The Seventeenth Annual Church Educational System Religious Educators Symposium

The Seventeenth Annual Church Educational System Religious Educators Symposium

“The Great Plan of Happiness ”

Elder Boyd K. Packer

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

CES Symposium on the Doctrine and Covenants/Church History • 10 August 1993 • Brigham Young University

I talked to President WilliamE. Berrett not too many days ago. He was still in the hospital. Now he is resting comfortably; resting in sweet anticipation of what will, in the near future, be his graduation.

Some time ago he told Brother Tuttle and me that when he was a teenager in the southern part of the Salt Lake Valley, which was then a rural area, the young people in the ward were a bunch of roustabouts, just like they are in your ward—just like they are in your class. That was about the time seminary was started. A worried bishop called a man to teach the youth. Brother Berrett described him as a convert from the old country who could not speak English very well. That was one reason not to call him. He was an old man; another reason not to call him. But the bishop called him.

Then Brother Berrett told of the class period. At first they could not quite understand him. Brother Berrett concluded his description of this period in his life by saying, “The teacher murdered the Queen’s English every sentence, but we could warm our hands by the fire of his faith.” “We could warm our hands by the fire of his faith.” He accorded to that teacher a major influence in what was to happen to him later in life.

I have tried over the years to stay close to Church education. I have personally known virtually all of the pioneers in the seminary and institute program from the beginning. The contribution that they have made in my life has been without price; it couldn’t be estimated.

You all know about the crises of values in the world and the sobering influence it has upon many in the Church. You know the challenge you face with the young people by virtue of that. It is not unlike what Mosiah faced when:

“It came to pass that there were many of the rising generation that could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers.

“They did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, neither did they believe concerning the coming of Christ.

“And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened” (Mosiah 26:1–3).

Later Alma encountered Korihor, the anti-Christ, and faced the apostasy of the Zoramites—I think, not unlike some things that are happening in the Church today.

Not too many days ago, in a moment of great concern over a rapid series of events that demonstrated the challenge of those within the Church who have that feeling of criticism and challenge and apostasy, I had an impression, as revelations are. It was strong and it was clear, because lingering in my mind was: “Why? Why—when we need so much to be united?” And there came the answer: “It is permitted to be so now that the sifting might take place, and it will have negligible effect upon the Church.”

Alma faced Korihor and the apostasy of the Zoramites, but he was not in doubt as to what had to be done. The record says:

“As the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God” (Alma 31:5).

“It was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.”

Individual doctrines of the gospel are not fully explained in one place in the scriptures, nor presented in order or sequence. They must be assembled from pieces here and there. They are sometimes found in large segments, but mostly they are in small bits scattered through the chapters and verses.

You might think that if all the references on baptism, for instance, were assembled in one chapter of each standard work, and all references on revelation in another, it would make the learning of the gospel much simpler. I have come to be very, very grateful that scriptures are arranged as they are. Because the scriptures are arranged the way they are, there are endless combinations of truths that will fit the need of every individual in every circumstance.

When I was overseas in the military, seriously studying the Book of Mormon for the first time, I became acquainted with the simple references and footnotes of those days. I followed a footnote from an early chapter in the Book of Mormon to a verse in a later one. The subject changed. I had found a mistake in the footnotes, or so I thought!

Then, suddenly, as an insight—a revealed insight, I could see the relationship of the two subjects. I concluded not only was there no error, but whoever arranged those footnotes was inspired indeed.

Our youth need to know how to mark the scriptures, and they need to have some kind of filing system. In addition to that, if you give each one of them a framework upon which the truths they discover at random can be organized into a personal testimony, you will have served them well.

After I had taught seminary for a number of years, I discovered something that made a difference in how much students learned and how much they remembered.

What I discovered was this: there is great value in presenting a brief but very carefully organized overview of the entire course at the very beginning.

Take, for example, a course in Church history. A class period or two of preview, covering the Apostasy, the Restoration, the Martyrdom, the persecutions, the move west, the expansion of the Church worldwide, all in just a class period or two, provides a framework upon which the students may organize the information that you will present as they retrace that same journey at a much slower pace and as the course unfolds. It is something like the overture in an opera or a musical.

