Post by Jacob –
My father Lehi has taught our family the doctrines of salvation as long as anyone can remember. Nephi has elaborated or clarified those doctrines all along the way. Yet now it seems my turn to talk a little about a doctrine that seems fundamental to the Savior’s plan of salvation. My father taught me that for righteousness to be brought to pass, there must be opposition in all things. That means for there to be righteousness, there must be wickedness, for there to be good, there must be bad.
Let me explain it in a different way. If we were created without opposition, there would be no purpose in our creation. Since there is a purpose and that purpose is to become like our Eternal Father in Heaven, there must be a process through which we pass wherein we can become like Him or not.
It is the existence of opposition and our God given gift to act for ourselves that makes it all possible. The only way we can act for ourselves is if we are enticed by one thing or its opposite.
Quoting my father, “Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.” Try to follow this. If there were not opposition there would not be a contrast between two states – happiness vs. misery, life vs. death, corruption vs. incorruption, sense vs. insensibility. Without the contrast, everything would be the same and our creation and God’s purpose would be void.
It would make no sense for God to create us without a purpose. With no purpose, the wisdom, the power, the mercy and the justice of God would be for naught. Without law there would be no sin. Without sin there would be no righteousness. Without righteousness there would be no happiness or punishment or misery. Without all these things there would be no God. Without God, we would not have been created, nor the heavens, nor the earth – nothing to act and nothing to act upon.
So, in order for God to bring about His eternal purposes – which is us becoming like Him, after He created Adam and Eve and all the other living creatures, it was required to have opposition. There had to be choice, even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter.
Thus, we are given to act for ourselves and we could not do that if there were not enticements from one side or the other. According to the things my father Lehi read and taught, there was an angel of God that fell from heaven who became a devil, having sought what was evil before God. Because he fell from heaven, he is miserable forever and seeks the misery of all mankind. In this quest, he used lies and deception to entice Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit.
This of course resulted in Adam and Eve being driven from the Garden of Eden. They in turn brought forth children to populate the earth. These children (us) have this life to choose to obey the commandments, repent when they do not and prepare during this time of probation. If Adam and Eve had not transgressed they would have remained in the Garden and they would have had no opportunity to experience a life of choice wherein they could grow to become like God. They would have remained in a state of innocence forever.
They would have had no children, they would have had no joy, no misery, doing no good for they knew no sin. All this was done in the wisdom of God, who knows all things. So in other words, Adam and Eve fell that we could be and we are, so we can have joy.
An important thing that I must mention is of course the person that makes it all possible.
A Messiah will come in the fulness of time to redeem us, the children of men from the fall. Because we are redeemed from the fall, we will become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for ourselves and not be acted upon. Therefore, we are free according to the flesh and we have everything we need.
We are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil. Remember I mentioned that his objective is that we might all be as miserable as he is.
I can’t stress enough how important it is for us to look to the Messiah and obey His commandments, be faithful to His words and use this great blessing of choice to choose eternal life. NOT choose eternal death and choose to follow the enticings of the flesh. The devil’s plan is to bring us down to hell and reign over us in his own kingdom.
These will be some of my father’s last words as he is finishing his journey in this mortal life. Let me quote him again. “My sons, I teach you these things in the last days of my probation; and I have chosen the good part, according to the words of the prophets. And I have none other object save it be the everlasting welfare of your souls. Amen.”
(Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 2:11 – 30)
