Opposition in All Things
There must be opposition in all things (2 Nephi 2:11), without such righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, good nor bad… There must be wickedness in order to have righteousness. There needs to be a balance. I love the connotation because if its a truth – it applies to all things. If there are really healthy foods (apples) there needs be really unhealthy foods (poisonous plants); if there are people with integrity there are people without integrity. Even in the day to day things. I even noticed that I experience the balance in the experiences I have. For example I’ve had the experience where I cut someone off while driving and felt so sorry & hoped they’d forgive me. Then I experienced someone cutting me off and found it much easier to forgive them and allow them that space as I had been in that situation and wanted the forgiveness… In the extreme we see it as those that love and serve our Father in Heaven and those that do everything they can to oppose our Father in Heaven… I found a VERY interesting statement by Brigham Young that I wanted to share.
Giving endowments to a great many proves their overthrow, through revealing things to them which they cannot keep. They are not worthy to receive them. Brother Heber takes the lead in giving endowments, and you may ask, “Why do you give such folks their endowments?” To qualify them to be devils, if they wish to be. The plan of salvation is calculated to make devils as well as Saints; for by and by we shall need some to serve as devils; and it takes almost as much knowledge to make a complete devil as it does to fit a man to go into the celestial kingdom of God, and become an heir to His kingdom. We want to complete the education of a number of such fellows; they are running to the States, to California, and elsewhere, and are trying to reveal this, that, and the other; but I defy any one of them to give any idea of what is taught them in their endowments, except a garbled mass of trash. God takes that knowledge from their minds. We have to make devils, and we are preparing them. Everybody must have the same chance of accepting or rejecting the blessings of the Gospel, you know.
I wish to tell you a truth; it is God’s truth; it is eternal truth: neither you nor I would ever be prepared to be crowned in the celestial kingdom of our Father and our God, without devils in this world. Do you know that the Saints never could be prepared to receive the glory that is in reserve for them, without devils to help them to get it? Men and women never could be prepared to be judged and condemned out of their own mouths, and to be set upon the left hand, or to have it said to them, “Go away into everlasting darkness,” without the power both of God and the devil. We are obliged to know and understand them, one as well as the other, in order to prepare us for the day that is coming, and for our exaltation. Some of you may think that this is a curious principle, but it is true. Refer to the Book of Mormon, and you will find that Nephi and others taught that we actually need evil, in order to make this a state of probation. We must know the evil in order to know the good. There must needs be an opposition in all things. All facts are demonstrated by their opposites. You will learn this in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and in the revelations given through Joseph. We must know and understand the opposition that is in all things, in order to discern, choose, and receive that which we do know will exalt us to the presence of God. You cannot know the one without knowing the other. This is a true principle.
JD 4:373, Brigham Young, June 28, 1857
Wow… There must needs be devils. I know its interesting but I choose to be grateful for every experience I am so blessed to have; even in associating with those ‘devils’. I am grateful for the balance they bring because without such I could not feel the intense love I feel for others as well as for my Savior!!! I am grateful for the Plan of Salvation and that there is balance in all things!!! Hallelujah!!! 🙂