One of the most cherished of all Latter-day Saint hymns begins with the simple yet profound phrase: “I am a child of God” (Hymns, no. 301). President Marion G. Romney informs us that this “is the most important knowledge available to mortals. It is of primary importance because it lies at the very heart of the Lord’s plan of salvation.
When a person dies their spirit is separated from their physical body and it enters into a spiritual realm, there to remain until the Day of Resurrection. Several passages in the New Testament make it clear that the spirit world is not the same location as the “heaven” where God the Father dwells (Matt. 16:17). When Jesus Christ died on the cross His spirit entered into a realm where there was both a “paradise” (Luke 23:43) and a “prison” (1 Pet. 3:18-19). Yet, after He had been resurrected the Savior said, “I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father” (John 20:17).
Those people who contemplate the miracle and mystery of their existence often ask themselves three fundamental, but profoundly important, questions: Where did I come from? Why am I here on the earth? What will happen to me after I die?
At the time of the Grand Council Lucifer held a high station; he stood ‘in authority in the presence of God.’” Joseph Smith’s poetic version of section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants discloses that before this rebellion Lucifer was “an angel of light” who had such “great” authority that he was in a “godified state.” The Prophet also explains that “Lucifer being the next heir [to Jesus Christ ] … had allotted to him great power and authority, even [as the] prince of [the power of] the air.
Some LDS commentators believe that “just as Jesus was the ‘firstborn’ spirit child of our Father, so Lucifer appears to be one of those who was an early born spirit child, ‘a’ son of the morning.”
When the devil and his followers were cast out of heaven in premortal times they lost the opportunity to receive a physical body. “Lucifer and his legions rebelled over the choice of the Christ, and were cast down,” said Orson F. Whitney. “Failing to keep their first estate, they could not be ‘added upon.’ This was their punishment—that they should not have bodies, by means of which spirits become souls [see D&C 88:15], capable of eternal progression. All the rest—two-thirds of the population of the spirit world—were given bodies as a reward for keeping their first estate, and were promised a glorious resurrection after death, as a further reward, if they succeeded in keeping their second estate.”
One of the most cherished of all Latter-day Saint hymns begins with the simple yet profound phrase: “I am a child of God” (Hymns, no. 301). President Marion G. Romney informs us that this “is the most important knowledge available to mortals. It is of primary importance because it lies at the very heart of the Lord’s plan of salvation.
