THE PLAN OF SALVATION

Post #5 is my summary of The Plan of Salvation written as a three act play.

Try searching for "Plan of Salvation" in the Bible. You won't find it. This is one of the great doctrines of the Restoration. Read your Triple Combination to learn about it.

Handbook 2, section 18.6.1 tells us, "Teaching and testifying about the plan of salvation, particularly the Savior’s Atonement and Resurrection, is an essential purpose of the services associated with a Church member’s death", and "Funerals provide an important opportunity to teach the gospel and testify of the plan of salvation."

In 1996 Elder Boyd K. Packer said this to a group of BYU Students:

Another point of order: Bishops should not yield the arrangement of meetings to members. They should not yield the arrangement for funerals or missionary farewells to families. It is not the proper order of things for members or families to expect to decide who will speak and for how long. Suggestions are in order, of course, but the bishop should not turn the meeting over to them. We are worried about the drift that is occurring in our meetings.

Funerals could and should be the most spiritually impressive. They are becoming informal family reunions in front of ward members. Often the Spirit is repulsed by humorous experiences or jokes when the time could be devoted to teaching the things of the Spirit, even the sacred things.

When the family insists that several family members speak in a funeral, we hear about the deceased instead of about the Atonement, the Resurrection, and the comforting promises revealed in the scriptures. Now it's all right to have a family member speak at a funeral, but if they do, their remarks should be in keeping with the spirit of the meeting.

I have told my Brethren in that day when my funeral is held, if any of them who speak talk about me, I will raise up and correct them. The gospel is to be preached. I know of no meeting where the congregation is in a better state of readiness to receive revelation and inspiration from a speaker than they are at a funeral. This privilege is being taken away from us because we don't understand the order of things--the unwritten order of things--that relates to the administration of the Church and the reception of the Spirit.

One of my observations at most funerals is that the plan of salvation talk is either not given, or is given in a way that any non-members present could not possibly understand. At the most recent funeral I attended, one speaker said, "I bear testimony of the plan of salvation". That was the only reference to the plan I heard during the entire service.

When I finally kick the bucket, I sincerely hope someone is chosen to deliver a good plan of salvation talk, in language a less-active person or a non-member can understand. I'd also appreciate it if my favorite LDS song, Come, Come Ye Saints, was on the program. Anything else that happens at my funeral is unimportant.