Alma began by asking his audience to project their minds forward—in which he meant forward to the beginning of time, even to the time of the earliest patriarchs who first received the higher priesthood (D&C 84:6–16; 107:2–5). He then explained why God has a special covenant people and why some are called as leaders and others are not. Some are ordained as priesthood leaders, according to God’s foreknowledge of all things, in order to teach the people to look forward to the Son for redemption. In fact, all who hold the Melchizedek Priesthood were foreordained in our premortal existence to do so. When Alma uses the term priest, he is referring to Melchizedek Priesthood holders, who in a general sense are priests (D&C 76:56–57; 107:1–4). This foreordination was based on premortal faith and faithfulness. Foreordained leaders exercised “exceedingly great faith” in Jesus Christ and his atonement and thereby received a holy calling to continue to teach Christ’s redemption here in mortality.
The Prophet Joseph Smith declared, “Every man who has a calling to minister to the inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the Grand Council of heaven before this world was.” 21
President Spencer W. Kimball added: “In the world before we came here, faithful women were given certain assignments while faithful men were foreordained to certain priesthood tasks. While we do not now remember the particulars, this does not alter the glorious reality of what we once agreed to. You are accountable for those things which long ago were expected of you just as are those we sustain as prophets and apostles!” 22
Alma speaks of “a preparatory redemption,” which is actually the atonement of Jesus Christ that operated in our behalf in our premortal existence. If we had the opportunity to progress premortally, it is reasonable to believe we could make mistakes. Elder Orson Pratt, writing about the nature of sin in our premortal existence, said: “Among the two-thirds [of God’s spirit children] who remained, it is highly probable, that, there were many who were not valiant… , but whose sins were of such a nature that they could be forgiven through faith in the future sufferings of the Only Begotten of the Father, and through their sincere repentance and reformation. We see no impropriety in Jesus offering himself as an acceptable offering and sacrifice before the Father to atone for the sins of his brethren, committed, not only in the second, but also in the first estate.” 23
In premortality, the atonement of Jesus Christ operated in our behalf so that we all could begin our second estate with a fresh start, free from the blemishes, mistakes, sins, and errors committed in premortality, free of the disabling and crippling spiritual baggage brought from a former life. As was revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith, “Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God” (D&C 93:38). Satan and his followers would not accept our Heavenly Father’s plan centered in Christ’s atonement and, therefore, could not even remain with us in the first estate.
With this insight, we may read with new eyes scriptural statements that speak of Christ as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Or, when Adam spoke to the Lord about the necessity of baptism, the Lord said: “Behold I have [already] forgiven thee thy transgression in the Garden of Eden. Hence came the saying abroad … that the Son of God hath atoned for original guilt” (Moses 6:53–54).
The tragedy of hardening the heart is noted, which kept some from enjoying the “great privilege,” the holy calling of priesthood leadership.
The high priesthood after the order of the Son of God is the greatest power in the universe, and it is eternal, “without beginning of days or end of years.” The high priesthood is what we now call the Melchizedek Priesthood—and the reason for that change in terminology is given in Doctrine and Covenants 107:3–4. That high priesthood is conferred upon a faithful man through “a holy ordinance.” He thus becomes a high priest forever after the order of the Son, who is also “without beginning of days or end of years.”
President Ezra Taft Benson explained, “To enter into the order of the Son of God is the equivalent today of entering into the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood, which is only received in the house of the Lord.” 24