The Fall of Adam & Eve
The Three Pillars of Eternity
Moses 4
Moses 4:1-6
Before the story of the Fall unfolds we are
introduced to Satan (crucial context for the
story of fallen man).
Bruce R. McConkie
Quorum of the Twelve
(The Millennial Messiah,
p.666)
“Lucifer sought to dethrone
God, to sit himself on the
divine throne, and to save all
men without reference to their
works. He sought to deny men
their agency so they could not
sin. He offered a mortal life of
carnality and sensuality, of
evil and crime and murder,
following which all men would
be saved….
Bruce R. McConkie
Quorum of the Twelve
(The Millennial Messiah,
p.666)
“Lucifer and his lieutenants
preached another gospel, a
gospel of fear and hate and
lasciviousness and
compulsion. They sought
salvation without keeping the
commandments, without
overcoming the world, without
choosing between opposites.”
John Taylor
President
(Mediation and
Atonement [1882], pp.
96-97)
“Satan (it is possible) being
opposed to the will of his
Father, wished to avoid the
responsibilities of this position
[redeemer], and rather than
assume the consequences of
the acceptance of the plan of
the Father, he would deprive
man of his … agency, and
render it impossible for him to
obtain that exaltation which
God designed.
John Taylor
President
(Mediation and
Atonement [1882], pp.
96-97)
“It would further seem probable
that he refused to take the
position of redeemer, and
assume all the consequences
associated therewith, but he did
propose, as stated before, to
take another plan and deprive
man of his agency, and he
probably intended to make men
atone for their own acts by an
act of coercion, and the
shedding of their own blood as
an atonement for their sins.”
Why the Fall?
• To Enable Procreation
• To Introduce Opposites (evil, misery,
death, ect. in the right way)
Harold B. Lee
President
(Teachings of the Presidents of the
Church, Harold B. Lee, 13-14)
“Now… we had to have not only
just the good but we had to have
the evil in order that we could
choose between the two. Now
you think about that for a
moment. If everything were
good in the world and there
were none evil, would you be
able to choose anything but
good?
Harold B. Lee
President
(Teachings of the Presidents of the
Church, Harold B. Lee, 13-14)
“If everything were evil in the
world, if there wasn’t any good
to choose, could you choose
anything else but evil? When
you think about it for a moment,
the only way there could be …
agency in the individuals who
live upon this earth is to have
both the good and the bad and
each one of us given the
opportunity to choose for
ourselves.”
The Event of the Fall
Two Conflicting Commands?
Joseph Fielding Smith
Quorum of the Twelve
(“Fall—Atonement—
Resurrection—Sacrament,”
in Charge to Religious
Educators, 2nd ed. [1982], 124)
Now this is the way I interpret
[Moses 3:16-17]: The Lord
said to Adam, “Here is the
Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil. If you want to
stay here, then you cannot eat
of that fruit. If you want to
stay here, then I forbid you to
eat it. But you may act for
yourself, and you may eat it if
you want to. And if you eat it,
you will die.”
Jeffrey R. Holland
Quorum of the Twelve
(Christ and the New
Covenant, p.202-203)
“Adam and Eve ... were willing
to transgress knowingly and
consciously (the only way they
could "fall" into the
consequences of mortality,
inasmuch as Elohim certainly
could not force innocent parties
out of the garden and still be a
just God) only because they had
a full knowledge of the plan of
salvation, which would provide
for them a way back from their
struggle with death and hell.”
Jeffrey R. Holland
Quorum of the Twelve
(Christ and the New
Covenant, p.202-203)
“Adam and Eve ... were willing
to transgress knowingly and
consciously (the only way they
could "fall" into the
consequences of mortality,
inasmuch as Elohim certainly
could not force innocent parties
out of the garden and still be a
just God) only because they had
a full knowledge of the plan of
salvation, which would provide
for them a way back from their
struggle with death and hell.”
Brigham Young
(Discourses of Brigham
Young, p.103)
“Some may regret that our
first parents sinned. This is
nonsense…. I will not blame
Adam or Eve, why? Because it
was necessary that sin should
enter into the world; no man
could ever understand the
principle of exaltation
without its opposite; no one
could ever receive an
exaltation without being
acquainted with its opposite.”
Wilford Woodruff
(Journal of Discourses,
23:125)
“Adam and Eve came to this
world to perform exactly the
part that they acted in the
Garden of Eden; and I will
say, they were ordained of
God to do what they did, and
it was therefore expected that
they would eat of the
forbidden fruit in order that
man might know both good
and evil by passing through
this school of experience
which this life affords us.”
