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Abraham 3:22-23

22 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;

23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.

With the recent passing of Ronald Reagan, I was reminded of the above scripture. When the Lord says, These I will make my rulers, I tend to believe men such as Pres. Reagan were there. I don't think it was an accident that Reagan was born at the time and place he was. I think the Lord had it planned all along.

To what extent does the Lord choose world political leaders? While I believe Pres. Reagan was chosen before he was born, I have a hard time believing the same thing for Hitler and even Clinton. Does the Lord just select a few leaders at critical times? What about George W. Bush? Do you think he was selected by the Lord? And what of other nations? Is the Lord placing some of the noble and great ones in places like China so they can rise to political power and then change the policy to allow the Gospel to be preached there?

- Abraham

It wouldn't surprise me if the Lord did choose some of the world leaders, although I think we can say for sure that not all leaders are chosen of God.

I think when the Lord said 'rulers' he meant more than just earthly kings and rulers. Without a doubt the prophets and apostles were among the noble and great ones, and as far as God's kingdom goes they are definitely the rulers.

Abraham 3:22-23 Studies Doctrine Mormon

If I remember correctly, Heavenly Father designated who would be leaders of nations and who would be living in those nations. I'm searching my scriptures...hold on a sec. It's in the Old Testament...Here we go.

7 ¶Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
8 When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
(Old Testament | Deuteronomy 32:7 - 8)

So, I agree that these leaders are chosen. How they act/react to the things of the Lord is unknown. How will they know what the Lord wants? Will they accept the calling made known to them? There is of course a "PLAN" in place, and the Lord knows the end from the beginning. Are there not supposed to be wars, rumors of wars, etc.? Perhaps the Plan is not to promote the Gospel in those nations but to curse and afflict the Gentiles in other nations for becoming puffed up and wicked??

It will be interesting how it all unfolds.
Roz

- Abraham

Some friends and I were speculating about this one time, and we came to the conclusion that for the most part the Lord most likely lets us use our own Free Agency to determine our own leaders. If he does use his influence to bring certain leaders to power, we believed that it was only in the most desperate and darkest of circumstances that he did so. Meaning, the Founding Fathers, Lincoln, FDR, etc...I doubt that he has used his influence any more than that to bring an elected leader to power, choosing instead to let us learn by our own mistakes.

Worldwide (where governments tend to be less stable) might be a different story, but in countries where a government is more or less stable, I tend to doubt it. I think there he lets free agency do its great work. I also think he has much more faith in us and our abilities than we do.

- Abraham

It is my understanding that when the Lord is saying "my rulers" in the scripture in Abraham that you quoted, He is only referring to those who are a part of His kingdom, meaning His saints (His sanctfied people,) in other words, His elect (His "chosen.") Therefore, Reagan and any other political leader, being unbaptized and therefore not in the covenant and not in the kingdom, are not appointed as the Lord's rulers. Others have appointed them as rulers, since we, having free agency, can appoint whoever we want to be our ruler. All people, however, surely must have earthly missions to accomplish, whether within the kingdom or without it, but only saints are (and will be) the Lord's rulers. Only they are "given the kingdom." See the following scripture: