A Rational Theology, as Taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

by John Andreas Widtsoe

CHAPTER 8.

MAN'S FREE AGENCY.

The question of the rights of each intelligent being as pertaining to himself and to all others must always have been and must always remain a chief one.

**In the Beginning.** In each intelligent being has resided, from the beginning, an individual and distinct will, which, of itself, has been acting in some degree upon the external universe. Each being, with its developing will, has learned more and more of natural forces and of the methods of controlling them. Each has striven to adapt his knowledge of surrounding forces to his own particular needs or desires. Clearly, since many wills have been so engaged, it might easily occur that different wills might use acquired knowledge in different ways to suit their different desires. It is easily conceivable, therefore, that one will might attempt so to control the surrounding forces as to give itself joy, yet to affect another will adversely. In general, whatever is desirable for one is desirable for all, since all spirits are cast in the same mold and have the same derivation. Nevertheless, when individuality is assumed, it is equally clear that there is always a possibility of one will crossing another to the detriment of one or possibly both.

The universal plan may follow its developing path, unhindered, only when all the intelligent beings within it labor harmoniously together for the upbuilding of each and all. The only solution for the problem of the possible conflicts resulting from the activities of a great number of beings is an agreement among them relating to the general good. Laws established for the community of beings must be obeyed as rigidly as those found in external nature. Each may act freely and to his full power in any desired way so long as the general laws respecting the freedom of all others are not violated. The right of an individual can never transcend the rights of the community.

**The Council in Heaven.** A dim though wonderfully attractive picture has come down of an event in the spiritual estate of man, the first estate, that deals directly with the great question of the one and the many, the individual and the community.

There had been born, in time, a family of spirits, the innumerable destined hosts of earth, who, at length, seemed fitted for further education in another field. God, the Father of these spirits, saw that they were ready for further light, and came down among them, to discuss their future. As the Supreme Being, God had in mind a plan, the Great Plan, whereby each spirit could enter upon his second estate and become acquainted with the properties of gross matter. However, as each intelligent spirit possessed a free and untrammeled will which must be respected, God called together the spirits in question, and presented the plan for their approval.

In the Great Council then held, of which a dim and distant picture only has been left, the great question was with respect to man's free agency. The essence of the proposed plan was that the spirits, forgetting temporarily their sojourn in their spirit home should be given a body of grosser matter, and should be subject to this form of universal matter, and even be brought into a temporal death. To bring an eternal, free spirit under the bondage of matter and forgetfulness, it was necessary for some one to begin the work by, figuratively speaking, breaking a law, so that the race might be brought under the subjection of death. This may be likened, roughly, to the deliberate breaking, for purposes of repair or extension, of a wire carrying power to light a city. Someone had to divert the current of eternal existence, and thus temporarily bring man's earthly body under the subjection of gross matter. Adam, the first man, was chosen to do this work. By the deliberate breaking of a spiritual law, he placed himself under the ban of earthly death and transmitted to all his posterity the subjection to death. This was the so-called "sin of Adam." To obtain or give greater joys, smaller pains may often have to be endured.

**The Need of a Savior.** The purpose of the earth career was, however, two-fold, to learn to understand gross matter, and to acquire a body made of the essence of such matter. The bodies laid in the grave must, therefore, be raised again. As the spirits, by their own act had not brought upon themselves death, so by their own act they should not conquer it. It was necessary, therefore, that someone, in time, should reunite the broken wires and reestablish the flow of eternal life, and thus to conquer death. For this work Jesus Christ was chosen. Jesus actually came on earth, lived and taught the ancient Gospel again to the children of men, and in time suffered death so that the act of Adam might be atoned for. By this work, the purpose of the earth-life was completed, and thus Jesus Christ became the central figure in the plan of salvation.

Why death, so-called, should be necessary for us to achieve an intimate knowledge of matter, and why Jesus should die to permit the current of eternal life to flow freely between the earthly body and the eternal spirit, are not fully known. Through Adam man was brought on earth, subject to death; through Jesus, the Christ, he was lifted out of death to continue an eternal life in association with the earth-acquired body.

**Man's Part in the Great Plan.** In this great gathering in the heavens many questions arose. By Adam man was to come on earth; by Jesus he was to be resurrected. In both of these great acts, man had no part, beyond permitting himself to be acted upon. In the plan, what was to be man's part?

Lucifer, a great leader in the Council, proposed that, since others were acting for man in bringing him on and taking him away from the earth, it was not necessary for man, during his earth-career, to exercise his own will. Lucifer proposed that, in spite of himself, his will, his desires and his individuality, man should be placed on earth, and be taken from it, and without effort, be filled with a knowledge of earth conditions. All men should be forced into salvation. Jesus Christ, who became the Savior of men, objected to this change in God's plan, as it interfered with the essential right of intelligent beings to act for themselves. Jesus insisted that, as without will there can be no growth, man, placed on earth through the agency of Adam and resurrected and brought into a full life through the agency of Jesus, should retain, during his earth-career, his full free agency. Though he might walk an forgetfulness of the past, and have no visions of the future, he would yet be allowed a free and untrammeled agency as he walked in the clearness of the earth's day. While upon earth he might learn much or little, might accept a law or reject it, just as he had been, privileged to do in all the days that had gone before.

These two views regarding man's part in the plan led, we are told, to a great difference of opinion among the spirits. Naturally, the first proposition appealed to many, for it is the easy way of obtaining victory, if victory it may be called. The other way seems always somewhat hard and bitter, though in the end the joy obtained surpasses that attained without effort. Lucifer, who led the fight for the first method, could not agree to the original plan which was finally accepted; and so, in that great, dim day, many of the spirits followed Lucifer, and have not yet entered upon their earth-careers, but are independently and in opposition to God's will, following paths that are not leading them onward. The majority accepted God's law, as championed by the Son, though it is said that many weak and fearful spirits remained neutral, daring neither to accept nor to reject either proposition. The hosts who accepted the plan of God, girded themselves with the necessary strength to begin the pilgrimage, ending in an earthly death, but reaching, through the resurrection, into an eternal life of exceedingly great progress.

**Free Agency.** On the earth, as elsewhere, then, the free agency of man, as expressed in the individual will, is supreme. Though our environment is that of gross matter, and though we dwell in forgetfulness of the past, our free agency is as vigorous as ever. However, the free agency of man cannot transcend the plan which all of us of earth accepted, together, in the day of the Great Council. Man's will is always circumscribed by great laws that are self-existent or that are formulated or may be formulated for the benefit of the race. The many must devise laws whereby individual and community progress are simultaneous. It is the full right of the individual to exercise his will in any way that does not interfere with the laws made for the many; and, under proper conditions, the laws for the many are of equal value to the individual. Under the law we are free.