Destroy the Agency of Man

In a recent podcast, Dr. Tyler Griffin highlighted the contrast between Alma 30:60 and Alma 31:5. In the former, we read this summary from Mormon of how the adversary works: “And thus we see that the devil will not support his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag them down to hell.” The devil works by force; he binds us and drags us to where he wants us to end up. The Lord, on the other hand, leads us to where we should go: “And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just.” The Lord works by agency, leading us to do right and inviting us to follow Him, but we are never forced. Moses recorded what happened in the premortal world where this contrast was also evident: “But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me—Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever. 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; 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, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice” (Moses 4:2-4). Jesus was the Chosen one, meaning that Heavenly Father chose Him and we can too—we did already once and we have the power on earth to choose Him again. Satan, on the other hand, sought from the premortal world to destroy agency. He works only by force, seeking to lead us captive through deception. It is clear that in mortality the devil is still trying to destroy the agency of man, attempting to control us through sin and addiction and wickedness.

                Many other passages in the Book of Mormon highlight how the adversary wants to destroy our ability to choose. Helaman warned his sons that the devil is trying to get “power over [us] to drag [us] down to the gulf of misery and endless wo” (Helaman 5:12). Mormon added that he seeks to “spread the works of darkness and abominations over all the face of the land, until he [has] dragged the people down to an entire destruction” (Helaman 6:28). Nephi taught that “the devil will grasp [the wicked] with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish…. He whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance” (2 Nephi 28:19, 22). Alma warned the people of Ammonihah, “This was a snare of the adversary, which he has laid to catch this people, that he might bring you into subjection unto him, that he might encircle you about with his chains, that he might chain you down to everlasting destruction, according to the power of his captivity” (Alma 12:6). The adversary seeks to chain us down, to prevent us from being delivered from sin by the Savior and returning back to the presence of God where he can never go. Lehi exhorted his rebellious sons with these words: “O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe” (2 Nephi 1:13). Again, Satan works by chains and by binding us through sin until we are held captive and cannot escape. His way always was and always will be to take away our agency.

                Thankfully, the Lord works through freedom and enabling us to choose for ourselves. We cannot be bound and controlled by Satan unless we first choose it at some point. And so, the choice is always clear, just as Lehi taught: “Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they 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” (2 Nephi 2:27). We must learn to choose liberty and eternal life by willingly following Jesus Christ.