Why Was the Fall of Adam and Eve Essential to God’s Plan?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to Genesis 3-4 and Moses 4-5 in a lesson titled “The Fall of Adam and Eve.” The lesson was introduced by the following information. 

At first, the story of the Fall of Adam and Eve might seem like a tragedy. Adam and Eve were cast out of the beautiful Garden of Eden. They were sent into a world of pain, sorrow, and death (see Genesis 3:16-19). And they were separated from their Heavenly Father. But the truths restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith in the book of Moses give us a unique perspective on the Fall.

Yes, the Garden of Eden was beautiful. But Adam and Eve needed more than beautiful surroundings. They needed — and we all need — an opportunity to grow. Leaving the Garden of Eden was the necessary first step toward returning to God and eventually becoming like Him. That meant facing opposition, making choices, making mistakes, learning to repent, and trusting the Savior, whose Atonement makes possible progression and “the joy of our redemption” (Moses 5:11). So when you read about the Fall of Adam and Eve, focus not on the seeming tragedy but on the possibilities — not on the paradise Adam and Eve lost but on the glory their choice allows us to receive.

This week’s scripture block teaches the following principles: (1) The Fall was a necessary part of God’s plan (Genesis 3; Moses 4); (2) Jesus Christ offers hope and redemption (Genesis 3:1-7; Moses 4:22-31; 5:4-15); (3) What does it mean that Adam was to “rule over” Eve? (Genesis 3:16; Moses 4:22); (4) I need agency and opposition to grow (Moses 4:1-4); (5) Satan seeks “to deceive and to blind” me (Moses 4:4-12; 5:13-33); (6) “I, the Lord God … clothed them” (Moses 4:13-16, 27); (7) God will accept my sacrifices if I offer them with a willing and obedient heart (Moses 5:4-9, 16-26).

This essay will discuss Principle #4 about agency, opposition, and growth. We will first look at the verses that teach this principle – Moses 4:1-4:

1 And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.

2 But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me—Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.

3 Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;

4 And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice.

Heavenly Father presented His plan for the eternal happiness of His children. Jehovah (Jesus Christ on earth) said that He would follow the Father’s plan and give the glory to His Father. Satan rebelled against the Father’s plan and sought to destroy the agency of the Father’s children – agency or opportunity to choose is how we grow – and he wanted the Father’s glory.

Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught: “Our Heavenly Father’s goal in parenting is not to have His children do what is right; it is to have His children choose to do what is right and ultimately become like Him” (“Choose You This Day,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov 2018, 104). Question to ponder: Why do you think it is important in Heavenly Father’s plan that we choose to do what is right? 

There is a wonderful scripture in the Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ (2 Nephi 2:25-27) that teaches the importance of having opposition and the freedom to make tough decisions.

25 Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.

26 And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.

27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.

Question to ponder: Why do you think opposition is necessary for agency? Another question to ponder: How can you show your appreciation to Jesus Christ for making you “free to choose”?

Then-Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke on the topic of “Opposition in All Things” at the April 2016 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Elder Oaks taught: (“Opposition in All Things,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2016, 114-17): 

The purpose of mortal life for the children of God is to provide the experiences needed “to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life.” …

From the beginning, agency and opposition were central to the Father’s plan and to Satan’s rebellion against it. As the Lord revealed to Moses, in the council of heaven Satan “sought to destroy the agency of man” (Moses 4:3)….

All of us experience various kinds of opposition that test us. Some of these tests are temptations to sin. Some are mortal challenges apart from personal sin. Some are very great. Some are minor. Some are continuous, and some are mere episodes. None of us is exempt. Opposition permits us to grow toward what our Heavenly Father would have us become….

We are all acquainted with other kinds of mortal opposition not caused by our personal sins, including illness, disability, and death….

To illustrate the opposition of temptation, the Book of Mormon describes three methods the devil will use in the last days. First, he will “rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good” (2 Nephi 28:20). Second, he will “pacify, and lull [members] away into carnal security,” saying “Zion prospereth, all is well” (verse 21). Third, he will tell us “there is no hell; and … I am no devil, for there is none” (verse 22), and therefore there is no right and wrong. Because of this opposition, we are warned not to be “at ease in Zion!” (verse 24)….

God rarely infringes on the agency of any of His children by intervening against some for the relief of others. But He does ease the burdens of our afflictions and strengthen us to bear them, as He did for Alma’s people in the land of Helam (see Mosiah 24:13-15). He does not prevent all disasters, but He does answer our prayers to turn them aside, as He did with the uniquely powerful cyclone that threatened to prevent the dedication of the temple in Fiji; or He does blunt their effects, as He did with the terrorist bombing that took so many lives in the Brussels airport but only injured our four missionaries.

