The definition of agency is simply: The ability to do good.
It is a fruit of the Lord’s atonement.
There is nothing negative about it.
Everyone has Choice, even the adversary,
For he chooses how to carry out his purposes.
He wanted no agency, therefore he denied himself that privilege.
We all get what we want.
Let us all be better agents with our agency, to act, and not be acted upon.
Shane R. Brown
The definition of agency is simply, the ability to do good. It is a fruit of the Lord’s atonement. There is nothing negative about it. Everyone has choice, even the adversary, for he chooses how to carry out his purposes. He wanted no agency, therefore he denied himself that privilege. He has placed himself in a position were he cannot, and will not do anything good. We all get what we want. Let us be better agents with our agency, to act, and not be acted upon.
Shane
One day we were solicited by a salesman. We liked the product and let him in to share more. During the presentation we also discussed the Latter-Day Saints, and how we are members of this church. He asked some questions, and with the short time we had I bore my testimony of the first vision and The Book of Mormon. He felt the Holy Spirit.
Because he was a supervising salesman, he was able to lower the price for us without getting special permission. He asked us to make a reasonable offer of what we could afford for a down payment and a monthly payment, which would have been on a three year payment plan, unless we were to pay more into the monthly payments.
He accepted our offer, and then gave us another option which would have been better for him. It was for one-third more a month, and a higher down payment. At that time I had offered him a Book of Mormon, and told him that to me this was worth more than any money could be, and that if he would read from it, I would accept his second offer. He honestly gave his reluctance to do so, and I reassured him that it was up to him, and that to help him we would take the higher price.
He had been impressed with us, and we with him. What he didn’t know, was that this higher price would make it more difficult for us financially, especially it being an obligation for the next 3 years, unless we used our next season’s tax refund to finish paying it off, which would be a while away.
It’s in my prayers, that because we were sacrificing at such a price financially to help him, that he take the opportunity to read The Book of Mormon, and learn the truth for himself.
In my mind came the urgency from Christ and His ministry, “If I have paid such a high price for you to save your soul, ought not ye with the same such urgency, share the gospel with all these My brethren, of whom I have paid so high a price for?”
Please, please, I urge you – share the gospel! Live it, love it, and rejoice in it with all your heart, mind and fellow Saints! Be open minded for the Lord’s desperate pleadings for you to follow His holy will, and share his loving, saving gospel, atoning sacrifice and care for all! Desperate is the need, urgent is the call!
Shane
The atonement and its coverage is infinite and eternal, and covers everyone with certainty through spiritual underpinnings. Yet for one to make the highest kingdom and glory, namely the Celestial Kingdom, or highest Heaven, the gospel must be learned, accepted and lived, including faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, and becoming a member of Christ’s covenants and Church upon receiving the confirmation of The Gift of the Holy Ghost, and then truly living thereby. However, those who do make it to the Celestial Kingdom, will only do so, by the Lord pleading our case. For in this, there is true joy and peace.
There is forgiveness in the life hereafter, for those who have as yet not been taught by the servants of the Lord about their Redeemer, and His gospel plan of happiness. For there is much preaching and teaching taking place in the spirit world, where those who have passed, are awaiting their resurrection. But for those who have had ample understanding and have been pricked in their hearts to know the truth, but have not lived it, and have knowingly rebelled, these are they whom are sent to outer darkness, where there shall be weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.
All of these, who have not partaken of repentance, will spend some time in this place of cleansing, known in The Book of Mormon as, Outer Darkness. This is where one will truly be purified, although not in an easy way. It will be through the fire and brimstone burning process, wherein their Spirits will be burned clean. Then, they will be sent to the kingdom of glory most suited for them, either the Terrestrial, or the Telestial. This is according to how they lived their life, with what they had, understood, and felt. They will also be judged according to the desires of their hearts, so Jesus’ atonement will always have a good effect.
Once those who have suffered in Outer Darkness have been fully cleansed, they are free to leave and receive either the second, or third resurrection, according to which ever Kingdom of Glory they will be restored unto. Either the second resurrection unto the Terrestrial Kingdom or the third resurrection unto the Telestial Kingdom.
All who enter into this place of Outer Darkness shall leave, except for the sons of Perdition, and Lucifer and his devils, or fallen angels. The sons of Perdition are those who fully knew the Lord in this life, and His love and grace completely, and then knowingly and purposely chose Lucifer over Jesus Christ (this will be very few in number), of which it is said, it were better for them to have not been born. These, along with Satan and his devils, will remain in the burning and brimstone of outer darkness, until they are fully clean and called up on the marvelous day of reconciliation, when ALL God’s children will be called up unto the next eternal life, of again another first, second and third estate, or, pre-earth, earth, and post earth life, in a higher phase of existence and eternal progression.
Lucifer will then, as in the story of the prodigal son, come to himself, and work his long way back to the Father’s house. By then, he and his followers will have been understood for their role in helping us acheive our eternal life, and will have been fully forgiven by all. He and they will then be able once again, to move forward in the eternal plan of progression for all God’s children. He in fact, at this time, needed to go through the experience of utter and total rebellion, to be able to see for himself that, he did everything that could have been done to destroy God’s plan, and it couldn’t be done. And now being clean, he will start over in his progress and relationship with God and his fellow man.
Shane
Adam and Eve were innocent before the Fall, in which they did not have a full understanding of agency. Agency is the ability to do good, with a full understanding of right and wrong. They had choice, but not yet a full agency, until they could fully discern between right and wrong. After the fall, they were given a special gift for themselves, and all their posterity. This gift is called the Light of Christ. In the scriptures, it is described as God giving enmity to Eve and Adam, and their seed (offspring). Enmity is a hatred toward or for something. As God gives only gifts of righteousness, the gift of enmity given by Him, is a gift of a righteous hatred, for that which is evil. For agency, is the ability to choose good, under the full knowledge of good and evil.
