By understanding creation’s design, we come to know where we came from, why we are here and
where we are going. We see the centrality of the Fall and the Atonement, and how opposition, good
and evil, joy and pain are necessary in order to achieve the fullness offered by the
Father. When we understand the plan, we feel to sing anthems of eternal praise to the Designer —
in spite of all the challenges of mortality no matter how severe. The key element to the plan is
that through Jesus Christ we can overcome all things. [1]
When the Father unfolded creation’s design, before the foundation of the world, we were there
— as His spirit children — with Jehovah, Michael (the arch-angel, who became Adam), with our
glorious mother Eve, with father Noah and Abraham, and all of the other noble and great ones, who
had special foreordained missions in mortality. We shouted for joy and sang anthems of eternal
praise in anticipation of our privilege of participating in His glorious plan — of coming to
earth, gaining a body, and experiencing mortality — an essential and critical phase in our
progression toward eternal life and receiving a FULNESS of Joy, of Light, and of Truth. We knew
that when and where we would be born would be best for us — whether Africa or America or whether
we lived for 90 seconds or 90 years — we rejoiced at the opportunity. [2]
Without agency a fulness of joy is impossible. Because of agency, we knew then we would be
subject to sin in mortality now. Extending His love and mercy, our Perfect Father explained the
need for a Savior. The first-born spirit said, "Father, thy will be done, and the glory be
thine forever." [2] Lucifer, a "son of the morning," "sought
to destroy the agency of man," and said, "I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall
not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor." [2]
And he rebelled against Father, "...and also a third part of the hosts of heaven turned he
away from me because of their agency; And they were thrust down, (to the earth) and thus came the
devil and his angels;" [3]
After the creation of the Earth and of the garden of Eden, The Father said, "Let us make
man in our image, after our likeness..." "Male and female created he them; and blessed
them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created." Our glorious first
parents were created in the image and likeness of our Heavenly Parents, and anything which tends
to denigrate them also denigrates our Heavenly parents and is of Satan. A large amount of the
world’s wallowing in sin is because mother Eve and her daughters have been brought down, in our
mind’s eye, from their exalted roles and divine potential. [4]
As type and shadow of the opposition we would face in mortality, the Lord placed two trees in
the garden: the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life, the one bitter the other
sweet. And He gave two opposing commandments — both of which they could not keep. They had their
agency to chose which commandment to keep. Disobedience to either was not a sin, for they were in
a state of innocence — a state in which they could not have children. They could not keep the
first commandment unless they disobeyed the second. [5]
One of the biggest fallacies in Christendom today is the belief that Satan was able to
frustrate the plan of God by beguiling Eve into partaking of the fruit. If that were true, God
would be imperfect — not knowing all things — and would then cease to be God. "THE works,
and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated,.." [6]
Lucifer, not knowing the mind of God, thought he was frustrating the work of God by enticing Eve
to partake. The Lord is also the perfect master at turning evil into good, declaring, "I know
the end from the beginning;" [6] and used this apparently evil beguilement to bring about a
profound blessing for all mankind — the opportunity for mortality and eternal progression. Eve,
reasoning this, made the right choice, and her name should be blessed for ever. She was deceived
not by the message but by the identity of the messenger. Once Satan realized it was he, not she,
that was deceived about the designed purpose of the tree in helping Adam and Eve and all their
children on the path to return to the Father, he has been after Eve’s good name and has been
attacking her daughters ever since. Unfortunately, he has had and is having great success as the
world has succumbed to Satan’s enticements and titillating stories. [7] Any
who contribute to the denigration of our glorious mother Eve or perpetrate such stories is
contributing to the work of the adversary — bringing a spirit of darkness rather than light into
the world.
When Adam and Eve partook of the fruit, they transgressed the law. Even though this was not a
sin, for a Perfect Father, justice must be satisfied and a punishment was affixed: "for in
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." [8] And they did
die: two kinds of death — first, spiritual, being cut off from the presence of God,— second,
physical, when their spirits left their mortal bodies. The first death opened the door to
mortality for all of us to come to Earth, having completed our first estate. The second death
opened the door to immortality and the resurrection for all and for a Fullness of JOY and Eternal
Life or life with God for all those who will come unto the Father through the Son. [9]
"And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all
the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression
my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God.
And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our
transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the
joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient." [10]
Adam’s physical death occurred exactly as the Lord said -- within "the day" of the
Lord’s time (a thousand years for man). [11]
Notice, Satan and his angels were cast down to the earth — facilitating the opposition needed
in mortality. "And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they
could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the
sweet--" [12] The prophet Lehi proves that if there were no opposition,
there would be no God. Conversely, since their is a God, there is opposition. [5]
Adam and Eve were married by God, and "within the house of the Lord the woman is the equal
and the helpmate of the man. ‘Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without
the man, in the Lord’ (1 Corinthians 11:11)." [13] "...the sublime
doctrine of marriage... is necessary to our final exaltation. The man and woman were created
together... Eve was created and given to [Adam] for a companion, a helpmate, that he as a king and
a priest and she as a queen and priestess might rise to exaltation and glory and together receive
a fulness of joy." [14]
The statement of the Lord to Eve about Adam: "...and he shall rule over thee." has
also been greatly misunderstood. All too many men exercise unrighteous dominion over their
spouses. For a man to exercise "...control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the
children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness..." is totally incongruent with the
behavior of a righteous husband and father. A man hoping to obtain heaven has the hope also of
being a righteous king — "crowned with honor, and glory, and immortality, and eternal
life," which is impossible unless a righteous Queen is by his side, "equal in power, and
in might, and in dominion." A righteous king is a loving, caring protector. Such was Adam,
and our first parents were great and noble role models for us to follow. [15]
The perfect and infinite eternal atonement of Jesus Christ totally overcame the effects of the
spiritual and physical deaths brought by the transgression of Adam. All of us will be brought back
into the presence of God to be judged — thus overcoming spiritual death, and all will be
resurrected — thus overcoming physical death. [5, 9, &16]
For a perfect, fair and just God, it could not be any other way.
