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

by John Andreas Widtsoe

**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.

CHAPTER 9.

THE GREAT PLAN.

The plan proposed by God for the government of the spirits who entered upon their earth careers is revealed only so far as it is necessary for the guidance of man. We may remain certain that the Great Plan is based upon eternal laws that always have been and always will be operative. Matters pertaining to man's earth-life are matters of eternal interest; and the laws formulated for the guidance of man on earth must be laws which in some form are fundamental for the guidance of man in any place and at all times. Nothing is temporary or transient about the Plan itself, for it rests on eternal foundations.

**Forgetfulness.** A condition of the Plan seems to be that the spirits, transferred to this earth, shall remain on earth in forgetfulness of an earlier existence. As in a dream, in moments of deep spiritual fervor, do we occasionally seem to recall our preexistent life. A veil has been drawn over the past; and, without the aid of memory, man fights his battle with the world of gross matter. This forgetfulness seems reasonable. The spirit of man accepted the earth-plan in detail, and if he remembered every step that led to this acceptance, and every detail of the Plan itself, there would not be much reason for the exercise of will in adhering to it. Left as he is, with little memory to steady him, he must exercise all his power, to compel surrounding forces to serve him in searching out the past and in prophesying for the future. By such vigorous exercise of his will he develops a more intimate acquaintanceship with the things of the earth.

**Subject to Earth Conditions.** Intimacy with the conditions of earth, alone, will give a man final knowledge of them. Such information can not be obtained second hand nor by casual or superficial acquaintanceship. For that reason, probably, man has been brought so completely under the subjection of gross matter, that he has no power over it beyond that which he gains as he obtains knowledge of it. Hence, on this earth, stripped of all power, and left, as it were, helpless in the midst of contending universal forces, man must search out the nature of the things about him and determine their laws before he acquires power over nature and thereby brings himself into a condition of joy. In the face of the impending change called death, man is possibly more determined to acquire the power that will lift him from the grave and give him an eternal association with all the elements of the universe, including his earthly body.

**Laws to be Obeyed.** To enter into the fullness of progressive joy, a man must, as has been said, naturally subject himself to the laws of the universe. In God's Plan for life on earth, is a system of laws, representing eternal realities, to which man must conform. Such a law, for instance, is faith, which, in its simple universal meaning, is man's certainty that in the universe is found everything he may desire for his upbuilding and advancement, and that the eternal relations of universal forces will prevail for his good. Another such fundamental law to which man must conform, is that of repentance, which in its larger sense, is merely faith made active. Passive faith can do little for man's advancement. Yet another such law is that of baptism, which is essentially obedience to existing laws. And still another such law is that of the gift of the Holy Ghost, which perhaps means that a man may place himself in touch with the whole of the universe and to draw knowledge from it, including the beings of superior intelligence that it contains. These and other laws are given as guides for man. They sharpen his free agency; develop his habits of obedience to law, and establish for him communication with God. Moreover, a plan formulated by an intelligent Being must be composed of laws, for even the infinite relationships of matter and energy fall naturally into groups of invariable laws. The laws of the Plan, like those above stated, are logical necessities, if the earth-plan is at all accepted.