Thank you, Hayden. Fantastic!

Hopefully people get it. There is no total freedom to do anything that you want to do that kind of freedom does not exist. And if you think it does, then you get kind of the world we're starting to see that we're living in today. People look you in the face and say I can do what I want to do or you can, but there's a consequence to that. And many don't know , or they don't have a clear understanding of what that consequence will end up being

The church has been trying to eliminate the combination, ‘free agency’ for many years. Agency is not free, it was paid for with a price. Our use of agency comes with a price.

Which branch of the military to you belong? I used to work for MC / Navy.

Is there a way to get a text version of Elder Bednar's talk? Where would I seek out such a thing please and thank you 🙏

He drank the bitter cup so that the Bride did not have to ! Wow!

It's wonderful to see all the Temple symbolism. Thank you dor sharing. ❤

I went to the temple 1 time, the first time really, for the right reasons and came away with a lot of things. One of them was the idea that the only freedom we really have is when we choose Christ. If we don’t keep our covenants, then we lose our agency. Now Neal A Maxwells statement makes so much more sense… If in the end you have not chosen Christ, it will not matter what you have chosen instead! BOOM!!! Great job @stickofjoseph

4:30 - we were given a choice to choose Satan's plan or Christ's in the pre-mortal life. Free to choose (free will) is not agency. 5:33 - he is speaking in terms of acting as an agent of Christ, not just ourselves. Not about free will or free to choose. 6:58 - with more agency comes a structured framework with which you can operate that empowers you to act as an agent for the entity. Adjusting the authority acting as an agent outside the framework brings more severe punishment. 8:17 - okay so more elder Bednar is inferring that agency is free will. Those are completely separate. If there was no free will then we couldn't decide in the first place. 15:17 - finally. You are free to choose one way or the other. 18:07 - again. the end is better than the beginning. Your choices have consequences. Pick your consequence by taking the action that leads there. You are free to choose, but some decisions lead to losing power. Power in the sense that you lose opportunities to act how you want. You may become restricted. 18:10 - the consequence was that they became mortal and their body took on corruption that it would eventually die. I've always believed that Adam thought he would die rather quickly.

I love it, thank you. Choosing God is a responsible choice and will be rewarded. Not choosing God is an irresponsible choice and will lead to bondage.

When the term “agency” was being used in the 1800s, it had 2 definitions: 1) the ability for one to exert their own will or power into action 2) an office of an agent entrusted with the concerns of others (see Websters 1828 dictionary) The first definition is about free-will; the second definition is about representative agency. The context behind the words of the scriptures, unpublished revelations and the prophets up until a few apostles in the last decade are referring to the first definition of agency - free-will. I don’t think it’s wise to twist the meaning of past language to support a current paradigm. That is what each side is doing: the “live your truth” people are justifying sin by hiding behind a false belief that agency means there is no consequence for sin. But now a growing movement of well-meaning members are undermining the longstanding definition of free-will agency by replacing it with representative agency.

19:15 Are the rules binding us down or holding us up? The Parable of the Kite: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/edl2f7lmyNidfok.html

A great video. I love Elder Bednar. Thank you, Hayden. 😊❤️🙏🇦🇺🔯🧔‍♀️🪔

This BLEW my mind! The Bible makes so much more sense to me now. Thanks for inspiring me to love the scriptures and search them more diligently!

Brass is an aloy of copper and zinc, and bronze is an aloy of copper and tin.

This sermon is from a Jewish rabbi but I think it fits really well here. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bamnm6V01a3LnYk.htmlsi=nRP5eLUQwezovT5O

Love this one so much!

for me... free agency means, the agent is free bondage of satan.

To those saying the term “free agency” doesn’t appear in scripture, it actually does if you consider unpublished revelations from the Lord to his prophets as scripture. Here’s an example (there are many more): “And because I am kind and beneficent to all peoples, and because I have given to man his free agency, and have always maintained that free agency among all peoples, and have treated all men alike among all nations, and made the sun to shine on the evil and the good, on the just and the unjust, and have never controlled the consciences of men…” (Revelation given to John Taylor, Tuesday, June 27, 1882, at Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. (John Taylor Papers, LDS Archives)) Also notice that the definition of agency in this (and all other contexts until recently) was meant as a free-will version and not a representative version of agency.

