"Why do you kids act like there's a war on?" a frustrated old man once yelled at some hyperactive teenagers. Well, there is a war on - the great war between good and evil is in its final stages. The Evil One has dragged out his deadliest weapons, including "biological" and "chemical" warfare. Amid this battle, we look for instructions, not only on how to survive, but how to win the war.

Like a leaflet of freedom dropped literally from above, the First Presidency has sent us an urgent spiritual survival kit: "For the Strength of Youth." It is a message of happiness and hope. As Elder Boyd K. Packer once said, "Oh, youth, the standards of the Church are the highway to love, not a fence around love to keep you out. How fortunate if you follow the standards, for you will find rapture and a joy fulfilled."But this message is also a voice of warning and a call to repentance. It is a stirring wake-up call, like trumpets in the dawn, lest the moral nerve-gas that surrounds us claim any more into that deadly slumber from which none can awaken.

"For the Strength of Youth" teaches about repentance with new insight, warning us that Satan is manipulating the very concept of repentance: "some people knowingly break God's commandments, . . . [butT they plan to repent before they go on a mission or receive the sacred covenants and ordinances of the temple." (FSY, p. 17.)

There is something especially perverse about "planning to repent" in the very act of transgression. This is twisting a sublime source of healing to make it actually inflict more sickness, like poisoning the medicine in the hospital for wounded soldiers. "Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil . . .." (Isa. 5:20.) But in the great war, Satan isn't bound by the rules of fair play.

This kind of thinking can begin early. We know two brothers whom we'll call Steve and Scott, ages 9 and 7. Steve had been baptized; Scott would be baptized soon. One day their father found that Scott had taken a dollar that did not belong to him. As they sat down to talk about the seriousness of stealing, Scott was at first very penitent. Then he looked up brightly and said, "But Dad, Steve says its OK to steal things until you're 8!" The startled father then asked Steve, his young theologian, why he would have said such a thing. Steve replied confidently, "That's what I told him. When he's 8, he'll be baptized and all his sins will be washed away. So I say, live it up!"

Sometimes young people preparing to attend a Church college, go on a mission, or be married in the temple will consciously "live it up," as if they can sin all they wish, so long as they "just repent" before the deadline. Paul described these foolish ones as wanting "to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." (Heb. 11:25.) Some even feel it is their "right" to romp in the mud of transgression right up to the moment they take their spiritual shower of repentance.

Sadly, those who walk too close to the edge of a penalty-free romping time may discover too late that they cannot wash every stain from their clothes and hands. Of course repentance, when it is genuine and complete, can restore our spiritual standing before God. But even then, the "entanglements" of sin (see D&C 88:86) - the bent fenders and the broken hearts, the addictions and the lost opportunities, the unwanted children and the unfortunate marriages, the bills to pay and the fences to mend - these may never wash away.

Moreover, once sin's swift current carries us downstream, we can't always just turn around at will and swim back, against the current, to our point of beginning. We don't have that much control over our lives. One of the most exciting football games in BYU history was the so-called "Miracle Bowl" in 1980 against SMU. The Cougars were behind four touchdowns with only minutes to play. Then, amazingly, they came roaring back to win the game with an onside kick and a "hail Mary" pass in the final seconds.

The next year in an early game, BYU fell far behind against a very tough team. Our 10-year-old daughter said, "You know, this is a lot more fun for everybody - let the other team get way ahead, and then just pass them up like we did last year!" But it wasn't to be - the Cougars were soundly defeated, and our daughter had to re-think her philosophy about coming from behind.

The deadly AIDS epidemic illustrates the tragedy of ignoring the consequences of sin. For example, some American athletes and entertainers have been stunned to discover that, because of their sexual promiscuity, they are now infected with the virus from which AIDS can develop. According to published estimates, some of these traveling celebrities have had sexual encounters with literally hundreds of different partners in city after city. Now they are discovering that their carefree lifestyle may cost them their lives. And beyond that, they may have unwittingly infected their spouses and children - those who mean the most to them. But now, even if they were to repent, there is no way to call back the seeds of destruction they have scattered in their past.

James foresaw the misery of such sad wanderers: "We will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." (James 4:13-14.)

Yet many today still tell America's youth that they can "live it up" and avoid such fates as AIDS if they just practice "safe sex." But any sex outside marriage is by definition unsafe, physically and spiritually. "Safe sex" is as self-contradictory as "benign terminal illness." A fastened seat belt does not make it safe to drive 150 mph. Living that fast will never be "safe." And the Father of Lies knows that.

Finally, "planning to repent" is an affront to the Savior, because it assumes that we control our own forgiveness. While we must do "all we can do" (2 Ne. 25:23) to be worthy of Christ's grace, we cannot turn that miraculous power on and off like a water faucet. He loves us no matter what we do, but He forgives only the honest in heart, and on His terms, not ours. Because we lack the power to compensate fully for the effects of our sins, we are utterly dependent on Jesus Christ. Without His holy Atonement, no amount of agonizing repentance could return us to God's presence. We dare not trifle with so sacred a reality. But the Good News is, when we do fully repent in the honesty of a broken and contrite spirit, He will do all the rest. Thank God, literally, that is under His control - not ours, for only He has enough power to make our scarlet sins be white as snow. (See Isa. 1:10.)

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About the authors

Bruce C. Hafen, BYU provost, served as president of Ricks College from 1978 to 1985 and as dean of the BYU Law School before taking his current post.

A native of St. George, Utah, he received an associate degree from Dixie College, a bachelor's degree from BYU and his juris doctorate from the University of Utah.

He served as president of the American Association of Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities from 1982 to 1985 and as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Education in 1982.

In the Church, he has served in a bishopric, as a high councilor, in a stake presidency and as a regional representative. He is the author of several Church books.

Marie K. Hafen is a member of the Young Women general board. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from BYU and has taught English and literature at the college level. She currently teaches English part-time at BYU.

She has served in the Church as a Relief Society president and teacher, Young Women president and adviser, and Junior Primary chorister. Sister Hafen has also served on the General Relief Society Curriculum Committee.

The Hafens, parents of seven children, are members of the Sharon 5th Ward, Orem Utah Sharon Stake.