Understanding the Fall in Mormonism – Part II: Fortunate Redemption

This is Part II in a multi-part series examining the concept of the Fall in Mormon thought.  Part I explores the Fall as described in the Book of Mormon up until 2 Nephi 2. Part III explores the Adam-Michael connection and its implications. Part IV explores the Fall in light of a plurality of worlds.  Part V explores the birth of the distinction between sin and transgression.

As explained in part one, many see Mormonism as teaching a fortunate view of the Fall.  We will continue to evaluate this claim by looking at the rest of the Book of Mormon’s teachings on the Fall.

Jacob on the Fall and the Resurrection

After the patriarch Lehi passes away, the family splits into two warring factions.  Nephi and his brothers escape and established a new community.  Nephi includes in his record a sermon by his brother Jacob, who Nephi had consecrated as a priest and teacher.  In this sermon, Jacob takes up several themes, including the Fall.

For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord.

And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness. (2 Ne 9:6, 9).

Jacob, at least, represents the fall in less than positive terms.  Many of the themes Jacob sets forth will be taken up by those who come after him.  First, because of the fall, men became fallen and were “cut off from the presence of the Lord.”  Second, the fall occurred because the father of lies beguiled the first parents.

Abinadi on the Cause of the Fall

One influential expounder of the Nephite religion in the Book of Mormon saga is the prophet Abinadi.  In his trial before King Noah and the wicked priests, he preaches one  final sermon before being martyred in flame.  Speaking of the wicked, Abinadi explains:

For they are carnal and devilish, and the devil has power over them; yea, even that old serpent that did beguile our first parents, which was the cause of their fall; which was the cause of all mankind becoming carnal, sensual, devilish, knowing evil from good, subjecting themselves to the devil. Thus all mankind were lost; and behold, they would have been endlessly lost were it not that God redeemed his people from their lost and fallen state. (Mosiah 16:3-4).

Abinadi does not couch the fall in positive terms.  In fact, Abinadi stresses an almost universal depravity: all mankind becoming carnal, sensual and devilish.  One is reminded of the Brother of Jared’s prayer, set during the time before the confusion of languages, wherein he apologized to God for not praying:

Now behold, O Lord, and do not be angry with thy servant because of his weakness before thee; for we know that thou art holy and dwellest in the heavens, and that we are unworthy before thee; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually. (Ether 3:2).

Alma on Barring the Tree of Life and the Mercy of God

 

One of the more fascinating discourses in the Book of Mormon is found in Alma’s disputes with the leaders of an apostate sect of the Nephite religion.  Alma, the high priest of the church, finds himself in the city of Ammonihah, an enclave for the Nehorian priestcraft.¹ There, he encounters a chief ruler of the city, Antionah, who attacks the idea of a resurrection by appealing to common Nephite scripture, namely the creation account.  Antionah’s reading of the creation account is that God barred Adam and Eve from the tree of life and therefore scripture solidly refutes the idea of immortality.  Alma responds:

Now we see that Adam did fall by the partaking of the forbidden fruit², according to the word of God; and thus we see, that by his fall, all mankind became a lost and fallen people.

And now behold, I say unto you that if it had been possible for Adam to have partaken of the fruit of the tree of life at that time, there would have been no death, and the word would have been void, making God a liar, for he said: If thou eat thou shalt surely die.

And we see that death comes upon mankind, yea, the death which has been spoken of by Amulek, which is the temporal death; nevertheless there was a space granted unto man in which he might repent; therefore this life became a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead.  (Alma 12:22-24).

Here, Alma explains not only that barring Adam and Eve from the tree of life does not preclude a resurrection, but it had a divine purpose that only served to benefit man.

Later in life, Alma would again explain this part of the Edenic myth to his son Corianton.

For behold, if Adam had put forth his hand immediately, and partaken of the tree of life, he would have lived forever, according to the word of God, having no space for repentance; yea, and also the word of God would have been void, and the great plan of salvation would have been frustrated.

But behold, it was appointed unto man to die—therefore, as they were cut off from the tree of life they should be cut off from the face of the earth—and man became lost forever, yea, they became fallen man.

