Posted by:
Scott.T
(
)
Date: September 18, 2011 08:30AM
The following from americangirl406’s post and JoD3:360’s response reminded me of something:
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americangirl406
4.)Satan knows the internet is an easy way to get our attention on weird areas of the church
Jod3:360
Point # 4 is a curious thought... new
Why would Satan want us to find the weird and bad stuff and leave a false church?
That sounds more like what a righteous entity would do.
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Year ago …. I remember reading a short story in some compilation of science fiction short stories. I have no idea who wrote it or what anthology or such it was from and probably could never find it again, but it seems applicable here. I was, of course, TBM at the time and I remember seeing the parallels but just didn’t think of them. Thinking back, I’m sure the author must have had Joseph Smith in mind, maybe the author was exmo? Who knows? Anyways this is the gist of it …..
There were two super powerful or advanced “alien” beings and a man. The aliens were presented in a context of light and dark with the story being from the perspective of the dark one. The man seemed just representative of the human race and the aliens were tasked with observing and helping the man achieve his potential. Micromanaging, telling the man what to do or interfering, so to speak would just undermine the man’s progress because he didn’t learn or do things for himself and realize his own potential and so the “dark” one tried to leave the man to his own devices as much as possible. The light one however jumped right in and told the man what to do and got the man to “follow him.” And the dark one tried to stop the interference but couldn’t do much about it directly. There was a scene in the story that mirrored Joseph Smith’s first vision. The dark one was trying to protect the man by stopping the light one from butting in yet again and the man felt overwhelmed by darkness until the light one appeared anyways and “saved” him from the darkness. I don't even remember how the story ended, whether the man finally found himself free of the light one's interference and reached his true potential or if the dark one finally gave up in despair or what ... my memory of the story kind of ends with the first vision parallel, but;
Anyway … in the end the “dark” one was the good one who was really looking out for mankind’s interests. The “light” one was constantly meddling and just looking for followers who would do what he wanted and be what and how he wanted instead of what and how their own intellect and potential would allow. The dark one would try to minimize the light one's negative impact when possible but was also somewhat hindered by his own values that promote non-interference as much as possible.