Through all mortal opposition, we have God’s assurance that He will “consecrate [our] afflictions for [our] gain” (2 Nephi 2:2). We have also been taught to understand our mortal experiences and His commandments in the context of His great plan of salvation, which tells us the purpose of life and gives us the assurance of a Savior, in whose name I testify of the truth of these things….

 

Why Is Reading Essential to Success?

Individuals are stronger when they are literate or able to read and write, and strong individuals can unite in creating strong families, communities, states, and nations.

In an article published at The Deseret News, the Center for the School of the Future (CSF) shared ideas that affect reading abilities in students. The Utah Legislature established the CSF at Utah State University “to collaborate with public education stakeholders to improve student academic outcomes.” 

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is serious about improving the reading performance of students in Utah. One of the ways to do so is to understand how essential it is to protect truth. Part of protecting truth is to identify “persistent myths about early reading and replacing them with what research shows.

Research shows that less than 50% of third graders in Utah can read on grade level (proficient). Other states could have similar or lower percentages of students who can read at grade level. This should be of critical concern for Americans because students have difficulty catching up later and reading skills are essential for academic success as well as success in life.

CSF shared the following information to show the importance of reading at grade level by the third grade.

Research provides a clear answer: Third grade reading proficiency is one of the strongest predictors of long-term academic, economic and life success. It marks the transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” When students are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade:

·         Catching up becomes significantly more difficult.

·         Academic struggles increase in middle and high school.

·         Disengagement and disruptive behavior become more likely.

·         Dropout risk increases by roughly four times.

·         Long-term educational and career prospects decline sharply.

These are well-established facts. Yet several myths continue to obscure them.

Here we address five such myths currently occurring in public discussion about early reading. Others will undoubtedly emerge and must also be confronted over time.

Myth 1: Learning to read is natural.

Fact: Learning to read is not natural.

The human brain is not biologically wired to read in the way it is wired to walk or talk. The brain is wired to learn spoken language (talking and listening) without formal instruction. Reading is fundamentally different. Neuroscience shows that:

·         Humans were never wired to read.

·         A reading brain is neurologically different from a nonreading brain.

·         Reading requires the brain to reorganize and repurpose existing neural structures.

·         If reading were biologically wired, dyslexia and students who struggle to learn to read would not exist.

·         While a few children learn to read “naturally” without any instructions, most do not.

·         With high-quality instructions, 90-95% of children can learn to read.

Myth 2: Children learn to read simply by being read to or by reading on their own.

Fact: Most children must be taught to read through formal instruction.

Reading aloud to children is valuable – it builds vocabulary and shows that print carries meaning. However, it does not teach children how to decode written language. Only a very small percentage of children – less than 5% -- learn to read independently without instruction. The vast majority require explicit, structured and systematic teaching to become skilled readers.

 

Myth 3: Because Utah students perform relatively well on the fourth grade National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), students are doing well enough.

Fact: “Well enough” is not good enough.

Utah fourth graders outperform those in most other states on NAEP reading, but this is not cause for celebration. In 2024, only 36% of Utah fourth graders scored at the proficient or advanced level on NAEP. That means nearly two-thirds did not meet proficiency. If research shows that 90-95% of students can learn to read, then far better outcomes should be achievable. Indeed, some Utah school systems have already demonstrated trajectories that approach this goal.

Myth 4: Third graders who are not proficient readers are “illiterate.”

Fact: Illiteracy is a term for adults --  not children.

Labeling children as “illiterate” is inaccurate and counterproductive. Illiteracy refers to adults who cannot read or write. Children are learners. We do not label students who struggle with fractions as “mathematically illiterate” or those learning budgeting as “financially illiterate.” The accurate term is “nonproficient readers,” children who can read but are not yet meeting expectations.

Moreover, the word, “literacy” itself has become so broadly applied – financial literacy, health literacy, gardening literacy – that it has lost precision….

Myth 5: You don’t need strong reading skills to succeed today.

Fact: Proficient reading matters more than ever in the 21^st century.

Whether students attend college, pursue technical training or enter the workforce directly, strong reading skills are essential. They matter because:

·         Reading underpins all later learning.

·         Most jobs require interpreting complex texts and digital information.

·         Strong reading is linked to higher graduation rates, better health outcomes, lower incarceration rates and greater economic stability.

·         Civic life depends on citizens’ ability to read and understand complex documents – legal, medical, financial and governmental.