Those few beginning periods, so brief an investment of time by comparison, make it possible for the students to locate themselves anywhere along the way. They have something of a feeling. They retain much more when they know how all of the pieces fit together, and the light of learning shines more brightly. The preview forms a framework and is more than worth the time and work invested in it.

My only regret is that my discovery of this principle was made near the end, rather than at the beginning, of my seminary work. How much more the students might have learned if I had discovered it earlier.

Whatever course you teach, a brief overview, even in outline form, can form a framework upon which our youth can place the truths you will present, many of which come at random.

There is one framework that fits every course you teach. Elements of it are everywhere in the scriptures. It has many names:

• The merciful plan of the great Creator (see 2Nephi 9:6).
• The plan of mercy (see Alma 42:15).
• The great plan of mercy (see Alma 42:31).
• The plan of redemption (see Jacob 6:8; Alma 12:25–26, 30, 32; 17:16; 18:39; 22:13–14; 29:2; 39:18; 42:11,13).
• The eternal plan of redemption (see Alma 34:16).
• The great plan of redemption (see Alma 34:31).
• The plan of salvation (see Jarom 1:2; Alma 24:14; 42:5; Moses 6:62).
• The plan of our God (see 2Nephi 9:13).
• The great plan of the Eternal God (see Alma 34:9).
• The eternal plan of deliverance (see 2Nephi 11:5).
• The plan of happiness (see Alma 42:16).
• The great plan of happiness (see Alma 42:8).
• The plan of restoration (see Alma 41:2).
• The plan of the Gods (see Abraham 4:21).

All but two of those references come from the Book of Mormon; two are found in the Pearl of Great Price.

A brief overview of the “plan of happiness” (which is my choice, my favorite title, in talking of the plan), if given at the very beginning and revisited occasionally, will be of immense value to your students.

I have an assignment for you. You expected that, didn’t you? You are assigned to prepare a brief synopsis or overview of the plan of happiness—the plan of salvation. Design it as a framework on which your students can organize the truths you will share with them.

At first you may think that a simple assignment. I assure you, it is not. Brevity and simplicity are remarkably difficult to achieve. At first you will be tempted to include too much. The plan in its fulness encompasses every gospel truth.

Some Saints leaving Nauvoo were not able to obey the load limit set by the Brethren. They paid dearly for it later. You, like them, will want to include too much in your overview. You will be pained at what you must leave out. The handcart pioneers were only allowed to take seventy pounds. This preview is a “handcart preview.”

This may be the most difficult, and surely the most rewarding, assignment of your teaching career.

Your overview of the plan of happiness should be but a sweeping glance across the unfolded scroll of scriptural truths. Your students can thereafter locate themselves in respect to the plan.

Young people wonder “why?”—Why are we commanded to do some things, and why we are commanded not to do other things? A knowledge of the plan of happiness, even in outline form, can give young minds a “why.”

A parent once angrily scolded a child for a serious mistake, saying, “Why on earth did you do such a thing?” The child answered, “If I’d had a ‘why,’ I wouldn’t have done it.”

Providing your students with a collection of unrelated truths will hurt as much as it helps. Provide a basic feeling for the whole plan, even with just a few details, and it will help them ever so much more. Let them know what it’s all about, then they will have the “why.”

Most of the difficult questions we face in the Church right now, and we could list them—abortion and all the rest of them, all of the challenges of who holds the priesthood and who does not—cannot be answered without some knowledge of the plan as a background.

Alma said this, and this is, I think of late, my favorite scripture, although I change now and again: “God gave unto them commandments, after having made known unto them the plan of redemption” (Alma 12:32; emphasis added). Let me say that again: “God gave unto them commandments, after having made known unto them the plan of redemption.” Now, let me say it again: “God gave unto them commandments, after having made known unto them the plan of redemption.”

As President HaroldB. Lee often said: Don’t tell them so they’ll understand; tell them so they can’t possibly misunderstand (see “Loyalty” [address to religious educators, 8July 1966], p.5). If you are trying to give them a “why,” follow that pattern: “God gave unto them commandments, after having made known unto them the plan of redemption.”

