SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE DARK
SIDE: A Guide for Youth and Young Adults
By: Stephen J. Stirling 5
Stars
This is a
short book that carries quite a punch. As a reader I enjoy a good story, but
even more I enjoy getting to know the characters in the book. I have often
wondered what caused Satan to go from the Son of the Morning to the creature he
is today. It just baffles me that he could be so highly esteemed in the
premortal world that he had a name associated with light bearing. I am not exactly
sure why this surprises me. We see how his influence has caused those of light
to fall to darkness in our mortal world. At least here I can make more sense of
how such a change could happen. On the down side, I don’t have the resources or
understanding available to me to determine how such a shift could happen in the
pre-existence.
Shedding Light on the Dark Side covers the war in heaven and how
Satan tried to switch our allegiances during that time (Stirling, 2013). We
know that one-third of the heavenly beings followed him and became the devil’s
angels. The other two-thirds kept their first estate and were allowed to enter
mortality. In lieu of mortality, the devil’s angels became servants of darkness.
Their goal is to corrupt our Heavenly Father’s divine plan. Today they still
try to test our faith, even after we know that our Savior did in fact overcome
the world. He fulfilled his divine mission by taking away our sins. All we have
to do is forsake them and come unto Him.
Stirling’s
book covers many topics about the pre-existence and uses scriptural references
to support his words. The rest of the book continues to show the power of the
dark side, but offers hope on how we can recognize evil and overcome it with
the help of our Savior.
One example
in the book quotes an episode of The
Twilight Zone from 1960. It is called “The Howling Man”. This episode finds
a young traveler meeting a couple of monks who have taken another man prisoner.
The traveler believes that the prisoner
is the victim of religious fanatics who believe him to be Satan.
The traveler
refuses to believe such a tale after he sees the prisoner as a harmless looking
fellow. The traveler decides to set the prisoner free. The prisoner then shows
no mercy to the traveler and strikes him to the ground all while transforming
to his true devilish form. When the monks discover the escape they tell the
traveler how he will always remember the day he released Satan upon the world.
The travel replied that he did not recognize him. The monk’s profound answer
warned that not recognizing Satan is our greatest weakness and his greatest
strength (Stirling, 2013).
While reading Stirling’s book I had another
book from the library titled Angels:
Agents of Light, Love, and Power by Donald Parry (2013). This book is
divided into three parts: About Angels (such as their appearance), how Angels
Minister with Love to Mortals, and Five Symbols Associated with Angels. Parry
covers many topics, such as communication through visions, dreams, speaking,
impressions and even more ways. Something that stood out in relation to
Stirling’s book was how to detect a false spirit.
Many of you
may have heard of something about shaking the spirit’s hand. As laid out in
Doctrine and Covenants section 129, there are three keys to detecting a false
spirit (LDS.org, 2013). If you are unsure about the spirit offer to shake hands.
A resurrected being will shake your hand. A righteous spirit will not shake
your hand as it is contrary to their nature to deceive. A devilish spirit will
shake your hand, but you will be unable to feel anything.
Parry covers
this within his book in order to help us understand that there is an evil force.
Fortunately, Parry’s book only mentions the dark side in one chapter. The remainder
of his book is an enlightening read on how spirits are working for good and can
indeed be a blessing in our lives. However, Parry felt it necessary to mention
that angels can appear in many forms, as we also learned from “The Howling Man”.
In order to
fully understand what we are up against, Parry provided a sneak peak based on
detection. On the other side, Stirling focuses on how evil spirits are real. He
gives us general religious history on how everything began so we may have a
greater understanding. I have already touched on the war in heaven, but as I
have studied, I have found more valuable information on what happened in this
war.
I am still
reading The Gospel Scholar Series:
Selected Writings of M. Catherine Thomas, but the first chapter alone has
provided many thought provoking insights (2000). This chapter is all about the
premortal election. Something that stood out was the fact that some of us were
more righteous than others during the war in heaven. Ms. Thomas made it sound
like those who fought the hardest for the Lord’s side had added privileges, and
thus more responsibilities, than those who chose the right side, but didn’t
have as strong a testimony.
Many
religions are based upon the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Ms. Thomas makes it sound
like we were organized in these tribes based upon how dedicated we were during
the war in heaven. The most valiant were placed in the tribes that promised to
help bring forth the gospel in the latter days. The biggest tribe we know with
this responsibility is Ephraim.
While the
tribes are not necessarily listed, I found another interesting resource from
LDS.org confirming that the most valiant were chosen to be rulers in the
kingdom (2013). Abraham is an example of this principle. This is something
amazing to think about, but it leads to a whole new world of research.
Going back
to The Twilight Zone, after reading
about this episode, I had to watch it. You can do so here (TheHowlingMan177, 2012). Something that was left out of the book, but
was very impressive to me within “The Howling Man”, the prisoner was held by a
small, easy to break cane. This can was known as the Staff of Truth. When the
traveler goes to release the prisoner, he questions if that small stick was
really all that had kept him hostage. The truth was strong enough to keep Satan
bound for 5 years before he was released by someone who didn’t recognize his
tricks.
As stated in
John 8:32 (King James Version) “the truth shall set you free.” I don’t know
about the rest of you, but I will make sure I learn all I can about the truth and
how my Savior provided a way for us to overcome it. These things will help distinguish
between the good and the evil, light and darkness.
LDS.org.
(2013). Doctrine & Covenants.
Section 129. Retrieved from http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/129
LDS.org.
(2013). War in heaven. The Bible
Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/war-in-heaven
Parry, D. W.
(2013). Angels: Agents of light, love,
and power. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book Company.
Stirling, S.
J. (2013). Shedding light on the dark
side: Defeating the forces of evil. A guide for youth and young adults.
Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, Inc.
TheHowlingMan177.
(2012, August 15). The Howling Man [Video
file]. The Twilight Zone. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k4WJGtGnBw
Thomas. M.
C. (2000). Selected writings of M.
Catherine Thomas. Gospel scholar series. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book
Company.
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