No comment department

Apparently, The Washington Post is hard up for material.

You can get a speaking role in the next “Left Behind” movie for $7,500. You can name a character for $5,000, or appear as an extra in the background as the heroes figure out End Times prophecy for $2,500.

You can get these movie perks if you join the crowdfunding campaign for the sequel to the 2014 “Left Behind” film starring Nicolas Cage. Producer Paul Lalonde began a campaign on Indiegogo with a goal of raising $500,000 to finance the film.

“I’m asking you to be more than a fan,” Lalonde says in the promotional video explaining the campaign. “I’m asking you to be a partner in this vision.”

More than 130 people contributed in the first three days, giving nearly $40,000.

The 2014 reboot of the franchise was funded in the traditional way with big investors who expect a return. But the movie did not do very well, critically or financially. It received 2 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning critics generally did not give it a stamp of approval.

Made with a healthy budget of $16 million, it earned $14 million in the United States and another $5.6 million internationally, doing moderate business in Brazil, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. It is difficult to attract investors to a sequel with such small profits.

For dedicated fans, though, money is not the point. The point is spreading the message.

“As Christians we all know it can be difficult sharing your faith,” Lalonde said. “How are we supposed to reach these people who don’t even want to hear what we have to say? Well one of the best ways I’ve found is through movies.”

Lalonde himself became a Christian after hearing that Jesus was coming soon to save his followers before the Antichrist rose to global power, and human history ended at the battle of Armageddon. Lalonde was greatly influenced by the 1972 film, “A Thief in the Night,” which popularized that evangelical Christian vision of the End Times.

“A Thief in the Night” was never shown in theaters, however. It was a church-basement movie. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the 69-minute horror film about life under the Antichrist was screened more than 1,000 times per month to church camps and youth groups across the country. It was widely influential, but rarely shown to someone who wasn’t already involved with an evangelical church.

The “Left Behind” franchise, which started as a novel in 1995, was designed to reach beyond the church basement.

There's more, if you can stomach it.

Bracing for another round of "rapture" mania, noted Christian apologist warns believers not to fall for false doctrine

The "rapture" is a false doctrine which has caused untold damage to the church, particularly in the English-speaking world. Once again, it will be in the spotlight with the upcoming release of another attempt to resuscitate the Left Behind franchise. It is encouraging, however, to see this article, posted at Charisma News, featuring the caveats of noted Christian apologist William Lane Craig.

Many in the evangelical church, including many pastors, have accepted the notion of the so-called rapture. But it is simply not true.

So says William Lane Craig, one of Christianity's most notable modern-day philosophers. Craig's comments are surfacing as the church prepares for what is bound to be a blockbuster hit in the remake of Left Behind starring Nicolas Cage.

"The rapture was made up by someone in the 1800s, and the story caught on among some groups who still believe it today," says Craig. "The simple truth is that it is not biblical, nor was it ever the historic position of the Christian church."

According to Craig, the rapture is enormously popular today thanks to several best-selling novels, a recently launched HBO program and upcoming movie, as well as the evangelical church.

"Many people have never known any other view than the rapture," Craig says. "In fact, many who have been raised in Christian homes or Christian churches have so absorbed this viewpoint that they never thought to examine or question its biblical credentials."

Here are four points of Craig's argument:

1. Jesus never discussed the rapture, so where did the idea come from? From Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. The interpretation is Paul is describing a so-called rapture in which the elect will be snatched out of the world, taken up into the clouds to be with Christ, and so will be with him forever. But, Paul is describing something entirely different. There is nothing in Paul's writing to suggest that he is describing a distinct event from the Second Coming of Christ.

2. The relatively recent origin of the concept of the rapture dates to a man named John Darby in 1827. It's sometimes called Darbyism after the originator of this interpretation.

3. This has been exceedingly influential in the evangelical church because of its endorsement by the famous Scofield Reference Bible. The use of the Scofield Reference Bible in evangelical churches helped to promote this view of the rapture.

4. Moreover, Dallas Theological Seminary, which is one of the flagship evangelical seminaries, is committed to this interpretation. Through the many pastors whom DTS has trained and placed in American evangelical churches, this view has become very widespread.

No comment department . . .

. . . because commentary would be superfluous.

Greg Boyd debunks John Hagee "blood moon" nonsense

I would have to say I'm not always on the same theological page with Greg Boyd (and I certainly think he could use a refresher course on proper worship attire), but this impassioned refutation of John Hagee's "blood moon" nonsense is simply brilliant.

