revealed in this controversy, contemplate the plan and character of the
Christ. Standing as it does in antithesis to the agency-destroying plan
of Lucifer, it must be held to be agency-preserving, hence offers not
salvation to all so "that one soul shall not be lost," but predicates
salvation upon compliance with some conditions, on obedience, say,
to God. Under this agency-preserving plan, then, the Christ said:
"Father, thy will be done." Equivalent to saying, Father, let thy
freedom-preserving plan obtain, and be carried into effect--"Thy will
be done, and the glory be thine forever!" And it was in this spirit
that the work of the atonement was wrought out in the earth-life of the
Christ. "I came down from heaven," said he, "not to do my own will, but
the will of him that sent me" (St. John vi:38). "I seek not mine own
will, but the will of the Father which sent me" (St. John v:30). Thrice
in that hour when the shadows and sorrows due to a world's sin were
falling upon him, the Christ prayed, "O, my Father, if this cup may not
pass away from me: except I drink it, thy will be done" (Matt. xxvi).
And when the betrayer came, and with him the agents of the earthly
government, and one drew the sword to resist them, the Christ chided
him, and told him to put up his sword, and gave his impulsive follower
to understand that his course in submitting to the world's forces was
voluntary on his part. "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my
Father, and he shall presently give more than twelve legions of angels?
But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?"
(Matt. 26:53, 54.) And so "he humbled himself, and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. ii:8). Such the spirit of
the Christ--humble submissiveness--
"Thy will, O God, not mine be done,
Adorned his mortal life."
LESSON VII.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
THE FALL OF MAN.
ANALYSIS.
I. The Fall and Its Relation to the Purposes of God.
II. The Nobility of Adam Manifested in the Fall.
III. The Effects of the Fall Physical and Moral.
IV. The Relation of the Fall to Man's Life as Man.
REFERENCES.
Book of Moses (Pearl of Great Price), Ch. v:1-2; also Ch. vi:43-68.
Book of Mormon, II Nephi ii; Alma, Chs. xii, xiii and xlii.
Richards and Little's Compendium, Art. "Fall of Adam," pp. 3-5, and all
their references.
Seventy's Year Book II, Lesson viii.
New Witnesses for God, Vol. III, Ch. xl, pp. 180-192, 214-218; 227-230.
_SPECIAL TEXT: "Adam fell that man might be; men are that they might
have joy." (II Nephi ii:25.)_
DISCUSSION.
_1. A Suggested Review:_ It is suggested to the student that he at
this point review, either in class or by private reading, the following
lessons in Seventy's Course in Theology, Second Year Book:
Lesson V.--Preparation of the Earth for the Abode of Man.
Lesson VII.--The Adamic Dispensation I.
Lesson VIII.--The Adamic Dispensation II.
Lesson IX.--The Adamic Dispensation III.
I refer the student to those lessons in order that the necessity might
be avoided of entering again into detail on those subjects; for here
I shall only say respecting the "fall" so much as may be necessary to
keep up the continuity of the theme.
_2. The "Fall" of Man as Related to the Purposes of God:_ From
what is set forth in Part I of this treatise, it is evident that the
"fall of Adam" did not surprise the purposes of God with reference
to man's earth life. Nor is it thinkable that it was an accident, or
that it in any way thwarted the original purposes of God in respect
of man. Indeed the subject as developed up to this point brings us to
the fall of man as the next step in the sequence of the purposes of
God in regard to man's earth life. There must be a transition from
a spirit-existence to a man-existence for those Intelligences in
heaven designed for habitation on our earth. There must be brought
to pass a change from heavenly conditions to earth conditions if the
Intelligences designed for habitation on our earth are to have the
experiences that earth life can impart; a life where evil is manifest
and active; where the moral harmony is broken; where men must walk
by faith, and not by sight. This transition from spirit-existence to
man-existence; from a state of moral harmony to one where moral harmony
is broken and evil is active is called "the fall;" and was essential to
the accomplishment of God's purposes. Of its details, and its processes
it becomes one to speak cautiously, for but little is revealed, and
beyond what is revealed upon the subject, we have no knowledge.
_3. "Adam Fell that Men Might Be:_" I think it cannot be doubted
when the whole story of man's fall is taken into account that in some
way--however hidden it may be under allegory--his fall was closely
associated with the propagation of the race. Before the fall we are
told that Adam and Eve were in a state of innocence; but after the fall
"The eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked,
and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons," and
also hid from the presence of the Lord.[A]
[Footnote A: Gen. iii:7-9.]
