(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

THE FALL OF MAN.

SPECIAL TEXT: "Adam fell that man might be; men are that they might have joy." (II Nephi ii:25.)

DISCUSSION.

1. A Suggested Review: It is suggested to the student that he at this point review, either in class or by private reading, the following lessons in Seventy's Course in Theology, Second Year Book:

Lesson V.—Preparation of the Earth for the Abode of Man.

Lesson VII.—The Adamic Dispensation I.

Lesson VIII.—The Adamic Dispensation II.

Lesson IX.—The Adamic Dispensation III.

I refer the student to those lessons in order that the necessity might be avoided of entering again into detail on those subjects; for here I shall only say respecting the "fall" so much as may be necessary to keep up the continuity of the theme.

2. The "Fall" of Man as Related to the Purposes of God: From what is set forth in Part I of this treatise, it is evident that the "fall of Adam" did not surprise the purposes of God with reference to man's earth life. Nor is it thinkable that it was an accident, or that it in any way thwarted the original purposes of God in respect of man. Indeed the subject as developed up to this point brings us to the fall of man as the next step in the sequence of the purposes of God in regard to man's earth life. There must be a transition from a spirit-existence to a man-existence for those Intelligences in heaven designed for habitation on our earth. There must be brought to pass a change from heavenly conditions to earth conditions if the Intelligences designed for habitation on our earth are to have the experiences that earth life can impart; a life where evil is manifest and active; where the moral harmony is broken; where men must walk by faith, and not by sight. This transition from spirit-existence to man-existence; from a state of moral harmony to one where moral harmony is broken and evil is active is called "the fall;" and was essential to the accomplishment of God's purposes. Of its details, and its processes it becomes one to speak cautiously, for but little is revealed, and beyond what is revealed upon the subject, we have no knowledge.

3. "Adam Fell that Men Might Be:" I think it cannot be doubted when the whole story of man's fall is taken into account that in some way—however hidden it may be under allegory—his fall was closely associated with the propagation of the race. Before the fall we are told that Adam and Eve were in a state of innocence; but after the fall "The eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons," and also hid from the presence of the Lord.^[A]

[Footnote A: Gen. iii:7-9.]

In an incidental way Paul gives us to understand that Adam in the matter of this first transgression "was not deceived," but that the woman was.^[A] It therefore follows that Adam must have sinned knowingly, and perhaps deliberately; making choice of obedience between two laws pressing upon him. With his spouse Eve, he had received a commandment from God to be fruitful, to perpetuate his race in the earth. He had also been told not to partake of a certain fruit of the Garden of Eden; but according to the story of Genesis, as also according to the assertion of Paul, Eve, who with Adam received the commandment to multiply in the earth, was deceived, and by the persuasion of Lucifer, induced to partake of the forbidden fruit. She, therefore, was in transgression, and subject to the penalty of that law, which from the scriptures, we learn included banishment from Eden, banishment from the presence of God, and also the death of the body. This meant, if Eve were permitted to stand alone in her transgression, that she must be alone also in suffering the penalty thereof. In that event she would have been separated from Adam, which necessarily would have prevented obedience to the commandment given to them conjointly, to multiply in the earth. In the presence of this situation, therefore, it is to be believed that Adam was not deceived, either by the cunning of Lucifer or the blandishments of the woman, deliberately, and with a full knowledge of his act and its consequences, and in order to carry out the purpose of God in the existence of man in the earth, he shared alike the woman's transgression and its effects, and this in order that the first great commandment he had received from God, viz—"Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it"—might not fail of fulfillment. Hence "Adam fell that men might be."

[Footnote A: "Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression" III Tim. ii:14.]

4. The Nobility of Adam in the Fall: The effect of this doctrine upon the ideas of men concerning the great Patriarch of our race will be revolutionary. It seems to be the fashion of those who assume to teach the Christian religion to denounce Adam in unmeasured terms; as if the fall of man had surprised, if, indeed, it did altogether thwart, the original plan of God respecting the existence of man in the earth. The creeds of the churches generally fail to consider the "fall" as part of God's purpose regarding this world, and, in its way, just as essential to the accomplishment of that purpose as the "redemption" through Jesus Christ. Certainly there would have been no occasion for Atonement and redemption had there been no fall; and hence no occasion for the display of all that wealth of grace and mercy and justice and love—all that richness of experience involved in man's earth life, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, had there been no fall. It cannot be but that it was part of God's purpose to give man these experiences and display the above named qualities in their true relation, for the benefit and blessing and enlargement and ultimate uplifting of man; and since there would have been no occasion for displaying them but for the fall, it logically follows that the fall, no less than the Atonement and redemption, must have been part of God's original plan respecting the earth probation of man. The fall, undoubtedly, was a fact as much present to the foreknowledge of God as was the atonement, and the act which encompassed it must be regarded as more praise-worthy than blame-worthy, since it was essential to the accomplishment of the divine purpose. Yet, as I say, those who assume to teach the Christian religion roundly denounce Adam for his transgression^[A] and especially for the recital of the circumstances of his fall, "The woman thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." In which they seem to find an attempt to shift responsibility for the fall upon woman instead of a plain statement of fact. The truth is, that nothing could be more courageous, sympathetic, or nobly honorable than the course of our world's great Patriarch in his relations to his wife Eve and the fall. The woman by deception of Lucifer is led into transgression, and stands under the penalty of a broken law. Banishment from the presence of God; banishment from Eden and the presence of her husband, if he partakes not with her in the transgression; dissolution of spirit and body—physical death—all await her, and her alone! Thereupon the man, not deceived, but knowingly (as we are assured by Paul), also transgressed. Why? In one aspect of the case in order that he might share the woman's banishment from the dear presence of God, and with her to die—than which no higher proof of love could be given—no nobler act of chivalry performed. But primarily he transgressed that "Man might be." He transgressed a less important law that he might comply with one more important, if one may so speak of any of God's laws.