The use of the term “free agency” is used a lot from past prophets (including from the Lord in some unpublished revelations). They absolutely intended it to mean that we are free to choose good or evil just as Lehi explained in 2 Ne 2:27 - “Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil” This other definition of “representative agency” is another accurate use of the term but it deviates from the free-will definition of agency that has been intended and used by all of our prophets going back for thousands of years. Attributing different meanings to a doctrinal term that have maintained a consistent free-will meaning is a recipe for more confusion. I agree with Elder Bednar that some people have misunderstood what agency means when they try to justify their actions by saying they have their free agency (as if they should be able to do whatever they want without consequences). But I’m worried he’s adding more confusion to the topic when he rejects the multi-millennia definition of agency (free will) in favor of a meaning that was never intended by earlier prophets teaching the doctrine.

15:52 Really missing some important nuance about agency, moral agency, the righteous use of agency, general agency as an Eternal Law, the increase or decrease of Freedom relative to agency, the much more rare increase or decrease agency of total agency, various principles relative to Freedom, and the out come of celestial character, etc. The video cut that says something like, "I have my agency I can do what I want" is missing context. It seems to be implying that some Latter-Day Saints are saying once I'm baptized, I have my agency I can do what I want, and receive all the blessings and avoid all of the consequences that are negative. That seems to be the implication that isn't explicitly stated in the video or they cuts to Elder Bednar. It is true we have agency and within the sphere of influence that we have or within the kingdom in which our current agency Acts, we can choose to do what we wish with that agency, but we cannot choose the consequences of said agency. I used to think of agency, as being able to choose the consequences we desire through the actions and beliefs we espouse as agents. That is a fundamentally Elementary definition, but it helps to illustrate what we are speaking about. Even an unrighteous use of agency, in a given sphere of my, is still a act or use of agency, but the subsequent consequences can make it so that we no longer have the same amount of freedom to exercise agency, as we did before, when initially using our agency righteously. Freedom comes and goes, but our agency is ours, giving us of God, relative to our sphere of influence, stewardship, and/or Kingdom. Years ago, Elder Maxwell and others were teaching that free agency was a misnomer because agency inherently included free. So by saying free agency, one was saying free free agency. Agency or moral agency was a more appropriate term. Moral agency and agency are often used interchangeably, but there is teaching that may infer that moral agency and agency actually contain unique nuance. Elder Bednar taught us these ideas more fully as missionaries. In a multi-hour training session, he went through many of these Concepts one by one. One key point is confusing agency with either the righteous use of agency versus the unrighteous use of agency (and the subsequent consequences of each). It also needs to be noted, the difference between agency and freedom, the relationship between these two are absolutely key to understanding the higher conversation being had here. (For example, the idea from the video that discipline equals freedom, is implying something not explicitly said by the quote, and the conclusion drawn in this video falls short. Discipline for righteous Eternal principles which have eternal promises or blessings from God as their consequence, leads to greater Freedom in the long-term. If you have discipline for sin and breaking the Commandments, you will have less overall freedom Long-term.) While your freedom can be taken away from you, your agency never can be. The only possibility of shrinking the sphere of influence of your agency within a Stewardship or sphere of influence (sometime called a Kingdom by Brigham Young) is very rare and difficult, because it is something only you can do, only you can fotfiet your powers as an agent. Especially given the possibility of repentance in mortality, there is even more Nuance to be discussed. This possible situation of one surrendering their ability to act as an agent and not to be acted upon, usually only occurs to someone given greater light and knowledge, who subsequently shrink from greater opportunities afforded them by exercising righteous agency, therefore for some period of time - up to eternity (because of the eternal nature of the atonement and repentance), they also forfeit the ability of reaping the additional benefits of such righteousness use of agency. Even if someone chained you up in a prison cell, and you lived your entire life in that environment, you would still have your moral agency relative to your sphere of influence, despite the fact that you are robbed of your de facto freedom. At a high leave, agency or I would say radical agency, is one of the laws of the universe that is one of the prerequisites for us to live in the presence of God like he lives, with a body like his, with our families forever, Worlds Without End. God has the technical agency and freedom to lie and break his Covenants. By a technical sense, given the nature of radically agency as a law of the universe. But we know that God has never lied or broken a covenant (nor will He), because he would cease to be God, and because time is only counted unto man according to Alma 40:8, we would cease to be. The fact that we exist in this moment having this conversation, is proof that God will never and does not, do anything with his radical agency and freedom that would jeopardize his standing as the great Eternal God, despite having the ability to do so. This is what meekness really is, having complete power, with complete righteous control exercising only those righteous principles and promises through agency and freedom, relative to our sphere of influence. In a non-technical sense, God cannot use his agency to lie and break covenants, because he would not be God, and we would cease to be. Because these laws exist outside of God, God himself has the technical ability to do things that he will never do. This requires us to not only trust in God's power and teachings, but also in the Celestial Character of God. This is why His character was described by the ancient Hebrews as being more holy or righteous than those of other Pagan gods. Which is why the ancient Israelites practiced the law of holiness, which is an acknowledgment that we trust or have faith in God because his character is as such that he will always use his agency and freedoms righteously. We therfore seek to model ourselves after the same (though sadly the ancient Hebrews looked beyond the mark and reduced the law of Holiness to a series of performances, and the true spirit and Power was lost). We exercise righteous agency and act as agents, and are not acted upon by the consequences of broken law, with the power of the spirit being our companion, we develop celestial character which is the ultimate goal of the correct use of agency. That we might be joint heirs with Christ if it's so be that we suffer with him. One can't have the outcome of a Celestial character through using agency any which way one desires, even in situations where we may have maximum Freedom or a de facto absence of freedom. We must through the two channels of governance (the priesthood and personal revelation), correctly act as agents, in accordance to the will of God, through the constant companionship of the Holy ghost, to obtain the fruits of the consequences righteous agency (Ultimately Celestial Character). "... we've already dispensed with those lower choices... they no longer need to be choices anymore..." I understand the sentiment of the above statement, but we still make those choice. They may seem to become so automatic that we aren't making them, because we are developing Celestial character which leads to all of righteous decision-making becoming almost automatic as we grow from one sphere of influence to another sphere of influence or kingdom, Grace to Grace, through Jesus Christ, until the perfect day. But they are still choices that we have to make, no matter how small. Thankfully, the atonement and Jesus Christ forgives even the smallest repeat mistakes that we should know better about already, which is one of the many reasons The Plan of Salvation is so beautiful in the first place place.

