# Adversary

Discover how the adversarial pattern in Mormon thought transcends literal and figurative readings, revealing how agency, opposition, and accountability shape individuals, communities, and civilizations.

[Image: Before “adversary” became a name, it was a designation for one who contests, interrogates, or impedes.]

In several Hebrew-scriptural contexts, *satan* denotes an adversary or accuser rather than functioning straightforwardly as a proper name. Job depicts *ha-satan* within the divine council as an accusatory or prosecutorial figure. Second Temple Jewish literature and later Christian traditions further developed the figure into a personal cosmic opponent. Latter-day Saint scripture draws on both dimensions: an adversarial role and a personal agent.

The adversarial pattern can be observed in various contexts, including personal conduct, institutions, and technology. To the extent that individuals, groups and communities choose to follow this pattern, opposition becomes a real force in the world doing real harm. It is, therefore, not accurate to characterize the interpretation of the adversary or Satan as either figurative or literal; both interpretations apply at once, at all levels of abstraction: individual, communal, societal and geopolitical. The same can be said of the Christian pattern: when we seek to encourage, uplift and help others, we contribute to the edification of the body of Christ at the same levels of abstraction.

> It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations.

## Opposition, Agency, and Preventable Suffering

[Image: Opposition creates conditions in which agency, moral development, and responsible choice can occur.]

Second Nephi 2 teaches that real alternatives and moral stakes are necessary for agency to bear sway; however, it does not establish every particular harm as necessary. While opposition makes meaningful choice possible, it would be a mistake to valorize preventable suffering and solvable problems—such as disease, cruelty, and oppression—as metaphysically indispensable.

Indeed, overcoming some types of suffering, even pain and death themselves, does not free us from opposition. Rather, new challenges and difficulties inevitably present themselves and are often progressive in nature. We can only begin to tackle the problem of building heaven on earth after more basic needs are met.

Notwithstanding its progressive nature, opposition is still an essential aspect of eternal progression. In this sense, even adversity and evil are necessary opportunities for personal and communal growth.

## Adversary as Accuser

The adversarial pattern also appears in accusation—the use of another person’s faults to secure moral standing, status, or control.

> I charged the Saints not to follow the example of the adversary in accusing the brethren…. If you do not accuse each other, God will not accuse you.

Joseph Smith’s warning distinguishes accountability from accusation. Accountability seeks truth, protection, repair, and the possibility of repentance; adversarial accusation uses exposure or condemnation to elevate oneself by diminishing a neighbor. The same principle applies to institutions and technologies: systems should make harm visible and remediable without turning surveillance, denunciation, or permanent stigma into instruments of domination.

When we harm or diminish our neighbors to secure power, advantage, or predetermined outcomes, we participate in the satanic paradigm. Discernment therefore begins with our own uses of power, including the possibility that opposition to centralized authority can itself become coercive, deceptive, exploitative, or self-exempting.

*See also*: [Accountability](/topical-guide/accountability), [Agency](/topical-guide/agency), [Christ](/topical-guide/christ), [Devil](/topical-guide/devil), [Oppression](/topical-guide/oppression), [Power](/topical-guide/power), [Prime Directive](/topical-guide/prime-directive), [Redemption](/topical-guide/redeem), [Suffering](/topical-guide/suffering), [Unrighteous Dominion](/topical-guide/unrighteous-dominion)