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GODFRED - I want to understand human potential in the context of LDS theology.Does everyone come to earth with the same amount of potential?
JOEL - People are born with different gifts and physical or mental conditions that can affect their potential to succeed at various levels in this life.
However, I am assuming you are talking about everyone having the same potential to make it into heaven after they die.
Everyone born into this world has the same potential to obtain exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom of God in heaven or some other level of heaven.This potential was given to us in the premortal life when we decided to follow God's plan rather than Lucifer's plan.
Of course this potential does not mean that everyone will actually make it to the highest kingdom in heaven.
We have also been given the agency to choose what we do on earth which can have a bearing on where we end up in the afterlife.
There are some who were pre-ordained to be leaders in God's kingdom on earth.
In the Pearl of Great Price the prophet Abraham said:
"Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;
And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits,
and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born."(Abraham 3: 22-23)
However, this does not give them any more advantage over everyone else to be exalted in heaven.
They still have their agency to follow God's plan or not once they come to earth and being chosen to be leaders does not guarantee that they will be.
There are many who are born into circumstances which prevents them from hearing and accepting the gospel and joining God's church in this life.
Joseph Smith received the following revelation:
"Thus came the voice of the Lord unto me, saying: All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry,
shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God;
Also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom;(D&C 137:7-8)
They will be given this opportunity to hear and accept it once they die and go to the spirit world.
In the Doctrine and Covenants the prophet Joseph F. Smith received the following revelation:
"I perceived that the Lord went not in person among the wicked and the disobedient who had rejected the truth, to teach them;
But behold, from among the righteous, he organized his forces and appointed messengers, clothed with power and authority, and commissioned them to go forth and carry the light of the gospel to them that were in darkness, even to fall the spirits of men; and thus was the gospel preached to the dead.
And the chosen messengers went forth to declare the acceptable day of the Lord and proclaim liberty to the captives who were bound, even unto all who would repent of their sins and receive the gospel.
Thus was the gospel preached to those who had died in their sins, without a knowledge of the truth, or in transgression, having rejected the prophets.These were taught faith in God, repentance from sin, vicarious baptism for the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands,And all other principles of the gospel that were necessary for them to know in order to qualify themselves that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
And so it was made known among the dead, both small and great, the unrighteous as well as the faithful, that redemption had been wrought through the sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross."(D&C 138: 29-32. See also 1 Peter 3: 18-20, 1 Peter 4:6)
Therefore according to LDS doctrine and scripture everyone has the same potential to inherit the highest kingdom of heaven. It is up to them to take advantage of this potential.
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