We are Judged According to Our Attitude Toward Free Agency

Every Law Has the Effect of Either Destroying Freedom or Preserving It. Everyone Can Be Judged According to Their Attitude Toward Free Agency

The Lord allows wicked governments to exist so that we can see evil and the destruction of free agency and choose to accept or reject it. We came to distinguish between good and evil.

In these latter days relatively few people know about the restored Gospel and it would seem unjust to punish them for not accepting it. Perhaps they will be given a chance to hear the message hereafter. However everyone knows that part of the Lord’s Gospel known as the Golden Rule. We will be judged according to how closely we follow it. Especially is this true with respect to the use of force. We are all acutely aware that we do not want others taking or injuring our life, our liberty or our property. We know that when we unjustly destroy these possessions in others, we are violating the Golden Rule. Thus when it comes to the use of force, if we follow the Golden Rule, we will all have the same code of behavior. With respect to the use of force and the destruction of the freedom elements, we all should have the same measuring rod as President McKay has indicated. Since all of us live under a government of some type and since force is the means used by governments to carry out their purposes, everyone is in a position to see force used and to judge between that which is just and that which is unjust. Everyone can apply the principles of the Golden Rule to judge the actions of government. By so doing, we make decisions regarding the all- important principle of free agency. Furthermore we can do so without inconvenience and without cost. We are judged by the desires of our hearts. The Lord permits wicked governments to exist on earth so that we may see them in operation and make decisions between what they do and what the Golden Rule would dictate. The amount of freedom we shall have in the next life will depend upon the political choices we make here in mortality just as the amount of freedom we have in mortality was determined by the decisions we made about free agency in the pre-earth life. Since men have joy or misery depending upon the amount of freedom they have, the political decisions we make are probably the most important ones of all.

(The Book of Mormon and the Constitution by H. Verlan Andersen)