Chapter 7
BLESSINGS OF MORTALITY UNKNOWN IN EDEN. We find Adam in the Garden of Eden with the promise that he can live there, he can stay there, he can enjoy himself as far as is possible under the conditions, as long as he wants to, as long as he does not do something he is told not to do, and that is to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He was told that in the day that he should eat of that fruit he should surely die. 1
We find, then, Adam's status before the fall was:
1. He was not subject to death. 2
2. He was in the presence of God. 3 He saw him just as you see your fathers; was in his presence, and learned his language. Now if any of you are professors from our schools of language, and have an idea that language came as these theorists say, I am going to tell you that Adam had a perfect language, for he was taught the language of God. That was the first language upon this earth. So much for those theories.
3. He had no posterity.
4. He was without knowledge of good and evil. 4 He had knowledge, of course. He could speak. He could converse. There were many things he could be taught and was taught; but under the conditions in which he was living at that time it was impossible for him to visualize or understand the power of good and evil. He did not know what pain was. He did not know what sorrow was; and a thousand other things that have come to us in this life that Adam did not know in the Garden of Eden and could not understand and would not have known had he remained there. That was his status before the fall. 5
NO DEATH ON EARTH BEFORE FALL. The Lord pronounced the earth good when it was finished. Everything upon its face was called good. There was no death in the earth before the fall of Adam. I do not care what the scientists say in regard to dinosaurs and other creatures upon the earth millions of years ago, that lived and died and fought and struggled for existence. When the earth was created and was declared good, peace was upon its face among all its creatures. Strife and wickedness were not found here, neither was there any corruption....
All life in the sea, the air, on the earth, was without death. Animals were not dying. Things were not changing as we find them changing in this mortal existence, for mortality had not come. Today we are living in a world of change because we are living under very different conditions from those which prevailed in the beginning and before the fall of man.
BOOK OF MORMON TEACHES TRUTH ABOUT FALL. We Latter-day Saints accept the Book of Mormon as the word of God. We have the assurance that the Lord placed the stamp of approval upon it at the time of the translation, and spoke with his own voice to the witnesses, and commanded them to bear record of it in all the world. The word of the Lord means more to me than anything else. I place it before the teachings of men. The truth is the thing which will last. All the theory, philosophy and wisdom of the wise that is not in harmony with revealed truth from God will perish. They must change and pass away, and they are changing and passing away constantly, but when the Lord speaks that is eternal truth on which we may rely.
The gospel teaches us that if Adam and Eve had not partaken of that fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would have remained in the Garden of Eden in that same condition prevailing before the fall. Under those conditions they would have had no seed. "Adam fell that men might be" as it was decreed in the heavens before the world was. Lehi has given us a very clear and comprehensive view of the mission of Adam and of the atonement of Jesus Christ, and the Book of Mormon is very explicit in teaching these fundamental doctrines. In regard to the pre-mortal condition of Adam and the entire earth. Lehi has stated the following:
"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 in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end." 6
Is not this statement plain enough? Whom are you going to believe, the Lord, or men?
ADAM FOREORDAINED TO FALL. The Lord did not intend the earth to stay in that condition. Lehi further says: "But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things." This earth was prepared for the advancement of the children of God. We came from the pre-existence to receive tabernacles of flesh and bones and to pass through mortality. It was decreed in the heavens that men should die after coming into this probation and learning the pains and tribulations of mortality as well as its joys and happiness. Jesus Christ is spoken of in the scriptures as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 7 Peter says we were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, "Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you." 8 So the plan of salvation was all understood in the world of spirits, and we were taught the purpose of mortal life which Adam should bring into the earth.
ADAM HAD POWER TO BRING DEATH INTO WORLD. By revelation we are well informed that Adam was not subject to death when he was placed in the Garden of Eden, nor was there any death upon the earth. The Lord has not seen fit to tell us definitely just how Adam came for we are not ready to receive that truth. He did not come here a resurrected being to die again for we are taught most clearly that those who pass through the resurrection receive immortality, and can die no more.
