Dear Gramps,

While I realize how important it is that we have bodies, I was wondering if there is more to the subject of Lucifer’s rebellion than has been revealed to us. Why would he be so angry over just not having a body?

Susan, from Winfield, Kansas

Dear Susan,

What an interesting question!! Now I have one for you– How is it that you would think that Gramps would be able to know something about Lucifer’s condition that has not been revealed to us? But in spite of that severe limitation on Gramps’s part, perhaps there are one or two comments that could be made on the subject.

You imply that JUST not having a body is apparently no big deal. Without a body a spirit is precluded from interacting with the material side of the universe. It is true that there is spiritual matter. We are told in the scriptures that all spirit is matter

There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter (Doctrine and Covenants 131:7-9). As an example of the difference between spirit and corporeal matter (if you will), we could compare the spirit to the blueprint of a building, and matter to the building itself. The architect who drew up the blueprint would know every single detail of the building–the position of every board, pipe, conduit and nail. There is nothing about the building that he would not know. Yet the building exists only in his mind. Before it can be of general use it must be constructed of material elements. The counterpoint to this concept is found in the Mormon scripture, The Pearl of Great Price, Book of Moses–

And now, behold, I say unto you, that these are the generations of the heaven and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that I, the Lord God, made the heaven and the earth, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. For I, the Lord God, had not caused it to rain upon the face of the earth. And I, the Lord God, had created all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them; and there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither in the air (Moses 3:4-5).

So, from these concepts you can get an idea of the limitations and incompleteness of the spirit alone. But there is yet another related concept to not having a physical body that may clarify Satan’s frustrations even more. We are children of God. God is the literal father of the spirits of all mankind. He has a body of flesh and bones, as tangible as that of man’s.

The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22).

As children of God we have the potential to grow to an eternal maturity, and be like our Father in Heaven. As an essential part of that growth process we were born into mortality for the express purpose of gaining a physical body, and also to learn the laws of continued progression until we could indeed become like our Father in Heaven. The laws of continued progression are encompassed in the gospel of Jesus Christ, which outlines, defines and explains all that is necessary for us to do in order to continue on the path of progress throughout mortality.

There are some vital and essential elements to this progress, that if not completed in mortality, will forever stunt out eternal growth, and preclude us from achieving that eternal adulthood to be like our Father in Heaven. These vital and essential elements are specifically contained in the laws and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The crowning blessing provided for God’s children in that mortal experience is to have the privilege of being sealed by the authority of the holy priesthood in one of the temples of the Lord to an eternal companion, such that, as husband and wife, in the eternities that family unit would continue to exist, and spirit children would be born to that eternal father and mother, thus continuing the royal line of eternal progression.

All of that is denied to Satan and all the hosts of heaven that rebelled against God and thus were never permitted to continue their eternal growth. Thus they remain truncated in misery for eternity.

Gramps