I don’t watch a lot of movies. Not anymore, anyway. My life has been such that I have found it increasingly difficult to make time for movie-watching. But I have seen some, and in order to further the topic of this blogpost, I’ll reference one—The Incredibles.
The Incredibles gave a name (to my mind, anyway) to something you see in many tales of good versus evil. They called it “monologuing” and, when it was first mentioned in the movie, I laughed at the fact that there was now a name for this seemingly absurd, critically informative, story-telling device.
Basically, “monologuing” happens when a villain openly details his diabolical scheme to his opponent—the story’s hero. And what makes monologuing appear absurd is the fact that this happens, most often, when the hero could be easily eliminated. Instead, the villain decides to talk. Thinking that he holds an upper hand, the villain takes the time to lay before his audience (both the hero and the story’s actual audience) his intents and plans that he is sure will bring about the outcomes he desires.
Now, if you have read some of my other blogposts, you can probably draw the conclusion that I am no longer a temple-attending Latter-day Saint. But back in my temple attending days, I spotted the use of monologuing in the endowment presentation. Actually, it’s used in a few places in that presentation, but let’s just take a look at one monologue, specifically. It comes after God has cursed Lucifer for tempting Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit and Lucifer threatens to have the spirits that follow him possess the bodies of Adam and Eve. That is one little glimpse into Lucifer’s plans, but God counters by saying that he will place enmity between Lucifer and the seed of the woman.
So, what is enmity?
The quality of being an enemy; the opposite of friendship; ill will; hatred; unfriendly dispositions; malevolence. It expresses more than aversion and less than malice, and differs from displeasure in denoting a fixed or rooted hatred, whereas displeasure is more transient.
Well, that should give mankind a handicap, right? Having a natural dislike for Lucifer and the things that he would tempt us with should give mankind an advantage, right?
That would be nice, but then Lucifer says:
Then with that enmity, I will take the treasures of the earth, and with gold and silver I will buy up armies and navies, false priests who oppress, and tyrants who reign with blood and horror on this earth!
I’m not sure if this part has been changed since I was last at the temple or not, but this is what I recall and it taught me something very valuable about how our enemy works. He takes the enmity that God places within us and uses it against us to accomplish his purposes.
He takes the wealth of resources on this earth and purchases military might, religious oppressors, and tyrannical governments to reign in a most horrific manner. We don’t see it as such because he uses deception and misdirection to get us to believe that the employment of these things will help us get rid of whatever else he might tell us is bad. But it is the improper use of these things that is bad—so bad, in fact that we have records of civilizations whose downfall can be attributed to their improper use. Our own civilization's downfall will be for the same reasons.
When faced with the terrible things of this earth, do we turn to God? Or do we go right along with Lucifer’s plan and turn to those organizations that he has convinced us will save us? Do we use those things in a principled manner—in a way that God ordains—or do we trust in them even when they clearly demonstrate that they are unprincipled?
God will do a great work in the days ahead, but it won’t be before he convinces at least some that the only things that will withstand his judgments will be what he, alone, builds up. Lucifer can monologue all he wants, but his plan is flawed from the beginning. Those who can be bought by anything in this world, and those who are deceived by them, will perish along it.