Camping retires from doomsday business

In a minor victory for biblical sanity, perennial doomsday prophet Harold Camping has announced he will no longer engage in the practice of predicting the end of the world.

After numerous failed doomsday predictions, Family Radio founder Harold Camping announced this month that he has no plans to predict ever again the day of God's Judgment. He also issued an apology to listeners, admitting that he was wrong.

"We have learned the very painful lesson that all of creation is in God's hands and He will end time in His time, not ours!" a statement on Family Radio's website reads. "We humbly recognize that God may not tell His people the date when Christ will return, any more than He tells anyone the date they will die physically."

Camping, 90, has made predictions about Judgment Day, Christ's return and the end of the world for the past few decades – with the May 21, 2011, forecast receiving the most media attention. Each time the date passed, he did not admit to mistaking the timing but instead reasoned that the events happened "spiritually" rather than physically.

But once Oct. 21, 2011 – the day Camping said the world would be destroyed physically – came and went, the Christian broadcaster began to reevaluate his views about being able to calculate and know the exact date of the apocalypse.

"Even the most sincere and zealous of us can be mistaken," Camping and Family Radio staff stated in their March letter. "We realize that many people are hoping they will know the date of Christ's return. In fact for a time Family Radio fell into that kind of thinking.

"But we now realize that those people who were calling our attention to the Bible's statement that 'of that day and hour knoweth no man' (Matthew 24:36 & Mark 13:32), were right in their understanding of those verses and Family Radio was wrong. Whether God will ever give us any indication of the date of His return is hidden in God's divine plan."

Now, don't get too excited. After all, Chuck Smith is still out there.

Calvary Chapel movement founder Chuck Smith closed out the 2012 SoCal Prophecy Conference at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills Sunday with a message of "blessed hope" for Christians during the end times.

More than 8,000 people attended the three-day conference held at the church that included several speakers addressing the difficult objections and misconceptions associated with the end times.

Smith, 84, who is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, is undergoing treatment for lung cancer. However, he had no problem delivering a strong message of hope in a fallen world.

"We're on the verge of, it looks like, a war in the Middle East that could expand into a global conflict of nuclear proportions. The economy is tanking. Many nations are on the verge of bankruptcy and our own nation is so many trillions of dollars in debt. It's just amazing," he said.

He began his talk on prophesy by quoting Bible verse Titus 2:13, which states, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."

"Surely there is a blessed hope that we have as believers," Smith told those in attendance. "As far as the world is concerned there's not much hope. When you look at the world that we live in today, the future doesn't look very bright."

Smith said he feels that the U.S. government is handling the nation's money incorrectly.

"The politicians seem to think the best way to get out of debt is to borrow money, but you know there's a basic law of economics that when your output is greater than your input, your upkeep is your downfall," Smith said.

"Right now at the present time there are several men (presidential candidates) who are making wonderful promises to us here in the United States. They tell us that they have the answers to the problems our nation is facing and they are trying to encourage people to have confidence in them and vote for them because they have the solutions to the problems.

"Well, maybe you are hoping in these men, but I've lived long enough that I've sort of lost hope in the programs of man and I am looking for a better hope – the hope of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," he said.

He went on to explain that the state of the world will not be getting better according to predictions in the Bible.

"The Bible tells us that things aren't going to get better. Evil days are going to get worse and worse. Jesus said in Matthew 24:12, 'And because iniquity of the earth will abound, the love of many will wax cold.'"

Smith, who regularly gives updates on the events of the Middle East at his church in Costa Mesa, often begins with news that shows the potential outbreak of war, but ends by referring to the current events as "exciting times."

"How can you make, you say, all these dire predictions with a smile on your face? Well, because the outlook for the Church is very bright," he explained. "We're almost there and I know how this story ends and that it's always comforting when you know that it ends and 'they all lived happily ever after.'"

In case you are not familiar with Chuck Smith, here's a little background from Gary DeMar.

In his 1976 book The Soon to be Revealed Antichrist Chuck Smith writes, “we are living in the last generation which began with the rebirth of Israel in 1948 (see Matt. 24:32–34).” You will search in vain in the three verse’s Smith references to find any mention of “the rebirth of Israel.” He repeats the claim in his 1978 book End Times: “If I understand Scripture correctly, Jesus taught us that the generation which sees the ‘budding of the fig tree,’ the birth of the nation of Israel, will be the generation that sees the Lord’s return. I believe that the generation of 1948 is the last generation. Since a generation of judgment is forty years and the Tribulation period lasts seven years, I believe the Lord could come back for His Church any time before the Tribulation starts, which would mean any time before 1981. (1948 + 40 – 7 = 1981).”[1] If this prophetic math sounds familiar, it’s because the same end-time logic was used by Hal Lindsey in The Late Great Planet Earth in 1970.

