Agency and Freedom

Volume One—Chapter Thirteen Agency and Freedom

We have just completed a discussion of The Law of Justice (chapter 12). Justice forms the basis for two important principles—agency and freedom. Let us begin by defining both.

#Agency

Agency is usually referred to in the scriptures using the single words free or agency. The two-word term free agency is peculiar to the LDS people and is not found in the scriptures, nor is it used outside of the Church. Agency is the right, power, and ability to choose among available alternatives.

There are two absolute, sacrosanct, and inviolable qualities of every intelligence. They are existence and agency. Neither must be earned, and neither can ever be taken away. We have always existed and have always possessed agency. Further, each and every intelligence will always exist and will always maintain its agency. We may speak of agency as a “free gift” of God to each of us. Technically, it is not given us by God, but it is God’s desire that we always find ourselves in situations which allow us the maximum use of our agency. Additionally, his plan for us is that we utilize our agency to become like him. In this sense, then, we may regard our agency as a “gift of God.”

Consider for a moment the magnificence and uniqueness of our agency. It is a possession priceless above all others. We possess it without qualification. It cannot be taken from us. It is an iron-clad essential law of God’s universe (D&C 58:27-28). Even God, in all his majesty and power, cannot remove or subvert it. If he were to try, he would “cease to be God.”

Agency is not the right to choose whatever one wishes. Nor does it allow one the option of selecting choices out of one’s reach. Rather, it is the right and power to choose among available alternatives. Agency specifies nothing about the range and breadth of the alternatives available. Whatever alternatives, or choices, are available to us, our agency guarantees us the right and power to choose among them.

Even an individual who is imprisoned for breaking the law retains his agency fully intact. If he were placed in maximum security, he would still maintain perfect agency. That is, he would have the right and power to choose among his available alternatives. His problem would obviously be a paucity of alternatives or options.

Some theologians (especially Evangelicals) claim that the fall of man has resulted in human beings so depraved and corrupt that they are unable to exercise their agency to respond to God or perform any righteous act without first receiving the grace of Christ. In other words, Evangelicals believe fallen man is incapable of righteous acts without first being enabled through receiving that aspect of God’s love which inclines

God to extend undeserved blessings to man. We would disagree and aver that agency is a part of man’s very nature, and it was preserved from the effects of the fall by Christ’s atonement. Further, man is able, quite on his own, to exercise his agency and act righteously. It is vital that man possess unfettered agency as he engages the experience of mortality.

#Agency in the Premortal State

In our pre-existent state we had agency, both prior to and following our spirit birth. We were also subject to and informed of God’s law. The necessary requirements were in place for spiritual growth. Some grew faster than others, as some were more obedient than others.

Also, in the premortal state we learned that God’s plan would include a period of testing in a mortal setting. In mortality we would retain our agency and again be exposed to God’s law (Abraham 3:25). We were informed our mortal experience would be risky. We would encounter opposition and evil. Some would return to their celestial home, and others would not.

#Freedom

While agency is the right to choose among all available alternatives, freedom (also called liberty) is the condition of having abundant alternatives or choices. An individual with few choices, few ways in which he can exercise his agency, has restricted or limited freedom. He is also limited in the exercise of his agency. The individual, on the other hand, with an extensive smorgasbord of choices from which he can freely choose enjoys the advantage of greater freedom.

Unlike agency, freedom is not a free gift. It must be earned. Generally, we earn personal freedoms through our individual obedience to law. We expand our alternatives as we obey the laws of God. Conversely, disobedience to righteous laws results in a loss of freedoms.

The principles of agency and freedom often apply in this secular world as well as in the eternal realm. Consider the example of two students who have just graduated from college and are seeking admittance into a graduate program. One of them has been a conscientious and careful student. He has studied diligently and has scored well. He has earned high marks from his professors, who are ready and willing to write favorable letters of reference for him. The other’s efforts have been mediocre. He has violated the principles of honest hard work and diligence. His academic record is commensurate. His instructors have not become acquainted with him because his average achievements have relegated him to anonymity in his class. Both students have their agency. They each have the unrestricted right and power to choose among the options available to them. Which student has more alternatives? Which student has the greater freedom? Obviously, the former student will likely be the more sought after by the sought after graduate programs. He probably will have the freedom and privilege to choose among several different programs. The mediocre student has not earned the freedom to choose. He has made choices that have limited his freedom. He will be fortunate if he has available to him even one program to choose or reject.

