Why Putting On The Armor Of God Is Vital To Your Salvation

Putting on the Armor of God is what will protect each of us individually from the temptations of Satan. Being armed with the spiritual protections that come from living the Gospel will shield us from the possible addictions that may come upon us because of the adversary. Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin warned that Lucifer “seeks to find any chink in the armor of each person. He knows our weaknesses and knows how to exploit them if we allow him to do so."

But why is putting on the Armor of God VITAL to our salvation? Steven A. Cramer in his book Victory in Christ, talks about the importance of our time here on Earth, and how crucial it is for us to succeed in this life, in order for us to have all the blessings of the next life. He says:

"One rainy day I watched a mother and young boy come out of a store. As the mother hurriedly walked to her car, obviously preoccupied and anxious to get on to the next task, the little boy stayed behind, stomping in a puddle.

He repeated this fun activity over and over, trying each time to make a bigger splash. Soon his fun was interrupted by a frustrated yell from his mother, directing him to “get in the car right now!”

As I watched, it occurred to me that I had met a lot of well-meaning disciples who were much like this carefree little boy, choosing their priorities and living their daily lives as though this important earth-school were a playground for pleasure and entertainment instead of a spiritual battleground for the souls of men. I had been guilty of that poor judgment myself!

The scriptures often remind us that we came to this world to prepare ourselves for the next world. Thus the Lord has emphasized, “If you will that I give unto you a place in the celestial world, you must prepare yourselves by doing the things which I have commanded you and required of you” (D&C 78:7).

Every ten seconds, the world’s population increases by about twenty seven people (Bill Allen, National Geographic Magazine, October 1998,  editorial page). That translates to well over two hundred thousand people a day joining us in this spiritual challenge to find our way back to Heavenly Father. We come here not only to obtain a physical body but also to learn how to use that body wisely, to use it to produce joy and increasing capacities instead of succumbing to the captivity and restrictions that our fallen, “natural-man” flesh tries to impose.

Perhaps you have noticed the epidemic-like increase of all kinds of compulsive addictions and broken homes, homes of Church members and nonmembers alike.

Many of our weaknesses and bad habits can be overcome with our limited willpower and self-determination, but addictions are a different matter. Think of addictions as bad habits that have outgrown willpower. As described in my other books, the agency of people involved in addictive behavior has been surrendered to the adversary, and the only hope of real change is the divine rescue of the Savior through the process of being born-again and receiving a new heart and nature through the Atonement of Christ."

All types of sin are a form of addiction. When we these addictions are a part of our lives, we are only capable of pulling away from those sins for a particular time before our willpower and self-determination are maxed out to zero. This is where the Atonement of our Savior comes in. This is where putting on the Armor of God comes into play, in shielding ourselves from the constant temptations of Satan. 

If we only understood the importance of our temporal life here on Earth and how much the choices now affect our life in the eternities, we would be strapping on the Armor of God onto us at all times.

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