There is no such thing as "free" agency. The saints often misconstrue what agency really is. It is the gift of choosing. The war in heaven decided the issue of agency. No one in this life can take a person's agency from him/her (so if your rebellious child says they are demanding their free agency, tell them it is something you can't take away from them. All you can do is give them choices and consequences. You can tell him to go to his room, but he can choose to disobey and accept the consequence, instead). We can only lose the ability to choose from our own actions. When a person chooses sin, he has given his ability to act away. Sin entraps a person, usually little by little, until the person is incapable of acting and can only be acted upon.
For example, the person who develops an addiction to sin (drugs, sex, pornography, lying, hatred, etc) does not develop it overnight. Like the bird who sells his feathers one at a time, to the man with worms, he keeps most of his capability at first. Only later does he find it harder to fly to the higher branches. Eventually, his choices cause him to no longer be able to fly. He has now become only able to be acted upon. He doesn't have the choice to fly back up to the branches (or anywhere else) to find food elsewhere. Comparing that to man: The greater light we let into our lives, the greater our ability to act. Those with lesser light, must be acted upon. Many compare the levels of kingdoms with members of the Godhead: Father-Celestial, Son-Terrestrial, Holy Ghost-Telestial, Light of Christ- Outer Darkness. I would imagine that sons of perdition have so little light in their lives that they are only capable of being acted upon, like acting on a rock. K'aya K'ama, Gerald/gary Smith gszion1 @juno.com http://www .geocities.com/rameumptom/index.html "No one is as hopelessly enslaved as the person who thinks he's free." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Scott McGee: This reminded me of a topic I wanted to discuss. In the Book of Mormon I seem to recall several places where the idea of being able to act or to be acted upon is presented. It seems to me, that the idea here, is that we are given the ability to act, and our actions determine in large part how well we retain that ability or are degarded to a state of being acted upon. I get the destinct impression that one of the consequenses of sin is to move you more and more to the state of being acted upon. There is a strong resonance for me here. Partly, I think, because I have a strong beleif in teaching my children about consequences. Partly, however, it seems to strike a very strong and familiar chord with my spirit. ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /// ZION LIST CHARTER: Please read it at /// /// http://www.zionsbest.com/charter.html /// ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aaP9AU.bWix1n Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
