So, Kevin has posted some amazing things on this blog in the last week and it has been decided that tonight he would pass the torch to me to write something. It’s a bit of an intimidating spot to be placed in but I’ll do what I can. I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to write for my first entry and was quite tempted to cop out of the responsibility and just post an essay that I wrote for a religions class a few months ago. Instead I decided to select a topic and go from there. If only it were so easy. I must have started to write this entry a dozen different times and a dozen different ways. In the end, I think I’m going to comment about Moses 4, which was talked about at the Longview institute last week.
Chapter four is about how Satan became the devil and the temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden. Now, what follows could just be gospel according to Jennifer but, when we were discussing these verses several interesting points about the War in Heaven and the Fall were brought up.
1. War in Heaven:
Let’s reread a verse we’ve all read a hundred times but then look at it in a new light:
“And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying – 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.” (Moses 4:1)
At the council in Heaven they were holding a council to choose which savior to send to redeem mankind and how they would do so. The two who volunteered for the job as we know were Christ and Satan. Something I’m not sure we ever really think about though, is that when Satan says “give me thine honor”, he is essentially asking to be God himself and by himself. With him as the savior he would have denied us our agency, that which would have allowed us to become gods. We would have been unable to gain the knowledge that would have allowed us to become like our Father in Heaven. We were also taught in this institute class that in the pre - existence we had agency. We could sin. This is aptly shown when 1/3 the hosts of Heaven sinned and rebelled against their God and their father for Satan. In doing so they may as well have said “we don’t want Heavenly Father to be God”.
2. The Fall:
Satan works in steps. He deceives, then he blinds, and then he holds you captive. He tried to do just this with Eve. He sought to beguile her, not knowing God’s plan, and tried to destroy the world. He sought to deceive Eve by feeding her half – truths about the nature of the fruit that God had forbidden her to eat. He tried to make God out to be a jealous man, not wanting them to eat the fruit because if they did they would have knowledge of good and evil. Of course he was lying about God being jealous, but he wasn’t about the knowledge she would gain. He continued to try and entice her with sweet notions about the fruit for an unknown amount of time. The forbidden fruit that had been once so uninteresting to her, was now “pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make her wise”. Satan had blinded her. If it weren’t for the knowledge of the gospel continually being taught to her and her husband, Eve would have been held captive by the devil. However, Eve grew to understand what needed to be done and broke the law.
If partaking of the tree hadn’t been part of God’s plan all along, Eve could have found herself a captive of Satan. We to can be led astray by Satan through deception and blindness until we become so immune to the things of the world that we shouldn’t partake of that we do it automatically and without reserve. Things like lying, drugs, and pornography are only a few of the things Satan wraps in pretty little bows to lead us into damnation. We have God on our side. He knows what is in our mind and if we seek after him in favor of the deceptions of Satan we cannot falter. Being blind to the light and will of Christ is a scary place to be; so hold fast to the truth and you will be free.
Chapter four is about how Satan became the devil and the temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden. Now, what follows could just be gospel according to Jennifer but, when we were discussing these verses several interesting points about the War in Heaven and the Fall were brought up.
1. War in Heaven:
Let’s reread a verse we’ve all read a hundred times but then look at it in a new light:
“And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying – 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.” (Moses 4:1)
At the council in Heaven they were holding a council to choose which savior to send to redeem mankind and how they would do so. The two who volunteered for the job as we know were Christ and Satan. Something I’m not sure we ever really think about though, is that when Satan says “give me thine honor”, he is essentially asking to be God himself and by himself. With him as the savior he would have denied us our agency, that which would have allowed us to become gods. We would have been unable to gain the knowledge that would have allowed us to become like our Father in Heaven. We were also taught in this institute class that in the pre - existence we had agency. We could sin. This is aptly shown when 1/3 the hosts of Heaven sinned and rebelled against their God and their father for Satan. In doing so they may as well have said “we don’t want Heavenly Father to be God”.
2. The Fall:
Satan works in steps. He deceives, then he blinds, and then he holds you captive. He tried to do just this with Eve. He sought to beguile her, not knowing God’s plan, and tried to destroy the world. He sought to deceive Eve by feeding her half – truths about the nature of the fruit that God had forbidden her to eat. He tried to make God out to be a jealous man, not wanting them to eat the fruit because if they did they would have knowledge of good and evil. Of course he was lying about God being jealous, but he wasn’t about the knowledge she would gain. He continued to try and entice her with sweet notions about the fruit for an unknown amount of time. The forbidden fruit that had been once so uninteresting to her, was now “pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make her wise”. Satan had blinded her. If it weren’t for the knowledge of the gospel continually being taught to her and her husband, Eve would have been held captive by the devil. However, Eve grew to understand what needed to be done and broke the law.
If partaking of the tree hadn’t been part of God’s plan all along, Eve could have found herself a captive of Satan. We to can be led astray by Satan through deception and blindness until we become so immune to the things of the world that we shouldn’t partake of that we do it automatically and without reserve. Things like lying, drugs, and pornography are only a few of the things Satan wraps in pretty little bows to lead us into damnation. We have God on our side. He knows what is in our mind and if we seek after him in favor of the deceptions of Satan we cannot falter. Being blind to the light and will of Christ is a scary place to be; so hold fast to the truth and you will be free.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
