DO WE WASTE THE DAYS OF OUR PROBATION?

(The following is taken from Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon by Robert Millet and Joseph McConkie, Volume One, page 252)

"We lived an infinitely long period of time in the premortal existence.  There we developed talents, aptitudes and capacities which would bless us in this, the second estate.  We who are blessed with membership in the Church passed many tests in that pristine estate, proved true and faithful to the Father's plan and merited a calling or election, including the assurance that we would tabernacle the flesh through a chosen lineage (the house of Israel) which would facilitate our reception and observance of gospel laws.

Much longing and waiting, much preparation and planning, much testing and trying were undertaken and accomplished before we ever came here.  We now stand on center stage in the eternal drama.  By modern revelation we know where we came from, why we are here and the possibilities held out to us by the Father concerning life hereafter.  We are now in the final phase of our probation, to some degree the most critical phase.  In the words of Amulek, 'if we do not improve our time (that is, grow in the likeness of God) while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed' (Alma 34:33; cf. Helaman 13:38)."

Now, same reference, but from page 308:

Is Salvation Free?

"How utterly inconsistent it would be for our Lord to advocate a plan of salvation intended to save only a portion of the children of the Father!  The predestinarian doctrine of a limited atonement, the notion that Christ's atoning sacrifice is extended only to the elect, only to those chosen unconditionally in premortality, is false and damning to mankind.  Rather, 'salvation is free' (2 Nephi 2:4), freely available to all who will receive it.  God enrolls none of his children in the school of mortality who have not the capacity to graduate with full honors."