You will not be with your students or your own children at the time of their temptations. At those dangerous moments they must depend on their own resources. If they can locate themselves within the framework of the gospel plan, they will be immensely strengthened.

The plan is worthy of repetition over and over again. Then the purpose of life, the reality of the Redeemer, and the reason for the commandments will stay with them.

Their gospel study, their life experiences, will add to an ever-growing witness of the Christ, of the Atonement, of the restoration of the gospel.

I was really tempted to prepare a brief overview of the plan of happiness as a model for you to follow. And then I thought better of it. You need to prepare the outline yourself. Only then will you present it persuasively. I repeat, it will not be easy. I should think it will take you several months, if you do it right. It will require study and prayer and work. There is no question but that you will learn more in the process than any one of your students will learn. The very doing of it is your reward.

I will give you the barest outline of the plan as a beginning, but you must assemble your framework yourself.

The essential components of the great plan of happiness, of redemption, of salvation, are these:

Premortal existence

Spiritual creation

Agency

War in heaven

Physical creation

The Fall and mortality

Principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ (first principles: faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism,...)

The Atonement

Life beyond the grave

Spirit world

Judgment

Resurrection

President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., taught us in The Charted Course of the Church in Education—surely you read that every year, every one of you, every year. It is revelation; it is as much revelation as that which you find if you open the standard works, and I will quote from it:

“Our youth are not children spiritually; they are well on toward the normal spiritual maturity of the world. To treat them as children spiritually, as the world might treat the same age group, is therefore and likewise an anachronism. I say once more, there is scarcely a youth that comes through your seminary or institute door who has not been the conscious beneficiary of spiritual blessings, or who has not seen the efficacy of prayer, or who has not witnessed the power of faith to heal the sick, or who has not beheld spiritual outpourings of which the world at large is today ignorant. You do not have to sneak up behind this spiritually experienced youth and whisper religion in his ears; you can come right out, face to face, and talk with him. You do not need to disguise religious truths with a cloak of worldly things; you can bring these truths to him openly, in their natural guise. Youth may prove to be not more fearful of them than you are. There is no need for gradual approaches, for ‘bedtime’ stories, for coddling, for patronizing, or for any of the other childish devices used in efforts to reach those spiritually inexperienced and all but spiritually dead” (1994 rev. ed. [address to religious educators, 8Aug. 1938], p.9).

Read The Charted Course of the Church in Education. That makes two assignments.

There are fundamental truths which, if understood, will help our youth understand the plan of happiness and entice them to remain faithful.

If you agree with President Clark, and I certainly do, that our youth have a spiritual maturity, you can open to them the truths of immortality and eternity.

Convince them of the reality of spiritual things. First teach them that “the spirit and the body are the soul of man” (D&C 88:15). Man is a dual being, a spirit within a mortal body.

It is difficult to teach about the intangible, spiritual part. But there are ways to do it. For example, your students know about computers. A personal computer made of metal, plastic, glass, and a dozen other materials will hold an astonishing amount of information. All of the standard works can be stored there, and in addition, sets of encyclopedias, dictionaries, books on a whole library of subjects, even illustrations and mathematical formulas.

With the press of a few keys, one can select any part of what is stored and see it instantly on a screen. One may, by pressing a few more keys, rearrange, add to, or subtract from what is stored in the computer. Press another key or two and you can print a copy of whatever you desire, even in full color. You then can hold in your hand tangible, absolute proof of what is inside there and how it is arranged.

If, however, you should take the computer completely apart, you could not find one word of it, not one illustration, not one tangible evidence that there are volumes, verses, poems, and illustrations inside the computer.

You could dissolve the computer with acids or burn it and you would not find one tangible word of evidence. You could no more find words in the ashes of a computer than you can find the spirit in the ashes of a cremated human body.

No one doubts that this great base of information is actually stored in the computer. It should not be too difficult to teach each youngster that there is within the human body a spirit.

Notwithstanding that it is invisible and intangible, it is the very essence of reality. You can, in context of the gospel plan, explain what that spirit is. Let me say that again. You can, in context of the gospel plan, explain what that spirit is, where it came from, and what the destiny of each of usis.