In an incidental way Paul gives us to understand that Adam in the
matter of this first transgression "was not deceived," but that
the woman was.[A] It therefore follows that Adam must have sinned
knowingly, and perhaps deliberately; making choice of obedience between
two laws pressing upon him. With his spouse Eve, he had received a
commandment from God to be fruitful, to perpetuate his race in the
earth. He had also been told not to partake of a certain fruit of
the Garden of Eden; but according to the story of Genesis, as also
according to the assertion of Paul, Eve, who with Adam received
the commandment to multiply in the earth, was deceived, and by the
persuasion of Lucifer, induced to partake of the forbidden fruit. She,
therefore, was in transgression, and subject to the penalty of that
law, which from the scriptures, we learn included banishment from Eden,
banishment from the presence of God, and also the death of the body.
This meant, if Eve were permitted to stand alone in her transgression,
that she must be alone also in suffering the penalty thereof. In that
event she would have been separated from Adam, which necessarily would
have prevented obedience to the commandment given to them conjointly,
to multiply in the earth. In the presence of this situation, therefore,
it is to be believed that Adam was not deceived, either by the cunning
of Lucifer or the blandishments of the woman, deliberately, and with a
full knowledge of his act and its consequences, and in order to carry
out the purpose of God in the existence of man in the earth, he shared
alike the woman's transgression and its effects, and this in order that
the first great commandment he had received from God, viz--"Be fruitful
and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it"--might not fail of
fulfillment. Hence "Adam fell that men might be."
[Footnote A: "Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, was
in the transgression" III Tim. ii:14.]
_4. The Nobility of Adam in the Fall:_ The effect of this doctrine
upon the ideas of men concerning the great Patriarch of our race will
be revolutionary. It seems to be the fashion of those who assume to
teach the Christian religion to denounce Adam in unmeasured terms; as
if the fall of man had surprised, if, indeed, it did altogether thwart,
the original plan of God respecting the existence of man in the earth.
The creeds of the churches generally fail to consider the "fall" as
part of God's purpose regarding this world, and, in its way, just as
essential to the accomplishment of that purpose as the "redemption"
through Jesus Christ. Certainly there would have been no occasion for
Atonement and redemption had there been no fall; and hence no occasion
for the display of all that wealth of grace and mercy and justice and
love--all that richness of experience involved in man's earth life,
and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, had there been no fall. It cannot
be but that it was part of God's purpose to give man these experiences
and display the above named qualities in their true relation, for the
benefit and blessing and enlargement and ultimate uplifting of man;
and since there would have been no occasion for displaying them but
for the fall, it logically follows that the fall, no less than the
Atonement and redemption, must have been part of God's original plan
respecting the earth probation of man. The fall, undoubtedly, was a
fact as much present to the foreknowledge of God as was the atonement,
and the act which encompassed it must be regarded as more praise-worthy
than blame-worthy, since it was essential to the accomplishment of
the divine purpose. Yet, as I say, those who assume to teach the
Christian religion roundly denounce Adam for his transgression[A] and
especially for the recital of the circumstances of his fall, "The woman
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat."
In which they seem to find an attempt to shift responsibility for the
fall upon woman instead of a plain statement of fact. The truth is,
that nothing could be more courageous, sympathetic, or nobly honorable
than the course of our world's great Patriarch in his relations to his
wife Eve and the fall. The woman by deception of Lucifer is led into
transgression, and stands under the penalty of a broken law. Banishment
from the presence of God; banishment from Eden and the presence of her
husband, if he partakes not with her in the transgression; dissolution
of spirit and body--physical death--all await her, and her alone!
Thereupon the man, not deceived, but knowingly (as we are assured by
Paul), also transgressed. Why? In one aspect of the case in order
that he might share the woman's banishment from the dear presence of
God, and with her to die--than which no higher proof of love could
be given--no nobler act of chivalry performed. But primarily he
transgressed that "Man might be." He transgressed a less important law
that he might comply with one more important, if one may so speak of
any of God's laws.
[Footnote A: See Seventy's Year Book No. II, Lesson VIII.]
_5. The Purpose and Effect of the Fall:_ Adam transgressed, or
fell, "that man might be," as the Book of Mormon states it.[D] That is
to say, that man might "be" (i. e., exist), in earth life; and not only
"be" but "be" as man; an eternal Intelligence begotten a spirit in the
heavenly kingdom, and now on earth taking on through painful process
and at much hazard eternal elements of matter as a covering, a body,
that there might be a fullness of joy, and power, and without which
union of spirit and element there could be no fullness of joy or power
(Doc. & Cov. Sec. 93).
Also Adam fell that man might "be" in the environment of earthlife;
in the midst of broken harmonies, where good and evil are seen in
conflict; in a life of adventure and danger; in a life where real
losses may have to be sustained; and sorrows as well as joys are
realities; where death as well as life is encountered; and where
spiritual deaths may be as endless, as spiritual lives may be eternal.
