How Gentle God's Commands

Perhaps the foremost argument presented against the idea of Mormon Anarchy is the Mormon belief in God's commandments. More than most Christians, Mormons believe that God has issued many commandments which must be followed. Obedience is frequently heavily emphasized by members of the Church of Jesus Christ, and we have a multitude of commandments that seem to demand our obedience. If these commandments are as numerous and as exacting as we so often suppose, then Mormonism and anarchism truly are incompatible.

As a firm believer in both Mormonism and anarchism, I submit to you that these commandments are neither so numerous nor so exacting as we suppose.

First, let it be said that a commandment is only significant to our exaltation if it comes from God. Commandments that come from men but not from God have no bearing on our exaltation. It should be remembered that the Lord told Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove that the corrupt professors of the false churches of the time were characterized in part by the fact that "they teach for doctrines the commandments of men" (JS–H 1:19), and he reminds us that we should "not be seduced by evil spirits, or doctrines of devils, or the commandments of men" (D&C 46:7).

In fact, the Lord has this to say about the whole business of commandments: "I the Lord . . . gave commandments . . . that man should not counsel his fellow man, neither trust in the arm of flesh" (D&C 1:17–19). One of the reasons God gives commandments is so that we won't tell each other what to do or listen to those among us who decide to tell us what to do despite the Lord's commandments. So no matter how numerous or exacting the commandments of men might be, the Lord wants us to ignore them.

That leaves us with the commandments of God. If they are as exacting as we suppose, then anarchism truly is fundamentally incompatible with Mormonism.

So how exacting are the Lord's commandments? The commandments of men — the kind that anarchism opposes — are those commandments that come with a punishment attached for disobedience. Do this or I'll fire you! Do that or I'll fine you! Do this or I'll spank you! Do that or I'll jail you! And for the strongest commandments, Do this or I'll kill you! That's how we issue commandments among one another. An essential part of commandments of this sort is that the person or entity that issues the commandment be the one with the means and wherewithal to carry out the threatened punishment.

Are God's commandments this way? Does he punish us for failing to obey his commandments?

First let's consider the eternal rewards that will be given to those who do good and those who evil. We know from D&C 76 that there are three degrees of glory that will be inherited by almost all of God's children: celestial glory, terrestrial glory, and telestial glory. We read that the telestial glory, which is for the heirs of salvation, surpasses all understanding (verses 88 and 89). But then we read that the terrestrial glory "excels in all things the glory of the telestial" (verse 91). So the telestial glory is more glorious than any of us can understand, and the terrestrial glory is more glorious than that. And then we read the celestial glory "excels in all things", ranking even higher than terrestrial glory (verse 92). So these different kinds of glory, the least of which is more glorious than we can understand, set aside for the heirs of salvation, must be for pretty good people, right? Yes. The least of these glories (which can in no way be considered a punishment) is for "liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whosoever loves and makes a lie" (verse 103). These people, heirs of salvation, are so good in God's eyes that they will inherit an eternal glory that surpasses all understanding. I don't see the punishment here.

Of course, there is another, non-glorious place for people to wind up after Judgment Day. We can read about it in D&C 88:32–35. The Lord explains that people who cannot abide a celestial glory will receive a terrestrial glory, unless they can't abide a terrestrial glory either, in which case they'll receive a telestial glory. But some people won't be able to abide even a telestial glory. It will be too glorious for them; they won't be able to stand it. What happens to them? Fire and brimstone, right? Not exactly. The Lord says they will be resurrected (or quickened) and then "they shall return again to their own place, to enjoy that which they are willing to receive, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received. For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift." In other words, they're simply not interested in the glory that's being offered to them, so they get left alone to enjoy themselves in their own place. That's not even punishment, really. That's just the Lord not forcing his idea of happiness down his children's throats. He offers everything he has and they receive as much as they want to receive.

So no one ends up getting punished forever. Some people don't end up with everything God has to offer, but that appears to be because they're not interested in everything he thinks is so fantastic. But what about short-term punishment? D&C 76:106 (along with a bunch of other scriptures, but we're already at Section 76, so) seems to suggest that there will be some time spent in hell for some people before they move on to an eternal reward. Isn't that hell punishment?

