"It's Not My Fault"

While we're on the subject of things that may or may not be the fault of a character in a Disney movie, Judge Claude Frollo, from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, once claimed "It's not my fault if, in God's plan, He made the devil so much stronger than a man." But, of course, God did no such thing. God did not make the devil any stronger than a mortal man. In fact, God made us much stronger that the devil, in at least two major ways.

First, God gave us bodies. Everyone who has ever been born has been given a body, something that the adversary will never have, and we know that all beings who have bodies have power over those who have not. Now, I'm not entirely sure what form that power takes or how it helps us, but I know that, at least in terms of physical power, we are infinitely stronger than the adversary. Of course, I'm sure Frollo wasn't talking about physical strength when he used the term "stronger." I think it's more likely that he was talking about spiritual strength or strength of will. But even there, God gave us a strong advantage.

In addition to bodies, God also gave us the Priesthood. The Priesthood is the power and authority to act in God's name, which, in itself, is a great deal of power, but that's not all. Through the Priesthood, we can gain access to additional blessings, like those afforded to us by the sacred ordinances. We have access to a great deal of power, far more than the adversary; we just need to know how to tap into it.

We have a few other advantages, like the companionship of the Holy Ghost and the fact that God's army has twice as many spirits in it as the adversary's army, but I don't know how much those count for. The question was whether God made us stronger than the adversary, not whether he sent us more help. I suppose one could argue that one's allies are a form of strength, and I'm not going to argue with them, but I'm still not counting it. Even without our allies, we have more strength that the enemy will ever have, for more reasons than one.

Not surprisingly, Frollo was wrong. God didn't make the devil stronger than man. Rather, He made mankind much, much stronger.