In order to cover himself against charges of date setting, Smith wrote that “it is possible that Jesus is dating the beginning of the generation from 1967, when Jerusalem was again under Israeli control for the first time since 587 B.C. We don’t know for sure which year actually marks the beginning of the last generation.”[2] A 1967 starting point to begin calculations and a 40-year generation would mean the rapture should have taken place before 2000. While it sounds like Smith is simply engaging in conjecture, in his book Future Survival, which was first published in 1978 and updated in 1980, his prophetic dogmatism is retained:

We’re the generation that saw the fig tree bud forth, as Israel became a nation again in 1948. As a rule, a generation in the Bible lasts 40 years. . . . Forty years after 1948 would bring us to 1988.

Keep in mind that it’s not only important to show where Smith was wrong in his predictions, it’s crucial that we understand that he is using an interpretive model that leads him to make these predictions.

Smith wrote in 1980 that from his “understanding of biblical prophecies, he was “convinced that the Lord [would come] for His Church before the end of 1981.” He did add that he “could be wrong” but went on to say in the same sentence that “it’s a deep conviction in my heart, and all my plans are predicated upon that belief.” Notice the last statement. He may have voiced some doubts, but actions speak louder than words. He made plans based on his beliefs that were founded on his “understanding of biblical prophecies.”

On December 31, 1979, Smith told those who had gathered on the last day of the year that the rapture would take place before the end of 1981. He went on to say that because of ozone depletion Revelation 16:8 would be fulfilled during the tribulation period: “And the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun; and it was given to it to scorch men with fire.” In addition, Halley’s Comet would pass near Earth in 1986 and would wreak havoc on those left behind as debris from its million-mile-long tail pummeled the planet. Here’s how Smith explained the prophetic scenario in his book Future Survival which is nearly identical to what appears on the taped message:

The Lord said that towards the end of the Tribulation period the sun would scorch men who dwell upon the face of the earth (Rev. 16). The year 1986 would fit just about right! We’re getting close to the Tribulation and the return of Christ in glory. All the pieces of the puzzle are coming together.

Nothing significant happened in 1986 related to Halley’s Comet, and there is no reason why it should have since it’s been a predictable phenomenon for more than two millennia as it makes its way around the sun every 75 to 76 years.

Solomon was right, of course.

What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.

                                    (Ecclesiastes 1:9 ESV)

Those pugnacious "super apostles"

On the day the world was supposed to end, a little reminder about the dangers of exalting oneself above others.

Among the most pugnacious and disagreeable of Paul's opponents were the so-called "super apostles," those who claimed a superior knowledge of the mysteries of God and derided Paul as a novice. Two of the worst offenders were Hymenaeus and Philetus (2 Timothy 2:14-26) who were propagating the outlandish claim "that the resurrection has already happened." Paul disowned these men and their claims, noting that "They are upsetting the faith of some."

Harold Camping: 21st century Hymenaeus 

The claim by Hymenaeus and Philetus "that the resurrection has already happened" was "upsetting" to some because it was self-serving and self-glorifying. It set these "super apostles" above those, like Paul, who humbly and freely admitted that "the resurrection from the dead" was a goal which they had "not yet attained" (Philippians 3:12-16).

The resurrection is the outcome of a life lived in obedience to Christ. Paul was correct in his attitude of humility, knowing that the closer he got to the goal, the less he should think of himself. Union with Christ was, for Paul, a lifelong journey which required dying to self in order to be fully realized. This side of eternity, he knew that he could never confidently claim to have reached this ultimate outcome without calling attention to himself instead of Christ.

The resurrection, after all, is all about Christ. Inasmuch as we experience Christ working in our lives to transform us out of a life of sin and into a life of obedience, we can experience something of the benefits of the resurrection now. But the full implications of the resurrection will not be realized until the final consummation at the last day. In Christ, the last day is brought into the present from the future. But by claiming "that the resurrection has already happened," Hymenaeus and Philetus were projecting themselves from the present into the future, thus "upsetting the faith of some" by setting themselves above all accountability and discipline. They were free to "live and let live," indulge every carnal passion, and look down upon those pitiful souls who had not yet realized such "freedom."

