We
recognize that when God the Eternal Father presented His plan to us at
the beginning of time, Satan wanted to alter the plan. He said he would
redeem all mankind. Not one soul would be lost, and Satan was confident
he could deliver on his proposal. But there was an unacceptable cost—the
destruction of man’s agency, which was and is a gift given by God. About this gift, President Harold B. Lee said, “Next to life itself, free agency is God’s greatest gift to mankind.”
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.
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. . .
Each choice you and I make is a test of our agency—whether we choose to
be obedient or disobedient to the commandments of God is actually a
choice between “liberty and eternal life” and “captivity and death.”
"Obedience to Law is Liberty" L. Tom Perry General Conference April 2013
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