There exist some obvious limitations to the freedoms of all of us. Physical laws or physical conditions or restrictions under which we may be born may produce limitations to freedom. For example, we do not have the freedom to choose a soft landing if we leap from the top of a building. Nor do we have the freedom to choose to survive a high-speed head-on collision. A person confined to a wheelchair may not have the freedom to walk.

The usual cause of too-little freedom in a spiritual realm is one’s disobedience to law. When freedoms are earned through obedience, the individual usually has the opportunities to exercise them. But there are situations here in mortality wherein our opportunities to exercise earned freedoms are denied. An example is a tyrannical government that severely restricts the liberties of its subjects. An individual may find himself obligated to an authoritarian, overbearing boss who has the power to arbitrarily limit his freedoms. In the eternities, where the law of justice holds sway, opportunities are invariably granted when they are earned.

In the United States of America, we citizens are blessed with many freedoms or liberties, but these have not been acquired without substantial cost. The cost of this freedom has been paid by the sacrifice of time, effort, money, and even human lives. Only a thoughtless and careless American could fail to be grateful for the freedoms we possess.

In both secular and spiritual contexts, it is also true that freedoms, once obtained, must then be maintained and nurtured. This also does not come without cost. On a national or personal level, we must be ever vigilant and ever willing to sacrifice for the privilege of maintaining our secular freedoms. Our spiritual freedoms can only be maintained by continually striving to be obedient and growing spiritually.

Sometimes we deliberately place limits on one freedom in order to gain a more important one. Examples include signing a mortgage agreement to purchase a home or developing a regular disciplined program of diet and exercise.

Governments are involved in the process of setting policies that determine the extent to which the freedom of one group of citizens should be compromised in order to protect another group of citizens. For example, what zoning restrictions should be imposed to restrict a person’s right to use his own property as he chooses? How much tax should each citizen be required to pay? Should some pay a higher percentage to help provide for those who have less? How much harm should a person be allowed to do to himself through the use of chemical substances? In order for organized societies to exist, we all must accept some government-imposed limitations on our freedoms. An absence of all restrictions on individual freedoms leads to a state of political and societal disorder called anarchy. The result is oppression of the weak by the strong. An ideal government defines a satisfactory balance between limitation of personal freedoms and oppression of its more vulnerable citizens.

#Can a Lack of Freedom Compromise Agency?

Some students of gospel doctrine have expressed concern that the principle of freedom may place a limit on an individual’s agency. Because of the principle of freedom, there are choices an individual simply cannot make. Is it allowable in our universe that a person should be so coerced? Is not this a compromise in our agency? Does coercion exist in our lives? Does this constitute a limit to our agency? Though the existence of an intelligence’s agency is unassailable, it is possible that the intelligence may exist in a setting where its agency cannot function. A loss of freedoms leads to a limitation of the exercise of one’s agency. Technically the individual maintains agency. He still has the right to choose among all available alternatives, but the exercise of that agency is limited by a loss of freedoms—a loss of alternatives.

There certainly exist things we cannot do and choices we cannot make. This is a matter of freedom, not agency. A loss of freedom does result in an element of coercion. For example, the unrepentant sinner is absolutely prevented from choosing to be resurrected with a celestial body and residing in the celestial kingdom. He lacks the freedom to enter the celestial heaven. That freedom is not open to him. This coercion comes from the lack of freedom, not from any compromise in agency. For the sinner, there are many spiritual options closed to him. And why should this be? Why is it right for some choices to be out of reach to a given individual? The answer is that it would not be fair otherwise. It would violate the law of justice if an individual had all choices automatically open to him.

And who is it that closes some choices to certain individuals? As we discussed

previously, it is those who enforce the law of justice.

