lucifersplan

From: "Curt" <saukkomies@y...>
Date: Tue Aug 24, 2004 4:26 pm
Subject: Lucifer's plan

     Humbly submitted for your perusal and comment:

     Here is something that I thought even during the days while I was on my mission that in my mind is a very big contradiction in LDS doctrine. I have looked through some of the exMormon sites and links, but haven't found any reference to it.

     According to my understanding of what I was taught while in the Church, in the pre-existence Heavenly Father proposed to create a world and send down his spirit children in order that they might obtain a physical body and return to live in His presence. He then asked for someone to come up with a plan for how to do this; there were two plans presented, Jesus' and Lucifer's.

     Lucifer, who according to my understanding of Mormon doctrine, was one of the older sons of Heavenly Father, and was very charismatic and popular among the spirit children, presented his plan first. He said that the spirit kiddies could go down to earth, receive a physical body, and that he (Lucifer) would then make sure that they "chose the right" in living their lives such that they would be able to return to live with their Heavenly Father. Added to this plan was that he (Lucifer) would get the credit for doing this.

     Then Jesus, who was our oldest brother, spoke up and said he had a different plan. His plan would be that we all went down to earth, received a body, but that we would be given our free-agency to decide how we would live our lives. If we lived our lives righteously then we would be able to return to live with Heavenly Father. He volunteered his services to come to earth and set an example to the rest of us as to how to live a righteous life. And he also volunteered to be a sacrifice so that we could all atone for our sins through his blood and suffering in innocence. He added that the credit would not go to him, but to Heavenly Father.

     Well, Heavenly Father chose Jesus' plan, and Lucifer rebelled. Lucifer wanted to have the limelight. So in rebelling Lucifer was able to win the hearts and souls of one third of the spirit children and there was a war in heaven. In losing, Heavenly Father cast Lucifer and his followers out of Heaven, and Lucifer became Satan.

     There were also about one third of the spirit children who were "fence sitters" who didn't help either side. These spirits were born into the world and received physical bodies but they were not born into advantageous situations. They were born as having African ancestry so as to not receive the priesthood until 1978, born as Hindus or into some other place in the world where birth records were not kept and no Mormons were around so that there was a small chance
that they would be baptized either in this life, or after they died by proxy.

     Jesus helped a lot in this war, as did a number of other valiant souls, all of whom were rewarded in various ways by being born into certain circumstances in this world. One third of the spirit children fought on the winning side. The very select of these children were given physical bodies, and they would be born into righteous LDS homes, or they would be born as mentally retarded (and therefore not subject to being held accountable for any sins), or for the very top echelon of select souls, that they would be given a physical body while in the womb of their mother, but that they would be stillborn so that they wouldn't have to go through any of the suffering of this world.

     Okay, so this is my understanding of Mormon doctrine concerning this subject, please let me know if I am off target here.

     What my objection to this, and while I was on my mission what I saw as a big contradiction, was this: that the Church is not following Jesus' plan.

     As a missionary we were so incredibly structured and limited to what we could and could not do that it was mind-numbing. We were given a set of strict rules that we were told we had to absolutely strictly live by. If we deviated from these rules we would be called on the carpet for it by our companions or our mission leaders (and sometimes by the members).

     When we left our missions and returned home we were instructed that we should continue to live our lives just as if we were still missionaries, with the exception that we could now date and eventually marry a worthy daughter of Zion.

     In the church's meetings and conferences, it's publications, the "standard works", and the statements by the general authorities, members were instructed on the most minute details in how to live their lives. If people are not living according to all of these guidelines that are strictly set forth, then they are often called into accountability for their actions by church leaders, their families, or friends.

     In my mind this is simply not free agency. If the Mormon Church was simply following the plan of Jesus, we would be given a much more relaxed set of guidelines to follow, with the paramount emphasis placed on having each of learn the skills necessary to open up our own hearts to the promptings that we received that would tell us if we are living righteously or not. Instead the paramount emphasis in the Mormon Church is on obedience to a strict set of rules that we must live by. If we were truly living by the plan of Jesus, we would have no need of prophets, general authorities, or leaders of any kind telling us how we should be living our lives. We would know how to live our lives by our own insights.

     Such rules as the Word of Wisdom, keeping a journal, not going into debt, not studying on Sundays, etc etc etc are actually more in spirit with the plan that Lucifer proposed than the plan that Jesus had that each of us would be given the ability and opportunity to live our lives according to our own lights. In fact, the very existence of a church altogether is against the plan of Jesus', and is much more in alignment with Lucifer's plan of having an authority figure over us that would attempt to guarantee that each of us returns to live with our Heavenly Father.

