In the Beginning Was Anarchy

One of the basic teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and indeed one of the key differences between the Church and other religions that profess a belief in Jesus Christ, is that we existed before we were born and we lived with God, who was and is our Father in a spiritual (yet physical, since we reject the notion of non-physical spirits) sense.

When we lived with our Father in heaven, we learned from him and grew to become more like him. That's what he wanted for us. He wanted us to become like him, to have all the happiness that he enjoys. What father, being good, wouldn't want that?

But there were two ways in which we differed from him. First, he had an immortal body of flesh and bones, while we were only spirits. Second, he had developed a lot more spiritual power than we had. He wanted to make it possible for us to have those things as well, so he planned a way for it to work out. He decided to make a world where we could come to receive bodies of flesh and, at the same time, make choices for ourselves, without knowing that he was watching, so we could develop our own spiritual strength independently from his direct influence. Furthermore, since he knew, that in the process of learning to develop our spiritual power, we would make plenty of mistakes that would end up hurting us, he wanted to provide a Savior who could overcome the negative effects of those mistakes so that we could get the benefit of learning without having to live forever with the less desirable results of our time on the learning curve.

All of this is fundamental to the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ, and you can invite any Mormon missionaries into your home and they can confirm all of this.

Now, when our Father first presented his plan for how we could become like him, there were two different people (that we know of) who volunteered to be the Savior that the plan would require. One was Jesus. The other was Lucifer. Jesus wanted to do things the way our Father had suggested, but Lucifer wanted to do things differently: he wanted to make sure that no one ever chose to not develop his or her own spiritual strength because he wanted glory and power. The Father's plan left open the possibility of individuals not choosing to become the kind of people they would have to be to be like our Father — it was entirely up to each person to decide how far he or she wanted to go on that path. Lucifer was going to force everyone to go the distance, whether they wanted to or not. And the reason he wanted that was so that he could be more powerful. Let me make that clearer: he wanted to limit our freedom so that he could become more powerful.

A lot of our brothers and sisters liked Lucifer's suggestion. In fact, one third of our whole family sided with him, while the other two thirds sided with Jesus and the Father. We fought over it, and those who sided with Lucifer left God and heaven and never got bodies of flesh. The rest of us (that is, everyone who's ever been born or will be born) sided with Jesus.

You can read about this showdown in the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants:

Moses 4:1–4

1 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.

2 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.

3 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;

4 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.

D&C 29:36–38

36 And it came to pass that Adam, being tempted of the devil--for, behold, 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;

37 And they were thrust down, and thus came the devil and his angels;

38 And, behold, there is a place prepared for them from the beginning, which place is hell.

Now, notice that the crux of the whole fight between God and the devil is that the devil wants people to be controlled so that he can have more power while God wants people to be free so that they can have more power (as much as he himself has, in fact). That's what the beginning of the argument between the two was, and as you can see from Moses 4:4, the devil's drive to enslave and exploit mankind is still the defining characteristic of the great battle between Good and Evil.

What's more, you can see from this that the devil uses lies to accomplish this enslavement. That's his primary weapon and tool of exploitation. One lie that these texts mention is the lie that if we are controlled instead of being left free, it will be for our own benefit: "not one soul shall be lost." But that's a lie — it can't happen. People can't develop the kind of spiritual strength our Father has if they are controlled; and if they are not controlled, then those who don't want to develop that kind of strength will be free not to. Lucifer's campaign promise that "not one soul shall be lost" was a total lie. Yet how many times are such lies alarmingly effective in persuading men to sell themselves into slavery?

So, from the Mormon perspective, the whole cosmic war between Good and Evil is all about freedom on the one hand and slavery on the other. As the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi put it, "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; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself." (2 Nephi 2:27). That's what life is all about — the struggle between God and freedom on the one hand and Satan and bondage on the other.

The foundation of the Mormon faith, then, is that anarchy is God's way, and fighting against anarchy was an idea the devil came up with to get more power. And coming up with that idea was precisely what made him the devil.