Memo # 11
July 1, 2013 (written April 1, 2001)
From: Dad, Grandpa Pratt etc.
To: All Pratt family adults and selected others
Re: “Origin of the Great Plan of Happiness” or “Gospel”
The Gospel has always been. It is eternal and is embodied in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Jesus did not give it to the people of the earth during His mortal ministry. He simply restored it as He had given it to Adam and Eve 4000 years prior to His mortal life on earth. Neither was it new with Adam and Eve, for the same gospel has been used on all the earths created and peopled by God through and by His First Begotten Son Jesus Christ. (But we only have the details for this earth.)
Adam and Eve were taught the gospel and Adam’s baptism is recorded as follows: “He was caught away by the spirit of the Lord, and was carried down into the water. And was laid under the water and was brought forth out of the water. And he heard a voice out of heaven saying; ‘Thou art baptized with fire, and with the Holy Ghost...behold thou art one in me, a Son of God, and thus may all become my Sons. Amen.” (Pearl of Great Price 6:64-69)
Eve’s baptism is not recorded, but she would have been baptized by Adam who clearly received the Priesthood and authority to baptize after his baptism as it is recorded in verse 67 of chapter 6 of the Pearl of Great Price.
But their descendants for the most part did not believe them and became carnal, sensual and worldly. That is, the things of the world were more appealing than the promises of everlasting happiness and so it was that Adam’s descendants removed themselves so far from God that God found it necessary to cover the earth with water–which event happened about 1635 years after Adam and Eve had had their first child. (Or about 2365 B.C.)
From the Great Flood to Jesus’ birth, God made repeated efforts to restore the Gospel through prophets. These are called Dispensations. The first effort was through the prophet Abraham. He was born just about the time of Noah’s death almost exactly half way between the fall of Adam and the birth of Jesus–as Adam preceded Jesus by 4000 years. Abraham was born 2000 years after the Fall and about 2000 B.C.
The gospel was restored through Abraham, and in a few centuries resulted in a people numbering about 3 million souls whom the Lord named “Israel”.
Israel was chosen before their mortal birth, even before the earth was created, to be God’s people and to do His work of saving all His family. But Israel followed the world and were destroyed as a nation and scattered throughout all the nations of the world.
About 600 years (1400 B.C.) after Abraham, the great prophet Moses started a new dispensation of the Gospel with varying success. But a thousand years later (about 400 B.C.), the final prophet Malachi appears, teaches the gospel, rebukes wickedness and prophecies of OUR DAY (as did the other Old Testament prophets.)
This brief outline does not mention many other prophets and dispensations such as Lehi who left Jerusalem 600 B.C. and founded a new dispensation of the Gospel in America and stands as a second witness of Christ.
Jesus then appeared on earth in person 1 B.C. and again restored “The Great Plan of Happiness” with prophets and Apostles. But it was even more short lived than previous dispensations. The wicked world crucified people who had joined the Church of Jesus Christ
~ 2 ~
through faith, repentance and baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost.
By 98 A.D. the church had again been destroyed, only one Apostle remained, “John the Beloved”, and he was a prisoner condemned to work in the mines on the island of Patmos about 30 miles from the Western shore of modern Turkey.
In his bondage, John received a great revelation, part of which is recorded in the final book of the New Testament and titled “The Book of Revelation.” in this great revelation, John details the history of the world down to its destruction by fire and the rescue of the living righteous and the resurrection of the dead righteous and through to the second coming of Jesus Christ...(Which is so very soon and I will enlarge on this in a future memo.)
By the time of the destruction of the Great Roman Empire in the fifth century A.D., because of wickedness, all Priesthood Authority had been removed from the earth. Confusion and Apostasy resulted; the whole world sank into a 1000 year period known in world history as “The Dark Ages.”
Having cast God out of their lives, the suffering was terrible. Life expectancy sank to less than 30 years. And living conditions for the so called nobility would not be acceptable today by the poorest of people.
But, as prophesied previously, God again started a new dispensation. It began with Gutenberg’s invention of portable type and the printing press about 1456 A.D. withing fifty years Europe was flooded with books and a new revival and knowledge of God was made available to the world. America was discovered, the United States founded, and the stage set in which God could again restore the “Great Plan of Happiness: in one last dispensation to save all who WILL to be saved.
This dispensation was headed by the prophet Joseph Smith and is the greatest of all times. This is because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not only available once again to mortals, but is also being taught and made available to the great hosts of the dead. They can receive the gospel in the Spirit World, and mortals on earth, in Temples constructed for that purpose, can vicariously be baptized and perform for the dead all other ordinances necessary to unite families and prepare all who will accept it to enter back into the presence of God and dwell eternally with Him. And thus the great Plan of Happiness will have been completed for all who will accept it. Unfortunately “Strait (means narrow) is the gate, and narrow the way that leadeth into the exaltation and continuation of the lives (eternal families) and few there be that find it, because ye receive me not in the world, neither do you know me.” D & C 132:22
Oh please, my dear family, receive it and we will rejoice together eternally! I will soon be going to the world of spirits to prepare to receive all who will to do so. I DON’T WANT ANYONE MISSING! I want each and everyone of you to be able to join our family there because you chose to accept Jesus as your Savior through the simple process of FAITH, REPENTANCE, BAPTISM AND THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST.
I LOVE YOU!
Dad, Grandpa etc.
Richard Marden Pratt
Those of you who have the printed copies may want to get out your memo folder and read the things submitted. They are all good but I’m choosing not to retype them here. God Bless us all to live up to our noble birth right and stay true to the Great Plan of Happiness!
