The Chains

One of the most frightening images in the scriptures is this depiction from the Pearl of Great Price: “And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced” (Moses 7:26).  It’s not clear to me from the context of this verse whether Enoch was specifically seeing his own day or the last days, but it’s hard to imagine that this image does not apply to what we see in our days.  It seems from this verse the chain of Satan does more than just bind us; it also blocks us from light and brings darkness upon us.  So not only are the inhabitants of the world bound because of Satan’s chain, but they are also blinded from that very fact because of the darkness Satan brings.  So the question for each of us is how much hold the devil has over us, and whether our vision of things as they really are is skewed because of this great chain that veils the earth. 

                  The scriptures speak of chains in numerous places, in particularly in conjunction with the effects of sin and wickedness.  In our dispensation the Lord said of the wicked: “But behold, the residue of the wicked have I kept in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day, which shall come at the end of the earth” (D&C 38:5).  Enoch saw in his vision that the Saints were able to come forth and stand “on the right hand of God,” whereas the rest of those who were wicked “were reserved in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day” (Moses 7:57).  Nephi spoke of those belonged to the kingdom of the devil and would not repent in this language: “the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish” (2 Nephi 28:19).  Furthermore those who are lulled into sin through the pacification of the adversary would be grasped “with his awful chains” (2 Nephi 28:22).  Jacob warned his people in this language: “O, my beloved brethren, turn away from your sins; shake off the chains of him that would bind you fast” (2 Nephi 9:45).  These and other scriptures attest that it is through sin that we become bound by the chains of the devil. 

                The scriptures are also clear what keeps us free from these chains: repentance and the Savior.  That is what will keep us unfettered from the adversary.  Alma pled with the people of Ammonihah, “May the Lord grant unto you repentance, that ye may not bring down his wrath upon you, that ye may not be bound down by the chains of hell” (Alma 13:30).  Earlier this same Alma had pled for freedom from these chains himself as he repented: “O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death” (Alma 36:18).  Because he sought out the Savior in the spirit of true repentance, the Lord did indeed free him from these chains.  In Joseph F. Smith’s vision he likewise attested to the delivering power of Christ:  “And the saints rejoiced in their redemption, and bowed the knee and acknowledged the Son of God as their Redeemer and Deliverer from death and the chains of hell” (D&C 138:23).  Similarly Alma taught the people of Zarahemla that their fathers had been “loosed from the bands of death, yea, and also the chains of hell” because they “put their trust in the true and living God” (Alma 5:10, 13).  In other words, faith in Jesus Christ freed them from the great chain of Satan. 

                The Lord said this to the Prophet Joseph: “Keep all the commandments and covenants by which ye are bound; and I will cause the heavens to shake for your good, and Satan shall tremble and Zion shall rejoice upon the hills and flourish” (D&C 35:24).  Ultimately the choice we face in our life is whether we want to be bound by our covenants to God so that we can “rejoice” and “flourish” or whether we want to be bound by the chains of sin that carry us “captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe” (2 Nephi 1:13).