Well, hell is certainly bad, but that doesn't make it punishment. It's only punishment if it's inflicted by the one who issued the commandment or by someone associated with him. For example, if I disobey my dentist's orders and drink a gallon of cola every day and never brush my teeth, bad things will happen to my teeth. They'll probably slowly rot away, in fact. But that doesn't mean the dentist is punishing me for my disobedience. He was just telling me what would happen if I didn't do what he suggested. So his orders weren't the kind of orders or commandments that anarchism is opposed to. There was no coercion; there were no threats; there were no ultimatums; there was no force. There was just knowledge about cause and effect as it related to dental health, and my refusal to accept that knowledge. I suffer bad for it, but not punishment. So you can experience bad things happening to you as a result of your own behavior without being punished. If hell is like that, then it wouldn't be punishment.

Joseph Smith talked about the punishment of hell this way: "A man is his own tormentor and his own condemner. Hence the saying, They shall go into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. The torment of disappointment in the mind of man is as exquisite as a lake burning with fire and brimstone. I say, so is the torment of man" (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith 224).

Harold B. Lee put it like this: "The greatest hell that one can suffer is the burning of one’s conscience. The scriptures say his thoughts will condemn him, he’ll have a bright recollection of all his life (see Alma 12:14; 11:43). . . . Now, when we fail of that highest degree of glory and realize what we’ve lost, there will be a burning of the conscience that will be worse than any physical kind of fire that I assume one could suffer" (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Harold B. Lee 227).

Both of these modern prophets are saying that the fires of hell are nothing more than the disappointment and burning of conscience we feel when we've done something we regret. God doesn't send us to hell, nor do we send ourselves there in the sense that we choose to disobey whiel knowing that hell is the punishment decreed for disobedience. More truthfully, we create hell for ourselves, a point somewhat reminiscent of Brigham Young's teaching that "if we enjoy a Zion in time or in eternity we must make it for ourselves. . . . all who have a Zion in the eternities of the Gods organized, framed, consolidated, and perfected it themselves, and consequently are entitled to enjoy it" (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young 112). So whether we end up with a heaven or a hell, it will be because we have made it for ourselves. Just as, if I end up with rotten teeth from drinking too much cola and never brushing, I will have rotted my teeth myself.

So the punishment we receive for disobeying God's commandments is no punishment at all. There is no coercion; there are no threats; there are no ultimatums; there is no force. There is just knowledge about cause and effect as it relates to spiritual health, and our willingness or refusal to accept that knowledge. The commandments of God, then, are just like the commandments of the dentist. They derive their authority not from any threat of force, but simply from greater expertise. That kind of authority is not what anarchism opposes (see An Anarchist FAQ §B.1). So there is nothing incompatible in the Mormon understanding of God's commandments and anarchism.

In fact, I would go further than to say there is nothing incompatible between the two views. The principle behind the commandments of God is that the proper reward for our actions is precisely the natural result of those actions. If we enjoy heaven, it will be because we create a heaven. If we suffer hell, it will be because we create a hell. No artificially imposed reward — just the natural fruit of our own labor. Mormons commonly refer to this principle as the Law of the Harvest: as you sow, so shall you reap.

One of the fundamental principles of anarchism is that the natural wage of labor is its product: that is the basis for anarchists' opposition to things like profit (where an employer gains by giving the laborer less than the product of his labor), rent (where a landlord gains by extorting a portion of a laborer's productivity), taxation (where a government acts as a landlord), and all other forms of robbing a producer of the fruits of his productivity.

Mormons take this principle of anarchism, though receiving it from God rather than from anarchist philosophers (no matter how enlightened the philosophers be), and comprehend its application as eternal. Not only are the natural wages of earthly labor the natural earthly product, but the true and proper eternal reward for righteousness or wickedness is neither more nor less than the natural spiritual product of the same. God's commandments are not only compatible with anarchism — his whole approach to commandments is fundamentally anarchistic.

God's commands are gentle indeed.