As revelation is appreciated in the fullness of time, Unificationists believe that the truth in the second chapter of Divine Principle, known as The Human Fall, will surely become known as the most comprehensive, logical and accurate explanation for the events which took place prior to God casting Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. Because Satan has carefully concealed the motivation and process of the fall throughout human history, the revealing of this most illuminating secret to Latter-day Saints is bound to lead to liberation and to stir discussion. For the record, while this revelation of the fall of man is radically distinctive from the doctrine presently held by the Mormon Church, the lessons learned lead to the very universal laws of morality which the Principle and Mormon doctrine share in common. This chapter, written with Mormon doctrine in mind, is composed of seven sections, beginning on common ground with the topic of predestination.
1) Predestination
Both the Principle and Mormon Doctrine reject the notion that souls are
predestined by God for eternal glory or damnation prior to one's birth
and without regard of the life we lead on this earth. According to the
Articles of Faith:
The doctrine of absolute predestination, resulting in a nullification of man's free agency, had been advocated with various modifications by different sects. Nevertheless, such teachings are wholly unjustified by both the letter and the spirit of sacred writ. . . Many people have been led to regard this foreknowledge of God as a predestination whereby souls are designated for glory or condemnation even before their birth in the flesh, and irrespective of individual merit or demerit. This heretical doctrine seeks to rob Deity of mercy, justice, love; it would make God appear capricious and selfish, directing and creating all things solely for His own glory. . .1
At the same time, the Principle and Latter-day Saints regard foreordination as God's parental concern, awareness, and interest in an individual's unique contribution to His providence: In all this there is not the slightest hint of compulsion; persons foreordained to fill special missions in mortality are as abundantly endowed with free agency as are any other ersons. By their foreordination, the Lord merely gives them the opportunity to serve him and his purposes if they will choose to measure up to the standard he knows they are capable of attaining.2
Similarly, the Principle expresses the predestination of man as the following: In God's accomplishment of His will, centering on a certain person, He establishes it as an indispensable condition that the man must fulfill his own portion of responsibility. Therefore, God, in predestining a person for a certain mission, determines that the person will be what he is predestined to be only by the 100 percent accomplishment of the will centering on the person, with God's portion of 95 percent responsibility and man's portion of 5 percent responsibility accomplished together. Therefore, if the person fails to accomplish his own portion of responsibility, he cannot become the person God predestined.3
Equally important to the foreordination or predestination of humankind is the predestination of God's Will. As explained in the first chapter, God's desire is feel joy through the realization of the purpose of creation known as the three great blessings. Through the establishment of ideal God-centered individuals, families, societies, nations, and a God-centered ideal world and cosmos, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in Heaven would be actualized. In spite of the fall of humankind, God's predestination for the Kingdom of Heaven is absolute, eternal, and unchangeable. That is why after the fall, God initiated His providence of restoration centering on Christ, who comes as the Second Adam. It was to recreate the conditions of sinlessness which existed before Adam and Eve's transgressions.
Now let us consider the matter of free agency and responsibility more deeply.
