Intelligence, An
Explanation Based On Agency
A central part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that in
this life we are presented with choices. The most important choices are those
involving some form of opposition. That
is where we must choose between one alternative that would be in accordance
with the teachings and example of Christ and another that would be contrary to
those teachings. If we consistently chose
to follow Christ’s policies he promises, through the power of his atonement and
his grace, to bring us back into the presence of the Father. If we, on the other hand, consistently
choose the alternatives that disregard Christ’s program, we become subject to
an adversary who from the beginning has been allowed to draw us away from
Christ and into his own control. There
is a punishment reserved for those who allow themselves to fall under the power
of this adversary.
The liberty given us to make these choices according to
our own individual will is called “agency”.
Agency was at the foundation of God’s plan for us from the
beginning. Without it we could not
choose for ourselves and, as Lehi taught, our creation would have been “for a
thing of naught, wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of ‘our’
creation” (2 Ne 2:11).
This issue of freedom to choose, or agency, raises an
interesting doctrinal question. The
basic LDS belief regarding our existence is that we are the literal offspring
of God The Father; that He is the father of our spirits and that we lived with
Him as spirit children from some time immemorial until we chose to come to
Earth, accept a new “fallen” state, and begin to take responsibility for our
choices; that is until we chose to participate in “the fall”. We consider our existence, then, to consist
of two parts; a physical body received through biological reproduction from our
first parents, Adam and Eve, and a much older spirit, that is a literal son or
daughter of our heavenly parents.
The traditional doctrine of creation among many
Christians today teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were created by
The Father totally from the dust of the earth, which itself had been created ‘ex
nihilo’ by God, life also being breathed into their bodies by God himself. The result of this line of thinking is that
all the family of Adam, all of us, are 100 percent the result of God’s creative
work; that He is totally responsible for our existence.
Here is where I start to see a problem. If God is totally responsible for every
aspect of our existence, then where is agency?
How can we do anything based totally on our own wills? Is it our fault if we choose poorly? Can God create us out of nothing and then
make us totally independent of his creative process? I can’t see how that would be possible. He might create us and then give us freedom
to choose for ourselves, but we can only make choices based on some set of
internal values and an internal algorithm for choosing. That algorithm and those values had to be
put into us at the time of our creation.
How else could we acquire them? How
can we be punished or rewarded for our choices and actions if there is no
aspect of our existence, including our reasoning abilities, that is not somehow
derived from our creation?
If you mix up cake batter a little bit carelessly and put
it in the oven and it comes out bad, do you punish the cake? No, you throw it out and start over until
your creation comes out just the way you want it. Just so, if one of God’s child creations goes
bad, and it was truly created out of total nothingness, as some profess, shouldn’t
he merely cast it back into the oblivion from which he created it and try
again?
No, there must be something else going on here. There must be some aspect of our existence
that is independent of God and that he is not responsible for; something that
predates even our existence with him as his spirit children. If not, the concept of agency and freedom to
truly make independent, personal decisions just doesn’t work. It is a contradiction to think that God can
create a thing ‘out of whole cloth’ as they say, and then endow it with
abilities totally independent of that creation. This sounds like the fairy tale of Pinocchio.
Restoration scripture and the teachings of Joseph Smith give
us insight into this issue and a solution to the contradiction with the
introduction of the concept of “intelligence”.
Here is a solution that requires no vivid imagination and no great
stretching of logic. It appeals to our
reasoning as a simple and logical explanation.
Joseph received a revelation in 1833 wherein the Lord
explained a concept pertinent to this issue of agency and of our being
independent of God in this important way.
Christ states twice that our spirits are co-eternal with God. In verse 23 of Section 93 he states; “Ye were
also in the beginning with the Father;” . . . , and in verse 29; “Man was also
in the beginning with God. Intelligence,
or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.” Referring then to the “light of truth” , or
intelligence, which is within each of us, he says; “All truth is independent in that sphere in which God
has placed it, to act for itself, as
all intelligence also; otherwise there is no
existence. Behold, here is the agency of man, . . .” (Sec 93:23, 29-31)
(Italics added for emphasis). Thus we
see that something about us is independent
of God and can act for itself and
that this is the basis for our agency. Without this there is no existence, or as Lehi said, “no purpose in the end of our
creation”.
Joseph Smith also taught: “The mind or the intelligence
which man possesses is co-equal (co-eternal) with God himself.” And later in the same discourse: “The
intelligence of spirits had no beginning, neither will it have an end.” And again: “Intelligence is eternal and
exists upon a self-existent principle.
It is a spirit from age to age, and there is no creation about it.” Summarizing, Joseph commented: “This is good
doctrine. It tastes good. I can taste the principles of eternal life,
and so can you” (TPJS 353-355).
This concept, revealed to us by Jesus Christ through the
prophet Joseph Smith, eliminates the contradiction between agency and human
ex-nihilo creation, by eliminating the latter.
There is a part of us that is totally independent of God’s
creation. It is called
intelligence. We are, then, not two-part
beings but three-part. Our physical
bodies are inhabited by a spirit that is a child of our heavenly parents, and
that spirit is quickened by an intelligence which had no creation but has
existed forever and cannot be destroyed.
Thus we can exercise our own judgement, our own agency, in making moral
choices in this life. God encourages us
to follow Christ’s program which leads to salvation (for both the living and
the dead). Satan persuades us to
disregard Christ’s way and to follow error and evil.
It is up to us.
Our intelligence is totally independent of all coercive influence. God cannot coerce. Neither can Satan. This is good news. It does taste good! Through Christ we can receive joy in this
life and eternal reward. When we do it
will be because we (our intelligences) have disciplined our minds to follow
Christ’s teachings and to keep covenants and commandments received from
him. All the family of Adam will have
the opportunity to accept Christ’s way, but that is another topic. Let us use our agency to bring happiness to
ourselves and to others, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