It is sufficient for us to know, until the Lord reveals more about it, that Adam was not subject to death but had the power, through transgressing the law, to become subject to death and to cause the same curse to come upon the earth and all life upon it. For this earth, once pronounced good, was cursed after the fall. It is passing through its mortal probation as well as the life which is upon it, and will eventually receive the resurrection and a place of exaltation which is decreed in the heavens for it.
TRUTHS ABOUT FALL YET TO BE REVEALED. The time will come when we shall be informed all about Adam and the manner of creation, for the Lord has promised that when he comes he will make all these things known. These are his words:
"Yea, verily I say unto you, in that day when the Lord shall come, he shall reveal all things-Things which have passed, and hidden things which no man knew, things of the earth, by which it was made, and the purpose and the end thereof-Things most precious, things that are above, and things that are beneath, things that are in the earth, and upon the earth, and in heaven." 9
For my part, I am willing to wait until this time to learn the truth of these things. This information was given to the saints at one time in a former dispensation, but the Lord has said we may not have it in the days of wickedness. When the Gentiles "shall repent of their iniquity, and become clean before the Lord," then it shall be revealed again. 10
BLESSINGS OF MORTALITY CAME WITH FALL. Adam's status after the fall was:
1. He was banished from the presence of God and partook of the spiritual death. Now that was a terrible calamity. At least, as we read in the 9th chapter of 2nd Nephi, it would have been a most terrible thing, that banishment from the presence of God, if there had been no remedy." 11
2. He also partook of the temporal or physical death, and that would have been also a terrible calamity if there had been no remedy for it." 12
3. He gained knowledge and experience-knowledge of good and evil.
4. He obtained the great gift of posterity. 13
ADAM BROUGHT SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL DEATH. Because of Adam's transgression, a spiritual death-banishment from the presence of the Lord-as well as the temporal death, were pronounced upon him. The spiritual death came at the time of the fall and banishment; and the seeds of the temporal death were also sown at that same time; that is, a physical change came over Adam and Eve, who became mortal, and were thus subject to the ills of the flesh which resulted in their gradual decline to old age and finally the separation of the spirit from the body.
Before this temporal death took place the Lord, by his own voice and the visitation and ministration of angels, taught Adam the principles of the gospel and administered unto him the saving ordinances, through which he was again restored to the favor of the Lord and to his presence. Also, through the atonement, not only Adam, but all his posterity were redeemed from the temporal effects of the fall, and shall come forth in the resurrection to receive immortality. 14
ADAM'S TRANSGRESSION BROUGHT DEATH. That death came by the transgression of Adam, we are taught in the scriptures. For instance, the Lord has revealed, "That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again." 15
I cannot think that the Lord created death in any creature, plant, animal, or even the earth on which we dwell, at the time of its creation. Death came through the violation of a law, and it passed upon all things by the judgment of the Almighty, through the transgression of Adam, he being the lord who had been given dominion over all of these things.
DEATH FOR ALL LIFE CAME BY FALL. President Brigham Young has said: "Some may regret that our first parents sinned. This is nonsense. If we had been there, and they had not sinned, we would have sinned. I will not blame Adam or Eve. Why? Because it was necessary that sin should enter into the world; no man could ever understand the principle of exaltation without its opposite; no one could ever receive an exaltation without being acquainted with its opposite. How did Adam and Eve sin? Did they come out in direct opposition to God and to his government? No. But they transgressed a command of the Lord, and through that transgression sin came into the world. The Lord knew they would do this, and he had designed that they should. Then came the curse upon the fruit, upon the vegetables, and upon our mother earth; and it came upon the creeping things, upon the grain in the field, the fish in the sea, and upon all things pertaining to this earth, through man's transgression." 16
Elder Parley P. Pratt and President John Taylor have left us this teaching: "First, man fell from his standing before God, by giving heed to temptation; and this fall affected the whole creation, as well as man, and caused various changes to take place; he was banished from the presence of his Creator, and a veil was drawn between them, and he was driven from the Garden of Eden, to till the earth, which was then cursed for man's sake, and should begin to bring forth thorns and thistles; and in the sweat of his face should earn his bread, and in sorrow eat of it, all the days of his life, and finally return to dust." 17
NO IMMORTALITY OR ETERNAL LIFE WITHOUT FALL. When Adam was driven out of the Garden of Eden, the Lord passed a sentence upon him. Some people have looked upon that sentence as being a dreadful thing. It was not; it was a blessing. I do not know that it can truthfully be considered even as a punishment in disguise. 18
In order for mankind to obtain salvation and exaltation it is necessary for them to obtain bodies in this world, and pass through the experiences and schooling that are found only in mortality. The Lord has said that his great work and glory is, "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." 19 Without mortality this great blessing could not be accomplished. Therefore, worlds are created and peopled with the children of God, and they are granted the privilege to pass through the mortal existence, with the great gift of agency in their possession. Through this gift they choose good or choose evil, and thus receive a reward of merit in the eternities to come. Because of Adam's transgression we are here in mortal life....
