Chapter 3—The Plan of Salvation
Sorrow filled heaven, as it was realized that man was lost, and the
world that God created was to be filled with mortals doomed to misery,
sickness and death, and there was no way of escape for the offender.
The whole family of Adam must die. I saw the lovely Jesus, and
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beheld an expression of sympathy and sorrow upon his countenance.
Soon I saw him approach the exceeding bright light which enshrouded
the Father. Said my accompanying angel, He is in close converse with
his Father. The anxiety of the angels seemed to be intense while Jesus
was communing with his Father. Three times he was shut in by the
glorious light about the Father, and the third time he came from the
Father, his person could be seen. His countenance was calm, free from
all perplexity and trouble, and shone with benevolence and loveliness,
such as words cannot express. He then made known to the angelic host
that a way of escape had been made for lost man. He told them that
he had been pleading with his Father, and had offered to give his life
a ransom, and take the sentence of death upon himself, that through
him man might find pardon. That through the merits of his blood, and
obedience to the law of God, they could have the favor of God, and be
brought into the beautiful garden, and eat of the fruit of the tree of life.
At first the angels could not rejoice, for their commander concealed
nothing from them, but opened before them the plan of salvation. Jesus
told them that he would stand between the wrath of his Father and
guilty man, that he would bear iniquity and scorn, and but few would
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receive him as the Son of God. Nearly all would hate and reject him.
He would leave all his glory in heaven, appear upon earth as a man,
humble himself as a man, become acquainted by his own experience
with the various temptations with which man would be beset, that
he might know how to succor those who should be tempted; and that
finally, after his mission as a teacher should be accomplished, he would
be delivered into the hands of men, and endure almost every cruelty
and suffering that Satan and his angels could inspire wicked men to
inflict; that he should die the cruelest of deaths, hung up between the
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