Class Member Study Guide: Lesson 4
TRANSGRESSION OPENED THE EYES OF ADAM AND EVE
The purpose of the
events discussed in Genesis 3 was summed up by Lehi when he taught,
“Adam fell that men might be; and men
are, that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25).
ADAM
ADAM
“Adam’s status before
the fall was:
He was not subject to death.
He was in the presence of God. …
He had no posterity.
He was without knowledge of good and evil.
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.” (Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:107–8.).
EVE
“The
devil in tempting Eve told a truth when he said unto her that when she should
eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they should become as Gods. He
told the truth in telling that, but he accompanied it with a lie as he always
does.
He never tells the complete truth.
He said that they should not die.
The Father had said that they should die.
The devil had to tell
a lie in order to accomplish his purposes; but there was some truth in his
statement. Their eyes were opened. They had a knowledge of good and evil just
as the Gods have. They became as Gods; for that is one of the features, one of
the peculiar attributes of those who attain unto that glory—they understand the
difference between good and evil.” (Cannon, Gospel Truth, 1:16.)
Elder James E.
Talmage explained how, even in her being deceived, Eve still brought about the
purposes of the Lord:
“Eve was fulfilling the foreseen purposes of God by the part she took in the great drama of the fall; yet she did not partake of the forbidden fruit with that object in view, but with intent to act contrary to the divine command, being deceived by the sophistries of Satan, who also, for that matter, furthered the purposes of the Creator by tempting Eve; yet his design was to thwart the Lord’s plan. We are definitely told that ‘he knew not the mind of God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world’ [Moses 4:6].
Yet his diabolical effort, far from being the initiatory step toward destruction, contributed to the plan of man’s eternal progression.
Adam’s part in the great event was essentially different from that of his wife; he was not deceived; on the contrary he deliberately decided to do as Eve desired, that he might carry out the purposes of his Maker with respect to the race of men, whose first patriarch he was ordained to be.” (Articles of Faith, pp. 69–70.)
THE ATONEMENT OF JESUS CHRIST SAVES US FROM PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL DEATH
Ezra Taft Benson noted:"The plan of redemption must start with the account of the fall of Adam. In the words of Moroni, ‘By Adam came the fall of man. And because of the fall of man came Jesus Christ, … and because of Jesus Christ came the redemption of man’ (Mormon 9:12). Just as a man does not really desire food until he is hungry, so he does not desire the salvation of Christ until he knows why he needs Christ. No one adequately and properly knows why he needs Christ until he understands and accepts the doctrine of the Fall and its effect upon all mankind” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1987, 106; or Ensign, May 1987, 85).
