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PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Hello, my name is David Snell, and you’re listening to Keystone, where our goal is to fortify Latter-day Saint faith and combat misinformation through good old-fashioned research. Let’s jump right in!
Welcome to Keystone! On Keystone, our goal is to fortify Latter-day Saint faith and combat misinformation through good old-fashioned research. I’m your host, David Snell. Let’s jump right in!
So, there is a chance that some of us are getting a pretty important aspect of Satan’s story wrong.
Quick recap to refresh your memory: Eons ago, in the realm of premortal spirits, God the Father presented to us His plan. As you know, that plan involved coming to earth, where we would have the opportunity to choose between good and evil. This agency, or the ability to make meaningful choices and act for ourselves, was an essential feature of God’s plan. Because we would sin at some point on our mortal journey, Jesus Christ would be provided as a Savior so that if we desired it, we could be cleansed of sin and one day return to the presence of God the Father.
But one premortal spirit, named Lucifer (who held significant authority in heaven), recognized that under the Father’s plan, not everyone would be saved. He saw therein an opportunity to elevate himself. He proposed an alternative plan. He told the Father, “I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.”
Lucifer’s proposal in and of itself was an act of rebellion. He and his followers were cast out of heaven, “And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will….” Satan’s plan was impossibly problematic for multiple reasons, but Moses 4 teaches us that one of the problems was that Lucifer “sought to destroy the agency of man….”
But how exactly would Satan’s “plan of salvation” destroy agency? Well, the most popular theory among Latter-day Saints today is that Satan would destroy agency by forcing us to choose the right at every turn. In other words, it was a plan of coercion or compulsion — one that would save us from sin at the expense of our agency.
Maxwell Institute scholar Philip Barlow found that this interpretation of Satan’s plan gained traction in the late 1800s. Over time, it ended up in James Talmage’s books, general conference talks, and teaching manuals. It became mainstream.
But there is an alternative explanation that has also risen to the surface every once in a while that, frankly, deserves more attention. I think Orson Pratt said it best in 1853: “If Satan had been permitted to carry out his plan, it would either have destroyed the agency of man, so that he could not commit sin [the compulsion interpretation we’ve already talked about]; or it would have redeemed him in his sins and wickedness without any repentance or reformation of life.”
In the October 1949 general conference, President J. Reuben Clark put it this way: “As I read the scriptures, Satan’s plan required one of two things: Either the compulsion of the mind, the spirit, the intelligence of man, or else saving men in sin.”
In other words, instead of destroying agency by controlling everything we did, he would destroy agency by essentially making mortality a complete free-for-all. Our choices would have no eternal weight or meaning because no matter what we did, we would still be saved. Instead of imposing total control over us, he would allow total chaos without consequences.
In 1982, Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained it this way: “Lucifer sought … to save all men without reference to their works … He offered a mortal life of carnality and sensuality, of evil and crime and murder, following which all men would be saved…. Lucifer and his lieutenants … sought salvation without keeping the commandments, without overcoming the world, without choosing between opposites.”
The prophet, Lehi, warned us in 2 Nephi 2 how this chaos without consequences approach would destroy agency. He said, “…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 … man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.”
Now, why does any of this matter? Well, we’re not just nitpicking about a small plot point in the story of premortality. Revelation 12:9 teaches us that “the great dragon [Satan] was cast out … into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” President Gordon B. Hinckley taught that “the contest between good and evil, which began with [the War in Heaven], has never ended. It has gone on and on and on to the present.” 1 Peter 5 advises us to “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” If we hope to be able to defend ourselves against “the rulers of the darkness of this world,” then we would do well to remember one of the first rules of combat: know your enemy.
Researcher John Fossum noted, “If the same contestants are doing battle, and if the same issues are being fought for, it stands to reason that Satan’s premortal agenda would be similar to (if not the same as) his current agenda.”
Personally, Satan doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to go around trying to force people to choose the right. But this whole idea that we’re not really accountable for our choices? That’s all over the place. The antichrist, Korihor, taught in Alma chapter 30 that “every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature … and whatsoever a man did was no crime.”
2 Nephi 28 warns that in the last days, “there shall be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us… [God] will justify in committing a little sin … and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God.”
Don’t fall for it. Make repentance part of your daily life. Every mortal on this planet, including you, chose before this life to support the Father’s plan. Don’t lose sight of that.
Speaking of Satan, some people wonder why we Latter-day Saints feature inverted stars on some of our temples. Many people assume it’s a Satanic symbol, so what’s the deal? We talk all about that in episode 3 of this podcast. the episode we published just a few weeks ago titled “Satanic symbols on Latter-day Saint temples?!”. Go check it out, and have a great day.