Given Me Thine Honor

In the premortal existence Satan came before the Father and said this: “Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.” Satan sought to have the honor of the Father as well as His power. The Lord related what happened because of this: “Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down.” In another revelation we similarly read, “The devil was before Adam, for he rebelled against me, saying, Give me thine honor, which is my power; and also a third part of the hosts of heaven turned he away from me because of their agency” (Doctrine and Covenants 29:36). Because he rebelled and sought to take for himself the glory and power of God, Lucifer was cast out and became the devil. He also became “the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men” (Moses 4:1-4). His ambition was to have the power and honor of God, and surely that desire has not left him as he goes about seeking to deceive the children of God.

            One of the ways that Satan subsequently began to lie to the children of men was to try to convince them that, as he had sought, the power and glory of God were really his. We see this, for example, in his attempt to get Jesus to worship him: “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:8-9). He wanted to be worshiped and have glory which he can never have. He also shows this desire as attempts to discredit the Savior and His power by claiming for himself the works of Jesus. In a twisted attempt at gaining the power that he will never have, he has often inspired men to believe that the works of God were his own. For example, when there “was brought unto [Jesus] one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb… he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.” We read that the Pharisees said, “This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils” (Matthew 12:22-24). In other words, Satan was inspiring them to believe that Jesus’s power really was the power of the devil—he wanted to take credit for the miracle while discrediting the Savior at the same time. On another occasion after Jesus opened the eyes of the blind miraculously and then taught the people about how He was the Good Shepherd, “Many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?” Again the adversary was inspiring them to make them believe that the Savior’s power really was that of the devil’s, but others could not believe it: “These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?” (John 10:20-21) In the Book of Mormon after many of the miraculous signs took place surrounding the birth of the Savior, Satan again wanted to take credit. We read, “The people began to forget those signs and wonders which they had heard…. Imagining up some vain thing in their hearts, that it was wrought by men and by the power of the devil, to lead away and deceive the hearts of the people; and thus did Satan get possession of the hearts of the people again” (3 Nephi 2:1-2). If he can get us to believe that the miracles of God are really his, then he leads us away from the source of our salvation and he smugly takes upon himself glory for things he cannot and has not done. We must never mistake God’s works for his but always know that “every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ” (Moroni 7:16).