PART 2—Satan’s prideful, predatory plan is deception, division, destruction, domination, and death.
Satan denies our divine heritage and potential by trying to make us “children of the devil.”
“There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon [Lucifer]; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev. 12:7–9).
“We beheld Satan, that old serpent, even the devil, who rebelled against God, and sought to take the kingdom of our God and his Christ—Wherefore [i.e., for this reason], he maketh war with the saints of God, and encompasseth them round about” (D&C 76:28–29).
The goal of Satan’s ongoing war—both in premortality and in mortality—is to exalt himself above both God and us. In the premortal existence, he rebelled against God, saying, “Give me thine honor, which is my power.”35 Satan the usurper “opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God.”36 He boldly seeks “to take the kingdom of our God and his Christ”37 by making us “children of the devil”38 and “prey to his awful misery.”39 For those who embrace his clever schemes, “Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom.”40
Satan seeks to exploit and dominate us by tempting us to exploit and dominate each other.
Yea, [Alma] saw great inequality among the people, some lifting themselves up with their pride, despising others, turning their backs upon the needy and the naked and those who were hungry, and those who were athirst, and those who were sick and afflicted” (Alma 4:12).
“It is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore [i.e., for this reason] the world lieth in sin” (D&C 49:20). “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10).
“If ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things” (D&C 78:6).
The scriptures just quoted, among many others, identify pride, greed, and economic inequality as among the primary sources of evil. In a landmark General Conference address, “Beware of Pride,” President Ezra Taft Benson said: “Pride is the universal sin, the great vice. Yes, pride is the universal sin, the great vice.”41 President Benson quoted C.S. Lewis:
“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. . . . It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone” (Mere Christianity, New York: Macmillan, 1952, pp. 109–10, quoted in “Beware of Pride,” Ensign, May 1989).
So, of course, Satan loves pride, greed, and economic inequality, and he promotes them as among the cardinal virtues and goals for his followers, his “children.” Deception and division are likewise integral parts of Satan’s clever scheme to dominate us: He seeks to deceive us with his lies, counterfeits, and decoys; to divide us by exploiting our pride, fears, and appetites and by “stir[ring] up the hearts of men with anger”42; and to dominate and destroy us by tempting us to exploit and dominate each other in a vain attempt to exalt ourselves. But, says Jesus, “Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased.”43
Although the Lord in 1834 postponed implementation of the law of economic equality (part of the law of consecration) due to the Saints’ failure to obey it,44 he did not postpone the disastrous consequences of not living this law. As our economic inequality has spiraled steeply upward over the last four decades, our spiritual, social, and political culture has spiraled steeply downward. A November 10, 2014, Deseret News article by John Hoffmire cites one study that identified the average ratio of CEO-to-worker pay in the U.S. in 2012 as being 231-to-1 (another 2012 study said the ratio was 354-to-1), compared to the 1990 ratio of 53-to-1. Hoffmire, who is director of the Impact Bond Fund at Oxford University, concludes: “Whether the conversation focuses on inequality between continents or gaps between workers and executives, there is a great deal of work to be done. Our current structure is unsustainable in the long run; the time to start making necessary adjustments is now.”45 As our economic inequality has increased dramatically—and unsustainably—in the last 40 years, so too have its attendant prophesied calamities: family dissolution, pornography, business and governmental corruption and exploitation, terrorism, wars, environmental degradation and catastrophes, and the growing threat of global pandemics, such as the Ebola virus.46
“Beware of pride, lest ye become as the Nephites of old,” who were completely destroyed.
Korihor, a Book of Mormon Anti-Christ, says:
“There could be no atonement made for the sins of men, but every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore, every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime” (Alma 30:17).
As “the prince of this world,”47 Satan assures us that if we want to survive and thrive in his world, his clever war plan is our only option. By fully embracing Satan’s prideful, “realistic” formula for success, the Nephites brought about their own complete destruction. The beginning of the end for the Nephites—after their 167 years of love, prosperity, and economic equality in their Zion in Fourth Nephi—was their rising pride and economic inequality:
“And now, in this two hundred and first year there began to be among them those who were lifted up in pride, such as the wearing of costly apparel . . . And from that time forth they did have their goods and their substance no more common among them. And they began to be divided into classes; and . . . to deny the true church of Christ. . . . They did deny the more parts of his gospel . . . because of the power of Satan who did get hold upon their hearts” (4 Ne 1:24–26, 28).
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As the gruesome end of the Nephites drew near around A.D. 400, Mormon wrote to his son Moroni: “Behold, the pride of this nation, or the people of the Nephites, hath proven their destruction except they should repent.”48 To help us avoid the deadly fate of this “fallen people,”49 President Benson urged us to repent and heed the Lord’s clear, pointed warning to us: “Beware of pride, lest ye become as the Nephites of old.”50
Fortunately, we can still choose our Heavenly Father’s “great plan of happiness”51 and find refuge from the coming storm and wrath.
35. D&C 29:36 ; see Isa. 14:13 ; Moses 4:1
36. 2 Thess. 2:4
37. D&C 76:28
38. 1 Jn. 3:10
39. 2 Ne. 9:46
40. Moses 7:37
41. Ensign, May 1989
42. 3 Ne. 11:30
43. Matt. 23:12
44. See D&C 105:1–13, 34
45. “Understanding executive pay at home and abroad,” Deseret News, November 10, 2014 (emphasis added), at http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865615160/Executive-pay-at-home-and-abroad.html . On the steep rise in income inequality in the past 40 years, see, e.g., Drew Silver, “U.S. income inequality, on rise for decades, is now highest since 1928,” Pew Research Center, Dec. 5, 2013, at http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/12/05/u-s-income-inequality-on-rise-for-decades-is-now-highest-since-1928/
46. See, for example, Thomas Burr, “Matheson’s big fear: the outbreaks after Ebola,” Salt Lake Tribune, 17, 2014 http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/58529688-90/ebola-matheson-duncan-hospital.html.csp
47. John 14:30
48. Moro. 8:27
49. D&C 20:9
50. D&C 38:39 quoted in “Beware of Pride,” Ensign, May 1989
51. D&C 42:8
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