The fall of man came as a blessing in disguise, and was the means of furthering the purposes of the Lord in the progress of man, rather than a means of hindering them. 20
"TRANSGRESSION" NOT "SIN" OF ADAM. I never speak of the part Eve took in this fall as a sin, nor do I accuse Adam of a sin. One may say, "Well did they not break a commandment?" Yes. But let us examine the nature of that commandment and the results which came out of it.
In no other commandment the Lord ever gave to man, did he say: "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself." 21
It is true, the Lord warned Adam and Eve that to partake of the fruit they would transgress a law, and this happened. But it is not always a sin to transgress a law. I will try to illustrate this. The chemist in his laboratory takes different elements and combines them, and the result is that something very different results. He has changed the law. As an example in point: hydrogen, two parts, and oxygen, one part, passing through an electric spark will combine and form water. Hydrogen will burn, so will oxygen, but water will put out a fire. This may be subject to some disagreement by the critics who will say it is not transgressing a law. Well, Adam's transgression was of a similar nature, that is, his transgression was in accordance with law.
The transgression of Adam did not involve sex sin as some falsely believe and teach. Adam and Eve were married by the Lord while they were yet immortal beings in the Garden of Eden and before death entered the world.
ADAM AND EVE REJOICED IN FALL. Before partaking of the fruit Adam could have lived forever; therefore, his status was one of immortality. When he ate, he became subject to death, and therefore he became mortal. This was a transgression of the law, but not a sin in the strict sense, for it was something that Adam and Eve had to do!
I am sure that neither Adam nor Eve looked upon it as a sin, when they learned the consequences, and this is discovered in their words after they learned the consequences.
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 said: "Were it riot 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." 22
We can hardly look upon anything resulting in such benefits as being a sin, in the sense in which we consider sin. 23
DEATH FULFILLS MERCIFUL PLAN OF GOD. We have partaken of the benefits, and of the things that are not called benefits-if there are any such-coming out of the fall of Adam. The fall of Adam brought to pass all of the vicissitudes of mortality. It brought pain. It brought sorrow. It brought death; but we must not lose sight of the fact that it brought blessings also, as spoken of in these scriptures. It brought the blessing of knowledge and understanding and mortal life.
Now if we had been left in that condition, without any hope of redemption from the fall, then that fall would have been a most dreadful calamity. I want to read to you some of the words that Jacob taught the people, as recorded in the 9th chapter of 2nd Nephi:
"For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfill the merciful plan of the great Creator"-I pause now after reading that. That is a very peculiar expression. It is not customary among men to look upon the transgression of Adam, which brought death, in that light-that it came in order to bring to pass "the merciful plan of the great Creator."24
DEATH AS IMPORTANT AS BIRTH. In other words, death is just as important in the welfare of man as is birth. There is no greater blessing that can come than the blessing of birth. One third of the hosts of heaven, because of rebellion, were denied that privilege, and hence they have no bodies of flesh and bones, that great gift of God.
