=21. Our First Parents in Eden.=[175]--The crowning scene of the great
drama of creation was the forming of man in the image of his spiritual
Father, God.[176] For the reception of the first man, the Creator had
specially prepared a choice region of earth, and had embellished it
with natural beauties calculated to gladden the heart of its royal
possessor. "The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden,[177] and
there he put the man whom he had formed."[178] Soon after man's advent
upon the earth the Lord created for him a companion or help-meet,
declaring that it was not good that man should be alone,[179] Thus,
male and female, Adam and his wife Eve, were placed in the Garden.
They had been given dominion "over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the
earth."[180] With this great power were associated certain special
commands, the first of which in point of importance was that they "be
fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it;" then,
that they refrain from eating or even touching the fruit of a certain
tree, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which grew in the midst
of the Garden, though of all other fruits they were permitted to
freely partake. The words of God concerning this command and its
penalty are:--"And I, the Lord God, commanded the man, saying, of
every tree in the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; nevertheless
thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee, but
remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die."[181]
[175] Read Genesis, chapters ii and iii; Pearl of Great Price:
Moses iii, iv: Abraham v, 7-21.
[176] Genesis i, 26; Pearl of Great Price: Moses ii, 27.
[177] See Note 3.
[178] Genesis ii, 8-9.
[179] Genesis ii, 18; Pearl of Great Price: Moses iii, 18, 21-24.
[180] Genesis i, 28; Pearl of Great Price: Moses ii, 28; Abraham
iv, 28.
[181] Pearl of Great Price: Moses iii, 16-17; see also Genesis ii,
16-17.
=22. The Temptation= to disobey this command soon came. Satan
presented himself before Eve in the Garden, and, speaking by the mouth
of the serpent, questioned her about the commands which God had given
respecting the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eve answered that
they were forbidden even to touch the fruit of that tree, under
penalty of death. Satan then sought to beguile the woman,
contradicting the Lord's statement, and declaring that death would not
follow a violation of the Divine injunction; but that, on the other
hand, by doing that which the Lord had forbidden, she and her husband
would become like unto the gods, knowing good and evil for themselves.
The woman was captivated by these representations; and, being eager to
possess the advantages pictured by Satan, she disobeyed the command of
the Lord, and partook of the fruit forbidden. She feared not evil,
for she knew it not. Then, telling Adam what she had done, she urged
him to do likewise.
=23.= Adam found himself in a position that impelled him to disobey
one of the requirements of God. He and his wife had been commanded to
multiply and replenish the earth. Adam was still immortal; Eve had
come under the penalty of mortality; and in such dissimilar
conditions, the two could not remain together, and therefore could not
fulfill the Divine requirement. On the other hand, Adam would be
disobeying another command by yielding to his wife's request. He
deliberately and wisely decided to stand by the first and greater
commandment; and, therefore, with a full comprehension of the nature
of his act, he also partook of the fruit that grew on the Tree of
Knowledge. The fact that Adam acted understandingly in this matter is
affirmed by the scriptures. Paul, in writing to Timothy, explained
that "Adam was not deceived; but the woman, being deceived, was in the
transgression."[182] The prophet Lehi, in expounding the scriptures to
his sons, declared "Adam fell that man might be, and men are that they
might have joy."[183]
[182] I Timothy ii, 14. See Note 8.
[183] II Nephi ii, 25.
=24. The Tree of Life.=--There was another tree of special virtues in
Eden; its fruit insured life to all who ate of it. While Adam and Eve
lived in innocent immortality, this tree had not been forbidden them;
the celestial fruit indeed was fitting food for their sinless state.
Now that they had transgressed, however, now that the Divine decree
had issued, fixing death as their lot, it was not proper that the
fruit of the Tree of Life should be longer within their reach. They
were, therefore, expelled from the Garden, and cherubim with a flaming
sword guarded the way, that man might not return in an unregenerate
state. By the act of transgression, our first parents acquired a
knowledge, which in their condition of pristine innocence they had not
possessed,--the experimental knowledge of good and evil. The result of
the Fall could have been of none but ill effect had the fallen ones
been immediately restored to a condition of immortality, without
repentance, without atonement. In the despair that followed their
realization of the great change that had come upon them, and in the
light of the knowledge gained at such cost as to the virtues of the
fruit that grew on the Tree of Life, it would have been but natural
for them to seek the seeming advantages of an immediate escape, by
partaking of the celestial food. It was in mercy that they were
deprived of the means of so doing.
=25.= The words of the Creator are unmistakable as to the necessity of
banishing His first earthly children from Eden:--"And the Lord God
said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:
and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of
life, and eat, and live forever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth
from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of
Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the
way of the tree of life."[184]
[184] Gen. iii, 22-24; Pearl of Great Price: Moses iv, 31.
=26.= Alma, the Nephite prophet, comprehended the result that would
have followed had Adam and his wife eaten of the Tree of Life; he thus
explained the matter:--"Now we see that the man had become as God,
knowing good and evil; and lest he should put forth his hand, and take
also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever, the Lord God
placed Cherubim and the flaming sword, that he should not partake of
the fruit; And thus we see, that there was a time granted unto man to
repent, yea, a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God. For
behold, if Adam had put forth his hand immediately, and partook of the
tree of life, he would have lived forever, according to the word of
God, having no space for repentance; yea, and also the word of God
would have been void, and the great plan of salvation would have been
frustrated."[185]
[185] Alma xlii, 3-5.
