The Fall of Adam and Eve - The Plan of Salvation Part IV

And so the plan was set forth. God and Jesus Christ created the earth for us and sent down our first earthly parents: Adam and Eve. They were placed in the Garden of Eden, made for them by God and Christ. In the garden there were two trees that were special. One was The Tree of Life and the other The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. (Moses 3:9)

Adam and Eve were given two commandments: 1) to multiply and replenish the earth and 2) to not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Here are the scriptures I just summarized above, read or skip them as you please:

--from here--

"And I, God, blessed them, and said unto them: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Moses 2:28)

"And I, the Lord God, commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Moses 3:16-17)

--to here--

And so they lived peacefully in the garden. We have no idea how long they were in there. However, we do know that at some point Lucifer, now called Satan, entered the garden to try to destroy the plan of God.

He did not know the mind of God, nor His plan. All he knew was that Adam and Eve had been commanded to not eat of the fruit, and so he went to tempt them to do so. (Moses 4:6)

Many churches teach that Eve was weak, and so she gave into the temptation before her. When she ate of the fruit, she knew she would be cast out. The subsequent idea is that she convinced Adam to also go with her and so our first parents sinned.

I want to clarify that that is not accurate.

Remember that the first commandment of God was that they multiply and replenish the earth. They were told to have children. They couldn't have children in the Garden of Eden; they were like innocent children themselves and (not least of all) had no idea how to go about it. (See 2 Nephi 2, read from verse 14 on)

Eve recognized (I imagine they were in the Garden for a very very long time) that they would not progress and would not have children if they stayed where they were. She understood that the two laws were juxtaposed to each other and they were required to make a choice. In order to have a satisfying discussion about why God would give them opposing laws, we will need a separate post (no promises, though).

She ate the fruit so that she could begin to understand, and begin to have children: their very calling on earth!

Adam was simpler. He wanted only to do as God said. Don't eat the fruit. Eve needed to help him understand why they needed to leave the garden. And he was convinced.

After they partook of the fruit God cursed the land for their sake, so that they would have to work hard to bring forth food.

Another teaching, common in other beliefs, is that we were meant to stay in the garden and that Adam and Eve screwed it up for all of us, and now we live in this crappy world.

Not only is this not true, it doesn't even make sense.

If it were God's plan for them to stay there, and if they were not supposed to eat the fruit of that tree, then why would God (who knows all) put the tree there at all?

Yes, you may say "well, to test them, and they failed". To which I say that if for them to fail that test were not part of God's plan, then His plan was not very well thought out. When he made the plan, He knew that they would eat it. If part of the plan was for them to not eat it, He would have made it so.

Anyways, on to the most important part of this post.

This event is called The Fall for a good reason. When our spirit leaves our body it is called physical death. When we leave the presence of God it is called spiritual death. Adam and Eve could not die physically or spiritually while in the garden. By being cast out, they assured their physical death (they were now mortal) and a temporary spiritual death (they could not be in God's presence).

This is the condition into which all of us are born. And this is the condition from which all of us must be saved!

I know that Adam and Eve were valiant children of God and that they did not commit a grevious sin, rather they transgressed the law and set God's plan moving along, as He intended.

check out mormon.org if you have any questions.
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For us to be saved from physical and spiritual death we needed (and still need) a Savior. This will be the topic of our next discussion, and is by far the most central, crucial, and incredible part of Our Heavenly Father's Plan.

The Creation - The Plan of Salvation Part III

So after telling us of this wonderful plan, Our Father put it into action.

He directed Jesus Christ in the construction of this world.

As many people know there are Seven Days involved. We'll touch on each of those days and then talk about the creation as a whole and some ideas surrounding it.

Day One: Matter was used to form the earth.

Day Two: The waters and the dry ground were separated.

Day Three: The sun and the moon were created to rule over the day and night respectively. The stars were also created.

Day Four: All types of plants were made. Grass, flowers, trees, bushes, vines, vegetables, fruits, etc.

Day Five: All types of animals were made. Mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, insects, etc.

Day Six: God and Jesus Christ created Adam and then Eve to be the first parents on this earth.

After the creation of man and woman and every other thing on our earth God and Jesus Christ rested from their labors. This is called the seventh day, and is the reason that in the Old Testament the seventh day is a sabbath day. (Exodus 20:8-11).

In my post about why I believe God exists I shared a scripture that talks about how the earth and it's motion and the heavens all testify that there is a God (Alma 30:44). 

Now, today's biggest opponent to belief in the creation is the Big Bang Theory. I should clarify something: scientists do not use the term "theory" the same way regular people do. In physics a theory is something that is well established, and basically accepted as a fact. There may be some missing pieces. There may be some unfinished mathematics. But the theory is set in its place until something may or may not come along to prove it wrong. So, the argument that "well it's just a theory" is a weak one, since we don't use the term the same way (it just becomes a debate of nomenclature at that point). And, as someone who is learning more and more about matter and motion and forces I definitely do not wholly disregard the big bang theory as an explanation of the creation of this universe.

The discrepancy I don't understand is how this eliminates God as a factor. 

Now I want to clarify something. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints does not have any official stance on the big bang, and has not explicitly taught what I'm sharing right now. This is what I believe, and while it does not in any way go against the teachings of the church, you won't find it in any books written or sermons given by leaders of the church. (However, I've never found anyone in the church that rejects this idea, leader or otherwise).

I personally believe that God created the universe by means of the big bang.
I did not come up against this wall where I believe in God but the big bang theory makes sense so now I needed to rectify them. Not at all. God must have formed the earth in some way. God has certain laws to govern all that exists. The laws of physics are some of these laws. Doesn't it make sense for Him to use the same laws in the creation of the earth as those that will govern it afterwards? There is no reason, whatsoever, to believe that He could not have done it this way.