Paul warns Timothy to avoid such persons and to go about his work faithfully, not quarreling about words but "rightly handling the word of truth." For the truth, spoken humbly yet unashamedly, will expose every lie for what it is.

Lady bishops not faring well in Germany

This is turning out to be a tough year for lady bishops in the land of Luther. In February, Dr. Margot Käßmann, chairperson of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany and the bishop of the largest Lutheran territorial church in Germany, resigned after being cited for running a red light while intoxicated. Although not the crime of the century by any stretch of the imagination, the high profile ecumenical leader felt her "personal power to convince" would be hampered by the incident.

Now, the first woman ever elected bishop in Germany has resigned amid allegations of negligence in dealing with reports of sexual misconduct in her diocese. Note the rationale she gives for her resignation and its similarity to that given by Dr. Käßmann, and you will realize just how on target Dr. Holger Sonntag was in his blistering critique of the novelty of female bishops.

The first woman elected to serve as a Lutheran bishop has resigned, following allegations of failing to investigate cases of sexual abuse in her diocese.

The Bishop of Hamburg, Rt. Rev. Maria Jepsen, who in 1992 was elected leader of the North Elbian Lutheran Church and became the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany’s (EKD) first woman bishop, resigned on July 16, telling reporters she could not continue in office with her integrity in doubt.

A diocesan committee has been investigating allegations that a pastor in the town of Ahrensburg had molested approximately 20 children in the 1980s. Bishop Jepsen said she had only become aware of cases in March of this year when she received a letter from one of the victims.

However, the news magazine Der Spiegel and the newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt have contradicted these claims, stating the bishop knew of the priest’s suspected behavior in 1999.

“My credibility has been contested,” Bishop Jepsen told reporters in Hamburg. “For that reason, I do not see myself in a position to continue to spread God’s word as I had promised.”

H/T to MCJ.

Mohler: Moralism is Not the Gospel

Albert Mohler addresses the false gospel of moralism.

Moralists can be categorized as both liberal and conservative. In each case, a specific set of moral concerns frames the moral expectation. As a generalization, it is often true that liberals focus on a set of moral expectations related to social ethics while conservatives tend to focus on personal ethics. The essence of moralism is apparent in both -- the belief that we can achieve righteousness by means of proper behavior.

The theological temptation of moralism is one many Christians and churches find it difficult to resist. The danger is that the church will communicate by both direct and indirect means that what God expects of fallen humanity is moral improvement. In so doing, the church subverts the Gospel and communicates a false gospel to a fallen world.

Christ's Church has no option but to teach the Word of God, and the Bible faithfully reveals the law of God and a comprehensive moral code. Christians understand that God has revealed Himself throughout creation in such a way that He has gifted all humanity with the restraining power of the law. Furthermore, He has spoken to us in His word with the gift of specific commands and comprehensive moral instruction. The faithful Church of the Lord Jesus Christ must contend for the righteousness of these commands and the grace given to us in the knowledge of what is good and what is evil. We also have a responsibility to bear witness of this knowledge of good and evil to our neighbors. The restraining power of the law is essential to human community and to civilization.

Just as parents rightly teach their children to obey moral instruction, the church also bears responsibility to teach its own the moral commands of God and to bear witness to the larger society of what God has declared to be right and good for His human creatures.

But these impulses, right and necessary as they are, are not the Gospel. Indeed, one of the most insidious false gospels is a moralism that promises the favor of God and the satisfaction of God's righteousness to sinners if they will only behave and commit themselves to moral improvement.

The moralist impulse in the church reduces the Bible to a codebook for human behavior and substitutes moral instruction for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Far too many evangelical pulpits are given over to moralistic messages rather than the preaching of the Gospel.

The corrective to moralism comes directly from the Apostle Paul when he insists that "a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus." Salvation comes to those who are "justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified." [Gal. 2:16]

We sin against Christ and we misrepresent the Gospel when we suggest to sinners that what God demands of them is moral improvement in accordance with the Law. Moralism makes sense to sinners, for it is but an expansion of what we have been taught from our earliest days. But moralism is not the Gospel, and it will not save. The only gospel that saves is the Gospel of Christ. As Paul reminded the Galatians, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." [Gal. 4:4-5]

We are justified by faith alone, saved by grace alone, and redeemed from our sin by Christ alone. Moralism produces sinners who are (potentially) better behaved. The Gospel of Christ transforms sinners into the adopted sons and daughters of God.

