There is a certain irony in this as the War in Heaven was over free agency. Certainly Satan hasn't forgotten that little disagreement and is still trying to prove he was right. In passing through the veil we have forgotten everything and thus have forgotten how important free agency was to us at one time.
I didn't understand free agency for a long time and it wasn't until a bishop counseled me in my early 30's to read D&C 121:34-46 every day for 90 days that I started to understand free agency. About the 85th day my eyes began to be opened and I began to understand how little I understood, and where I needed to repent.
The brethren understand free agency, you can see it in how the Church operates at a general level. Most Stake Presidents and Bishops understand free agency; we can also see it in how they lead their wards and stakes. Way too many members don't understand free agency and it is to our own detriment.
It is my understanding that the term "free agency" is not found anywhere in the scriptures. We are free to choose in one regard and constrained by "law" in another yet agency is always the governing principle. For example, we are commanded on many instances "Thou shalt not..." the enactment of agency is not that we get to chose either adultery or celibacy it is that we get to chose to obey the given law or not. Hence agency is not "free" agency it is framed by the law and the blessings of obedience flow freely when one choses to follow, or the negative consequences must follow when we don't.
ReplyDeleteI think you are right about the term free agency not existing in the scriptures. I use the term "free agency" to connote the idea that agency is freely available to all.
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