#The Purpose of Agency

We may speak of the “purpose” of agency, though it is presumptuous to do so. Agency exists. It has always existed. Who are we to say that it has an intended purpose? It is clear, however, that an important function of agency is to produce spiritual betterment and spiritual growth in the intelligence who possesses it. Surely, it is God’s intent that our agency function in our lives for this purpose. He also desires that we use our agency for earning enduring abundant freedoms, both secular and spiritual.

#Vital Preconditions for Spiritual Growth

In order for the exercise of agency to result in spiritual growth, certain preconditions must be in place:

1. Agency, the ability and right to choose among available alternatives.

2. Abundant freedoms or alternatives—freedom of choice. The rate of spiritual growth within a society is dependent in part upon the quantity and quality of freedoms afforded its members.

There is no question that inordinate limitation of one’s freedoms stunts spiritual growth, but unrestricted freedom also is not conducive to spiritual growth and may be harmful to others, particularly the weaker in a society. Excessive freedoms lead to survival of the fittest, and only the fittest. Optimally, appropriate freedoms must be defined by laws created to allow growth but protect the weaker from injury.

3. A just system of law. Why is law necessary? First, righteous law defines what is “right” and what is “wrong,” what is “good” and what is “evil.” The law offers choices or alternatives. The individual must choose to “obey the law”—to make right and good choices—or to disobey the law and thus make wrong or evil choices. Also, the law must have consequences. One set of consequences occurs with obedience to the law, and quite another set occurs when the law is disobeyed. In God’s economy, obedience to the law results in spiritual growth, while ignoring or disobeying the law results in failure of spiritual growth and spiritual deterioration.

In scripture, we are assured that God’s law is “just” (Alma 42). That is, obedience to the law will result in edifying and enduring positive consequences. The consequences will be appropriately conducive to spiritual betterment. There is no arbitrariness in the implications and applications of God’s laws.

Where no law exists, there can be no choices and no spiritual growth. Law must exist. Not just any set of laws will do, however. There is only one set which, if obeyed, leads to optimal spiritual growth. It is the eternal gospel law—the commandments of Jesus Christ.

Law does impose limits on our freedom. Those imposed by the Lord’s commandments, however, are appropriate and necessary. These limits must be selfimposed, since forceful or coercive enforcement of God’s law renders them ineffectual in producing spiritual growth.

But is not obedience a form of bondage? Brigham Young indicated there is no other way to earn true freedom: “In rendering . . . strict obedience, are we made slaves? No, it is the only way on the face of the earth for you and me to become free” (JD, 18:246). Obedience to the Lord’s commandments is not the antithesis of freedom, but rather the foundation of it. Charles Kingsley distinguished between the world’s view of freedom and the Lord’s: “There are two freedoms, the false where one is free to do what he likes, and the true where he is free to do what he ought” (The Treasure Chest, 47). The great movie producer, Cecil B. DeMille, famous for his movie The Ten Commandments, understood the relationship between law and freedom:

We are too inclined to think of law as something merely restrictive . . . something hemming us in. We sometimes think of law as the opposite of liberty. But that is a false conception. . . . God does not contradict himself. He did not create man and then, as an afterthought, impose upon him a set of arbitrary, irritating, restrictive rules. He made man free [allowed man his agency], and then gave him the commandments to keep him free [maintain his freedom]. We cannot break the Ten Commandments. We can only break ourselves against them, or else, by keeping them, rise through them to the fulness of freedom under God (CR, October 1959, 127).

Some erroneously contend that freedom comes when there are no laws or restraints. They maintain that freedom in its purest form is the right to do anything, anytime, anywhere, without consequence. They think an individual with more freedoms has more “individuality.” He is more “interesting,” “exciting,” and “alive.” They may suppose that subjecting the natural self to rigorous discipline leads to a dull and uninteresting sameness. After all, do we not believe that the Father and the Son are very much alike? They are “one” (3 Nephi 11:27; D&C 50:43; 93:3). Do we really want to become like one another? Or, do we want to maintain our colorful individuality?