On the gold plates, it looks like there are stars if eight rays shining. Maybe the morning star of Christ. Pure gold is the only metal that can be hammered flat without cracking. There is no need to heat up gold to keep hammering flat. It just keeps getting flatter and wider. If done correctly pure gold can be hannered into gold foil. Silver, copper, and brass needs to be annealed, or they crack. Gold dies not tarnish or break down in salt water or dirt. On pure gold, you can easily be scribed words on gold plates without any loss due to corrosion. Gold does not corroded. It stays that way forever unless distorted or melted. Lead plates are easy to make because lead is easy to get and form into lead plates. Lead can be corroded under certain conditions, but if protected, it can be read. Lead is easy to scribe on. Retired high school chem/physics teacher.

Someone asked me once: "do I do what I should do, what I want to do or what is right? I told him: "they should all be the same thing!"

⁠I think his main point is that you can’t use “I have my free agency” as a way to justify sinning or doing whatever we want. Obviously we technically still have our free will and can choose to sin and do whatever we want but he’s reminding us that with our free will we chose to make a covenant and have promised to do the Lords will. So now when we choose to sin or do whatever we want(our will) we are also choosing to break our covenant to do His will. In other words when we make the 1 choice to covenant to follow the Savior we commit to a lifetime of choices to do His will.

Great video

John 12:3 says the woman was Mary the sister of Martha, who anointed Jesus with a pound of spikenard

Good stuff!

I liked Elder Cook’s talk about free will last conference, and I wish he would have discussed it more philosophically. I’m sure he wasn’t interested in opening social media debates though. From a secular perspective, I think one of the strongest defenses of free will in lieu of determinism has to be the existence of true randomness and chaos. The theory of evolution generally accepts the notion of randomness, although there is debate. Quantum physics also accepts the notion of true randomness. Philosophically, I don’t think you can disprove the idea that these sciences necessitate randomness. If you apply determinism to science, you have to infer reason and purpose as to why all things happen which is ultimately antithetical to these sciences which consciously attempt to prove “how” rather than “why.” If true randomness occurs in the physical universe, why can’t true spontaneity apply to free will? I say it can. Perhaps determinism is an infinite regress of false attributions and true randomness is at the end of the chain of the regress. Perhaps God is one with randomness just as he is one with other laws of nature? Could there be free will if not for God?