2) Free Will and Human Responsibility
Mormon Doctrine explicitly affirms that God gave humankind free agency
to choose good or evil. In the beginning, our first human ancestors,
Adam and Eve, were endowed by God with the power to act as free
agents. God's purpose in giving this awesome responsibility to
humankind was to share His own ability to enjoy creative freedom in
sharing true love selflessly with His children. In other words, God
strongly desired that his object partners of true love be free to
choose to love God without any compulsion other than filial piety. In
The Articles of Faith it states:
The Church teaches as a strictly scriptural doctrine, that man has inherited among the inalienable rights conferred upon him by his divine Father, freedom to choose the good or the evil in life, to obey or disobey the Lord's commandments, as he may elect. This right cannot be guarded with more jealous care than is bestowed upon it by God Himself; for in all His dealings with man He has left the mortal creature free to choose and to act, without compulsion or restraint beyond the influences of parental counsel and direction. . . In the days of Eden, the first man had placed before him commandment and law. No law could have been given him in righteousness had he not been free to act for himself. "Nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but remember that I forbid it." (Pearl of Great Price, Moses 3:17) said the Lord God to Adam.4
Mormon doctrine also makes clear that there are consequences for the choices we make, for better or for worse. We are responsible for the success and happiness gained by our righteous actions and for the penalty of our transgressions: Whether they make good or bad use of it, all power is ordained of God and is in his hand. He sets up a kingdom here, and pulls down nother there at his pleasure. He breaks the nations like a potter's vessel; he forms a nucleus, and around it builds up a kingdom or nation, permitting the people to act upon their own agency, that they may do right or corrupt themselves, as did the Children of Israel; and after they have become ripe for destruction, they will be scattered to the four winds. If the people of God in ancient days had continued holy they would have continued in power and authority to this day.5
With human free-will and responsibility in mind, let us now open our hearts and minds to the Principle and a matter of doctrine which is presently a barrier to receiving this latest revelation.
3) The Commandment
It is necessary and inevitable in this investigation to find ourselves
at a moment of truth requiring an open theological dialogue and
re-evaluation of dogmas which have served the faith well and yet may
not be suitable to spiritual intuition, intellect, and human
experience. A new investigation into Mormon interpretation surrounding
God's commandment to Adam and Eve and the complete Principle
explanation of the fall of humankind offers the most powerful
theological foundation for the protection of the family unit which will
surely garner the attention of the First Presidency and Council of the
Twelve Apostles who have proclaimed to the world: "We call upon
responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote
those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the
fundamental unit of society."6 Mormon
doctrine teaches that prior to the fall of Adam and Eve, the couple
existed in a state of immortality, without the mortal bodies necessary
for procreation. Furthermore, only by disobeying God's commandment "do
not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil"
could humankind gain a body necessary for procreation and eternal
progression. Therefore, the doctrine holds that God wanted Adam and
Eve to fall so that His divine plan for humanity could unfold.
Consequently, even though Adam and Eve disobeyed God and were cast from
the Garden of Eden, God was not displeased by their transgressions but
rather anticipated it in happy expectation.
According to the foreordained plan, Adam was to fall; that is, "in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things" (2 Nephi 2:24), Adam was to introduce mortality and all that attends it, so that the opportunity for eternal progression and perfection might be offered to all the spirit children of the Father. In conformity with the will of the Lord, Adam fell both spiritually and temporally. Spiritual death entered the world, meaning that man was cast out of the presence of the Lord and died as pertaining to the things of the Spirit which are the things of righteousness. Temporal death also entered the world, meaning that man and all created things became mortal, and blood became the life preserving element in the natural body. . .being mortal he could now have children . . . "Adam fell that men might be."7
Let's contrast this understanding with that of the Principle. First, sinless Adam and sinless Eve were placed on the earth by God with mortal physical bodies incarnated with eternal spirit bodies prior to the fall. God intended that through our physical body and spiritual body in perfect union, God, husband, and wife would stand in the center of the cosmos as the true subject of dominion over all the creation through the family foundation. According to the Principle, Adam and Eve did not need to fall to gain a physical body: God created our original ancestors with such a body. Genesis 2:7 states: "then the Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." By participating in God's plan for our own perfection, multiplication, and dominion of true love over the cosmos, human beings are fulfilling God's original intention for our eternal joy and happiness.
Secondly, the results of the human fall have been acutely painful to humankind and God, and clearly brought about God's anger and censure at the time of the their occurance. Our sinful, murderous, licentious world and society are results of human sin, incurred by the fall of man. As parents, we would not put our own children in such a predicament, leading to misery and unhappiness. Surely God's parental love for humankind is less contradictory and limited than our own. He would not mercilessly place man in the dilemma of defiling himself in order to multiply himself.
Third, if God had foreordained such an event to occur, it would violate His principle of free agency. If humankind truly is endowed with free-will, then not even almighty God can predict with certainty how His children will act. By this, God Himself is vulnerable as the Subject Partner of true love to the transgressions of humankind and the suffering He experiences whenever human beings commit sin. Our intellect and spiritual apperception require a more satisfactory explanation and absolute truth which is meaningful in our experience and goes beyond blind faith. This doctrine of "the happy fall" retains contradictions which we believe are remedied with God's new revelation concerning Adam and Eve's transgressions and the origin of evil revealed in our modern age by Reverend Sun Myung Moon. We will consider this revelation next.
4) The Tree of Life, the Tree of Knowledge, and the
Serpent
Let's begin our investigation of the nature of Adam and Eve's fall and
the origin of evil by first discovering the character and meaning of
the Tree of Life, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the
serpent.
We find clues to the meaning of the Tree of Life in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. In Proverbs 13:12 it states: "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life." We know from the purpose of creation that the ultimate desire of Adam was to become a perfect man in the image and likeness of God. Also, in Revelation 22:14 we find: "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates." Here again, we can understand that by receiving the gift of redemption from Christ, we may be given the privilege of achieving our greatest hope, to become a sinless child of God in the likeness of Jesus Christ. We know from Genesis 3:24 that at the moment God learned of Adam's transgression, Adam was blocked from the Tree of Life: "He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life." We may conclude that the character and identity of the Tree of Life is none other than sinless perfected Adam.
Now then, let's consider the meaning of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Genesis 2:9 states:
And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
We know from the account of the fall of humankind that Eve was tempted first by the serpent and fell through a desire to be wise ". . . like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:5) If sinless Adam is the Tree of Life symbolizing manhood, then Eve, his spouse who was with him in the center of the Garden of Eden, must be none other than the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which symbolizes womanhood. In the garden, there were two beings in the position of subject, one false and one true: Adam and the serpent. Eve was in a position to be an object to the good subject Adam or an object to the evil serpent.
The identity of the serpent is well known in Mormon doctrine. The serpent is none other than the fallen angel Lucifer, the devil who rebelled against God and tempted Adam and Eve.
Since the day in which Satan spoke by the mouth of the serpent to entice Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit (Moses 4:5-21), Satan has been called "that old serpent." (Rev. 12:9; 20:2; D&C 76:28; 88:110.) Choice of the name is excellent, indicating as it does a cunning, sly, subtle, and deceitful craftiness.8
Lucifer was a leader among angels. According to Brigham Young: The spirits that were cast out of heaven, which you know are recorded to have been one-third part, were thrust down to this earth, and have been here all the time, with Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, at their head.9
The Principle identifies Lucifer as a fallen archangel. Similarly, Mormon Doctrine states:
Obviously he gained for himself great executive and administrative ability and had a sufficiently compelling personality to influence for ill a myriad host of other spirit offspring of the Father. His position was one of great power and authority. He was "an angel of God" who "became a devil, having sought that which was evil before God." (2 Nephi 2:17; D&C 76:25.)10
Recognizing Lucifer's powerful personality and spiritual authority, let's consider the setting for the origin of evil and the demise of Lucifer as presented by each view.
5) The Origin of Evil and the Origin of Satan
Mormon doctrine presents a fascinating account of the origin of evil
and the event which resulted in Lucifer making open warfare against
God. This account places Lucifer's rebellion in the period known as
pre-existence, preceding the creation of the earth. Mormon Doctrine
emphasizes that Lucifer attempted to "amend and change the terms of
salvation; he sought to deny men of their agency and to dethrone
God."11 According to Mormon doctrine,
God rejects Lucifer's modification of God's plan in favor of Christ's
offering of himself as the sacrificial lamb. As mentioned previously,
Mormon doctrine teaches that the plan of salvation was inevitable
because the fall of humankind was foreordained by God. The
Principle view places the origin of evil and Lucifer's first crime at
the scene recorded in Genesis at the time of the fall of Adam and Eve.
