Article of Faith 2
We believe that men will be punished for their own sins,
and not for Adam’s
transgression.
The Tree of Life – There was another tree of special virtues in Eden; its
fruit assured life to those who ate of it. While Adam and Eve lived in
innocence, immune to death, this tree had not been forbidden them. Now that
they had transgressed, however, now that the divine decree had issued fixing
death as their lot, it was necessary that the fruit of the tree of life be no
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 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 their fall could have been of none
but ill effect had they been immediately brought to a condition of immortality,
without repentance, without atonement. In the despair following their
realization of the great change that had come upon them, and in the light of
the knowledge that had gained at such cost as to the virtues of the tree of
life, it would have been natural for them to seek the seeming advantage of an
immediate escape by partaking of the immortalizing food. In mercy they were
prevented from so doing.
The
words of the Creator are unmistakable as to the necessity of banishing Adam and
Eve 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
Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the
tree of life” (Gen. 3:22-24).
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 partaken 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” (Alma 42:3-5).
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 relatively sterile soil, instead of the beauty and
fruitfulness of Eden. In place of pleasing and useful plants, thorns and
thistles sprang up; and the man 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; 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’s authority. Having lost their sense of
former innocence they became ashamed of their nakedness, and the Lord made for
them garments of skins. 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 form the enmity which it was decreed should be
placed in the hearts of Eve’s children.
No comments:
Post a Comment