Thursday, March 18, 2010

A Third Part...

I woke this morning early with my brain whirring and whizzing about. Weird that it would be something about which we have so very little information.

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels.” (Revelations 12:7)

So, Michael and his angels fought the good fight. Lucifer had been crafty enough to gain a following. In verse four of the same chapter in Revelations it suggests, “And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven”.

Now, here’s what I was thinking about: is this 1/3 of the hosts of heaven? Is it an exact split? 2/3 for G-d and 1/3 for Lucifer?

If this is so, if these people who were for G-d embraced his plan and fought with Michael “against the dragon” why is there so much going wrong on earth? Seriously.

Then, I thought of something that might be a plausible explanation. One part of the hosts of heaven were zealots in the cause and fought with great determination “against the dragon”. They were particularly faithful and strong. There was, then, another part of the hosts of heaven who were either deceived by Lucifer or embraced his plan whole-heartedly and fought on his side with the same zeal as the first part of the hosts of heaven. These were they who were cast out of heaven. Now, there remains another part. A group of the hosts of heaven who did not feel the zeal or need to fight on either side, waiting to see which side should prevail. Upon seeing what the outcome was about to be, these aligned themselves with Michael the Archangel and his zealous hosts of heaven.

Not an exact division but a division of three groups. The third group, being the third part who were drawn after the dragon, were cast from heaven. When it came time for mortality, all those who did not align with Lucifer, who became Satan, would enjoy the experiences available here on earth.

So, the less zealous group having been able to squeak by are also here taking full advantage of free will. At times, they fail to make the right decision in such egregious ways as to be recognized by a majority to be most evil.

That’s what I thought about this morning before the sun rose on a new day.

1 comment:

Adam K. K. Figueira said...

I think one reason we don't know too many details about the war in Heaven is that it prevents us from forming preconceptions about others too easily. While what you say makes sense, I'm glad we don't have a scriptural declaration of it. It would be too easy to write people off as "less faithful."

At the same time, it gives us some insight into God's judgment. All we had to do to get here was keep our first estate - just agree to God's plan, however zealously or reluctantly. Your idea here is consistent with teachings of prophets (including Abraham) about the existence of a specially faithful class of premortal beings receiving special instructions regarding their missions on Earth.

But everyone got to come. Similarly, there are scriptures in the Doctrine and Covenants that hint that once we've made certain covenants worthily, almost nothing can keep us from celestial glory. Perhaps we underestimate nothing more than God's mercy and understanding of our mortal weaknesses.

Far from expecting us to be constant, the Lord may simply ask that we get to a point, and not waver too much from there. I don't know if that is true, and there are certainly greater blessings to those who strive more diligently (just as those who distinguished themselves premortally seem to have been entrusted with more responsibility here), but it may be that the minimum requirement is more merciful than we often imagine.