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.