=27. The Immediate Result of the Fall= was the substitution of
mortality, with all its attendant frailties, for the vigor of the
primeval deathless state. Adam felt directly the effects of
transgression, in finding a barren and dreary earth, with a sterile
soil, instead of the beauty and fruitfulness of Eden. In place of
pleasing and useful plants, thorns and thistles sprang up; and he had
to labor arduously under the conditions of physical fatigue and
suffering, to cultivate the soil that he might obtain necessary food.
Upon Eve fell the penalty of bodily infirmity; the pains and sorrows,
which since have been regarded as the natural lot of womankind, came
upon her, and she was made subject to her husband. Having now lost
their sense of former innocence, they became ashamed of their
nakedness, and the Lord made for them garments of skins. And upon both
the man and the woman was visited the penalty of spiritual death; for
in that very day they were banished from Eden, and cast out from the
presence of the Lord. The serpent, having served the purposes of
Satan, was made a subject of Divine displeasure, being doomed to crawl
forever in the dust, and to suffer from the enmity which it was
decreed should be placed in the hearts of Eve's children.[186]
[186] See Note 4.
=28. Atonement was Provided for.=--God left not His now mortal
children without hope. He gave other commandments to Adam, requiring
him to offer sacrifices in the name of the Only Begotten Son, and
promising redemption unto him and all his descendants who would comply
with the conditions prescribed. The opportunity of winning the
victor's reward by overcoming evil was explained to our parents, and
they rejoiced. Adam said, "Blessed be the name of God, for because of
my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have
joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God." Eve was glad and
declared, "Were it not for our transgression we never should have had
seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our
redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the
obedient."[187]
[187] Pearl of Great Price: Moses v 10-11; see Note 6.
=29. The Fall came not by Chance.=--It would be unreasonable to
suppose that the transgression of Eve and Adam came as a surprise to
the Creator. By His infinite fore-knowledge, God knew what would be
the result of Satan's temptation to Eve, and what Adam would do under
the conditions. And further, it is evident that the Fall was foreseen,
to be a means whereby man could be brought face to face with both good
and evil; that of his own agency he might elect the one or the other,
and thus be prepared by the experiences of a mortal probation for the
exaltation provided in the glorious plan of his creation:--"For
behold, this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality
and eternal life of man;"[188] thus spake the Lord unto Moses. It was
the purpose of God to place within the reach of the spirits begotten
by Him in the heavens the means of individual effort, and the
opportunity of winning, not merely redemption from death but also
salvation and even exaltation, with the powers of eternal progression
and increase. Hence, it was necessary that the spiritual offspring of
God should leave the mansions of their primeval childhood, and enter
the school of mortal experience, meeting, contending with, and
overcoming evil, according to their several degrees of faith and
strength. Adam and Eve could never have been the parents of a mortal
posterity had they not themselves become mortal; mortality, as before
stated, was an essential element in the Divine plan respecting the
earth and its appointed inhabitants; and as a means of introducing
mortality the Lord placed before the progenitors of the race a law,
knowing full well that transgression would follow.
[188] Pearl of Great Price: Moses i 39; see Note 7.
=30.= Eve was fulfilling the foreseen purposes of God by the part she
took in the great drama of the Fall; yet she did not partake of the
forbidden fruit with that object in view, but with the intent to
violate the Divine command, being deceived by the sophistries of the
serpent-fiend. Satan also, for that matter, furthered the purposes of
the Creator, in tempting Eve; yet his design was to thwart the Lord's
plan. We are definitely told that "he knew not the mind of God,
wherefore he sought to destroy the world."[189] Yet, his diabolical
effort, far from being the initiatory step toward destruction,
contributed to the plan of man's eternal exaltation. Adam's part in
the great event was essentially different from that of his wife; he
was not deceived; on the contrary he deliberately decided to do as Eve
desired, that he might carry out the purposes of his Maker with
respect to the race of men, whose first patriarch he was ordained to
be.
[189] Pearl of Great Price: Moses iv, 6.
=31.= Even the transgressions of man may be turned to the
accomplishment of high purposes. As will be shown, the sacrifice of
Christ was ordained from before the foundation of the world,[190] yet
Judas who betrayed, and the blood-thirsty Jews who brought about the
crucifixion of the Son of God, are none the less guilty of the awful
crime.
[190] See Lecture iv, p. 76.
=32.= It has become a common practice with mankind to heap reproaches
upon the progenitors of the family, and to picture the supposedly
blessed state in which we would be living but for the Fall; whereas
our first parents are entitled to our deepest gratitude for their
legacy to posterity,--the means of winning glory, exaltation, and
eternal lives, on the battlefield of mortality. But for the
opportunity thus given, the spirits of God's offspring would have
remained forever in a state of innocent childhood; sinless through no
effort of their own; negatively saved, not from sin, but from the
opportunity of meeting sin; incapable of winning the honors of victory
because prevented from taking part in the battle. As it is, they are
heirs to the birthright of Adam's descendants,--mortality, with its
immeasurable possibilities and its God-given freedom of action. From
Father Adam we have inherited all the ills to which flesh is heir; but
such are necessarily incident to the knowledge of good and evil, by
the proper use of which knowledge man may become even as the
Gods.[191]
[191] See Note 5.