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Lehi's premise, and what it costs to accept it

Opposition in All Things

One of the most philosophically ambitious passages in scripture: without opposites there is no meaning, no agency, no righteousness and no God. Lehi states it in three verses and does not soften it.

18 min2 sections

1

The argument

2 Nephi 2:11–13bofm

11For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so… righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

12Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God.

13And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness…

Lehi is running a reductio. Take away opposition and you take away law; take away law and you take away sin; take away sin and you take away righteousness; take away righteousness and there is no happiness, and no God. He is arguing that a world without the possibility of evil would not be a better world but no world at all.

2

Living inside it

Principle

Opposition is the condition of a world in which anything can matter, and it is not a justification for any particular instance of suffering.

2 Nephi 2:11 · John 9:1–3 · D&C 122:7–8 · Ether 12:27

What this topic holds

  1. Without opposition there is no law, no sin, no righteousness and no purpose in creation.

    2 Nephi 2:11–13

  2. Weakness is given as a condition of mortality rather than as a punishment, and the promise is transformation rather than removal.

    Ether 12:27 · 2 Corinthians 12:9

Check your reading

3 questions

  1. 01What is Lehi's conclusion if there is no law?

  2. 02What does 'a compound in one' describe?

  3. 03What does Ether 12:27 say weakness is for?

Where to go next

Chains

Lessons

Topics

Sources

  1. 2 Nephi 2:11–27 — The primary text.