Early reading success matters profoundly. So does high-quality reading instruction and early identification of struggling readers. These arguments are not an indictment of teachers – nothing matters more to teachers than their students’ success….

Why Do Women Choose to Kill Their Babies?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns Roe v. Wade, one of the U.S. Supreme Court’s “most consequential and controversial decisions.” The decision was made 53 years ago on January 22, 1973, and it claimed about 63 million victims. Rebecca Downs at The Daily Signal explained the decision this way. 

As a result of the decision handed down on Jan. 22, 1973, abortion became legal in all 50 states. Doe v. Bolton, a decision handed down that same day, signaled that women could obtain an abortion for pretty much any reason, given how purposefully vague the health exceptions were.

Roe wasn’t merely wrongly decided due to its enormous ramifications and controversial nature, but also because it was not legally sound. The justices based their decision on a “penumbra,” or a feeling about what the Constitution says about the right to privacy. The court first used the penumbra style of reading the Constitution in the 1965 case Griswold v. Connecticut. The court expanded it to abortion with Roe.

The Roe decision divided pregnancy into three trimesters. Although abortion had to remain legal during the first trimester, states could regulate abortion in the second trimester. During the third trimester, states could ban abortion with exceptions for the life of the mother or even just her health. That health exception could mean whatever a woman and her doctor said it meant.

America thus held the distinction of being one of only a few nations where elective abortion was allowed past 20 weeks, halfway through pregnancy.

Since that tragic day in 1973, the pro-life movement has worked to overturn the decision and protect unborn life.

Since the first anniversary of the Roe decision, pro-lifers have organized the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. This year’s March for Life will take place on Jan. 23. From the start, pro-abortion advocates have tried to pit women against their unborn children. But these marches show the pro-life movement cares for both a mother who finds herself considering an abortion and the child she is carrying. A constant theme at the March for Life has been to “Love Them Both.” …

While Roe was the law of the land for close to 50 years, Dobbs overturned Roe, just as other cases have rectified historic injustices written by the court’s hand.

Such an effort shows that faith, determination, hope, and resilience do pay off.

Thanks to the Dobbs decision, Americans are able to decide the abortion issue at the state level. Abortion is now banned in 13 states, and many more have other limits that would not have been able to go into effect under Roe.

The hard work of the pro-life movement is certainly not over, especially as there are nine states without a gestational ban on abortion. Further, even red states, such as Ohio, allow for abortions later in pregnancy due to a state constitutional amendment passed in 2023.

Even if there’s more work to be done to end the scourge of abortion, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade in a post-Dobbs world feels more celebratory and less somber. America is that much more beautiful when it protects life, and is able to do so now that Roe is no longer the law of the land.

America is often celebrated as being “the home of the free because of the brave,” giving credit to the military for keeping America free. America cannot truly be free as long as mothers are allowed to kill their babies. The right-to-life movement contains many “brave” people who are fighting for the right of unborn children to live.

Is There Any Comparison between Trump and Biden Policies?

Any fair-minded American would say that President Donald Trump inherited a terrible mess from former President Joe Biden. One year has passed since Trump was inaugurated for his second term in the White House.

Trump has “delivered a sharp policy reversal from the Obama-Biden era during his first year back in office, solving problems from border security to the economy to foreign conflicts,” according to Rob Bluey from The Daily Signal on Fox Business Network. The Daily Signal Staff shared their thoughts on how Trump solved the Obama and Biden mess.

“It sure is a different time in America,” Bluey told host Liz MacDonald on “The Evening Edit.” “We could probably extend or double or triple that list for all of the problems that Donald Trump has helped solve, and he was left a mess, as you indicated, from Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”

Bluey pointed to improvements across multiple policy areas. He’s not alone in noting the start difference from his Democrat predecessors. Axios’ Mike Allen called Trump the “Eraser-in-Chief” for undoing the policies of former President Joe Biden.

“As Trump approaches this one-year anniversary on Jan. 20, I think the United States is much better off with him as the leader,” Bluey said. “Our country – certainly both from a domestic standpoint and foreign standpoint – is in a much better spot today than it was when Joe Biden left office.”

Bluey not only stated that he believed that the United States is in a better spot now than one year ago. He shared some definite ways where Trump’s policies are better than those of Obama or Biden.

Border Crisis: Fixed

When MacDonald raised the contrast between the “far-left madness” of the Biden years and the relative stability under Trump, Bluey focused on border security as a prime example of policy sabotage.

“Joe Biden had the tools at his disposal to close the U.S.-Mexico border,” Bluey said, noting that federal law gave the president the authority Trump had successfully used in his first term. “On Day One, Biden wiped away all of those policies and left us with the situation we’re in now.

