Satan, however, was not done. His backup plan-the plan he has been executing since the time of Adam and Eve-was to tempt men and women, essentially to prove we are undeserving of the God-given gift of agency.
Obedience to Law Is Liberty
Elder L. Tom Perry May 2013
Agency is to act with accountability and responsibility for our actions. Our agency is essential to the plan of salvation. With it we are “free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil.” 2
Agency: Essential to the Plan of Life
Robert D. Hales October 2010
About this gift, President Harold B. Lee said, “Next to life itself, free agency is God’s greatest gift to mankind.”3 Then it was no small thing for Satan to disregard man’s agency. In fact, it became the principal issue over which the War in Heaven was fought. Victory in the War in Heaven was a victory for man’s agency.
Obedience to Law Is Liberty
By Elder L. Tom Perry April 2013
"Agency used righteously allows light to dispel the darkness and enables us to
live with joy and happiness."
Elder Robert D. Hales,
To Act for Ourselves: The Gift and Blessings of Agency,
Ensign, May 2006
"Sometimes we forget that our Heavenly Father desires that each of us have this joy. Only by
yielding to temptation and sin can we be kept from that joy. And yielding is exactly
what Satan wants us to do."
Elder Robert D. Hales,
To Act for Ourselves: The Gift and Blessings of Agency,
Ensign, May 2006
"Had agency come to man without the Atonement, it would
have been a fatal gift."
Elder Boyd K. Packer, Atonement, Agency, Accountability
Ensign, May 1988
"Latter-day Saints are not obedient because they are compelled to be obedient. They are obedient because they know certain spiritual truths and have decided, as an expression of their own individual agency, to obey the commandments of God."
Elder Boyd K. Packer, Agency and Control
Ensign, May 1983
"Please understand, no one has the privilege to choose what is right. God reserved that prerogative to Himself. Our agency does allow us to choose among alternate paths, but then we are bound to the consequence God has decreed. Later, if we don’t like where the path takes us, the only out is through repentance."
Elder Richard G. Scott, Healing Your Damaged Life
Ensign, November 1992
"Moral discipline is the consistent exercise of agency to choose the right because
it is right, even when it is hard."
Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Moral Discipline
Ensign November 2009
"We must declare the essential need to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before Him in soberness, or in other words, with reverence. Each must be persuaded that service and sacrifice for the well-being and happiness of others are far superior to making one’s own comfort and possessions the highest priority."
Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Moral Discipline
Ensign November 2009
live with joy and happiness."
Elder Robert D. Hales,
To Act for Ourselves: The Gift and Blessings of Agency,
Ensign, May 2006
"Sometimes we forget that our Heavenly Father desires that each of us have this joy. Only by
yielding to temptation and sin can we be kept from that joy. And yielding is exactly
what Satan wants us to do."
Elder Robert D. Hales,
To Act for Ourselves: The Gift and Blessings of Agency,
Ensign, May 2006
"Had agency come to man without the Atonement, it would
have been a fatal gift."
Elder Boyd K. Packer, Atonement, Agency, Accountability
Ensign, May 1988
"Latter-day Saints are not obedient because they are compelled to be obedient. They are obedient because they know certain spiritual truths and have decided, as an expression of their own individual agency, to obey the commandments of God."
Elder Boyd K. Packer, Agency and Control
Ensign, May 1983
"Please understand, no one has the privilege to choose what is right. God reserved that prerogative to Himself. Our agency does allow us to choose among alternate paths, but then we are bound to the consequence God has decreed. Later, if we don’t like where the path takes us, the only out is through repentance."
Elder Richard G. Scott, Healing Your Damaged Life
Ensign, November 1992
"Moral discipline is the consistent exercise of agency to choose the right because
it is right, even when it is hard."
Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Moral Discipline
Ensign November 2009
"We must declare the essential need to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before Him in soberness, or in other words, with reverence. Each must be persuaded that service and sacrifice for the well-being and happiness of others are far superior to making one’s own comfort and possessions the highest priority."
Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Moral Discipline
Ensign November 2009
“The right of choice … runs like a golden thread throughout the gospel … for the blessing of His children.” (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1988, pp. 80–81.)
Part of our reassurance about the free, noble, and progressing spirit of man comes from the glorious realization that we all existed and had our identities, and our agency, long
before we came to this world.
President Howard W. Hunter, The Golden Thread of Choice,
Ensign November 1989
Agency is the ability and privilege God gives us to choose and to act for ourselves. Agency is essential in the plan of salvation. Without agency, we would not be able to learn or progress or follow the Savior. With it, we are “free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil” (2 Nephi 2:27).
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