I don't know that God provoked the big bang and thereby made this universe. I think it, but I don't know it. However, I do know that He created this Earth, and that he did so for our eternal progress and our eternal happiness. I know also that He loves us very much.

check out mormon.org if you have any questions.
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Next post: The Garden of Eden and The Fall of Adam and Eve

Premortal Life and The War in Heaven - The Plan of Salvation Part II

Before this life we were spirit beings. We were (and are) literal sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. We lived with Him and we were happy.
So why on earth would we leave his presence? (Pun fully intended).

One way that we know that we existed before the earth is a verse in Jeremiah in the Old Testament: Jeremiah 1:5 which says that before God created Jeremiah's body, He knew him.

Well, while we were happy, we did not experience the same complete joy that our Father did. In order for us to become equally happy as He, we needed to become like Him. 

There were three distinct differences between us and Him:

-He was perfect, we were not
-He had a body of flesh and bone, while we were just spirits
-He had children, we did not


So God presented a plan that would change each of these points. He told us that He would create a world for us to live, where we would be given physical bodies. He told us that on this world we would pass through many trials and difficulties. Part of the experience would be to live in faith. In order to do that, we needed to forget our life with our Heavenly Father, and so he placed a veil between us and him, to make us forget. This makes perfect sense; how easy would it be to always make the right choice if we remembered our life with Him and what it was like? It's like taking an exam with all of the answers on the board. We'd all get a perfect mark, but none of us would learn a thing.

After living our lives, if we did our best to follow God's Laws, given to us by His prophets (who he promised to send) then we would go back to live with Him, where we could continue to learn and progress (but now having physical bodies and having had personal experiences, and probably children too).

But then He told us about one problem. Only those who are pure can dwell in His presence. No unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God. So the moment we sin, we would be disqualified to return to live with our Father.

Well that stinks. Especially considering that part of the whole thing was our lack of perfection, so we're pretty much doomed to fail.

It was at this point that God told us about the most wonderful (and awful) part of His plan. He needed a Savior for His children. He needed someone who would go to the earth and live a perfect life. Someone who would be the ultimate example of love and purity. Then that person would need to pay the price, that none of us could pay, for all of our shortcomings. It truly is a wonderful, and awful, idea. That one man would love us so much to endure temptations, pains, and trials for us (and endure them perfectly). And then that that person would suffer at the hands of all of the places where we failed, and die for us.

I know that God's plan is perfect. And that it works.

Our eldest brother, the first born of our Heavenly Father said "I Will Go. I will resist all temptation. I will endure a life as difficult as any of my brothers and sisters." (I'm paraphrasing) "I will teach them exactly how they must live. And then I will pay the ultimate price for all of them, because they could not live as I. And let all the glory be The Father's"

How beautiful is the love of Jesus Christ for each of us?

Well, the part of the title that describes a "war in heaven" probably caught your eye. Here's where it starts.

Another son of God, named Lucifer, said "I have a better idea! I will be the Savior. I will ensure that each and every one of these our brothers and sisters will return to live with us by forcing them to obey. And when I have brought all of your children back, Father, give the glory to me."

Now, God didn't leave the plan open for discussion. He laid out the plan and called only for a willing Savior. So when Lucifer suggested they change the plan God declined, and chose Christ to perform the task.

Lucifer became very angry (I don't really know why, to be honest) and rebelled against God. He went about convincing many of our brothers and sisters to follow his plan instead of the father's.

Many of our siblings gave in and followed him.

For rebelling against Him, God cast them out of the Celestial Kingdom, and they became "angels to the devil" (Matthew 25:41).

Do you want to know how I know that you chose to follow our Father before this life? Because you're sitting here reading this. Everyone on this planet chose, at least before birth, to follow their Father's plan. Otherwise they wouldn't be here.

God created this plan for the happiness of His children, and if we live according to His plan, we will not only return to Him, we will come to know a perfect joy as we could never experience on this earth.

check out mormon.org if you have any questions.
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Next post we will talk about the creation of the earth.
I will also touch on The Big Bang Theory, which I am not disregarding as possible.

The Plan of Salvation - Part I

Have you ever asked yourself the big questions?

Where do I come from?
Why am I here?
Where do I go when I die?

Well, I have the answers to these questions.

The answer to these questions is known as The Plan of Salvation.

I am going to tell you exactly where we come from, and why we came here (which also answers where we are going).

This post is going to be a bullet treatment, a summary, of the subject. Each following post will talk about one part of this plan.

-Before this earth existed we lived with God and He told us of His plan for us to obtain a perfect joy, by becoming like Him

-He created the earth for us

-He sent Adam and Eve to the earth to begin this mortal family

-Jesus Christ was sent to pay the price for all of the sins and mistakes each of us would make (the absolutely most crucial part of the plan)

-We are given God's Laws in order to return to Him, thanks to the mediation of our Savior.

-After we die we will live for a time in a place known as the spirit world awaiting the resurrection. Jesus Christ will return to the earth and begin The Millennium, and we will be resurrected (reunited with our bodies to never again be separated). We will face judgment and will either return to live with God or will go elsewhere.

My subsequent posts will, in turn, treat each of these points. I will use some scriptures in order to give validity to what will be discussed. However to save space and your reading time I will not give an exhaustive reference of verses to read.

I know that the plan laid out above (and in more detail soon) is the plan developed by our Immortal and Perfect Father. I know that this plan is the perfect plan of happiness and that we will obtain eternal joy if we follow His instructions.

check out mormon.org if you have any questions.
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The next post is about our life with our Father before, and something called the war in heaven.