Tuesday, September 22, 2009

THE PLAN OF SALVATION

I suppose many of us have read Moses 4:1 We have many thoughts and interpretations of this scripture, but it seems that we don’t really apply it in our daily spiritual and political thought.   

Read it again:

”and I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.”

Now read another scripture closely related to this;   Mosiah 3:19

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

The way I would interpret these passages is, unless man yields to the spirit and is totally submissive to the Lord Jesus Christ he is devilish.  He may want what some call good, but if the least amount of force is used to get to the intended goal, this is the plan of the devil.  We may have good intentions, but our methods are all important.  We don’t believe that the ends justifies the means.  God’s plan only includes righteous means to reach righteous goals.  All of God’s children are precious in his sight.  Christ died for all.  But God’s plan is the only one that will work.  All enemies of God will fail.

We can’t always make things “better”.  We live here on the earth where it is intended, by  God’s plan - put forth by Christ, that each of us must make decisions and endure the trials of life.  He sacrificed his all for you and me.  We can’t really understand how the whole plan works, but we must accept that our “natural man” instincts may be evil. 

We want to help the poor, the sick and those who are less fortunate than we, but this must be done according to the plan of God.  Any plan designed to take away the free agency of man is not the way God intended his plan to work.  Our commitment to His children must come by putting off the natural man and submitting to His will. 

Satan has many “agents” here on the earth.  Most certainly they aren’t aware of the fact that their actions are leading mankind toward the plan of Satan.  However, Satan is the “father of lies”.  He knows how to manipulate, cajole, and persuade.  He uses common sense and will promote the use of our “natural” inclinations.  BEWARE of his methods.  We know the plan put forth by Christ.  We cannot deviate from it.  We must be an ally of God and not his enemy.  We must put off the natural man and yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit.