and it requires of each of us to us this “time granted unto man to repent, yea, a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God” (Alma 42:4,8).  God’s plan for us is one of happiness if we will indeed use our time on earth to repent and draw unto Him through the merits of His Son. 

               In addition to outlining the plan of salvation, the Book of Mormon also testifies that the Savior “speaks today as well as in days of old.”  Nephi recorded these words of the Savior about His ability to speak in any age: “And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever.”  He further declared, “For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them” (2 Nephi 29:9-11).  In his vision of the last days the angel showed Nephi how the Book of Mormon itself would go forth to the world and that “the time cometh that he shall manifest himself unto all nations, both unto the Jews and also unto the Gentiles” (1 Nephi 13:42).  He similarly affirmed that the Savior “manifesteth himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty miracles, signs, and wonders, among the children of men according to their faith” (2 Nephi 26:13).  In similar language to the proclamation Nephi also described how “he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old” (1 Nephi 10:19).  He will speak to us and reveal His mysteries through the Holy Ghost just like “in days of old.”  To the prophet Moroni the Savior affirmed that in the last days He will indeed speak to the faithful just like He did in the past to the brother of Jared: “And in that day that they shall exercise faith in me, saith the Lord, even as the brother of Jared did, that they may become sanctified in me, then will I manifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all my revelations, saith Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Ether 4:7).  The Book of Mormon indeed witnesses of God’s great plan of salvation brought to pass for us through Jesus Christ and that He speaks forth His words in these last days.