     No matter how good or noble an idea a religious or political institution might have as its philosophical foundation, there will be people of right mind and soul who will not find that the philosophy is right for them. No church can possibly be able to dictate the correct behavior for all people at all times. So no matter how good a religious or political institution starts out to be, if it begins to impose its philosophy on every person there will be those who do not agree with it. If the institution insists on demanding that every person agrees with it, this is then the beginning of tyrrany and oppression.

     What purpose does the Mormon Church have for existing in the first place, other than for being a watchdog for us? If each of us has the ability through the promptings of the spirit to be able to discern what we should do in our lives, why is it at all necessary to have a church? The reason according to my understanding of Mormon doctrine is that in order to gain access to return to our Heavenly Father we need to perform certain specific rituals so that we will gain admittance to His presence after we die.

     These rituals can only be performed by men who have been given the authority to perform them, and who are righteous enough for their priesthood calling to be deemed worthy by God. This is the underlying reason for the Church to exist according to Mormon doctrinal logic (at least as far as I understand it).

     Now, in setting his example for us to follow, Jesus was indeed baptized (one of the Mormons' required rituals) by his cousin John, who I suppose had authority to do this, although that part is unclear to me. What I just could not understand is why our Heavenly Father would make such a mean-spirited rule for us, his children, that in order for us to return to his loving embrace he was setting up these pre-conditions for us to receive his full love.

     This is the kind of thing that creates codependency. Having a parent's love being given only on preconditions is really harmful to the soul. A Mormon might reply that Heavenly Father still loves us even if we aren't worthy to be in his presence, but I would disagree. If we are truly his children, our Father would make sure that we would continue to grow in knowledge and righteousness in order to return to His presence.

     This is a huge problem in Mormon families. There are so many people I have met who have related to me how they feel that their parents' love is tied on the condition of their Church membership and temple worthiness. This is a great sickness that continues to be spread from one generation to the next in the membership of the Church, and it will continue to be the main pattern for most members because of the underlying philosophy or pattern of conditional love being granted by our divine parents.

     During the King Follett Discourse (that was one of the last public talks that Joseph Smith gave), he laid out the concept of Universal Salvation. This was a concept that had been gaining popularity among
the Universalists who were mostly centered in New Jersey and Pennsylvania at the time that Joseph was alive. The idea of Universal Salvation is that if God truly loves us, He would make sure that eventually even the most sinful among us would come to a point in his or her progression that salvation (eg: being in the presence of God) would be granted to all.

     Joseph Smith said in this very controversial talk that every one of Heavenly Father's children that had come to earth and received a body will eventually make it to the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom to live in His presence. There has been subsequently some debate over whether they would all be able to attain the very highest degree or not. But if one reads the King Follett Discourse with a true open heart, it is very clear what Joseph was talking about, and he was very direct in stating that he meant that everyone on earth was going to make it eventually to the highest degree.

     So why then do we need to worry so much about baptisms, washing and annointings, endowments, etc? Why do we need to place so much importance on the idea of someone having authority to act in the name of God? Why is it necessary to have an organized church that lays down so many miniscule rules governing our lives?

     The answer is that the Church by its very own doctrine is behaving in such a way that it reflects the plan of Lucifer and not of Jesus. The Church is a tyrranical, mind-controlling, brainwashing, authoritarian bureacracy that is kept in power by the fear of its followers. True believers would never allow someone else to have the amount of control over their lives that Mormons give to the leaders of their church. If someone really wished to live by the promptings of their spirit, a church is totally unnecessary unless one looks at it from the perspective that it is imperative that each of us learns how to shake God's hand the right way in order to get into heaven, or any of the other ritualistic baggage that so much time and attention is put on in the Church.

     As a result of this contradiction, I began my path out of the Church. Nothing could convince me that membership in the Church was necessary for my salvation. I've come a long way since then, and my spiritual philosophy and emotional maturity has developed and grown so that none of this preceding discussion really makes any sense at all to me any more from a philosophical point of view. The doctrines of the LDS Church are incredibly sophomoric, and even after taking just a simple three credit college class in philosophy, theology or psychology it is transparent to most people who look at it objectively that Mormon Doctrine has too many conflicting differences and holes to be deemed a worthwhile study by any serious student.

     I wanted to share this thinking I had in my early days of "apostacy" with this group. I find it amazing that one of the most fundamental aspects of Mormon doctrine contradicts its very need for existence as an organized church.

~~Curt Allred

Lucifer's Plan
This was posted to an online group on August 24, 2004.