Agency, sometimes
combined with the word free, as in free agency, is our word for the day. You’ve
probably encountered it when sports professionals leave a team and become free
agents, open to a contract with another team. That might be the limit of how you've used it. Unless you’re Mormon. We talk
about the word a lot, to mean “the ability and privilege God gives us to choose
and ‘to act for [ourselves] and not to be acted upon.’”[i]
There’s a story—the oldest story—behind the concept of
agency, from before the world was made. It’s the story John Milton refers to in
Paradise Lost. It’s in the Bible, in Jude; Revelation 12; Job 38;
Isaiah 14; as well as some additional Mormon scripture: Doctrine and Covenants 29 and 76; Pearl of Great Price books of Moses and Abraham.
 |
| Satan, banished from Heaven, to the earth Paradise Lost illustration by Gustave Dore |
That is to say, I am not coming up with this out of whole
cloth. With that prelude, here’s my retelling.
Long ago,
before the world was, God the Father met in heaven with his spirit children to
present His plan. He would create a world for His children, where they could
receive a body, learn to choose right from wrong, and progress as His children.
The plan included choosing to go to the earth, which would be separated from
God’s presence, where the children would be tested and tried. And because they
would make errors, and be no longer perfectly clean, they would need a way
back, so there would be a Savior provided, who would live a perfect life and
then suffer for the sins of the world, overcoming death and opening the way for
all who repented to return to heaven, to their Father.
Father asked
who would be willing to become our Savior. There were two responses.
One was from
the spirit brother we called Lucifer, who said, “Send me. I will make sure no
children are lost. I will take from them their agency—their free will—so they
will make no mistakes and can all return unchanged. But I insist that, for my
success, I be given all the glory.”
Another
said, “Send me. I will follow Thy plan, and the glory be Thine.” This was the
spirit brother we call Jesus Christ. The Father chose the Son who would follow
His plan. It was essential to His plan that His children be given their agency,
so that they would learn to choose good over evil. That is the only way they
could become more than they were in the beginning. God would force no one back
to Heaven.
Lucifer was
angry that Father did not forego His original plan and go with Lucifer’s
pointless, no-growth plan. And Lucifer rebelled against the Father. It may be
that, because he was unwilling to suffer for the sins of others, he assumed no
one would do such a thing—so the only workable way was to take away free will,
to coerce. Or it may be simply that he was looking for a way to gain glory
without sacrifice—the first con, trying to get something for nothing.[ii]
He used his
persuasion to gain many followers—one third of the hosts of heaven. These chose
never to be born to the earth, and to rebel against God. For this they were
cast out of heaven. They are the cause of evil we face on this earth—trying to
make us miserable like unto themselves. Their leader, Lucifer, is called Satan
here. He continues to try to take away our agency—convincing us we have no
control over our passions, no control over any good coming in our lives, no
control over addictive substances and behaviors.
He is subtle
and cunning. But he can only gain our free agency if we give it up to him.
So, how does this relate to the Spherical Model? Coercion is
a southern hemisphere quality. You can’t use coercion to get to the northern
hemisphere. Coercion is used by people who either aren’t aware there is a
northern hemisphere, and think the only options are between chaotic tyranny and
statist tyranny; or who crave to be the controllers and therefore want to stay
in the southern hemisphere of tyranny, widespread poverty (except for the elite
controllers), and savagery.
For the northern hemisphere, where you find prosperity and
civilization, people have to choose to rule themselves. Never in history has a
nonreligious or anti-religious people succeeded in self-rule. Individuals, a
critical mass of them, have to choose to govern themselves. Government that is
granted only limited powers—to protect the God-given rights of the
self-governing people—is useful. But, as with fire, requires careful control.
Freedom is required in order to choose goodness. Chosen
goodness is required for prosperity to spread and grow. Chosen goodness is
required for civilization to develop and spread.
Where there is coercion, there is savagery. No religion or
government that coerces adherence can be God’s way; that is Satan’s way. Existence
of coercion is a way to tell whether a way of thinking fits in the southern or
northern hemisphere.
The most powerful disciplinary tool of a religion should be
excommunication, so that the religion can determine its consistent doctrines.
But a religion shouldn’t have the right to inflict physical punishment or
imprisonment, and certainly not death.
So, the Inquisition, as far as we can tell from history,
which used torture to coerce adherence, was savage. Enslaving the nonbelievers
in ancient Egypt was savage. Burning nonbelievers to death, like Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego in ancient Babylon, is proof of wrongness.[iii]
Throwing Daniel in the lion’s den for his difference in belief is an example of
savagery. The Extermination Order allowing for the murder of Mormons in
Missouri in the mid-1800s was savage.
Beheading nonbelievers in Iraq is proof that ISIS is savage.
It’s ironic that the people trying to coerce the world into thinking as they do
call us the Great Satan, while using Satan’s plan to accomplish their savage
ends. This is not simply a difference of belief that we should respect; this is
an attack upon our agency—a continuation of the War in Heaven, between Lucifer’s
plan to gain power and control over us for his personal glory, and Heavenly Father’s plan for our happiness through
allowing us to choose good.
Choosing Satan’s way always leads to the misery of coercion,
poverty, savagery—and ultimate death. Choosing Father’s way always leads to the
happiness of freedom, prosperity, civilization—and ultimate eternal life.
I
choose happiness and life.
[i] This definition comes from
Robert D. Hales, “Agency: Essential to the Plan of Life,” speech at LDS General
Conference, October 2010.
He is quoting from the Book of
Mormon, 2 Nephi 2:26.
[ii] I first heard the “something
for nothing” version of this story from David A. Bednar in a conference in
Houston in 2010. A similar talk was given by Robert D. Hales in the worldwide
General Conference of October of that year (linked in footnote i). I found that
the concept of agency is something of a theme for Elder Hales; he has been
speaking on that subject for decades.
[iii] The account of the three brothers
thrown in the fiery furnace, and saved by angelic help, is found in Daniel 3. Besides
various historical evidences of this practice, such as the Salem witch trials,
or Joan of Arc, additional incidents of mass execution for difference of belief
are recorded in the Book of Mormon:
Alma 14; 3 Nephi 1.
No comments:
Post a Comment