Driscoll: The State of the Pulpit

As the saying goes, "Somebody's gotta say it." Nice work, Mark!

The Devastating Legacy of the "Gap" Theory

Richard A. Jones of American Vision examines the tragically ironic consequences of the "gap" theory bequeathed to Christianity by John Nelson Darby and his dispensationalist disciples.

In 1830 British evangelist, J.N. Darby, began to “discover” two gaps in Scripture where none actually existed. This was needed to help justify his novel theory of Premillenial Dispensationalism; [henceforth, PD.] Publishers of both the KJV and other versions soon began to add gap-related footnotes which slowly came to be seen as “authoritative” with the Scofield Reference Bible being the major culprit. Thanks to Darby, Scofield, D.L. Moody, L.S. Chafer et al, the first imaginary gap of “missing history” you “overlooked” during your initial read through the Bible was the one they inserted between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2. Supposedly, this was God’s initial but failed attempt at creation which lasted, surprisingly, for billions of literal earth years. The rebel, Lucifer, was expelled out of heaven followed by a lengthy period of judgmental chaos on earth. Not until verse 1:3 was God able to get back on track and begin re-creating according to His “original plan.”

By claiming an old earth, not one roughly 10,000 years old as indicated by testable carbon-dating evidence, these footnotes aided and abetted Darwinism, needlessly giving away the store to secularism and the Darwin-dependent ACLU, etc. (One asks, why would any Christian feel the need to voluntarily spin such a theory?) Humanist-based evolution theories demand an old earth and eons of time to allow for “evolution to take place” so that its life-from-non-life, geological ages/fossil record guesswork can be sold to the innocent. Thus, we have the modern irony that although most fans of the Scofield footnotes passionately deny Darwinism, their passive acceptance of a fictitious gap has played directly into the hands of the enemy by verifying PD’s “inevitable” culture collapse, a defeatist “strategy” of non-involvement, and the current humanist takeover.

Such misguided thinking has also led some Christians to buy into the “theistic evolution” heresy. These folks, who are forced to claim that God created Adam via evolution, yearn to be respected by their evolution-brainwashed friends and colleagues; an emotional need that overrides commitment to the clear, evolution-denying aspects of Scripture.

Perhaps even more devastating is the second of Darby's "gap" theories.

Darby’s Gap Number Two allegedly enters the picture in conjunction with the 7 weeks, plus 62 weeks plus 1 week (70 = 490 prophetic years) of Daniel 9:24-27. In this only modestly complex passage, the angel Gabriel brings a vision to Daniel (see 9:21) during which he; 1) gives Daniel the skill and understanding needed to fully grasp – no guessing needed – the precise meaning of the “70 weeks,” 2) tells him of the dire consequences pending for Israel due to centuries of chronic disobedience, 3) tells him of the coming Messiah and exact historical moment when He will begin His earthly ministry (precisely as week 69 ends), and of His atoning death. In contrast to what an unbiased reading reveals to a normal, alert reader, PD theory claims that the chronological flow of 7 + 62 + 1 weeks is discontinuous, with an artificial gap of unknown length placed between the 69th and 70th weeks to allow for an imaginary and “still future” 7-year tribulation. It’s an “eisegetical” or agenda-driven gap which, to date, has stretched for nearly 2,000 years; something an unsuspecting Daniel would never have believed nor should he have. In truth, the flow of 490 years is completely seamless. Thus, to “find” a gap at any point means the inventor has to want one to be there in order to fit a pre-conceived agenda.

The sole reason for this unproveable gap was to create a pillar of legitimacy for the “we lose in history” PD eschatology. The gap; 1) opens the door for invention of the fictitious “church age,” 2) an age of “grace not works,” (it’s been grace, not works, from the beginning of time), 3) a complete separation of Israel from the Church (Israel plus Gentile adoptees was the OT church), 4) opens the door for an unscriptural “return to the land” of an ethnic Israel that is still “in hibernation” in 2007. In fairness, PD also tried to explain why Jesus “failed” to return as promised in Matt. 24:27-31. But we now know that Christ in fact did come back exactly as described during the apocalyptic events of AD70, and that he came back in judgment, using the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Roman army as a surrogate force just as He regularly did in the OT. No less a commentator than Matthew Henry states that Daniel’s 490 years ended during the first century AD so that although all 490 years were future for Daniel they are past for us today. However, was the AD 70 coming Christ’s “second advent?” No. We still await that final appearance.

