In Institute class a couple of months ago, there came a profound thought. The teacher slipped it in, but it caused an uproar, and we had a good discussion about it. See, I'm familiar with the war in heaven. I thought I was familiar with Satan's stance. He would make us all be obedient and we would all qualify for exaltation. Many books have been written with this theme. Most dystopian novels are about this: government forcing a people to live, think, dress, eat, procreate, love, et cetera a certain way. The books always end the same way. The people always rise up and overthrow their tyrannical government. Why? Because the government was bad? Maybe. But, I think this is why:
"Know this, that ev'ry soul is free
To choose his life and what he'll be;
For this eternal truth is giv'n:
That God will force no man to heav'n."
We think that our agency is a gift from God. The gift is that He honors our agency as an eternal principle. I'm not sure that it was His to give. I think that we are and always have been agents unto ourselves.
So what was Satan's plan?
What we discussed was that Satan wasn't interested in taking away our agency, he was interested in taking away the consequences for sin. What's that scripture?
And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away. 2 Nephi 2:13
Either way, whether it was forcing us to be good, or simply removing the effects of sin, Satan's plan was impossible. Neither could ever work. He knew it. He used his agency to destroy 1/3 of Heavenly Father's children outright and uses it to this day to take away some of the best and brightest of those who initially used their agency to follow the Savior.
Two weeks ago, during Sharing Time in Primary, the first counselor was teaching the lesson on the millennium. One of the things she said was that there would be no temptation during the millennium. A thought popped unbidden into my mind, "Will there be chocolate in the millennium?!"
There are consequences to eating chocolate; my body is amply ample proof. It begs the question of whether resurrected beings will even need to eat. Will I be sad at not being able to eat delicious things? Will I not even be concerned at all? How could chocolate, in all of it's forms, not be a temptation? Will our self control, our ability to look at and honor our bodies as temples, be such that we won't have desires to overeat or self medicate with food? With no sorrow and all of the work to do, will we lose the urge for one more handful of M&Ms? These are important questions that are distracting me right now.
What do you think? Can I make and eat Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake in the millennium?!
Maybe I'll make it tomorrow, just in case.
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