While the setting and process of Lucifer's demise and the origin of
evil differ substantially, each view arrives at the same
conclusions:
Endowed with agency, the power of free choice, he chose the evil part from the beginning, thus placing himself in eternal opposition to the divine will. He was a "liar from the beginning." (D&C 93:25)12
That which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually. (Moroni 7:12)13
The Devil delights in the work of destruction- to burn and lay waste and destroy the whole earth. He delights to convulse and throw into confusion the affairs of men, politically, religiously and morally, introducing war with its long train of dreadful consequences. It is evil which causeth all these miseries and all deformity to come upon the inhabitants of the earth ... 14
With this fundamental similarity in mind, let us consider the profound revelation of the motive and process of the fall of humankind as revealed in explicit detail by Reverend Sun Myung Moon.
6) The Spiritual Fall and the Physical Fall
When we consider the commandment which God gave to Adam and Eve, one of
the most compelling questions remains: "What is the fruit of the Tree
of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?" Mormon Doctrine acknowledges this
mystery: "What the real meaning is of the expression forbidden fruit
has not been revealed and it is profitless to speculate."15 The new revelation from Reverend Moon
identifies that the forbidden fruit is the virginal love of Eve, whom
the Principle identifies as the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil:
The only possible sin that could have been fatal in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve were in communion with God and living in joy, was the sin of illicit love. The first consummated love of the human ancestors, because it was supposed to have been the perfection of the love of God Himself, should have marked the beginning of a celebration that would continue throughout history, filled with never-ending intoxication of joy and blessing for God, Adam and Eve, and the universe. It should have been a joyous occasion in which the love, life, and lineage of God would have been established within humankind. To the contrary, however, Adam and Eve covered their lower parts and hid themselves among the trees, trembling in fear. By disobeying heavenly law, they established an immoral relationship as the basis for false love, false life, and false lineage.16
While Mormon Doctrine proclaims such a notion to be heretical17 , let us investigate Reverend Moon's poignant revelation fully and completely, with an open mind and a prayerful heart. Contrary to Mormon doctrine, the Principle affirms that Adam and Eve fell before ever receiving God's wedding blessing of eternal marriage. This is not to say that sexual love was destined to be evil. To the contrary, sexual love between a true husband and wife is the means by which Adam and Eve would have become one, the True Parents, the True Ancestors of a sinless lineage resulting in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. However, Adam and Eve fell as immature teenagers who had not reached their perfection in the process of growing up in the love of God. According to the Principle, God gave them the commandment in explicit terms so that fornication would not spoil the purity of God's Creation. God created man in spirit and in flesh, likewise, the Principle teaches that the fall occurred in two stages known as the spiritual fall and the physical fall.
The spiritual fall was the act of illicit love which occurred between the fallen angel, Lucifer, and Eve. Because Lucifer is a spiritual being, he knew everything about the commandment God gave to His children and Lucifer could converse with Eve, who had a spiritual body. Let's recall the conversation between the serpent and Eve in the garden of Eden as recorded in Genesis chapter 3, verses 1-5:
Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God knowing good and evil."
Many people may wonder if and how sexual intercourse between an angel and a human being is possible. In the Divine Principle we find:
How could there be a sexual relationship between the angel and man? Feelings and sensatios are felt and responded to in the invisible, or spirit world. Contact between a spirit and an earthly man (who has a spirit) is not very different from contact between two earthly human beings. Therefore sexual union between a human being and an angel is actually possible.18
In Jude verses 6 & 7 we find evidence that the crime of the angel was immoral, unnatural lust: And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgement of the great day; just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. [Emphasis added]
Mormon Doctrine teaches that fallen man is heir to sexual immorality:
Lusts are the sinful and impure desires to which fallen man is heir. . . "Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." (1 Peter 2:11.) "Cease . . . from all your lustful desires." (D&C 88:121.) . . . Of all the lusts of the flesh, those pertaining to sex immorality are the most damning and unholy. "He that looketh on a woman to lust after her, or if any shall commit adultery in their hearts, they shall not have the Spirit, but shall deny the faith and shall fear." (D&C 63:16; 42:23; 3 Nephi 12:28; Matt. 5:28)19
When we think of an inheritance we usually think of that which is passed on to us by our ancestors. The Divine Principle states:
Just as a fruit tree multiplies by the fruit which contains its seed, Eve should have multiplied children of goodness through her love centered on God. But instead, Eve multiplied children of evil through her love centered on Satan. Eve was created to become perfect through the period of growth; she could bear either good fruit or bad fruit through her love.20
In John 8:44 we find, "You are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires." Also Jesus rebuked the Jews in Matthew 23:33 exclaiming: "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?" The term "brood of vipers" means sons of Satan. With such explicit references to Satan as the father of fallen mankind, it makes perfect sense that he rose to his false position of authority over all of the descendants of our first ancestors through the crime of fornication with Eve.