Bad history breeds bad theology. The devastating legacy of the "gap" theory is both working together to the detriment of the church's witness.

And By the Way, It's True

Just to set the record straight, Mormons do, in fact, believe that Jesus and Lucifer are brothers. From the official LDS web site:

How can Jesus and Lucifer be spirit brothers when their characters and purposes are so utterly opposed?

Jess L. Christensen, “I Have a Question,” Ensign, June 1986, 25–26

Jess L. Christensen, Institute of Religion director at Utah State University, Logan, Utah. On first hearing, the doctrine that Lucifer and our Lord, Jesus Christ, are brothers may seem surprising to some—especially to those unacquainted with latter-day revelations. But both the scriptures and the prophets affirm that Jesus Christ and Lucifer are indeed offspring of our Heavenly Father and, therefore, spirit brothers. Jesus Christ was with the Father from the beginning. Lucifer, too, was an angel “who was in authority in the presence of God,” a “son of the morning.” (See Isa. 14:12; D&C 76:25–27.) Both Jesus and Lucifer were strong leaders with great knowledge and influence. But as the Firstborn of the Father, Jesus was Lucifer’s older brother. (See Col. 1:15; D&C 93:21.)

How could two such great spirits become so totally opposite? The answer lies in the principle of agency, which has existed from all eternity. (See D&C 93:30–31.) Of Lucifer, the scripture says that because of rebellion “he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies.” (Moses 4:4.) Note that he was not created evil, but became Satan by his own choice.

When our Father in Heaven presented his plan of salvation, Jesus sustained the plan and his part in it, giving the glory to God, to whom it properly belonged. Lucifer, on the other hand, sought power, honor, and glory only for himself. (See Isa. 14:13–14; Moses 4:1–2.) When his modification of the Father’s plan was rejected, he rebelled against God and was subsequently cast out of heaven with those who had sided with him. (See Rev. 12:7–9; D&C 29:36–37.)

That brothers would make dramatically different choices is not unusual. It has happened time and again, as the scriptures attest: Cain chose to serve Satan; Abel chose to serve God. (See Moses 5:16–18.) Esau “despised his birthright”; Jacob wanted to honor it. (Gen. 25:29–34.) Joseph’s brothers sought to kill him; he sought to preserve them. (Gen. 37:12–24; Gen. 45:3–11.)

It is ironic that the agency with which Lucifer rebelled is the very gift he tried to take from man. His proposal was that all be forced back into God’s presence. (See Moses 4:1, 3.) But the principle of agency is fundamental to the existence and progression of intelligent beings: as we make wise choices, we grow in light and truth. On the other hand, wrong choices—such as the one Satan made—stop progress and can even deny us blessings that we already have. (See D&C 93:30–36.)

In order for us to progress, therefore, we must have the opportunity to choose good or evil. Interestingly, Satan and his angels—those who opposed agency—have become that opposition. As the prophet Lehi taught, “Men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they 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; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.” (2 Ne. 2:27.)

Although the Father has allowed Satan and his angels to tempt mankind, he has given each of us the ability to rise above temptation. (See 1 Cor. 10:13.) He has also given us the great gift of the Atonement.

When the Lord placed enmity between Eve’s children and the devil, Satan was told that he would bruise the heel of Eve’s seed, but her seed would bruise his head. (See Moses 4:21.) President Joseph Fielding Smith explained that “the ‘God of peace,’ who according to the scriptures is to bruise Satan, is Jesus Christ.” (Answers to Gospel Questions, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1957, 1:3.) Satan would bruise the Savior’s heel by leading men to crucify Him. But through his death and resurrection, Christ overcame death for all of us; and through his atonement, he offers each of us a way to escape the eternal ramifications of sin. Thus, Satan’s machinations have been frustrated and eventually he will be judged, bound, and cast into hell forever. (See Rev. 20:1–10; D&C 29:26–29.)

In Hebrew, the word bruise means “to crush or grind.” Therefore, the very heel that was bruised will crush Satan and will help us overcome the world and return to our Father. As we use our agency to choose good over evil, the atonement of Christ prepares the way for us to return to our Father in Heaven.

We can only imagine the sorrow of our Heavenly Father as he watched a loved son incite and lead a rebellion and lose his opportunity for exaltation. But we can also imagine the Father’s love and rejoicing as he welcomed back the beloved son who had valiantly and perfectly fought the battles of life and brought about the great Atonement through his suffering and death.