=1. Man's Agency is God-given.=--The following is an extract from
a discourse delivered by President Brigham Young, July 5, 1855.
(See Journal of Discourses of that date, and Millennial Star,
vol. xx, p. 43.) "What is the foundation of the rights of man?
The Lord Almighty has organized man for the express purpose of
becoming an independent being like unto Himself, and has given
him his individual agency. Man is made in the likeness of his
Creator, the great archetype of the human species, who bestowed
upon him the principles of eternity, planting immortality within
him, and leaving him at liberty to act in the way that seemeth
good unto him;--to choose or refuse for himself, to be a
Latter-day Saint or a Wesleyan Methodist, to belong to the Church
of England, the oldest daughter of the Mother Church, to the old
Mother herself, to her sister the Greek Church, or to be an
infidel and belong to no church. When the kingdom of God is fully
set up and established on the face of the earth, and takes the
pre-eminence over all other nations and kingdoms, it will protect
the people in the enjoyment of all their rights, no matter what
they believe, what they profess, or what they worship."
=2. The Nature of Sin.=--The English word "sin" represents a very
great variety of terms occurring in the original languages, the
literal translation of which bear to one another a very great
similarity. Thus, in the Old Testament, the following terms among
others occur:--_setim_ (referred to in Psalms ci, 3), signifying
"to deviate from the way;" _shegagah_ (Lev. iv, 2; Num. xv, 27),
"to err in the way;" _avon_, "the crooked, or perverted;" _avel_,
"to turn aside." In the New Testament we find, _hemartia_, "the
missing of a mark;" _parabasis_, "the transgressing of a line;"
_parakoe_, "disobedience to a voice;" _paraptoma_, "falling from
uprightness; "_agnoema_, "unjustifiable ignorance;" _hettema_,
"giving only partial measure;" _anomia_, "non-observance of law;"
_plemmeleia_, "a discord." The above illustrations are taken
mainly from Müller and French. In all these expressions, the
predominant idea is that of departure from the way of God, of
separation from His companionship by opposition to the Divine
requirements. Sin was introduced into the world from without; it
was not a natural product of earth. The seed of disobedience was
planted in the mind of Eve by the arch-fiend: that seed took
root; and much fruit, of the nature that we, with unguarded
words, call calamity, is the result. From these thorns and
thistles of mortality, a Savior has been prepared to deliver us.
=3. Eden.=--In the Hebrew tongue, from which our word "Eden" is
taken, this term signifies something particularly delightful,--a
place of pleasantness; the place is also called "the garden of
the Lord." One particular spot in the land of Eden was prepared
by the Lord as a garden; this was situated eastward in Eden. From
the garden, the parents of the race were expelled after the Fall,
though it is reasonable to suppose that they still dwelt in the
land or region of Eden. We read that at a later date, Cain, the
first murderer, "went out from the presence of the Lord, and
dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden" (Gen. iv, 16).
Though there is no uniform belief among Christian scholars as to
the geographical location of Eden, the majority claim that it was
in Persia; however, the most radical among the advocates of this
view fail to prove any marked resemblance between the region at
present and the place described in the Bible. The Latter-day
Saints have more exact knowledge on the matter, a revelation
having been given through Joseph Smith, at Spring Hill, Mo., May
19, 1838, in which that place is named by the Lord
"Adam-ondi-Ahman, because, said he, it is the place where Adam
shall come to visit his people, or the Ancient of Days shall sit,
as spoken of by Daniel the prophet" (Doc. and Cov. cxvi). From
another revelation we learn (Doc. and Cov. cvii, 52-53) that
three years before his death, Adam called together in the valley
of Adam-ondi-Ahman those of his sons who had been made High
Priests, together with the rest of his righteous posterity, and
there bestowed upon them his patriarchal blessings, the event
being marked by special manifestations from the Lord (see also
Doc. and Cov. cxvii, 8). The Lord has pointed out in this day the
exact location of the altar upon which Adam offered sacrifices
after his expulsion from the Garden (see Contributor, Vol. vii,
page 314). There is no authentic record of the human race having
inhabited the Eastern Hemisphere until after the flood. The
Western Continent, called now the New World, comprises indeed the
oldest inhabited regions of earth. The west, not the east, is the
"cradle of nations."