I don’t see the need for any adjective to preface “agency” in a theological context, and I find the modifiers counterproductive to understanding definitions. Agency is power to act and should be defined almost synonymously with Priesthood. The Priesthood encompasses all of God’s power. God has infinite agency and all things obey Him. I’m seeing a lot of poor definitions of agency in the comments. I like Elder Bednar’s lesson a lot. I hate to feign intellect against an Apostle, but I think it is fair to say that the devil also has agency and priesthood. If it were not so, the devil would have no power. You could probably argue that the devil has no free will because of his inability to leave eternal punishment. He is actively punished by God, and unwillingly must “obey” an eternity of suffering. Satan’s agency is weak and inferior since he does not have a body of flesh and bone. The devil cannot do “whatever he wants” because his free will has been disabled by endless punishment.

A great presentation and some great concepts taught on this subject. I love the way Bednar teaches, especially when he is in a less formal setting..

Why do other try and tell others what someone was saying, wow no wonder this nation is ran by corruption

Amen on the ancient tradition podcast! Jack Logan is freaking incredible

Any chance to see these ancient sources?

SWEEET!!! Love love love your content! Please keep it coming!!would love to have you interview Tyler Griffin!

we need a study guide and a book please!

Agency is an eternal law that allows us to choose eternal life. We need freedom of choice to be able to choose to be like God. We have real life experience of what it's like to live under sat an ic rulers... they rule by force and they want to force us to be evil. Every time man has fought for his liberty, it has not been so they can live ungodly lives... but to get out of the clutches of evil rulers, so they can have the freedom to live godly wholesome lives. We have taught our children "we USE our agency when we follow Christ, we LOSE our agency when we follow sat an".

Great video!

Wrong, very wrong. President Benson speaking as Prophet, introduced "free agency" as a moral fact and principal and openly rejected this interpretation. Bednar does not speak for the Church as a whole. He is not the actual Prophet. And this is all 100% wrong. The way he explains it is rude, not humble and another attempt to prop his ego. He will be corrected no doubt!

Love your content. He refers to Moses 7:33. The Lord says there explicitly that He gave agency to men so men would chose Him.

We have free will. We are not free agents. We are endowed to be agents unto ourselves. Doesn't that mean we are designated agents or deputized by and of God to behave in such a way that we become all that our Created intended for us to become?

Scripture notes is awesome! Been using it for 2 years. Their newest feature is an AI feature called Daniel. Nothing else like it exists in LDS scripture study options.

Great series of talks with these guests! Would love to see some in-depth discussion on the female prophets of the Bible at some point. In the meantime, one critique…eliminate the repetitive use of the word “provocative” and “dude” from your vocabulary…sounds like something a 15 year old would keep saying. 😉

Do these people realize "natural sex" passes around STDs, while sex within a marriage is the most safe for both partners and children.

Free will is unbiblical. You’re either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness (Romans 6:16), a child of God or a child of the devil (1 John 3:10). This does not negate decision making, but the ability to carry out what we desire within our own nature is unsupported, biblically (Romans 7).

So greatful for this. I’m so sick and tired of Mormons using “agency” as a way to avoid combating sin and justifying bad decisions. Our God is God, not agency

The definition of an Agent is to faithfully represent and act on behalf of another, and having Agency from God means to become His Agent. As God's Agents, we have a duty to represent Him, and act on His behalf in all things we do. Pretty simple yet often misunderstood concept.

Love your work, All my love your way!

Ok yall really need to read “what Jesus Taught in Secret” by Max Freedom Long. About 8 minutes in to this interview, Andrea says “this religion is OLDER than judism, and Jesus restored it, it was lost, and then Joseph restores it again”… yes!!! Max Freedom Long’s book is about temple initiates of the Egyptians and how these made it to Hawaii to the Huna priests. He was really on to something. But he sadly died before he could finish his research. He talks about all these things you, Dave Butler, and Andrea are talking about.

It is hard to watch this video with the constant “heh” as if it’s a Pentecostal preacher speaking. Not very fruitful other than painting a slightly veered off mainstream version of historical events of the early church.

I respect Elder Bednar. Though he has said some things that are contrary to the scriptures. Read the BOM again carefully