Bluey also criticized Democrat governors for refusing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement….

Anti-Trump Media Bias

MacDonald asked Bluey about the media’s role in downplaying Trump’s achievements.

“They share a tone of blame, because Donald Trump doesn’t get the credit that he deserves,” Bluey responded, pointing to consistently negative headlines despite policy successes.

 

Can Protesters Legally Enter Church Buildings with Their Protests?

It seems impossible, but it really happened. Protesters stormed into a church building in Minneapolis on Sunday with chants and shouting. In doing so, they broke numerous federal laws, and the Department of Justice is preparing to press charges. Amy Ortez at The Blaze reported the following: 

[Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Harmeet] Dhillon joined Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on “The Glenn Beck Program” on Monday morning to address the incident, in which radicals disrupted a Christian church in the middle of a service.

“We don’t want to prejudge, but I think it is fair to say that I saw multiple federal criminal incidents yesterday, and there will be charges,” she told Beck.

Dhillon explained that as soon as she learned about the situation at Cities Church, she immediately activated prosecutors and sent FBI agents to investigate to determine whether the left-wing radicals had violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act or committed any related criminal offenses, including potential conspiracy charges and material support.

“It’s only a question of when we can get a judge to sign off on arrest warrants and exactly what the charges would be,” Dhillon stated, noting that the federal judges have to be in Minnesota. “This isn’t Texas, and we aren’t getting exactly rapid-fire support for charges there on the pace we would love.”

Dhillon criticized local leaders for failing to enforce the state’s laws by refusing to arrest any of the protesters.

“There could have been arrests yesterday if Keith Ellison, the attorney general of Minnesota, enforced his own laws, and Mary Moriarty, the district attorney of Hennepin County, enforced her own laws,” she remarked….

Dhillon explained to Beck that the federal government “has to jump through some additional hurdles.”

Beck asked Dhillon whether former CNN journalist Don Lemon violated any laws by following the protesters into the church. Dhillon responded that she would reserve comment on that situation but proposed a hypothetical involving “a podcaster, once a news anchor.”

A privately owned house of worship is not a public forum for protest in the U.S., she stated, adding that charges would likely be imposed in stages.

“We will not let this happen to another church in the United States. It is un-American, unacceptable, and there is a zero-tolerance policy for it at this DOJ,” Dhillon concluded.

 

 

 

What Is Happening with the Traditional Family?

My VIP for this week is the traditional family – a mother, a father, and children. The traditional family is declining, but it “has the most potential to bring Americans together,” according to Terence P. Jeffrey, investigative editor for the Daily Caller News Foundation. 

The Census Bureau recently released a report about the living arrangements American mothers have when they give birth to their first child. It did not paint a pretty picture.

“There have been sweeping changes to marriage and family structures in the United States over the last several decades,” said the report. “Fertility rates dropped to historically low levels. Marriage rates declined while cohabitation became more common. Childbirth increasingly occurred outside of marriage as legal and cultural norms shifted.”

The Census Bureau’s analysis indicated that since the early 1990s there has been a fairly consistent percentage of mothers who were married when they gave birth to their first child. But this percentage was always above 60%, leaving nearly 40% of first-born children in a household that was not a traditional family.

In the period from 1990 through 1994, according to the Census Bureau, only 62.2% of first-born babies were born to a married couple. Another 20.4% of the babies born in that period were born to a mother who was neither married nor “cohabiting” with a partner. Then there were 17.4% who were born to a mother who was cohabiting with a partner with whom she was not married.

In the period from 1995 through 1999, the percentage of first-born babies who were born to mothers who were married increased modestly to 63.8%. In the period from 2000 through 2004, it increased again to 66.3%.

But then it declined again.

From 2005 through 2009, it was 62.9%. From 2010 through 2014, it was 60.0%; from 2015 through 2019, it was 60.7%; and from 2020 through 2024, it was 60.8%.

While the percentage of first-born babies born to married mothers declined between 1990-94 and 2020-24, the percentage born to unmarried but cohabiting mothers increased, climbing from 17.4% to 23.9%.

And there were still 15.3% of first-born babies in the 2020-2024 period who were born to mothers who were neither married nor cohabitating.

The Census Bureau’s report also noted a distinction in the trends among women who had a college education and those who did not.

“Marriage became a more common living arrangement among first-time mothers with at least a bachelor’s degree, increasing from 74.4 percent in 1990-1994 to 84.5 percent in 2020-2024,” said the bureau’s report.