=4. The Serpent=, as stated, having aided the purposes of Satan,
received from the Lord a special curse (see Genesis iii, 13, 15,
and the Pearl of Great Price, p. 16). The creature was doomed to
a life of degradation. Even from the standpoint of anatomy, the
serpent is a degraded type. Though a vertebrate,--a member of the
highest sub-kingdom of animals, it is devoid even of external
limbs, and its means of locomotion are of no higher order than
are those of the worm and the caterpillar. In the scriptures, the
serpent is made the symbol of craft, subtlety, cunning, and
danger.
=5. Mortality Essential.=--President John Taylor, after
discussing the succession of events leading up to the Fall,
says--"Thus it would appear that if any of the links of this
great chain had been broken, it would have interfered with the
comprehensive plan of the Almighty pertaining to the salvation
and eternal exaltation of those spirits who were His sons, and
for whom principally the world was made: that they, through
submission to the requirements of the eternal principle and law
governing those matters, might possess bodies, and those bodies
united with the spirits might become living souls, and being the
sons of God, and made in the image of God, they through the
atonement might be exalted, by obedience to the law of the
Gospel, to the Godhead."--_Mediation and Atonement_, p. 135.
=6. Beneficent Results of the Fall.=--"'Honor thy father and thy
mother.' This was one of the ten special commandments given to
Israel, during a grand display of God's power and glory on Mount
Sinai. In the past centuries of darkness it appears to have lost
its significance with the Christian world. They do not appear to
realize that honor is due to the first parents of the human race.
They have been long taught that Adam and Eve were great
transgressors, and have mourned over the fact that they partook
of the forbidden fruit and brought death into the world. There is
no possibility that the fall of man was an accident or chance,
any more than was his creation. If an accident, then why was
Christ prepared from before the foundation of the world as a
propitiation for sin, and to open up the way for man to
immortality? Christ's mediation was a sequence of the fall" (see
Acts v, 31). "Without the fall there would have been no broken
law, and therefore nothing to repent of; and there could be no
forgiveness of sin without the atonement of Christ. The Book of
Mormon makes this subject very plain: 'And now, behold, if Adam
had not transgressed, he would not have fallen; but he would have
remained in the Garden of Eden. And all things which were
created, must have remained in the same state which they were
after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and
had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they
would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for
they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin' (II
Nephi ii, 22-23).... We, the children of Adam, have no right to
bring accusations against the Patriarch of the race. But rather,
we should rejoice with them, that through their fall and the
atonement of Jesus Christ, the way of eternal life has been
opened up to us."--_A Compendium of the Doctrines of the Gospel_:
F. D. Richards and J. A. Little, pp. 3-4.
=7. The Fall Fore-known.=--"'Mormonism' accepts the doctrine of
the Fall, and the account of the transgression in Eden, as set
forth in Genesis; but it affirms that none save Adam shall ever
have to account for Adam's disobedience; that mankind in general
are absolutely absolved from the responsibility for that
'original sin,' and that each shall answer for his own
transgressions alone. That the Fall was foreknown of God,--that
it was the accepted means by which the necessary condition of
mortality should be inaugurated; and that a Redeemer was provided
before the world was. That general salvation, in the sense of
redemption from the effects of the Fall, comes to all without
their seeking it; but that individual salvation or rescue from
the effects of personal sins is to be acquired by each for
himself, by faith and good works through the redemption wrought
by Jesus Christ."--_The Philosophy of Mormonism_: The Author;
Improvement Era, Vol. IV, pp. 465-466.
=8. The Fall a Process of Physical Degeneracy.=--For a concise
treatment of this topic see "Jesus the Christ," pp. 19 and 29.