And now, ye see by this that our first parents were cut off both temporally and spiritually from the presence of the Lord; and thus we see they became subjects to follow after their own will. (Alma 42:5-7)

Alma gives no indication that the plan of salvation would have been frustrated had Adam not fallen at all.  Rather, it would have been frustrated had Adam partaken of the tree of life.  If so, it would have made God a liar, but also Adam would have lived forever without repentance—in a sense, immortally guilty.  In this way, being cut off from the tree of life was actually an act of mercy, wisdom and love, not an act of divine wrath.  Alma’s language of the fall continues in the tradition set forth by Lehi and Nephi: man is “lost and fallen.” (1 Nephi 10:6).

Aaron on the Fall

Aaron was a son of King Mosiah, who rebelled against the Church with this brothers before finally coming to see the error of his ways.  And the end of the king’s reign, Aaron refused to accept the throne and instead embarked on a mission to reclaim his  Lamanite brothers.  While not well-known expounder of Nephite doctrine, Aaron’s sermons set forth the role that the Fall played in the Nephite religion.  In his sermon before King Lamoni’s father, Aaron used the Fall to point to Christ:

And it came to pass that when Aaron saw that the king would believe his words, he began from the creation of Adam, reading the scriptures unto the king—how God created man after his own image, and that God gave him commandments, and that because of transgression, man had fallen.

And Aaron did expound unto him the scriptures from the creation of Adam, laying the fall of man before him, and their carnal state and also the plan of redemption, which was prepared from the foundation of the world, through Christ, for all whosoever would believe on his name.

And since man had fallen he could not merit anything of himself; but the sufferings and death of Christ atone for their sins, through faith and repentance, and so forth; and that he breaketh the bands of death, that the grave shall have no victory, and that the sting of death should be swallowed up in the hopes of glory; and Aaron did expound all these things unto the king.  (Alma 22:12-14).

No fortunate fall was taught by Aaron to the king here but rather that man transgressed and fell, and “since man had fallen he could not merit anything of himself.”  The Atonement serves as an answer to the Fall.  This was also the same approach that Ammon used before King Lamoni.

Mormon on the Devil and the Fall

Mormon, the prophet-historian and editor of the book of Mormon, continued to see the Devil as the root cause of the fall of man.  In fact, in his commentary, Mormon draws upon the analogy between the Gadianton secret society that infiltrated the Nephite social-order to what occurred in the Garden of Eden.  This was not new, as Jacob had made the connection previously.  However, it became an even stronger link as the Gadiantion conspiracy unfolded before his eyes.

Now behold, those secret oaths and covenants did not come forth unto Gadianton from the records which were delivered unto Helaman; but behold, they were put into the heart of Gadianton by that same being who did entice our first parents to partake of the forbidden fruit. (Helaman 6:26).

Following in the footsteps of his father, Moroni too saw the serpentile deception in Eden to be a harbinger of the destruction of nations.  Commenting on the destruction of the Jaredites, Moroni wrote:

For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents, yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of men that they have murdered the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning. (Ether 8:25).

Reclaiming Eden and the Redemption of the Soul

Towards the end of his life, and likely contemplating his own mortality, Mormon described God’s salvation narrative as follows.  He sets forth a kind of chain reaction where God and man’s decisions flow together, resulting in a salvation drama wherein God succeeds in bringing salvation out of man’s disobedience.

Behold, he created Adam, and by Adam came the fall of man. And because of the fall of man came Jesus Christ, even the Father and the Son; and because of Jesus Christ came the redemption of man.

And because of the redemption of man, which came by Jesus Christ, they are brought back into the presence of the Lord; yea, this is wherein all men are redeemed, because the death of Christ bringeth to pass the resurrection, which bringeth to pass a redemption from an endless sleep, from which sleep all men shall be awakened by the power of God when the trump shall sound; and they shall come forth, both small and great, and all shall stand before his bar, being redeemed and loosed from this eternal band of death, which death is a temporal death. (Mormon 9:12-13).

