What is agency and what conditions are required for agency to exist?

Thomas R. Valletta

“Agency is the ability and freedom to choose good or evil. It is an eternal principle … .

“Four great principles must be in force if there is to be agency: 1. Laws must exist, laws ordained by an Omnipotent power, laws which can be obeyed or disobeyed; 2. Opposites must exist—good and evil, virtue and vice, right and wrong—that is, there must be an opposition, one force pulling one way and another pulling the other; 3. A knowledge of good and evil must be had by those who are to enjoy the agency, that is, they must know the difference between the opposites; and 4. An unfettered power of choice must prevail” (McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 26).

The Book of Mormon Study Guide: Start to Finish

References