“In contrast, the prevalence of marital first births among mothers with less than a bachelor’s degree declined from 58.6 percent in 1990-1994 to 40.6 percent in 2020-2024, and the share of women cohabiting at first birth rose from 19.2 percent to 34.8 percent,” it said.

In other words, in the period from 2020-24, a significant majority (59.4%) of the first-born babies born to mothers without a college degree were not born in a traditional married-couple household.

The Census Bureau’s report concedes that babies born outside a traditional family structure also tend to be born in a less prosperous environment. “Children born to married parents on average have access to more economic resources,” says its report.

The Census Bureau’s household income data for 2024 shows two factors that, as this column has noted before, clearly have an impact on that income: family structure and education….

It makes sense that a married couple will give their children a stronger family structure. It also makes sense that a married couple, each with a college degree, will have more skills and knowledge than with individuals without a college degree or appropriate trades training.

My long-time readers know that I have encouraged education since the beginning of this blog. My children would tell you that I pushed education since they were in the lower grades of elementary school. As a result, all of them have a college degree and most of them have graduate degrees. They are all doing well, rearing strong families, and strengthening their communities. All of us should be involved in life-long learning.

Who Is to Blame for the Messy Deportation Situation?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns lawful deportation. The Biden administration opened the borders and invited ten million or more people to enter the United States illegally – “come on in, the borders open!” The Trump administration is now deporting as many criminal illegals – the worst of the worst – as quickly as possible.

Most Americans have heard of the billions of dollars of fraud in Minnesota and ICE’s attempt fight to deport as many of the fraudsters as possible. Democrats and others on the Left do not have anything else are desperate to make deportation a big mess for the mid-term elections.

Jarrett Stepman at The Heritage Foundation shared his thoughts about the ICE operations in Minnesota and other blue states. 

According to a new media narrative, President Donald Trump and the Department of Homeland Security are behaving irresponsibly by conducting more immigration raids around the country, which in turn have allegedly led to violence against innocent civilians and illegal aliens.

And if you’ve been listening to Democrats, you’d think that the reason that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is particularly active in blue states is that the Trump administration is being mean to them for political reasons.

Their reasoning goes that Trump wants to occupy and bully their states with ICE “terrorists” who spend their time murdering innocent American citizens for no reason….

[Democrats call it retribution-style politics, drams, performance politics at its worst. Republicans call it projection.]

But the narrative that aggressive ICE enforcement in blue states is just some kind of political retribution is bunk for many reasons. The biggest one is that Democrats have actively pursued policies that would lead to a confrontation with the federal government over immigration law.

This is happening by design.

Sanctuary city and state policies aim at blocking the federal government from carrying out federal laws through non-compliance. [Ice uses different processes in non-compliant states as it does in cooperative states.]

The Trump administration has generally prioritized bringing in illegal aliens with a criminal record. This can be done more easily in states that cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security. Generally, local authorities detain individuals for various crimes, and when they discover that the criminal is an illegal alien with a deportation order, they hand them over to federal officers.

Not so in blue states, where the federal government must actively pursue illegal aliens if it wishes to detain and deport them.

CNN actually covered this issue in August.

“In states that voted for President Donald Trump, ICE agents are far more likely to arrest immigrants directly from prisons and jails,” CNN reported.

“In Democratic-leaning states, by contrast, ICE is frequently arresting immigrants from worksites, streets and mass roundups that have sparked protests and intense backlash in cities such as Los Angeles. Most of those arrested don’t have any criminal record,” CNN continued.

CNN further found that “59% of arrests in red states took place in prisons and jails, while 70% of arrests in blue states took place in the community. That partisan gap between red and blue states existed before Trump’s second term began – but it has widened since last year.”

The sanctuary policies are triggering the federal government to engage in aggressive raids. These raids are less efficient, riskier, and more likely to sweep up illegal aliens who don’t have an extensive criminal record outside the initial crime of violating U.S. border laws….

Democrat politicians and their activist supporters certainly know that sanctuary policies encourage more aggressive ICE enforcement….

Instead of just accepting de facto nullification of federal law, the Department of Homeland Security has stepped up ICE raids to make up for non-cooperation in places like Minnesota.

When you combine that with an aggressive, activist street element and irresponsible Democrat politicians like [Minneapolis Mayor Jacob] Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, you get situations like the ones that led to the ICE shooting of Rachel Good.

The blame for this messy situation doesn’t fall on the Trump administration. It falls on those who don’t accept the results of the 2024 election, who insist that the results of the open borders insanity of President Joe Biden be locked in forever, and now look to do everything in their power to undermine the law.