Moses 2:28
Moses 3:17
Reading 1 – Moses 4:6-12
Reading 2 - Elder Dallin H. Oaks has said: “It was Eve who
first transgressed the limits of Eden in order to initiate the conditions of
mortality. Her act, whatever its nature, was formally a transgression but
eternally a glorious necessity to open the doorway toward eternal life. Adam
showed his wisdom by doing the same. …
“… We celebrate Eve’s act and honor her wisdom and courage
in the great episode called the Fall. … Elder Joseph Fielding Smith said: ‘I
never speak of the part Eve took in this fall as a sin, nor do I accuse Adam of
a sin. … This was a transgression of the law, but not a sin.’ …
“This suggested 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).
Reading 3 - Elder John A. Widtsoe wrote: "One thing
must be kept in mind: The fall was not a sin in the usually accepted sense of
that word. It was a necessary act in a series of acts by which ultimately all
men will win an eternal possession of their earth-bodies. In the gospel sense,
the fall of Adam brought life, not death, into man's eternal existence."
(Evidences & Reconciliations, p73)
Because of the Fall, Adam and Eve would experience mortal
death, but the door to Eternal Life would be opened because of the Atonement of
Jesus Christ.
Reading 4 - President Marion G. Romney said: "I do not look upon Adam's action as a
sin. I think it was a deliberate act of free agency. He chose to do that which
had to be done to further the purposes of God" (CR, Apr 1953)
Reading 5 – Moses 4:13-31
Reading 6 - Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote: "Except for the fall, the earth would
not be peopled; we would still be in the pre-existence living as spirits, and
that agency and those trials we now possess would not be. There would be no
redemption from death, no immortality, no eternal life, no salvation of any
sort. The purposes of God would thus be frustrated and come to naught." (A
New Witness for the Articles of Faith, p85)
2 Nephi 2:15-16
Reading 7 - President Harold B. Lee wrote: "Next to life itself, free agency is
God's greatest gift to mankind, providing thereby the greatest opportunity for
the children of God to advance in this second estate of mortality. A
prophet-leader on this continent explained this to his son as recorded in an
ancient scripture: that to bring about these, the Lord's eternal purposes,
there must be opposites, an enticement by the good on the one hand and by the
evil on the other." (Stand Ye In Holy Places, p235)
Moses 6:48
Moses 6:55
Reading 8 - President Spencer W. Kimball wrote: "If we looked at mortality as the whole
of existence, then pain, sorrow, failure, and short life would be calamity. But
if we look upon life as an eternal thing stretching far into the premortal past
and on into the eternal post-death future, then all happenings may be put in
proper perspective.
"Is there not
wisdom in his giving us trials that we might rise above them, responsibilities
that we might achieve, work to harden our muscles, sorrows to try our souls?
Are we not exposed to temptations to test our strength, sickness that we might
learn patience, death that we might be immortalized and glorified?
"If all the
sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the
wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the
basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. No man would have
to live by faith.
"If joy and
peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be
no evil—all would do good but not because of the rightness of doing good. There
would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers,
no free agency, only satanic controls." (Faith Precedes the Miracle, p97)
Moses 6:49
Genesis 3:17-19
Moses 4:28
Moses 6:56
Reading 9 - Elder Sterling W. Sill said: "In denying our own responsibility, we
frequently blame Satan for much of the misery that we are bringing upon
ourselves. Satan has no power over us except as we give it to him. And
temptations without imply desires within; and rather than say, 'How powerfully
the devil tempts,' we might say, 'How strongly I am inclined.' God never forces
us to do right, and Satan has no power to force us to do wrong. As someone has
said, 'God always votes for us and Satan always votes against us, and then we
are asked to vote to break the tie.' It is how we vote that gives our lives
their significance." (CR, Apr 1970)
Moses 5:10
2 Nephi 2:23, 25
Moses 5:11
Reading 10 – Abraham 3:24-16
Alma 22:14
Reading 11 – Moses 6:51-54
Reading 12 - President Ezra Taft Benson said: “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).
1 Corinthians 15:20-22
Helaman 14:15-18
Reading 13 – Moses 5:5-9
The Prophet Joseph Smith said, “Whatever God requires is
right, … although we may not see the reason thereof till long after the events
transpire” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith
[1976], 256).
2 Nephi 9:10