The Effects of the Fall
“When Adam fell, it was as
if the human race had
To Eden fallen into a pit, from
which they were powerless,
by any act of their own, to
emerge; having no means
whereby to climb up and
out, and not even knowing
how to climb [or that they
even need to]….
To Eternal
Life 
To Eden
To Eternal
Life 
What is our common inheritance
in “the pit” of mortality?
To Eden
Moses 6:48-49
• We will all Die
• Partake of Misery & Woe
• Satan is here
• Temptations abound
• Carnal, Sensual, Devilish
• Shut Out from God
To Eternal
Life 
The Natural Man is…
• Carnal: not spiritual; inclined toward worldly things
• Sensual: seeks to please and gratify the physical senses.
• Devilish: inclined to do evil.
Vs.
God’s Commandments
“My commandments are spiritual; they are
not natural nor temporal, neither carnal
nor sensual.” (D&C 29:35)
The Holy Ghost
Entices our Spirit
Spirit
Satan Entices
our Flesh
Vs.
Internal Battle
(Built-in Opposition)
Natural
Man
Russell M. Nelson
Quorum of the Twelve
(BYU Speeches, 29
March 1987)
Repentance requires spiritual
dominion over appetites of the
flesh....
Whenever we allow uncontrolled
appetites of the body to
determine behavior opposed to
nobler promptings of the Spirit,
the stage is set for misery and
grief.
David A. Bednar
(Ricks College Devotional
January 11, 2000)
The precise nature of the test of
mortality, then, can be summarized
in the following two questions:
1. Will my body rule over my spirit,
or will my spirit rule over my
body?
2. Will I yield to the enticings of the
natural man or to the eternal
man?
That, brothers and sisters, is the
test. We are here on the earth to
develop godlike qualities and to
learn to bridle all of the passions of
the flesh (Alma 38:12).
“The men and women,
who desire to obtain seats
in the celestial kingdom,
will find that they must
battle every day.”
Brigham Young
(Discourses of Brigham
Young, p.392)
The Fall & the Problem of Evil
“If God is good and all powerful, why
does He permit so much human
suffering? Why does He allow so much
evil to be in the world he created?”
“We cannot say that [God] would like to help
but cannot: God is omnipotent. We cannot
say that he would help if he only knew: God is
omniscient. We cannot say that he is not
responsible for the wickedness of others: God
creates those others. Indeed an omnipotent,
omniscient God [who creates all things
absolutely—i.e., out of nothing] must be an
accessor before (and during) the fact to every
human misdeed; as well as being responsible
for every non-moral defect in the universe.”
(Antony Flew, “Theology and Falsification,” New Essays in
Philosophical Theology [London: SCM Press, 1955])
Jeffrey R. Holland
Quorum of the Twelve
(Christ and the New
Covenant, p.203)
“In doing so [falling], Adam and
Eve answered forever the plaintive
question that is so often heard: ‘If
there is a God, why is there so
much suffering in the world?’ The
answer to that is we now live in a
fallen world filled with opposites,
a world in which God is the most
powerful but decidedly not the
only spiritual influence. As part of
the doctrine of opposition, Satan
is also at work in the world, and
we knew before we came here that
he would bring grief and anguish
with him.
Jeffrey R. Holland
Quorum of the Twelve
(Christ and the New
Covenant, p.203)
“Nevertheless, we (through Adam
and Eve) made the conscious
choice to live in and endure this
mortal sphere of opposition in all
things, for only through such an
experience was godly progress
possible. Adam and Eve—and
we—knowingly and lovingly
absolved God of the responsibility
for the ‘thorns and thistles’ of a
fallen world that was personally
chosen by us, not capriciously
imposed by him.
Jeffrey R. Holland
Quorum of the Twelve
(Christ and the New
Covenant, p.203)
“We wanted the chance to become
like our heavenly parents, to face
suffering and overcome it, to
endure sorrow and still live
rejoicingly, to confront good and
evil and be strong enough to
choose the good. In this telestial,
mortal world filled with
competing voices, enticements,
and experiences, we get a lifetime
of opportunity to refine and
strengthen these virtues.”
Temple Implications?
The Presence of God
(Celestial)
Paradisiacal State
(Terrestrial)
Lone and Dreary World
(Telestial)
End