The Principle also offers a clear motive for the first crime against humanity. Simply stated, upon witnessing the creation of God's children, Lucifer was jealous of God's parental love for Adam and Eve, and wanted to maintain his position as a high-ranking leader, second to none. According to Divine Principle:
God created the angelic world (Gen. 1:26) and put Lucifer (signified by "Day Star, son of Dawn," Is. 14:12) in the position of archangel. Lucifer was in a position to monopolize God's love as the mediator between God and the angelic world, just as Abraham was the channel for God's blessing to the Israelites. However, God, after creating men as His children, loved them much more than He loved Lucifer, who had been created as His servant. In fact, Lucifer received the same amount of God's love as he had before the creation of man, but when he saw that God loved Adam and Eve more, he felt that God loved him less than before. . . Lucifer, who felt a decrease of love tried to tempt Eve to submit to him, in order that he might enjoy the same position in human society that he did in the angelic world. This was the motivation of the spiritual fall.21
God created the angelic world to assist in raising and protecting humankind during their growth from infant to adult. God had entrusted Lucifer, as an archangel, to be a teacher and mentor to Adam and Eve. Reflecting God's love, Eve looked very beautiful to Lucifer, who was strongly stimulated by an impulse of love toward her. Lucifer dared to leave his position as a servant, using his illicit sexual desire to seduce Eve at the price of his very life. Eve, who desired to have the wisdom of God through a premature and unprincipled sexual relationship, gave in to Lucifer's temptation, resulting in the spiritual fall. The Divine Principle further explains:
According to the principle that men were created to exchange elements with the objective being with whom they have become one body through love, Eve received certain elements from Lucifer when she joined into one body with him through love. First, she received from Lucifer the sense of fear, which came from his guilty conscience because of their violation of the purpose of creation. Second, she received wisdom enabling her to perceive that her intended spouse in the original nature of creation was not Lucifer, but Adam. At that time Eve was still in the period of immaturity. Therefore, she was immature in her wisdom compared to the archangel, who had already reached a certain level of maturity. Thus she received the wisdom of the archangel.22
At this point, if Eve had sought the counsel of her Father in Heaven and confessed her transgression, God could have provided a means for Eve to be saved, given that Adam remained untainted. However, Eve attempted to find her own solution to her terrible predicament.
The physical fall is the premature sexual relationship which then occurred between fallen Eve and Adam. The sexual union between Adam and Eve was not centered on God, but was centered on Satan. The account in Genesis 3 verses 6 & 7 reveals:
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
They covered their lower parts both out of a sense of shame and a desire to hide their transgressions. Consequently, the effects of this sexual transgression were instantly proclaimed by God (Genesis 3:16) to be transmuted into, among others, the multiplication of pain in childbearing, which is directly related to sexual intercourse. Sexual love, which was originally endowed by God as the most sacred and holy act, became defiled and regarded among many people and cultures as most dirty and shameful. Many religions stress that the most serious sin is the sin of adultery. What motivated Eve to tempt Adam? The Principle explains that Eve seduced Adam out of her desperate attempt to return to the bright and pure state of virginal oneness with God which she could observe in Adam. Eve's fallen logic required her to become one with Adam by luring him through the strong power of her illicit love. The power of love acted as an irresistible force leading Adam to break God's commandment. If Adam had reached individual perfection without giving in to Eve's seduction, the providence to restore Eve would have been much simpler. By multiplying the lineage of Satan, Adam set in motion the process of establishing the kingdom of hell on earth.
