Originally Posted by ute4ever
Blue K those are all good points and I don't disagree with them. Obviously much good came from the loosened standard, otherwise The Lord would not have directed the brethren, and then the mission presidents, to promote it. The point I made earlier was now we are seeing the unfortunate downside of it. While I'm sure that many solid converts were found, who in turn kept the ripple effect going, many weeds sprouted alongside those seeds, and now it's the weeds who are demonstrating that they either never had a firm grasp on the iron rod, or once did but have since chosen to wander.
On a side note, I am reminded of one of President Foust's final general conference addresses, when he tried to answer the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" One of his three responses was, "maybe we're not as innocent as we like to think."
As I've pondered that, and kept an eternal perspective, our mortality is Phase Two of the Plan of Salvation, and the choices we make here will affect which way we are headed in Phase Three. Therefore, doesn't it follow that perhaps our choices in Phase One had some bearing as to where, when, and to whom we were born, and what obstacles we were predestined to face? After all, I rarely see people oppose any commentary that suggests that God saved his strongest and noblest for the last days, and I'm not referring to the debunked Boyd K. Packer quote. The whole concept suggests that our choices then, affect us now, and maybe babies aren't born as innocent as we like to think. Although newborns haven't transgressed while on earth, they bring the spirit that existed in Phase One and over the years, those talents (and burdens) are developed, "remembered," and made manifest.
I can imagine though why the enemy would want people to be so offended at the idea though. After all, it was his alternate plan that proposed removing all accountability and being celestialized regardless. If a third of the hosts of heaven had idled their time away and realized their choices would follow them into Phase Two, I imagine the popular sentiment among them was "oh crap. It's this plan or bust."
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