Nephi prophesied of those misguided souls who would teach, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us” (2 Nephi 28:7-9; see also Mormon 8:31). To those who espouse this philosophy, most any type of behavior is acceptable, so long as it occurs between consenting adults and is not directly harmful to anyone else. Isn’t it ironic that this philosophy was authored by the master slave himself? It was he who was cast out of heaven. It was he who was deprived of a body. It is he who will be bound a thousand years. It is he who will ultimately be banished to outer darkness. The freedom he promises is illusory. It is a mirage. It is the very condition that has always eluded his grasp. It is the same lie promulgated by Cain after he slew his brother Abel: “I am free,” he said (Moses 5:33). In truth, he was never in more bondage. He was the servant, even the slave of Satan and sin. This type of freedom results in the most egregious kind of bondage. The individual becomes ensnared in the “chains of hell” (Alma 12:9-11).

Spiritual growth leads inevitably to greater and greater acquisition of the edifying and enduring types of freedoms. The real key to our earning freedom in a spiritual realm is obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In obeying these laws and ordinances, we accept appropriate limits to our freedoms. Herein is a great irony. Obedience to the Lord’s commands actually broadens the array of our choices. Obedience to the laws of God is the only way in the universe to obtain ultimate joy and ultimate freedom. The Father and the Son possess all enduring freedoms. Who would say that each of them is not interesting, exciting, and alive?

Eternal choices and opportunities (spiritual freedoms) increase as we are willing to bind ourselves to Christ and obey his gospel. The opposite is true for him who refuses to restrict his natural or natural-man tendencies. He experiences a progressive decrease in his personal spiritual freedoms. The younger Alma described the restrictions imposed upon the disobedient:

And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full. And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction. Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell (Alma 12:10-11).

What is the ultimate freedom? It is to be standing outside the celestial gates and to have been invited to enter. It is the freedom to choose whether or not you will spend eternity with God.

4. A competent being capable of understanding the law and therefore fully able to choose for himself. There is reason to believe that every naked intelligence and every spirit (intelligence embodied with spirit matter) is competent. We observe, however, that the mortal brain is subject to injury or other abnormal function. Some mortals, hence, are unable to understand the law and therefore unable to meaningfully choose among alternatives.

5. An awareness of the law: a knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil (Genesis 3:22; 2 Nephi 2:18, 23; Alma 12:31-32; Helaman 14:31; Moses 5:11; 6:56). Even a fully competent being might theoretically be uninformed, that is, unaware of the law. In one sense, absence of this particular pre-condition is hypothetical, however. God has provided a remedy for any individual’s being completely uninformed. That remedy is the spiritual entitlement with which every individual comes into mortality. It is the Spirit or light of Christ which gives to every being some intuitive notion of the law. Every intelligence possesses a basic feeling for what is right and what is wrong.

In another sense, it is possible for an individual to be uninformed as to the particulars of God’s law and innocent as to the reasons for his being uninformed. He will be judged lightly and mercifully until he becomes informed.

6. Opposition or adversity.

For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility . . . Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other (2 Nephi 2:11, 16).

The exercise of our agency cannot result in spiritual growth unless making the right or good choices is inevitably attached to having to overcome opposition or adversity. An excess of opposition may lead to discouragement and despair and hence limit spiritual growth. Contrariwise an excess of ease, and a consequent lack of opposition, may also limit spiritual growth.

Mortality is a trial and test for us as we learn to use our agency. This test cannot occur without the presence of opposition. If it were just as easy to choose good as evil, then there is no test. And there is no growth. We have learned that much adversity arises from within ourselves. It originates in our natural self, which inevitably inclines us toward disobedience to the laws of God. Satan, of course, encourages us to give in to our natural self. His mission is dedicated to that end.2

The absence of any of these pre-conditions renders an individual’s agency dormant or nonfunctional. The intelligence will always possess its agency, but that agency will remain dormant and will not result in spiritual betterment unless all of these pre-conditions are present. What a blessing it is that God has allowed us to sojourn here in mortality. He has deliberately designed this mortal setting to provide us opportunities for growth. On the other hand, can you imagine a setting where an intelligence (which possesses agency) must exist forever without the law, and thus without the opportunity to grow? One can well imagine that such a desperate setting is a fair description of “outer darkness” where Satan and his minions will live.

