Elder Dallin H. Oaks (born August 12, 1932) served as president of BYU from 1971-1980. He was then appointed as a justice of the Utah Supreme Court, and resigned when he was called to the Quorum of Twelve Apostles in 1984.
"From your position on the road of life, you young men have many miles to go and many choices to make as you seek to return to our Heavenly Father. Along the road there are many signs that beckon. Satan is the author of some of these invitations. He seeks to confuse and deceive us, to get us on a low road that leads away from our eternal destination....
"Here are some ways the devil will try to deceive us. God’s commandments and the teachings of His prophets warn against each of them....
"Satan also seeks to deceive us about right and wrong and persuade us that there is no such thing as sin. This detour typically starts off with what seems to be only a small departure: 'Just try it once. One beer or one cigarette or one porno movie won’t hurt.' What all of these departures have in common is that each of them is addictive. Addiction is a condition in which we surrender part of our power of choice. When we do that we give the devil power over us. The prophet Nephi described where this leads: the devil says, 'There is no hell,' and, 'I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance' (2 Ne. 28:22).
"If we choose the wrong road, we choose the wrong destination."
- Dallin H. Oaks, "Be Not Deceived," General Conference, October 2004
Click here to read or listen to the full talk
This is a classic "warning" message, in which Elder Oaks identifies some of the dangers of our time and points out the traps and pitfalls that could befall us if we are not aware and wary. This section of the talk focuses on the temptation to experiment with inappropriate actions. As the Master Deceiver confuses us about what is truly right and wrong, we can fall into his trap:
Satan can deceive us into thinking that trying out something just once can't be that bad. But a single step onto the wrong road begins to take us away from our correct and proper destination, and is can become much harder than we ever realize to return to the proper path. We must learn to constantly be on guard of this deception, and do all we can to "obey... with exactness" (Alma 57:21).
(Compilation and commentary by David Kenison, Orem, Utah, 2017)
Satan will never ever help us find and take the right path back to God's Eternal kingdom.
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