Sunday, February 20, 2011

My first "Rant"

I really don't like ranting, but sitting in church and hearing false doctrine really boils my blood. We are talking about choices and agency, and then I hear this preposterous doctrine that I have still yet to find confirmed anywhere at all, "Satan wanted us to come down and he would make us do the right thing."
And I sit there and think, "Wow! Really?!? After having lived in Heaven with a perfect loving Heavenly Father, and Mother would we really believe that a third part of our brothers and sisters signed up for that plan? Blows my Mind. I never see that in anything scripturally either. The thing that I do see is that there is always this underlying theme that you can do what you want and there are no consequences."
So what is the best idea that I have heard. It is a very similar plan up to the point of accountability for sin. The "atonement" would be that Satan would suffer and grant unconditional pardon for the sins that everyone commits. This is misconstrued as "true love" for would God not want all of us back.
Then people say that he "sought to destroy the agency of man."

This is true and so turning to the scriptures we ask, "How do you destroy the agency of man if not to force him to do the right thing?
Great point aside from the fact that it is never stated. But what is not there is just as interesting as what is. For those who have already opened 2 Nephi 2 we will go there. 
I point out as a side note that agency is a Restoration term and never appears in the Bible or Book of Mormon though the doctrine and principles behind are all over the place.
Verse 13 Reads, "And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away."
I think that Satan would be pretty happy with that.
And how would you do that?
Simply remove accountability for your actions.  Hence no law, no sin, and right on down the line.
It is simple to see why his rebellion was rejected (note: Not a plan, a rebellion) really. He would never have had enough love to suffer for everyone in the garden and it defeats the purpose of the plan (also mentioned in the above scripture). If the plan was to return and live with God why leave in the first place. The idea is not to return and live with God, the idea is to return and be like God and even had Satan's plan worked to the very last detail, we would never be able to be like God, because there would be no progression. We would stagnate and decline from our mortal state, and then the "goal" will have been frustrated anyhow, because upon returning in this sick state we could still not be with God, for we would not be like Him. Cleansed from sin? Yes. Able to abide the laws of  the Celestial Kingdom? No. Hence being lost forever anyway.
This is simply a mimic of what lies he spreads to others everyday. Does he ever force them to do right? No he tries to remove accountability. "It's my parents fault I'm this way.", or "It's the way that I was raised." 
But we never hear things like that.
What do the anti-christs of the Book of Mormon teach? "Whatsoever thing a man does there is no crime..." something like that if I remember correctly.  
I will admit that I don't know if it false doctrine or not, but it requires too great a stretch of my imagination to assume that it is as simple as people often boil it down to. The thing about this that really bothers me is that it distracts us from countering Satan. The best way to win a battle is to get the opponent to attack in the wrong spot. If we ignore that one of the major things that Satan tries to push on us is to not be accountable, then we lose the focus of where to fight back.

2 comments:

  1. Casey, this is AWESOME! I honestly never have thought of it this way, but it makes much more sense than the idea that everyone else assumes doesn't it?

    And I hope that everyone at your house is starting to feel better!

    ReplyDelete
  2. "We know that we had our agency before this world was and that Lucifer attempted to take it from us. He had no confidence in the principle of agency or in us and argued for imposed salvation. He insisted that with his plan none would be lost, but he seemed not to recognize—or perhaps not to care—that in addition, none would be any wiser, any stronger, any more compassionate, or any more grateful if his plan were followed." - Thomas S. Monson, "The Three Rs of Choice," October 2, 2010.
    What President Monson does NOT say is that Satan wanted us to "do the right thing." How *COULD* Satan want that? He wanted us to rebel against the wisdom of our very Eternal Father, and exalt Lucifer above God (see Isaiah 14:12-16)! During the Grand Council of Heaven, our Heavenly Father was not looking for our "vote" – He was teaching us truthfully how mercy and salvation was going to occur. Satan came out against this truth in full and open rebellion. After rebelling against the righteous plan, how could we go forward under Lucifer's leadership and work righteousness? It doesn't logically make sense.

    ReplyDelete