October Message 2019
by Chauncey C Riddle
In recent years there has been a great emphasis in the Church on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. That emphasis is well-deserved, for that atonement is the most important event in the history of mankind. But as we dwell on that atonement, we must not forget the second most important event in the history of mankind: The Fall of Adam. The Fall is important because it is the event that makes the atonement necessary.
An understanding of the Fall of Adam has three necessary parts: 1) The condition of Adam and Eve before the Fall. 2) What happened in the Fall. 3) The condition of Adam and Eve and all of their posterity after the Fall.
Before the Fall, Adam and Eve were immortal beings. They were children of the Gods, having the same DNA as the gods (as made evident by the fact that God the Father became the literal father of Jesus Christ by siring Jesus Christ with his mortal mother, Mary.) They did not have blood in their veins, but rather spirit matter (which is why they were immortal beings who never would die if they remained in that unfallen condition. And they were like children, not knowing very much, and especially not knowing the difference between good and evil. But they knew enough to tend the Garden of Eden and to enjoy its delights.
The Fall itself came as Adam and Eve deliberately disobeyed God the Father and did obey Satan by partaking of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, a simple physical act having eternal consequences.
That disobedience to the Father and obedience to Satan gave Satan power over Adam and Eve and their posterity, the power to tempt them and to try them in every way. Now that they knew the difference between good and evil, they became free to choose between the two. They had the light of Christ to show them the good, and the constant companionship of Satan to tempt them to do some degree of evil.
(Evil is anything that is less than the best thing to do. In any human situation there is one best thing to do, the Good, and an infinite variety of other things to do other than doing the Good. Thus evil ranges from lesser goods than the Good which God would have us do, to opposites which are totally evil. All evil is inspired by Satan to try to get human beings not to do the will of God.)
Father in his mercy decreed that the power to choose and do good would always be preserved to Adam an Eve as long as they chose good. If they chose evil, the influence of God would be lessened in their lives. If they chose evil repeatedly and continually, the enticement to do good would eventually be taken away. The person who does this can eliminate the influence of God in their lives, having killed their conscience, which is the light of Christ in their lives. If a person chooses good continually, that does not eliminate the power of Satan to entice them to do evil. In fact, the more faithful they are to the influence of the Father and the Son, the more powerful become the temptations of Satan. The godly enticement to do good is always balanced by an equal and opposite temptation from Satan. Thus the person retains perfect freedom to choose.
And thus Adam and E became free to choose for themselves, either The Good or some degree of evil. But they are also accountable for their choices and the results of those choices. On the day of Final Judgment each of us humans will come before God having a perfect memory of all the choices we made in our mortality. The evil choices we repented of and made restitution for through the power of Jesus Christ will not be brought up, but all other choices will be manifest then. Each of us will see and know exactly what we deserve at this bar of judgment, so no one will argue with the judgment they receive.