Mormons, Mormonism, and Lessons About Life
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Mike Jensen in his article titled Smart Mormons begins with two empirical statements concerning the results of the recent 2012 Presidential election: (1) If Barack Obama had been White, his vote total would have been 20 percent lower. The basis for his supposition – “the African-American voting bloc combined with enough whites suffering from liberal guilt guaranteed a higher vote total for Obama.” [1], and (2) If Mitt Romney had not been a Mormon, the probability exists that his vote total would have been significantly higher.
In fact, according to a Galup poll released in June 2012, only 4 percent of the voting populace said that they would not vote for a Black president as compared to 22 percent who said that they would not vote for a Mormon. Only atheists and gays ranked higher.
Jensen states that what really intrigued him was why people have such negative views about Mormons. He further states that the Mormons (Latter-day Saints, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) that he has had association with have been “hard-working, kind, generous, family-oriented people—just the kind of people this country used to value (and maybe that’s the problem right there.)” [1] And so, with the elections now over, he decided to learn a bit more about this “peculiar people” called Mormons. The original intent of his quest was to explain to his audience who Mormons are and whether or not 22 percent of the people were justified in opposing having a Mormon president. Instead, the crux of his article is devoted to some of the life lessons that he has learned from his personal study of Mormon theology.
Jensen comments that one of the things that initially piqued his interest about Mormons and Mormonism was a claim made by Mike Huckabee back in 2007 that Mormons believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers. Ironically, the life lesson that he focuses on and shares in his treatise is about the pre-mortal existence and the War in Heaven where Lucifer and a third of the spirit sons and daughters of God rebelled and were cast out.
So here’s what I learned: Mormons, unlike most other Christian sects, believe that all humans lived a life before mortality. They call this the pre-existence or pre-earth life. At birth a veil is placed over our minds so that we don’t remember it (you’ll see why in a minute).
In this pre-earth life, we were all in the presence of God as His spirit children. Jesus was there—the first-born of God’s spirit children, and a leader in the councils in Heaven. Lucifer was also there, and was another leader among the children of God. He was called a “son of the morning.”
At some point in this existence, the Father called all of His children together to explain how things worked. All of His children would have to leave His presence and come to earth for a period of testing. The goal was to see if we would live a righteous life even when we had to live by faith, as we would no longer be able to remember God or heaven (that’s the reason for the veil).
If we would live a righteous life, we would be given the opportunity to return and live with God forever. Otherwise we would forfeit that chance, because no unclean thing can live in God’s presence. However, God knew that we would all make mistakes, so he would provide a Savior for the world. This Savior would live a sinless life, and because of that, he would qualify to pay for the sins of the world through what would be called the “Atonement.” If people would sincerely repent of their sins, then the Atonement would essentially erase their sins, and they could still return and live with God. The Father called for volunteers to be this savior, and two stepped forward: Jesus and Lucifer.
Lucifer said that he would be the savior and he would force everybody to live righteously, thus guaranteeing that all of God’s spirit children would return to Him in heaven. Jesus said that He would follow the Father’s plan and allow God’s children their free agency. They could choose for themselves whether to live righteously and take advantage of the Atonement or whether to live in sin and forfeit the opportunity to return and live with God.
God rejected Lucifer’s plan, causing Lucifer to rebel and declare war on God. One-third of God’s spirit children joined Lucifer in this rebellion. In the end, the rebellion failed and Lucifer and his followers were cast out of heaven. They came to earth without bodies and now, continuing the war they started in heaven, they tempt men to do evil to one another and lose out on the chance to return to God. [1]
Most traditional Christians will see some similarities between the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of what occurred in Heaven and the teachings of their own faith as they also believe that Lucifer lived in Heaven as an angel, but then declared war on God and was cast out. However, it is the causes of that war that are not necessarily clear in traditional Christian theology. This is where Jensen finds Mormon theology so intriguing. For Latter-day Saints, the greatest of all battles, known as the War in Heaven, was fought over liberty, or what they refer to as “free agency.” Under Lucifer’s plan man would not have any “free agency” and all glory would ultimately go to him. Jesus, on the other hand, desired to do the will of His Father and allow man to have his agency, with the end result of all glory being given to the Father.
Jensen continues in his treatise by making an astute comparison between Mormonism and modern politics.
I see a direct correlation here. For a Mormon, the battle for liberty is not unique to this life; it is the core battle of the ages. Lucifer lost the war in heaven (he really thought he could beat God?), but the war continues on earth. So seeing the government become more and more tyrannical is not just a political concern; it’s a fundamental, eternal concern. [1]
He further commented that he was indeed inspired by the Mormon theological idea:
God intended for humans to be free to make our own choices and live with the consequences of those choices. The Founding Fathers of this country said essentially the same thing in the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Jensen concludes that his study of Mormonism has not only given him a new respect for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their religious beliefs, but it has also afforded him the opportunity to evaluate his own attitude towards “the liberty that seems to be slipping through all of our fingers.” He realizes that the liberty that he is proffered is not something that should be taken for granted, but indeed it is endowed by God, and that he is expected to fight to maintain that liberty, just as we all are.
According to Mormon theology, we have all fought for liberty once. The fact that we are here testifies that we were on God’s side in the War in Heaven, and fought for liberty. With that, why should any of us be less willing to fight for it here than we were there?
Additional Resources:
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This post was written by
Keith L. Brown is a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having been born and raised Baptist. He was studying to be a Baptist minister at the time of his conversion to the LDS faith. He was baptized on 10 March 1998 in Reykjavik, Iceland while serving on active duty in the United States Navy in Keflavic, Iceland. He currently serves as a Ward Missionary for the Annapolis, Maryland Ward, and as the Stake Public Affairs Specialist for the Annapolis, Maryland Stake. He is a 30-year honorably retired Navy veteran.