But who would like to live forever in this mundane world, filled with pain, decay, sorrow, and tribulation, and grow old and infirm and yet have to remain with all the vicissitudes of mortality? I think all of us would come to the conclusion, if that proposition were placed before us, that we would not like to have it. We would reject it. We would not want life of that nature. Life here in this world is short of necessity, and yet all that is required may be accomplished, but death is just as important in the plan of salvation as birth is. We have to die-it is essential-and death comes into the world "to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator."
IS OUR DOCTRINE ABOUT ADAM TRUE? Did Adam bring death into the world? Are we laboring under a misapprehension? Are we wrong? Is it true that millions of years before Adam came into this world death was here? If so, I want to know who brought it. Who was the transgressor? And who atoned for the beings who died before Adam's fall? 25
Adam cannot be held responsible for death before he came here. Now is it true or isn't it true that Adam brought death into the world? Are these scriptures true? Are these brethren true-and I have quoted three of the Presidents of the Church, including the Prophet himself? Are they true, or are we to discard their teachings and the teachings of the scriptures because the philosophies of men today declare a contrary doctrine?
Here is what Dr. E. W. McBride said at a religious conference-the Oxford Conference of Modern Churchmen-and he is a minister: "If mankind have been slowly developing out of ape-like ancestors, then what is called sin consists of nothing but the tendencies which they have inherited from these ancestors: there never was a state of primeval innocence, and all the nations of the world have developed out of primitive man by processes as natural as those which gave rise to the Jews." 27
I have been teaching you here from these revelations that the fall of Adam brought sin into the world, and there wasn't any sin until he brought it. Now this is what the other doctrine teaches.
Here is what Dr. H. D. A. Major said at the same conference: "Science has shown us that what is popularly called 'original sin' . . . consists of man's inheritance from his brute ancestry." 28
EVOLUTIONISTS DENY ATONEMENT. Here is what Sir Oliver Lodge has to say. Now these are distinguished men that I am quoting. 'As a matter of fact, the higher man of today is not worrying about his sins at all, still less about their punishment. His mission, if he is good for anything, is to be up and doing; and insofar as he acts wrongly or unwisely he expects to suffer. He may unconsciously plead for mitigation on the ground of good intentions, but never either consciously or unconsciously will anyone but a cur ask for the punishment to fall on someone else, nor rejoice if told that it already has so fallen." 29
In other words, because I believe in the redemption that has come to men through Jesus Christ, that he is the Redeemer of the world, that he gave his life that men might live and be redeemed from the original transgression, I am a cur, according to the teaching of Sir Oliver Lodge. Well, let me be classed among the curs, for goodness knows I do not want to sink to the level that this man has reached who ridicules the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Here is another one, from a Christian minister-so-called-Durant Drake. He says: "What sort of justice is it that could be satisfied with the punishment of one innocent man and the free pardon of myriads of guilty men? The theory seems a remnant of the ancient idea that the Gods need to be placated; but by the side of the pagan gods, who were content with humble offerings of flesh and fruit, the Christian God, demanding the suffering and death of his own Son, appears a monster of cruelty." 30
EVOLUTIONISTS RIDICULE GOD AND RELIGION. Now, my good brethren and sisters, this damnable doctrine that is so prevalent in the world today, that is taught in the colleges throughout our country, and has swept over the face of the earth like a destructive flood of evil, is striking at the fundamentals of your faith-that is the doctrine so circulated ridiculing the Son of God, making light of his Father as a cruel monster (I was going to say inhuman but I cannot say that) because he would permit his Son to suffer for you and for me.
Is it any wonder that the world is ridiculing the prophets and making light of the holy scriptures when the leading men who are setting the pace for education, who are controlling the thought of the world are teaching such terrible, soul-destroying doctrines as these I have read to you? And these are only a few. Thousands of books have been published with similar thoughts.
BELIEF IN ADAM AND CHRIST GO TOGETHER. In contrast to this I am going to quote to you from another great man. He was great. He was mistaken in many things, of course, but he did the best he could under the circumstances, and I think the Spirit of the Lord was leading him in many things. John Wesley said: "The fall of man is the very foundation of revealed religion. If this be taken away, the Christian system is subverted, nor will it deserve so honorable an appellation as that of a cunningly devised fable." 31
Then he adds: "All who deny this-call it original sin, or by any other title-are but heathens still in the fundamental point which differentiates heathenism from Christianity." 32 Now that has a better ring, doesn't it?