[Footnote A: See Seventy's Year Book No. II, Lesson VIII.]

5. The Purpose and Effect of the Fall: Adam transgressed, or fell, "that man might be," as the Book of Mormon states it.^[D] That is to say, that man might "be" (i. e., exist), in earth life; and not only "be" but "be" as man; an eternal Intelligence begotten a spirit in the heavenly kingdom, and now on earth taking on through painful process and at much hazard eternal elements of matter as a covering, a body, that there might be a fullness of joy, and power, and without which union of spirit and element there could be no fullness of joy or power (Doc. & Cov. Sec. 93).

Also Adam fell that man might "be" in the environment of earthlife; in the midst of broken harmonies, where good and evil are seen in conflict; in a life of adventure and danger; in a life where real losses may have to be sustained; and sorrows as well as joys are realities; where death as well as life is encountered; and where spiritual deaths may be as endless, as spiritual lives may be eternal. To bring to pass these conditions essential to man's earth-experiences, on which is to be builded his future progress, the "fall" must be; which is only another way of saying that the transition from heaven conditions to earth must be made. In no way else could this earth department of God's great university for Intelligences be established. May it not, however, from some points of view be regarded as a misnomer, this "fall?" Certainly it is but an incident in the process of rising to greater heights. It is but the crouch for the spring; the steps backward in order to gain momentum for the rush forward; a descending below all things only that there might be a rising above all things. Such the benefits to arise from the fall; at least to some, and doubtless to the benefit ultimately, of most of the Intelligences that participate in earth-life, though there will be real losses in the adventure.^[B] The fall is to eventuate in the advantage of God's children, then, in the main. Adam did not sin because deceived by another. He did not sin maliciously, or with evil intent; or to gratify an inclination to rebellion against God, or to thwart the Divine purposes, or to manifest his own pride. Had his act of sin involved the taking of life rather than eating a forbidden fruit, it would be regarded as a "sacrifice" rather than as a "murder." This is to show the nature of Adam's transgression. It was a transgression of the law—"for sin is the transgression of the law"—that conditions deemed necessary to the progress of eternal Intelligences might obtain. But Adam did sin. He did break the law, which is sin, and violation of law involves the violator in its penalties, as surely as effect follows cause. Upon this principle depends the dignity and majesty of law. Take this fact away from moral government and your moral laws become mere nullities. Therefore, notwithstanding Adam fell that men might be, and that in his transgression there was at bottom a really exalted motive—a motive that contemplated nothing less than bringing to pass the highly necessary purposes of God with respect to man's existence in the earth—yet his transgression of law was real; he did brave the conditions that would be brought into existence by his sin; it was followed by certain moral effects in the nature of men and in the world. The harmony of things was broken; discord ruled; changed relations between God and men took place; moral and intellectual darkness, sin and death—death, the wages of sin—stalked through the world, and made necessary the Atonement for man, and his redemption.

[Footnote A: Elsewhere of this Book of Mormon passage I have said: In the second book of Nephi, chapter ii, occurs the following direct, explicit statement: Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy.

This sentence is the summing up of a somewhat lengthy discussion on the Atonement, by the Prophet Lehi. It is a most excellent and important generalization, and is worthy to be classed with the great generalizations of the Jewish scriptures, such for instance as that in the closing chapter of Ecclesiastes, "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man;" Paul's famous generalization: "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive;" or the Apostle James' summing up of religion: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to kep one's self unspotted from the world." Or the Messiah's great summing up of the whole law and gospel: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self. On these two commandments hang all the law and all the prophets." I care not whether you regard the literary excellence of this Book of Mormon generalization or the importance of the great truths which it announces, I repeat it, it is worthy in every way to stand with the great generalizations quoted above.]

[Footnote B: A question presses on the optimists, * * * Are the rebellious and the sinful not also on the up grade? Ultimately and in the last resort will not they, too, put themselves in time with the harmony of existence? Who is to say? Time is infinite, Eternity is before us as well as behind us, and the end is not yet. There is no "ultimately" in the matter, for there is no end; There is room for an eternity of rebellion and degradation and misery as well as of hope and love" ("Science and Immortality," Sir Oliver Lodge, p. 291)—and hence, doubtless, real losses to be sustained.]