Question
Hi Gramps,
Did Heavenly Father sacrifice 2 sons? Jesus was sent to Earth to fulfill all righteousness and save us from our sins through his atonement and sacrificed his life for us. Had Lucifer not rebelled against our Heavenly Father in Heaven, then how would the “Plan of Salvation” be made possible for us if we needed to be tested/ tempted? Could it be possible that our Heavenly Father, sacrificed Lucifer because he knew that he would rebel? Thanks.
Annurs
Answer
Greetings Annurs,
The question you ask is interesting and is something many people wonder about. It is also, by nature, a question involving speculation. We don’t really know much about what would have happened had Satan not chosen evil.
We can deduce a few things from the scriptures, however.
First, in Second Nephi, Lehi teaches us “it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so . . . righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness, neither misery, neither good nor bad.” (2 Nephi 2:11) From this, it is perhaps reasonable to say that evil predates Satan and is an eternal concept that exists alongside righteousness.
Second, Satan was not the only angel who fell in heaven. Church teachings are very clear that “Satan and all the spirts who followed him were sent away from the presence of God . . . and they are around us daily, tempting us and enticing us to do things that are not pleasing to our Heavenly Father.” See “The War In Heaven.” There are apparently plenty of spirits who were just as inclined towards evil as Satan was; Satan just happened to become their leader.
Third, King Benjamin implies that even we may be independently capable of evil, as “the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam”. (Mosiah 3:19) This could also be implied by the fact that Satan, previously a child of God like all of us, chose evil in the pre-existence, without anyone we know of tempting him.
From these passages, I personally believe that evil is not completely dependent on Satan. Had Satan not chosen evil, some other spirit would have, and even our inner natural man could lead us independently to choose evil. Heavenly Father did not create Satan to fail, and the Plan of Salvation would not have been thwarted and would not be that different had Satan himself not fallen.
Gramps