Our own personal sins are all that is left — of commission and omission. "Break not my
commandments..." and "to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth [it] not, to him it is
sin." However, he "that knoweth not good from evil is blameless;" "and where
there is no law given there is no punishment; and where there is no punishment there is no
condemnation; and where there is no condemnation the mercies of the Holy One of Israel have claim
upon them, because of the atonement; for they are delivered by the power of him."
"For... his blood atoneth for the sins of those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam,
who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned." [17]
Now "the Spirit giveth light to every man that cometh into the world; and the Spirit
enlighteneth every man through the world, that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit. And every
one that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit cometh unto God, even the Father." Herein lies
our grand and glorious opportunity to grow in light and truth. Jesus said: "I am the way, the
truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth
as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast [them] into the fire, and they are
burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be
done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my
disciples. ¶ As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye
keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments,
and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and
[that] your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved
you. [18]
For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I
am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace. And now, verily
I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn; And all those who
are begotten through me are partakers of the glory of the same, and are the church of the
Firstborn. Ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is Spirit, even the Spirit
of truth; And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to
come; And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar
from the beginning. The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth, and John bore
record of me, saying: He received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth; And no man
receiveth a fulness unless he keepeth his commandments. He that keepeth his commandments
receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things... Man was also
in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither
indeed can be. All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for
itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence Behold, here is the agency of
man, and here is the condemnation of man; because that which was from the beginning is plainly
manifest unto them, and they receive not the light. And every man whose spirit receiveth not the
light is under condemnation. For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and
element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; And when separated, man cannot receive
a fulness of joy. The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle of God,
even temples; and whatsoever temple is defiled, God shall destroy that temple. The glory of God
is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. Light and truth forsake that evil one.
Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall,
men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God. And that wicked one cometh and
taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the
tradition of their fathers. But I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and
truth.
If we don’t "bring up our children in light and truth" (knowing Christ), then Satan
will have power over us, bringing affliction upon us and our children. [19]
Our perfect God extends perfect mercy; yet mercy cannot rob justice. When we sin, we have two
choices: repent and come unto Christ and partake of mercy; or not repent and be subject to
justice, to suffer even as He did, and to be subject unto the Second Death, "which was an
everlasting death as to things pertaining unto righteousness; for on such the plan of redemption
could have no power, for the works of justice could not be destroyed,..." [20]
Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and
truth. Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all
those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law
be answered Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants
of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God,
save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his
life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring
to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise. Wherefore, he is the
firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make intercession for all the children of men; and
they that believe in him shall be saved. (2 Nephi 2:6-9)
Christ has said:
And this is my doctrine, and it is the doctrine which the Father hath given unto me; and I
bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me, and the Holy Ghost beareth
record of the Father and me; and I bear record that the Father commandeth all men, everywhere,
to repent and believe in me. And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be
saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God. And whoso believeth not in me,
and is not baptized, shall be damned. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine,
and I bear record of it from the Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also;
and unto him will the Father bear record of me, for he will visit him with fire and with the
Holy Ghost. (3 Nephi 11:32-35)
We see that the greatest of sins is to sin against light and truth when we have received it and
know it.
...thus came the voice of the Son unto me, saying: After ye have repented of your sins, and
witnessed unto the Father that ye are willing to keep my commandments, by the baptism of water,
and have received the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, and can speak with a new tongue,
yea, even with the tongue of angels, and after this should deny me, it would have been better
for you that ye had not known me. (2 Nephi 31:14)
We see that the greatest of opportunities is to follow and to share with all who will the light
and truths of the restoration in preparation for the glorious return of our Lord and Savior.
...shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, ...and on,
on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth
into singing. Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and
dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down
with gladness. Let the woods and all the trees of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks
weep for joy! And let the sun, moon, and the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons
of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever! Behold,
the great day of the Lord is at hand; and who can abide the day of his coming,...? (D&C
128:22-24)
"... mine own elect... will hear my voice, and shall see me, and shall not be asleep,
and shall abide the day of my coming; for they shall be purified, even as I am pure."
(D&C 35:20-21) And "...they who [will] not hear his voice [shall] be cut off from among
the people." (JS-History 40)
The most important invitation we will ever receive or we can extend is to come unto the Father
through the Son by having faith, trusting totally in the Lord, repenting of every sin, receiving
the Lord’s baptism of water, fire and the Spirit, and then endure to the end — feasting upon
"MY WORD" and listening and heading "MY VOICE." Then shall we be built upon
the ‘roc’ of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ and shall abide the day. We shall have the greatest of
JOY — even a fulness — as we become humble followers of Him, who will perfect us and sanctify
us. (Moroni 10:32-33)
