17 My heart hath been weighed down with sorrow from time
to time, for I have feared, lest for the hardness of your hearts the Lord your
God should come out in the fulness of his wrath upon you, that ye be cut off
and destroyed forever;
18 Or, that a cursing should come upon you for the space
of many generations; and ye are visited by sword, and by famine, and are hated,
and are led according to the will and captivity of the devil.
As we read the words of Lehi, it’s easy to ask what the source of Lehi’s teachings is. He tells that he is teaching “according to that which is written” (2 Nephi 2:17).
“Lehi is the first and main Book of Mormon prophet to
discuss the fall of Adam. Since he states that he obtained his basic
understanding of this event from ‘the things which [he had] read’ on the plates
of brass (2 Nephi 2:17; see also 1 Nephi 5:11), one wonders how much of Lehi's
theology was based on the preexilic Israelite religion recorded on those plates
and how much came as direct revelation to him. Certainly Lehi's explanation is
a unique, plain, and precious revelation on the fall, free agency, and the
atonement. But the main principles Lehi mentions in the clearest scriptural
explanation of the human condition were in fact familiar topics for early
Israelite writers.”[1]
In the preexistence, there was an angel. This angel fell “heaven; wherefore, he became
a devil, having sought that which was evil before God” (2 Nephi 2:17). Isaiah wrote about the fallen angel.
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the
morning [HEB morning star, son of dawn. The ruler of the wicked world (Babylon)
is spoken of as Lucifer, the ruler of all wickedness]! how art thou cut down to the ground, which
didst weaken the nations!
“For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the
mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north [IE dwelling of the gods
according to Babylonian belief]:
“I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be
like the most High.
“Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the
pit” (Isaiah 14:12-15).
In Abraham’s writings, we read about the fall of Lucifer.
“And the Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man:
Here am I, send me. And another answered
and said: Here am I, send me. And the
Lord said: I will send the first.
“And the second was angry, and kept not his first estate;
and, at that day, many followed after him” (Abraham 3:27-28).
Writing about the devil, Moses tells us:
“Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and
sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and
also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only
Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;
“And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all
lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even
as many as would not hearken unto my voice” (Moses 4:3-4).
Jacob would refer to Lehi’s teachings when preaching to the
Nephites. “O the wisdom of God, his
mercy and grace! For behold, if the
flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who
fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise
no more” (2 Nephi 9:8).
Having been cast out of heaven Satan became miserable. He was not satisfied being miserable
alone. It became his desire to share his
misery with all mankind. (My mother says
“Misery doesn’t love company. It insists
upon it.”)
Falling back on Lehi’s teachings, Nephi would write:
“For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which
belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp
them with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish;
“For behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the
children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good.
“And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal
security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is
well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully
down to hell.
“And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them
there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and
thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains,
from whence there is no deliverance.
“Yea, they are grasped with death, and hell; and death, and
hell, and the devil, and all that have been seized therewith must stand before
the throne of God, and be judged according to their works, from whence they
must go into the place prepared for them, even a lake of fire and brimstone,
which is endless torment” (2 Nephi 28:19-23).
During his ministry in the New World, the Savior warned the
Nephites, “Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray
always lest ye enter into temptation; for Satan desireth to have you, that he
may sift you as wheat” (3 Nephi 18:18).
He became the father of lies. Lehi refers to him as “that old serpent” (2
Nephi 2:18). Nephi shares a lie of the
devil in the last days. “And there shall
also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear
God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the
advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no
harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if It so be
that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall
be saved in the kingdom of God” (2 Nephi 28:8).
Eve was tempted to “[p]artake of the forbidden fruit, and ye
shall not die, but ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil” (2 Nephi
2:18). Eve partook of the fruit and
convinced Adam to partake of the fruit. Abinadi
told Noah and his priests, “[the wicked would be cast out because] they are
carnal and devilish, and the devil has power over them; yea, even that old
serpent that did beguile our first parents, which was the cause of their fall;
which was the cause of all mankind becoming carnal, sensual, devilish, knowing
evil from good, subjecting themselves to the devil” (Mosiah 16:3).
Stephen Ricks tells us that Satan’s expulsion from heaven
was essential for the fall.
“A vital precondition for the fall was the expulsion of
Satan from the presence of God. According to Lehi, an ‘angel of God had
fallen from heaven; wherefore, he became a devil, having sought that which was
evil before God.’ Because of his expulsion from the presence of God he ‘had
become miserable forever’ and ‘sought also the misery of all mankind.’ Satan
tempted Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit, saying, ‘Ye shall not die, but
ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil’ (2 Nephi 2:17—18).”[2]
Alma2, expressing his desires to the Lord said, “Yea,
and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not
good from evil is blameless; but he that
knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he
desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience” (Alma
29:5).
Moroni would write, quoting Mormon:
“For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge,
that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may
know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.
“For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man,
that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge;
for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in
Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know
with a perfect knowledge it is of God.
“But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe
not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect
knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he
persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do
they who subject themselves unto him.
“And now, my brethren, seeing that ye know the light by
which ye may judge, which light is the light of Christ, see that ye do not
judge wrongfully; for with that same judgment which ye judge ye shall also be
judged.
“Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should
search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and
if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly
will be a child of Christ” (Moroni 7:15-19).
From his words, we know Lehi was aware of the words of
Moses.
One sentence from Moses seems to have spawned a whole family
of formulaic references in the Book of Mormon: "And he became Satan, yea,
even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and
to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as
many as would not hearken unto my voice" (Moses 4:4). This language is
echoed precisely by both Lehi and Moroni, who, when mentioning the devil, add
the stock qualification: "who is the father of all lies" (cf. 2 Nephi
2:18; Ether 8:25), while Jacob says the same thing in similar terms (2 Nephi
9:9). Incidentally, the descriptive term devil, which is used frequently
to refer to Satan in both Moses and the Book of Mormon, does not occur at all
in the Old Testament. New Testament occurrences do not reflect this context.[3]
Noel Reynolds explains the importance of choosing between
good and evil.
“Lehi elaborates extensively on this formula, [choosing between good and evil, life and death], by
linking it to the transgression of Adam and Eve, which they committed in the
hope of gaining a knowledge of good and evil and the difference between them.
But, as Lehi goes on to explain, it is the redemption from this transgression
accomplished by the Messiah in the fulness of times that makes men free to
choose between the two (see 2 Nephi 2:18, 26). And so it is that men ‘are free
to choose liberty and eternal life, . . . or to choose captivity and death’—the
one through the mediation of the Messiah and the other through the power of the
devil, ‘for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself’ (2
Nephi 2:27).”[4]
[1] Lehi's Theology of the Fall in Its
Preexilic/Exilic Context, Bruce M. Pritchett Jr., Provo, Utah:
Maxwell Institute.
[2] Adam's Fall in the Book of Mormon, Second
Temple Judaism, and Early Christianity, Stephen D. Ricks, Provo,
Utah: Maxwell Institute.
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