"Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other" (16).In order for us to be able to choose, we actually had to have things to choose between. Thus, the whole "it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things" (11). If there weren't opposition than we wouldn't know what real happiness was nor was true misery might be.
"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" (22).
"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" (23).Could you imagine being in such a state? Just living innocently, without any knowledge of what being really happy could mean? This is why it wasn't the beginning and end of God's Plan. It's call the Plan of Happiness for a reason.
He had two trees in the garden of Eden. The tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They were in opposition as well. It allowed them a choice. Elder Bruce R. McConkie said, "One was the tree of life, which figuratively refers to eternal life; the other was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which figuratively refers to how and why and in what manner mortality and all that appertains to it came into being” (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, 86).
But when Adam and Eve partook of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil they transgressed and were sent from the garden of Eden so that they could not also partake of the tree of life (Moses 4:28-31). Now, what is a transgression? Elder Dallin H. Oaks said:
“[The] contrast between a sin and a transgression reminds us of the careful wording in the second article of faith: ‘We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression’ (italics added). It also echoes a familiar distinction in the law. Some acts, like murder, are crimes because they are inherently wrong. Other acts, like operating without a license, are crimes only because they are legally prohibited. Under these distinctions, the act that produced the Fall was not a sin—inherently wrong—but a transgression—wrong because it was formally prohibited. These words are not always used to denote something different, but this distinction seems meaningful in the circumstances of the Fall” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1993, 98; or Ensign, Nov. 1993, 73).Adam and Eve transgressed, they did not sin. President Joseph Fielding Smith said:
“Just why the Lord would say to Adam that he forbade him to partake of the fruit of that tree is not made clear in the Bible account, but in the original as it comes to us in the Book of Moses it is made definitely clear. It is that the Lord said to Adam that if he wished to remain as he was in the garden, then he was not to eat the fruit, but if he desired to eat it and partake of death he was at liberty to do so” (Answers to Gospel Questions, comp. Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., 5 vols. [1957–66], 4:81).They had a choice even then. We've always had this gift of agency. We can choose between good and evil. Because of Adam's choice we have been able to come to earth. We have been able to discover what joy is. "And men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil" (5). Good leads to joy and peace. Evil leads to misery and torment. We can choose. Make sure you always do your best to choose the right, it'll lead you to great joy.
No comments:
Post a Comment