To bring to pass these conditions essential to man's earth-experiences,
on which is to be builded his future progress, the "fall" must be;
which is only another way of saying that the transition from heaven
conditions to earth must be made. In no way else could this earth
department of God's great university for Intelligences be established.
May it not, however, from some points of view be regarded as a
misnomer, this "fall?" Certainly it is but an incident in the process
of rising to greater heights. It is but the crouch for the spring;
the steps backward in order to gain momentum for the rush forward; a
descending below all things only that there might be a rising above all
things. Such the benefits to arise from the fall; at least to some,
and doubtless to the benefit ultimately, of most of the Intelligences
that participate in earth-life, though there will be real losses
in the adventure.[B] The fall is to eventuate in the advantage of
God's children, then, in the main. Adam did not sin because deceived
by another. He did not sin maliciously, or with evil intent; or to
gratify an inclination to rebellion against God, or to thwart the
Divine purposes, or to manifest his own pride. Had his act of sin
involved the taking of life rather than eating a forbidden fruit, it
would be regarded as a "sacrifice" rather than as a "murder." This is
to show the nature of Adam's transgression. It was a transgression of
the law--"for sin is the transgression of the law"--that conditions
deemed necessary to the progress of eternal Intelligences might obtain.
But Adam did sin. He did break the law, which is sin, and violation
of law involves the violator in its penalties, as surely as effect
follows cause. Upon this principle depends the dignity and majesty of
law. Take this fact away from moral government and your moral laws
become mere nullities. Therefore, notwithstanding Adam fell that men
might be, and that in his transgression there was at bottom a really
exalted motive--a motive that contemplated nothing less than bringing
to pass the highly necessary purposes of God with respect to man's
existence in the earth--yet his transgression of law was real; he did
brave the conditions that would be brought into existence by his sin;
it was followed by certain moral effects in the nature of men and in
the world. The harmony of things was broken; discord ruled; changed
relations between God and men took place; moral and intellectual
darkness, sin and death--death, the wages of sin--stalked through the
world, and made necessary the Atonement for man, and his redemption.
[Footnote A: Elsewhere of this Book of Mormon passage I have said: In
the second book of Nephi, chapter ii, occurs the following direct,
explicit statement: _Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they
might have joy._
This sentence is the summing up of a somewhat lengthy discussion
on the Atonement, by the Prophet Lehi. It is a most excellent and
important generalization, and is worthy to be classed with the
great generalizations of the Jewish scriptures, such for instance
as that in the closing chapter of Ecclesiastes, "Fear God and keep
his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man;" Paul's famous
generalization: "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be
made alive;" or the Apostle James' summing up of religion: "Pure
religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: To visit
the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to kep one's self
unspotted from the world." Or the Messiah's great summing up of the
whole law and gospel: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all they
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first
and great commandment, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thy self. On these two commandments hang all the
law and all the prophets." I care not whether you regard the literary
excellence of this Book of Mormon generalization or the importance of
the great truths which it announces, I repeat it, it is worthy in every
way to stand with the great generalizations quoted above.]
[Footnote B: A question presses on the optimists, * * * Are the
rebellious and the sinful not also on the up grade? Ultimately and in
the last resort will not they, too, put themselves in time with the
harmony of existence? Who is to say? Time is infinite, Eternity is
before us as well as behind us, and the end is not yet. There is no
"ultimately" in the matter, for there is no end; There is room for an
eternity of rebellion and degradation and misery as well as of hope and
love" ("Science and Immortality," Sir Oliver Lodge, p. 291)--and hence,
doubtless, real losses to be sustained.]
LESSON VIII.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
THE FALL OF MAN.--(Continued.)
ANALYSIS.
V. The Importance of Life--Be Fruitful and Replenish the Earth.
VI. The Fall Beneficent.
VII. The Book of Mormon View of the Fall.--Necessary to the Purposes of
God.
VIII. Summary of the Subjects of Lessons VII and VIII.
REFERENCES.
Same references as in Lesson VII.
_SPECIAL TEXT: "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 [in], after they were created; and they must have
remained for ever, 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. But
behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of Him who knoweth all
things."_
NOTES.
