SURAN 2 - FOREORDINATION & RESTORATION

(This post has been a long time coming...)

Quick thoughts:

- Who is the voice testifying to and teaching Suran? The Lord, the Spirit, an unseen angel? (Maybe Ngameke could throw his voice ; )
- I like the simple twofold purpose of baptism given here -- to be cleansed and to witness acceptance of God's teachings.
- Suran is baptized by immersion, initiated into the Order of God (Melchizedek Priesthood), and appointed to be a prophet, priest, and king. Does this last part represent the endowment rites, too?

Foreordination & Premortal Existence

This chapter tangentially touches on one of the great theological and philosophical debates--that of free will versus determinism. I had a well-written exposition on the subject, but it was conveniently deleted when my computer crashed back in Jan. (Hence the long delay of this post.) So, I'll just state briefly that the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its associated plan of salvation, as taught in the LDS standard works (Jeremiah 1, Alma 13, Abraham 3, etc.) and now the Aklatan, strike a balance between these two seemingly opposing perspectives through the clarifying doctrines of eternal agency, premortal existence, foreordination, etc. Within the Grand Plan, both free will and God's omniscience coexist--but both set within their own bounds and in compliance with their own laws.

According to this paradigm, eternal progression through the wise exercise of agency is the essential core of human existence--to go from grace to grace, intelligence to intelligence, from lower rungs of the ladder to higher ones (as Joseph Smith illustrated it). Not only do we pass through stages of progression during this earth life, but mortality is just one of many larger stages extending forward and backward through our eternal existence (see D&C 93:29), each previous stage affecting the next. Therefore, knowledge of our premortal state is key to a fuller understanding of our current mortal (and future immortal) one, with its inherent trials, suffering, etc. (We'll delve deeper into the issue of theodicy--or why bad things happen to good people--later.)

In essence, all mankind lived with God before coming to earth, and each person was appointed (and I believe chose) to live at a certain time in a certain place. This is foreordination: a premortal setting apart or appointment to undertake mortal missions or experience specific trials--all within the grander perspective of our eternal progression. However, this does not mean we are predetermined to act a certain way or choose a predefined path. We are not guaranteed to make the right choice nor destined to make the wrong one; foreordination neither precludes nor violates the exercise of agency. Through transgression, sin, or rebellion, we may fail in our foreordination and surrender promised blessings. Hence, "many are called but few are chosen." Free will is an eternal characteristic of intelligent beings.

Foreordination, then, is based on both our agency and God's omniscience and foreknowledge. As all things are present before him (see D&C 88:41; 130:7), He anticipates our choices but does not make them for us. In the Grand Council before the world, we elected and agreed to enter into this plan set up by God to bless all His children and provide opportunities and challenges for their growth, development, and progress. He knows our potential and foreordains us to help bring about His eternal purposes, as with Suran.

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Sometimes I like to think of this whole life of ours from the perspective of chaos theory, which describes systems of deterministic chaos. Within such a system, apparent randomness leads to an overall pattern. (This is where we get fractal geometry. The image above is an artistic depiction of a fractal pattern.) However, just because a chaotic system has a predetermined outcome doesn't mean it's predictable. One needs to know the precise initial conditions of the system in order to predict that outcome. Therefore, an all-knowing observer, like God, who is outside of the system and at the start of it, could then specify or measure those precise initial conditions, and in doing so would then be able to know and predict with certainty the final outcome, as well as any point along the way.

Is our free will just an illusion, then? No, we are still able to make choices on our level, though we are still bound by certain laws. This idea of illusion, which still baffles philosophers, shouldn't be an issue since all "true" randomness in any system is still bound by some law or rule.