And here is another truth stated by another great thinker, Robert Blatchford. He says: "But-no Adam, no Fall: no Fall, no Atonement; no Atonement, no Savior. Accepting Evolution, how can we believe in a Fall? When did man fall; was it before he ceased to be a monkey, or after? Was it when he was a tree man, or later? Was it in the Stone Age, or the Bronze Age, or in the Age of Iron? . . . And if there never was a Fall, why should there be any Atonement?" 33
Those are pertinent questions that Mr. Blatchford asks. "No Adam, no Fall; no Fall, no Atonement." That is just as true as it is that we are here. If death was always here, then Adam did not bring it, and he could not be punished for it. If Adam did not fall, there was no Christ, because the atonement of Jesus Christ is based on the fall of Adam. And so we face these problems.
SALVATION RESTS ON FALL AND ATONEMENT. If there is anybody here that believes that death has always been going on, and that sin was always here, he will have a difficult time to explain Adam and the fall, or the atonement. You see from these writings what a dreadful state these men get in when they do not believe in the fall and the introduction of sin into the world.
Of course, if I put my hand upon a hot stove it will get burned-that is natural, that would not be a sin; and that is the way they look upon everything. Man cannot sin, according to this doctrine. Do you know of anything that is more damnable than that? And that is what it leads to.
If death was always here, then there could be no atonement, and if there is no atonement there is no salvation. Now that is just as plain as anything can be. If things did not occur as the Lord has said they did occur, in these revelations, then we are still in a hopeless condition, and when we die we do not exist, because if all this is true there is no existence after this life-that is the end. I want to tell you that forces are at work in this world to destroy Jesus Christ and his mission. 34
Notes
^1. Moses 3:8-9, 16-17; Abra. 5:8-13; Gen. 2:8-9, 15-17.
^2. 2 Ne. 2:22.
^3. 2 Ne. 9:6; Al. 42:7-23; Hela. 14:16-17; Moses 5:10.
^4. 2 Ne. 2:23; Moses 5:11.
^5. Church News. Apr. 15, 1939, p. 6.
^6. Ne. 2:19-26.
^7. Rev. 13:8.
^8. Pet. 1:20.
^9. D. & C. 101:32-34.
^10. Gen. & Hist. Mag., vol. 21, pp. 148-150; Ether 4:6-7.
^11. 2 Ne. 2:5; 9:8-9; Mosiah 16:1-15; Alma 42:6-11.
^12. 2 Ne. 9:6-8; Mosiah 16:4-11; Alma 12:26; Hela. 14:16-17; Mormon 9:13.
^13. Church News, Apr. 15, 1939, p. 6; 2 Ne. 2:23; Moses 5:10-11.
^14. Era, vol. 21, p. 192; D. & C. 29:41-43
^15. Moses 6:59; 2 Ne. 9:6.
^16. Discourses of Brigham Young, 2nd ed. . pp. 157-158.
^17. Pers. Corresp.; John Taylor, The Government of God, pp. 106-115, quoting Parley P. Pratt, The Voice of Warning.
^18. Conf. Rep., Apr. 6, 1945, p. 48.
^19. Moses 1:39.
^20. Church News, Feb. 15, 1941, p. 1.
^21. Moses 3:17.
^22. Moses 5:10-11.
^23. Pers. Corresp.
^24. Church News, Apr. 22, 1939, p. 3, 2 Ne. 9:6.
^25. Mosiah 3:11; 4:7.
^26. John Fisk, The Destiny of Man, p. 103.
^27. The Modern Churchman, Sept. 1924, p. 232.
^28. Ibid., p. 206.
^29. Man and the Universe, p. 204.
^30. Problems of Religion, p. 176.
^31. The Works of John Wesley, vol. 1, p. 176.
^32. Ibid., vol. 5, p. 195.
^33. God and My Neighbor, p. 159.
^34. Church News, Apr. 15, 1939, p. 8.