7) The Results of the Fall
While Mormon Doctrine celebrates the "happy" transgression of Adam and
Eve as mentioned in chapter one, the Principle reveals that the fall
brought great suffering to the heart of God:
How great must have been the pain of God when, by the Fall, our human ancestors destroyed His ideal of True Love! Humankind should have been the sons and daughters of God, but they do not know God Himself as their Original Parent. Yet even though His sons and daughters serve Satan, God has worked for the Providence of Salvation. Because He is an absolute being, His ideal of creation is also absolute, He has carried out the Providence of Salvation even amid great sadness.23
Prior to the fall, God could freely speak with Adam and Eve, but one of the immediate results of the transgression was the spiritual death of Adam and Eve, which meant leaving the loving presence of the Father. Mormon Doctrine describes this: By yielding to temptation and partaking of the forbidden fruit, Adam became subject to the will of the devil. For his transgression he was cast out of the Garden of Eden. Thus "he became spiritually dead," because he was out of the presence of the Lord and no longer had communion with Deity either personally or by means of the Spirit.24
The Principle affirms that the death brought about by the fall was spiritual death and not physical death: Fallen men are strongly attached to their physical life on earth because, due to the fall, they became ignorant of the fact that they had been created to go to live eternally in the beautiful invisible world after discarding their flesh. Our physical life on earth and our spiritual life in the invisible world may be compared to the phases of a caterpillar and butterfly. If a caterpillar living in the soil had consciousness, he would also be reluctant to die, from attachment to his life under the earth. This is because the caterpillar does not know that there is another new world after his death where he can enjoy fragrant flowers and sweet honey. . . If man had not fallen, he would have known that discarding his flesh does not mean eternal separation from his loved ones, because the earthly men were created to communicate freely with spirit men, just as they do among themselves.25
In our state of spiritual death, humankind came to have a corrupted nature, known as fallen nature. This nature may be divided into four aspects which resulted from the four basic deviations of Lucifer in his temptation of Eve. The first fallen nature is the failure to love others from God's viewpoint. Lucifer was motivated by his jealousy of Adam. By not loving Adam as God loves him, Lucifer was willing to risk seducing Eve. This problem is a fundamental source of discord and suffering in human interpersonal relationships to this day. As children of God we are responsible to prayerfully seek God's viewpoint for properly loving and appreciating our brethren especially when jealousy or distrust invades our relationships.
The second fallen nature is to leave one's proper position. Lucifer's excessive desire became dangerous as he put aside his humble attitude as a servant of God and refused to imagine living under the dominion of Adam and Eve as the true masters of the cosmos. "Any act that is performed apart from one's own position and limit, out of an unrighteous desire, is without exception a manifestation of this original nature of the fall."26 This is usually manifested in human relationships as arrogance or backbiting.
The third fallen nature is to reverse dominion. This action is the subversive and willful attempt to usurp the God-given authority of one's true master. By seducing Eve, Lucifer came to dominate Eve, who was meant be under the dominion of Adam. Eve proceeded to gain dominion over Adam unrighteously by leading him into temptation. The principled order of human society has been wracked with violence, confusion, war, bloodshed, and untold misery due to those who left their proper positions and reversed their proper order of dominion.
The fourth fallen nature is to multiply evil. Eve multiplied her transgression by seducing Adam. If she had confessed and repented, Adam would not have become defiled and Eve's restoration would not have been prolonged for thousands of years, resulting in the corruption of all of humankind. In human history there are countless examples of evil people inducing others to leave their proper position and reverse dominion. If anyone ever wonders why the fall of humankind is so troublesome, all they need to do is observe the tremendous consequences of suffering and despair of every form in our modern society and world.