As a side note, of the difficulties in understanding Nephite soteriology is that the term “redemption” is used to refer to different aspects.  When Lehi says, “And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever” he is referring to the redemption of the agency of man placing man back in a state where he can act for himself.  When Mormon says above “this is wherein all men are redeemed, because the death of Christ bringeth to pass the resurrection” he is referring to the redemption from death, which is universal.  Yet, there is also redemption from sin (referred to as the “second death” by Jacob, Samuel the Lamanite and Alma).  For example, Alma says:

My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more. (Mosiah 27:29).

Here, Alma is not referring to redemption of agency or redemption from death, but redemption from sin–all three came about as a result of the fall, and all three are swallowed up in the victory of Christ.

Perhaps the most poignant and beautiful passages in the Book of Mormon was given by Ammon, another son of King Mosiah who set out to on a mission to reclaim his brethren.  After meeting his brothers for the first time since departing to the Lamanite lands, he praises God’s mercy and rejoices in the redemption of his very soul.

Who could have supposed that our God would have been so merciful as to have snatched us from our awful, sinful, and polluted state? … Oh then, why did he not consign us to an awful destruction, yea, why did he not let the sword of his justice fall upon us, and doom us to eternal despair? Oh, my soul, almost as it were, fleeth at the thought. Behold, he did not exercise his justice upon us, but in his great mercy hath brought us over that everlasting gulf of death and misery, even to the salvation of our souls. (Alma 26:17-20)

Concluding Thoughts

The Book of Mormon prophets consistently used particular language in discussing the Fall of man: transgression, cut off, shut out, carnal, sensual, devilish, endlessly lost, lost and fallen.  Taken as a whole, it isn’t clear that the Nephite tradition taught of a Fortunate Fall.

It is significant that Alma does recast God’s turning Adam and Eve away from the tree of life as an act of Mercy.  For Alma, such an interpretation performs the vital function of explaining why God has designated this life as a probationary time to repent and prepare to meet God.  Yet, this does not seem to argue that the Fall itself was fortunate.

Lehi’s statement that “Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy” is often referred to as the example par excellence of Mormonism’s positive view of the Fall.  A contextual reading of Lehi’s blessing to his son Jacob reveals the message that joy is in a very real sense a function of suffering, and that true joy was therefore only possible once man left the Garden of Eden.  In this sense, Lehi seems to stand alone among the Nephite prophets as one stressing the blessings that arose as a result of the fall.  As can be seen above, however, the great bulk of the Book of Mormon’s teaching on the Fall does not appear to stress a Fortunate Fall, but rather a Fortunate Redemption, without which man would have been endlessly lost and fallen, unable to merit anything of himself.

According to the LDS Scripture Citation Index, Lehi’s statement has been cited 106 times in General Conference talks since 1942.  On the other hand, the Brother of Jared’s prayer in Ether 3:2 that “because of the fall our natures have become evil continually” turns up no hits in General Conference since 1942.  Likewise, Alma 12:22 “Now we see that Adam did fall by the partaking of the forbidden fruit, according to the word of God; and thus we see, that by his fall, all mankind became a lost and fallen people” turns up zero hits.  Obviously, not every single verse of the Book of Mormon needs to be quoted in General Conference and lack of citation alone does not necessarily indicate a lack of awareness.  However, there are clear favorites in Mormon scripture.  A search on lds.org for Alma 22:12 “since man had fallen he could not merit anything of himself” turns up about 7 hits.   A search on LDS.org for “Alma 12:22″ or “lost and fallen people” returns 4 hits.

While this is not a comprehensive analysis by any means, and varying search words will no doubt will turn up slightly different numbers, it is clear that 2 Nephi 2:25 is a staple favorite among LDS speakers, but that the phrase itself is overshadowed by the totality of teachings on the Fall in the Book of Mormon.

Continue to Part III

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1. For a more comprehensive treatment of Alma’s encounter with the Nehorian defectors see my post: Reevaluating Alma 13: Premortal Performance or Foreknowledge of God?

2. Incidentally, another interesting aspect of the Book of Mormon is the explicit description of the fruit as forbidden. While it is common to refer to the fruit as the forbidden fruit, the actual phrase “forbidden fruit” is not found in the biblical texts.

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