Article of Faith 2
We believe that men will be punished for their own sins,
and not for Adam’s
transgression.
This
essay is the sixth and final one teaching about the Fall of Adam and Eve as
stated in the second Article of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. The first thesis discussed moral agency, or the freedom to
choose good or evil. The second treatise discussed sin and punishment for sin.
The third essay discussed Satan. The fourth paper discussed the creation of
Adam and Eve and Satan’s great temptation. The fifth essay discussed the tree
of life and the immediate result of the Fall. This thesis will discuss how the
Atonement was provided for because the Fall did not come by chance, using the
words of Elder James E. Talmage (The Articles of Faith [1890], 66-68).
Atonement Provided for – God did not leave 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.”
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 resulting
conditions. Further, it is evident that the fall was foreseen to be a means
whereby man could be brought into direct experience with both good and evil, so
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
beneficent plan of his creation [emphasis added]: “For behold, this is my
work and my glory – to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Pearl
of Great Price, Moses 1:39) spoke 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 scenes 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 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
what would follow.
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 intent to act contrary to the divine command, being
deceived by the sophistries of Satan, who also, for that matter, furthered
the purposes of the Creator by 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” (Pearl of Great Price, Moses 4:6) [Emphasis
added]. Yet his diabolical effort, far from being the initiatory step toward
destruction, contributed to the plan of man’s eternal progression. 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.
Even
the transgressions of men may be turned to the accomplishment of high purposes.
The sacrificial death of Christ was ordained from before the foundation of the
world, yet Judas who betrayed, and the Jews who brought about the crucifixion
of the Son of God, are nonetheless guilty of the awful crime.
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 title to glory, exaltation,
and eternal lives. 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 form sin, but from the
opportunity of meeting sin; incapable of winning the honors of victory because
prevented from taking part in the conflict. 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 a knowledge of good and evil, by the proper use of which knowledge
man may become even as the Gods.
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