They used their partial agency, to choose to be given full agency, by succumbing to the Fall. There also had to be an opposition to the Fall, for mankind to be given the opportunity to be reconciled with the Father. Only Jesus could do this. He is the perpetuation of the plan of God for man. It was God’s holy will to offer up His Son, to swallow up all sin via the bitter cup (literally). But he shrank not, and drank the utter dregs, finishing His preparations for mankind, as was His father’s will and design.
Before the Fall, in Adam and Eve’s innocents, they could do no good, for they knew no evil. They had limited agency, but no knowledge of consequences, because they had no sin, nor law given, but only two commandments. To not partake of the fruit, and to be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth – to have children.
God’s plan for the fall to take place, was one in which the atonement was also already in place. It worked in an eternal sense, in that it would cover all of mankind, both before and beyond the time it actually took place. God could not create Adam and Eve in a fallen state, because He cannot by nature, do anything evil. Adam and Eve had to be given life, and then only two commandments given, to then choose for themselves the partaking of The Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This way, God could place them in a new world, without causing or creating sin, for God is not able to sin, as is Satan not capable of doing good. For there must needs be an opposition in all things, thus the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the opposition for mankind, and Satan to God.
See 2 Nephi 2:11 below.
11 It must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility. (2 Nephi 2:11)
After Eve chose to trust in her feelings, and believe that they needed to fully understand the difference between good and evil, and Adam also, understanding the Father, without fully understanding the import of their decision’s outcome, partook.
God knew that they would eventually come to the point where they would realize they needed something more to help them grow, in which they would choose to partake, and need the Lord’s saving atonement, for we do not just repent to become like Jesus, but it is in the actual repentance process itself, that we become like Him. This is one reason we needed earth life and the fall in the first place, and why a redeemer was chosen and prepared from before the foundations of the earth.
The Fall, or Adam’s transgression, is a spiritual death, because Adam and Eve were separated from the presence of God and given agency to act for themselves and not to be acted upon. See 2 Nephi 2:26
They were also given the great power of procreation, so that they could keep the commandment to multiply, and replenish the earth and have joy in their posterity. See Genesis 1:28
In this new and fallen state, they experienced a bodily change as well, in which they were made able to have children. This is necessary, because God gave them the commandment to multiply, and He always provides a way to obey Him.
We need to be tried, reproved and repent, in order to grow up to become like Him, even as a child can grow up to be like their parents. God had to create Adam and Eve in innocence, and give them the commandments He did, for God is a God of righteousness, and cannot create a state of sin or Fall.
It is an eternal principle that to everything good, there is a little bad, and to everything bad, there is a little good, circumstantially speaking. This is known as, there is an opposition in all things. This is why out of all the trees in the garden of Eden (Eden being our Earth’s mortal name), there was only one tree which had seeds, which was a fig tree in the midst, a tree originally created by Christ Jesus, but later wrought upon by the evil influences of Lucifer and his devils, to become an unhealthy, seed bearing fruit for mankind. Thus, the Father commanded them not to partake of it, even knowing that they would.
• The principle of perfection
Because it is not within Heavenly Father’s nature to do or introduce error, He had to say to them, do not eat, or you shall surely die, all of which is true. Yet, He also wanted us to have children and become like Him. For in so doing, Adam and Eve would have to make their own choice to partake. In this we would have to walk where God has walked, do as He has done before, and follow the course He has followed. For as man is, God once was, and as God is, man may become. Therefore, we needed the fall, the light of Christ, and a redeemer. Praise be to Adam and Eve for taking the courageous leap of faith and trust, to make the choice to partake.
See Teachings of the Presidents of the Church- Joseph Smith, pg. 41 below.
God Himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by His power, was to make Himself visible, —I say, if you were to see Him today, you would see Him like a man in form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man. (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church – Joseph Smith, pg. 41)
Everything has purpose and meaning, and God is over all His children. Now, speaking of God’s plan, the adversary is very much a part of it. We need opposition to permit, or rather give us permission to learn and grow. This need is stated in the earlier mentioned scripture in 2 Nephi 2:11, that there must be an opposition in all things.
Because the Lord took on all sins, and the source from which they spring, He also takes the ones from which they spring. Yes, somewhere, sometime, in the great eons of the eternal lives and onward, the ultimate prodigal son, will, having been burned and purged clean in the lake of fire and brimstone in outer darkness, finally come to himself, and begin his long arduous trek home. For God is a perfect God, with perfect love, and a perfect plan, and He will not lose any of His children.
So, is there hope for the rest of us? Definitely!
Shane
“Everyone act the same, be the same. Don’t talk this way, say these things, or do those things. It will be offensive.”
Sounds like a bunch of people who have lost their true roots, even their beginnings. Robots who have no rights to feel, express, or create according to their conscience or desires. They must, according to professionalism, by means of earning a living, be in a sense, lifeless human beings, controlled and dictated by the puppeteer of socialistic communism. In other words, professionalism. If you don’t agree, read on.
What’s the alternative then? Is there a guide that leads us down a better path? A route that leads everyone to a more express part of who we really are? Can it truly be reached in a capitalistic society? Not fully.
The old adage that money is the root of all evil, is real. After all, loving something that is good cannot be wrong. Yes, it may be the root of all evil, but it’s not the source. The adversary is the source, and he uses money to corrupt people.
As for me, money is worthless. A divide between living the law of consecration, wherein everyone gets to know each other, uses their gifts and skills, and freely provides what they have to offer for each other. In this environment there is personal growth, service and love unrestrained. May we seek to live this better way.
Shane
Infinitely In The Know 