#Agency and the Phenomenon of Addiction

An unhealthy, harmful compromise of the exercise of our agency may be selfimposed. For example, addiction in any form may act to compromise one’s use of his agency. Agency is compromised by a loss of freedom. An addict subjects himself to overwhelming impulses which virtually “compel” him toward obtaining the object of his addiction. In theory, the addict maintains perfect agency. He may choose or leave alone the object of his addictions. But the compulsion to choose that object and satisfy his addiction can be so compelling as to practically eliminate his freedom. Hence, his agency is compromised.

Examples of addiction today include habituation to tobacco, prescription or recreational drugs, gambling, alcohol, and sex. The individual addicted to drugs, for example, does not have the freedom to decide whether or not he will live without drugs. To deny himself the objects of his addiction is an alternative (almost) unavailable to him.

It is also possible to become “addicted” to sin. Each of us shares, to some extent, weaknesses of the flesh. Some of our natural-man tendencies are difficult to resist. They impose upon us a compelling need to give in to them. The more we give in to our natural tendencies, the more we are then compelled to choose again to gratify that natural self. Our spiritual self may lose the power to motivate us. We may develop a sort of emotional and even physical habituation that impels us toward satisfying the yearnings of the natural man and committing sin.

Each of us is obligated to use our agency in overcoming these potential weaknesses. However strong or compelling our natural “drives” may seem, we are not absolved of our responsibility to overcome them. God has promised that as we strive to overcome our flaws, he will consecrate our afflictions for our gain (Ether 12:27; 2 Nephi 2:2; 2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Here is an important doctrine: The Lord will turn suffering and tribulation into blessings. Since all people will experience what appear to be compelling pulls from our natural self, this is a vital doctrine for all to know. Afflictions will be imposed upon us from within and without by the very nature of this mortal experience, and perhaps on occasion by a loving God who wishes to try and test us. Whatever the source of our trials, we are promised that as we strive to overcome them, we will be blessed with spiritual strength. “Sweet are the uses of adversity” (William Shakespeare, As You Like It, act 2, scene 1).

It is easy to understand the scriptural concept of the “chains of hell” (Alma 2:9- 11) as the end result of “addiction” to sin. Eventually, the recalcitrant sinner will be so compelled to commit sin that realistically it becomes nearly impossible for him to resist his natural self and obey the commandments. Though he still maintains potential agency, it is sufficiently encumbered so as to be effectively inoperable.

#Are All Freedoms Equally Desirable?

In our discussion of freedom, the reader may be left with the misimpression that all freedoms are advantageous and desirable. A few moments’ consideration, however, leads to the conclusion that some are wholesome and edifying, but others are evil and destructive. Does every man, for example, have the freedom to commit sexual sin? Of course he does! It is easy to appreciate the spiritually destructive effects, on self and others, of exercising this freedom. One’s tendency to exercise unsavory freedoms has its origins in the natural self, and the exercise of these freedoms leads to a cessation of progress and failure to achieve higher and nobler freedoms. The exercise of these freedoms is “sin.” Sin leads to the injury of both the sinner and others who may be involved in sinful behaviors.

The exercise of edifying freedoms leads to spiritual growth toward godhood. The Lord has provided each of us with a road map and guide to the desirable freedoms— those we should seek to exercise. This guide is the set of commandments of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Mortality is a school and testing ground to see which freedoms we will exercise and which we will eschew. The Lord intends that we acquire the strength to deny ourselves the destructive freedoms and select those that will lead us home to him.

In a future volume, we will discuss the fact that this mortal experience includes the predictable and inevitable introduction, into each life, of circumstances that limit and restrict even our desirable freedoms so that we may have the opportunity to grow in strength in choosing and exercising the desirable freedoms that remain available to us. These entities that limit even our edifying freedoms are adversities.3

1 See chapter 12, The Law of Justice.

2 For a discussion of just how Satan functions in our lives, see chapter 16, The Role of Satan.

3 See volume 3, chapter 1, Adversity and Suffering.