_1. Be Fruitful.--Importance of Life:_ The purpose of God in the
earth-life of man already has been considered (Lesson IV, Subdivision
4), and it was found to bring to pass the immortality and eternal
life of man as man; and to bring to him an increase of joy, by
enlargement of capacity to enjoy; by adding upon him new powers of
self expression; by adding an earth-body to a heavenly born spirit;
"for man is spirit:" but "spirit" in order to receive "a fullness of
joy" must be inseparably connected with element (Doc. & Cov. Sec.
xciii:32-35, also note 2, Year Book II, Lesson II); hence the earth
life of Intelligences; hence the advent of Adam and his wife Eve upon
our earth; hence the commandment "Be fruitful;" hence the importance of
man obtaining his body (Lesson II, note 2); hence the resurrection from
the dead, which brings to pass the eternal union of spirit and body
(element), to be sanctified as a "soul;" for the "spirit and the body
is the soul of man" (Doc. & Cov., Sec. xxxviii:15). These principles
enlarge the view of the importance of the earth-life of man, and give
the idea of sanctity to the commandment, "Be fruitful." Undoubtedly
the most important thing in life is life itself, since there flows
from life all other things--experiences, joys, sorrows, sympathies,
achievements, righteousness, honor, power--it is the root, the base of
all. To protect and preserve life, whence spring all things else, God
has issued his decree. "Thou shalt not kill"--the Everlasting's cannon,
fixed alike against self-slaughter and the killing of others; and on
the crime of murder is placed the heaviest of all penalties--"whoso
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed" (Gen. ix:6); "No
murderer hath eternal abiding in him" (I John iii:15).
And on the other hand, for the promotion of life, what encouragement
has God not given? First, this commandment, "Be fruitful and multiply
and replenish (refill) the earth;" second, in making sex desire and
love of offspring the strongest of passions, refining both, however, by
the sentiment of love, and confining by his law the exercise of these
life-functions to the limits of wedlock relations. "Lo, children are
an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As
arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them; they shall not be
ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate" (Psalms
127:3-5). And when the Lord would give his highest blessing to Abraham,
his friend, for his supreme act of obedience, he could but say: "In
blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy
seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea
shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast
obeyed my voice" (Genesis, xxii:17-18). And to Jacob the Lord also
said: "Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will
make of thee a multitude of people" (Gen. xlviii:4).
_2. Nature's Testimony to the Value of Life:_ In nature, too,
this law of life is written, until our philosophers who treat on life
in its various forms, declare that the very "object of nature is
function"--i. e., life, (Lester F. Ward, Outlines of Sociology, 1904,
Ch. V). So superabundant is the fertility of all forms of life, animal
and vegetable, that if it were not limited by destructive agencies
the earth would soon be overwhelmed. "Every being," says Mr. Darwin,
"which during its natural life time produces several eggs or seeds,
must suffer destruction during some period of its life, and during some
season or occasional year, otherwise, on the principle of geometrical
increase, its numbers would quickly become so inordinately great that
no country could support the product. * * * There is no exception
to the rule that every organic being naturally increases at so high
a rate, that, if not destroyed, the earth would soon be covered by
the progeny of a single pair. Even slow-breeding man has doubled in
twenty-five years, and at this rate, in less than a thousand years,
there would literally not be standing room for his progeny. * * * In
a state of nature almost every full-grown plant annually produces
seed, and amongst animals there are very few which do not annually
pair. Hence we may confidently assert, that all plants and animals are
tending to increase at a geometrical ratio,--that all would rapidly
stock every station in which they could any how exist--and that this
geometrical tendency to increase must be checked by destruction at some
period of life" ("The Origin of Species," p. 50, 51, 52).
What is the significance of this rich endowment with the power of
reproduction in all forms of life, animal and vegetable, until it
assumes the appearance of actual redundancy? Is it not nature's
testimony to the fact of the desirability of life? And hence she
has equipped the various species with power to perpetuate life,
notwithstanding the destructive forces with which life in its great
variety of forms has to contend. Is life--especially human life--worth
living? Undoubtedly, since nature has so abundantly provided the means
for its perpetuation, and God has given the commandment, "Be fruitful
and replenish the earth."
_3. "The Fall" Regarded as Beneficent by Adam and Eve:_ Much that
is remarked in the foregoing paragraphs of this lesson on the nature
of the fall finds its warrant in the Book of Moses, (Pearl of Great
Price) and in the Book of Mormon, in what is said of Adam and Eve,
and what is said by them when the fact of the Atonement was expounded
to them; for one of the effects the fall seems to have had upon Adam
and his spouse--the effect of transition from heaven conditions to
earth conditions--was to veil their knowledge, to some extent, as to
pre-earth life conditions and purposes of God;[A] hence they lost their
knowledge apparently of the earth-life scheme of things, and had to
be instructed anew as to the plan of "eternal life, which God, that
cannot lie, promised before the world began."[B] And after Adam had been
re-instated in a knowledge of the things of God, and made to understand
that notwithstanding he had fallen yet could he be redeemed, "and all
mankind, even as many as will"--"In that day Adam blessed God and
was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the
earth: 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. And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and
was glad, saying: 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. And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all
things known unto their sons and their daughters."[C]