Notable quotes:
“We who know God’s plan and who have covenanted to participate have a clear responsibility to teach these truths and do all that we can to further them for others and in our own circumstances in mortality.”
“The power to create mortal life is the most exalted power God has given His children.”
“God’s plan gives us four great assurances to assist our journey through mortality. All are given to us through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the centerpiece of the plan.”
Summary points:
- The four great assurances from God’s plan of salvation: repentance for the cleansing from sins, Christ taking upon Himself all mortal infirmities, resurrection for all to overcome physical death, and progress not concluding with the end of mortality.
- Each will be judged according to one’s actions, the desires of his or her heart and the kind of person he or she has become, with the judge being the Savior Jesus Christ.
Talk summary:
God’s divine plan of happiness allows all to rely on the Savior. His resurrection redeems all from physical death, and His atoning sacrifice pays the price for the repentant to be cleansed from sin.
“This Atonement of Jesus Christ is central to the Father’s plan.”
Through that Atonement, God’s plan provides four great assurances: His suffering and one’s repentance allows sins to be forgiven and remembered no more, He took upon Himself all mortal infirmities, His resurrection revokes the finality of physical death, and one’s progress need not conclude with the end of mortality.
Other fundamentals of God’s plan include chastity, marriage and the bearing of children. “The power to create mortal life is the most exalted power God has given his children.”
During the 200th anniversary of the First Vision and the Restoration’s initiation, “we know the Lord’s plan and we are encouraged by two centuries of its blessings through His restored Church. In this year of 2020, we have what the medical profession calls 20/20 vision for the events of the past. As we look to the future, however, our vision is far less sure.”
With “more mortally experienced workers” in the spirit world and more temples to perform the ordinances of eternity, “all of this furthers our Heavenly Father’s plan. God’s love is so great that … He has provided a destiny of glory for all of His children.”
Many Latter-day Saints do not fully understand this plan, which answers most questions about doctrine and inspired policies. “We who know God’s plan and who have covenanted to participate, have a clear responsibility to teach these truths and do all that we can to further them for others and in our own circumstances in mortality.”
In the news:
- At the Brigham Young University Church History Symposium on March 13, President Oaks shared what he has learned after 50 years of writing about the Prophet Joseph Smith.
- President Oaks and his wife, Sister Kristen Oaks, spoke to youth, their leaders and their parents on Feb. 28 in a worldwide Face to Face broadcast about the new Children and Youth program.
- On Dec. 8, 2019, President Oaks spoke at the annual First Presidency Christmas Devotional, sharing a message on how to attain peace.
- He addressed Spanish-speaking members of the Church in the Chicago area at a devotional on Nov. 23, 2019, emphasizing leaders’ awareness of the difficulties faced by immigrants as they are often separated from loved ones in other countries.
- Speaking as the honorary chair of the 2019 Utah Philanthropy Day on Nov. 19, 2019, President Oaks highlighted the importance of private charitable contributions.
About the speaker:
- President Dallin H. Oaks was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1984.
- As a young man, President Oaks obtained a radiotelephone operator’s license and later worked as a radio announcer and engineer.
- President Oaks was a law clerk to Chief Justice Earl Warren of the U.S. Supreme Court and later served as a justice on the Utah Supreme Court until his call to apostleship in 1984.
- President Oaks and his late wife, June Dixon Oaks, are the parents of six children. She died July 21, 1998. On August 25, 2000, he married Kristen M. McMain in the Salt Lake Temple.
Recently on social:
- On March 24, President Oaks shared on Instagram his testimony of personal and prophetic revelation in preparation for general conference.
- He tweeted a message about the importance of faith in God’s plan, especially when seeking answers to questions, on Jan. 12.
- In a Facebook post Dec. 8, 2019, President Oaks wrote that peace comes from individual righteousness.
- On Dec. 2, 2019, he cautioned young men and women in an Instagram post to beware of labeling themselves with a temporary identity. “Our single best quality by which to characterize ourselves is that we are sons or daughters of God,” he wrote.
