The Fall of Adam.

In the LDS faith, they believe the Fall of Adam was a good thing that was meant to happen. They deny the idea of Original Sin. While in the Biblical view of Christianity these go hand in hand, they are two separate events in the LDS belief. I will do a separate topic at a different time on the issue of Original Sin.

The way I will approach this will be like this. I will give a verse or two from the Bible, show how it differs from mormonism and go through it a few verses at a time.

Lets start with,

Gen 1:27 So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Gen 1:28 And God blessed them, and God 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.

Notice in verse 28, God tells them to be fruitful and multiply. In other words he is saying, go have Children. This was before the fall that God told them this. But the LDS teach that Adam and Eve were not able to have Children until after the Fall occurred. Here is a list of sources so you can look it up for your self.

Doct of Salvation vol 1 pg 115. Gospel Principles pg's 32-34(1997 edition)
True to the Faith pg 56-57 (2004) Mormon Doctrine pg 268.

The Bible again teaches

Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

The Bible clearly teaches, there is ONE TREE Adam and Eve are not allowed to eat from. Yet here is what the LDS teach. In the Joseph Smith "Translation" of the Bible, we read in Genesis chapter 2 verses 20-21

20:But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, 21: Nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but remember that I forbid it.

Then we read exactly word for word in the Pearl of great price, MOSES 3:17

17 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.

Now here is more from the Bible.

Gen 3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I [was] naked; and I hid myself.

Gen 3:11 And he said, Who told thee that thou [wast] naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Gen 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest [to be] with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

Gen 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What [is] this [that] thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou [art] cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Gen 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Gen 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life;

Gen 3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return.

Gen 3:20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

Gen 3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

Now the reason I posted these last two sections of Scripture from both chapter 2 and 3, is because the Bible is very clear, God did not want Adam and Eve eating from the tree. Yet the LDS teach it was really part of Gods plan, they were supposed to partake of the tree and as a result Good things will come from it.

Let me lay out these so called benefits of the fall from the LDS point of view.

Adam and Eve could not have Children, as I addressed above. Then as 2Nephi 6-8 states below, If it were not for the fall We could not have a Resurrection, or Atonement.

6 For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfill the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord.

7 Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.

8 O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more.

We read in the P of GP, Book of Moses chapter 5:10-11 Adam and Eve could not have Seed or have Joy if it were not for the Fall.

10 And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: 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.

11 And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: 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.

We read in Gospel Principles pg 33 that another blessing of the fall is, We are blessed with physical bodies, the right to choose between good and evil, and the opportunity to gain eternal life.

We read in 2 Nephi 2:22-25

22 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.

23 And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.

24 But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.

25 Adam fell that men might be; and men care, that they might have joy.

I want to point out some things for the LDS readers to think about. Why would God tell Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, (Have kids) But in reality they could not, until they ate from the tree that God told them not to? This seems to be a bit deceitful to me, and this would make God out to be a liar. How could God honestly tell them to do something, when he knew they could not?

Another thing would be, Why would God tell them not to eat of the tree, But in reality he planned all along that they should and would in order to be set free as it were? Why would God not simply be honest from the start and tell them, You must eat of this tree and here is why. Again this makes God a liar and this shows God using deceitful means to fulfill His plans and purposes. This is not the God I serve, He does not need to use lies and deception.

I challenge anyone to show me chapter and verse where God lied or uses lies. The bible tells me it is IMPOSSIBLE for God to lie, Hebrews 6:18 then in Titus 1:2 it says God cannot lie, The BoM also teaches God cannot lie, Read Enos 6, Ether 3:12, D and C 62:6.

Then we are taught in LDS teachings, After the fall we have Joy, and it was Gods plan for us to fall. But we read in Genesis 3:10-21, Adam was afraid, Adam blames Eve for something, He is no longer man enough to take responceabilty for his Actions. We read the Serpent is cursed, there is enmity put between the women and her seed. the Lord greatly multiplies sorrow, and gives pain in child birth. The ground is cursed and we have thorns and thistles, and lastly animals had to be put to death to make skins to cover Adam and Eve.

Of all the things I listed from Genesis 3:10-21 Please Explain to me how any of that brings Joy? We then read in 2 Nephi 6 they were cut off from the presence of the Lord. how is this joyful or good? We also read in Moses 5:11 and Gospel Principles pg 33 that they would not have been able to choose good or evil if it were not for the fall. It is really sad that I need to point this out, but the idea of being able to choose Evil is really not a good thing. People always seem to choose Evil over Good. We read in Jeremiah 17:9

The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it? And in Romans 3:10-11 10: As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

There was a LDS member who posted on my blog under a different topic, About the verses in Jeremiah, and Romans. She tried telling me that these verse did not apply to the entire human race, Only a select few people. So in case any LDS members who believe the fall was a good thing and we really are not all Evil, let me give you and answer for that now and it comes from the BoM if you cannot believe your scripture what can you believe?

Ether 3:2
2 O Lord, thou hast said that we must be encompassed about by the floods. Now behold, O Lord, and do not be angry with thy servant because of his weakness before thee; for we know that thou art holy and dwellest in the heavens, and that we are unworthy before thee; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually; nevertheless, O Lord, thou hast given us a commandment that we must call upon thee, that from thee we may receive according to our desires.

Mosiah 3:19
19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

I want to end with these thoughts here, As a result of the fall of Adam, The whole entire world was destoryed in a flood, The estiment was around 6 BILLION people died. Yep looks like Joy to me. People to this day Lie, Cheat, steal, Kill, Sexual preditors prey on little Children, Many people and even religions Harm Children and supprese women. The Bible speaks of false Prophets and Teachers. I just honestly do not see how all the evil in the world today and down through the years can make up for any Joy that the fall supposdly brought. Rick b