Now let's turn our attention to the concern which often troubles men and women of faith: "If God is omniscient and omnipotent, why did He allow Adam and Eve to fall?"
8) Why God Did Not Interfere in the Fall
Mormon Doctrine makes a strong case for the fall as a foreordained
inevitability which made mortality and procreation possible, leading
humanity by means of salvation on a course of eternal
progression toward Godhood. The Principle, on the other hand,
explains that God gave His commandment to Adam and Eve out of a sincere
desire that they keep it; making their own perfection possible and
achievable. With the Principle view in mind, why didn't God prevent
the fall from occurring? The Principle offers three reasons as an
answer to this very important question.
First, God did not interfere with the fall because according to the principle of creation, man must perfect himself by accomplishing his own portion of human responsibility. The Mormon emphasis on free agency, while differing in context, is akin to this necessity. While humankind is in the period of growth, they live in the "sphere of indirect dominion." In this realm of existence, God cannot interfere. If God were to interfere, He would be disregarding man's portion of responsibility and nullifying the principle of creation.
Second, according to the principle of creation, God only intervenes with beings or activities which follow the divine order of the Principle. If God were to interfere with any defiant being or activity outside of the Principle, it would come to have the same value of His perfect creation of goodness and beauty. If God had interfered with Lucifer's evil actions, it would have meant that God had acknowledged Lucifer's position as Lord over humankind.
Third, in order for humankind to fulfill the qualification to be the true master of all things in the creation, it was necessary that they demonstrate qualities such as the ability to perfect themselves. If God had interfered, then man would have remained immature, failing to accomplish his own portion of responsibility in front all of God's creation. As a true master, humankind must demonstrate their own creativity, self-discipline, unity of mind and body, and unified oneness with God made manifest by keeping the commandment. Because God's purpose of creation is absolute, eternal and unchanging, he established a providence for restoring humanity to their original sinless state before the fall. This is known as the "providence of restoration," which is the providence of salvation.
1 Talmage, James E., The Articles of Faith. Salt Lake City:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1988. p. 191.
2 McConkie, Bruce R., Mormon Doctrine. Salt Lake City:
Bookcraft, 1966. p. 290.
3 Divine Principle. New York: The Holy Spirit Association
for the Unification of World Christianity. 1973. p. 199.
4 Talmage, James E. Op. Cit. pp. 52-53.
5 Young, Brigham, Journal of Discourses. Vol. 7 p. 148.
6 Hinckley, Gordon B., "The Family: A Proclamation to the
World," Read at the General Relief Society Meeting, September 23, 1995, Salt
Lake City.
7 McConkie, Bruce R., Op. Cit. pp. 268-269.
8 Ibid., p. 704.
9 Young, Brigham, Op. Cit. p. 68.
10 McConkie, Bruce R. Op. Cit., pp. 192-193.
11 Ibid., p. 193.
12 Ibid. p. 192.
13 Smith, Joseph. (trans.) The Book of Mormon. Salt Lake
City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1990. pp. 521-522.
14 Young, Brigham. Op. Cit. Vol. 11 p. 240.
15 McConkie, Bruce R., Op. Cit. p. 289.
16 Moon, Sun Myung. "View of the Principle of the
Providential History of Salvation." Founder's Address presented at the
Inaugural Banquet of The Washington Times Foundation. April 16, 1996,
Washington D.C., pp. 4-5.
17 McConkie, Op. Cit. p. 290.
18 Divine Principle, Op. Cit., p. 77.
19 McConkie, Bruce R., Op. Cit. p. 461.
20 Divine Principle, Op. Cit. p. 74.
21 Divine Principle, Op. Cit., p. 78.
22 Ibid. p. 79.
23 Moon, Sun Myung, "View of the Principle of the
Providential History of Salvation," Op. Cit. p. 6.
24 McConkie, Bruce R., Op. Cit. pp. 756-757.
25 Divine Principle, Op. Cit. pp. 168-169.
26 Ibid., pp. 90-91.
25