Gospel Principles Chapter 6

"The Fall of Adam and Eve"

The Fall. This one is always a little tricky. There's so many different views on what actually took place and if it was symbolism or not. The way I like to look at it is that this record is an account, or in other words, what actually took place; also that everything can be taken as a symbol--especially for our day. So we can take out of this event is both literally what happened and that there is going to be some application for our day. So back to what happened. In a nutshell, God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and gave them two commandments. One, multiply and replenish the earth aka have kids, and two, don't eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They knew the consequence of eating the fruit and that was if they ate they would die, and be cast out of the garden. One day a serpent, Satan, came and tempted Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit. He told them that if they ate they would "be as gods, knowing good and evil," and that they wouldn't die, which is where the lie came in because God said that they would and he doesn't go against his word. Anyway, they decided to eat of the fruit and they were both cast out. This brought in two types of death, physical and spiritual. Physical is pretty self-explanatory, and spiritual death is the separation of us and God. Many people think that this was a bad thing, that they transgressed the law and partook of the fruit, but like all things great things happen when we make mistakes. And this mistake was needed for all of us to be able to come here to the earth. The prophet Lehi explains in 2 Nephi 2:22-25,
             "And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the Garden of Eden. And all thigs which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created. ...
             "And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.
           " But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.
       "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."
I love this explanation of why it was necessary for the Fall. So many other great blessings have happened because of this one act. It was truly a great blessing.

Gospel Prinicples Chapter 4

"Freedom to Choose"

 Our freedom to choose is so important. We are told through the scriptures that Agency has been given to us from the very beginning. We were able to choose to come down to earth and to get a body or to follow the plan that Satan had proposed in our pre-earth life. Agency was the principle issue that we fought over in our pre-earth life. Satan's plan was to take away our agency from the beginning and to force us to return to live with God again. Agency is the thing that makes this life a time of testing. It is what allows us to make choices and to either follow what Christ would have us do or to follow what Satan would have us do. An analogy that I really like comes from the manual, it says, "When we follow the temptations of Satan, we limit our choices. The following example suggests how this works. Imagine seeing a sign on the seashore that reads: 'Danger—whirlpool. No swimming allowed here.' We might think that is a restriction. But is it? We still have many choices. We are free to swim somewhere else. We are free to walk along the beach and pick up seashells. We are free to watch the sunset. We are free to go home. We are also free to ignore the sign and swim in the dangerous place. But once the whirlpool has us in its grasp and we are pulled under, we have very few choices. We can try to escape, or we can call for help, but we may drown." We are told how to escape the grasp of Satan many times in the scriptures. We are told to "watch and pray continually," as we do that we will be able to overcome the temptations of Satan and be able to make correct choices.

Gospel Principles Chapter 3

"Jesus Christ, Our Chosen Leader and Savior"

Why was the need for a Savior so important? The answer: Because our Heavenly Father knew that we would all come here and make mistakes, and that we would need help along our way. "We needed a Savior to pay for our sins and teach us how to return to our Heavenly Father" (Gospel Principles, 13). The scriptures teach us that Jesus Christ was foreordained and chosen to be our Savior. In the Book of Mormon, there is an account of the Savior appearing to a man named the Brother of Jared and Christ tells him, "Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. … In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name" (Ether 3:14) Even though Jesus Christ was chosen to be our Savior, Lucifer stepped up and said, "Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor" (Moses 4:1). Satan wanted to take away some vital things from us and Heavenly Father. The first thing he wanted was to take away our agency, or our right to chose, which we will discuss more in Chapter 4, and the second thing is he wanted Heavenly Father's glory. After hearing this he said, "I will send the first" (Abraham 3:27). Because Heavenly Father chose Jesus Christ, Lucifer got angry and rebelled against God. In his rebellion, Satan managed to convince one third of the hosts of heaven to come with him, and in doing so, they were also cast out of heaven along with Satan. We know that we made the right choice because we are here today. "By following [Christ's] teachings, we can inherit a place in the celestial kingdom. He did His part to help us return to our heavenly home. It is now up to each of us to do our part and become worthy of exaltation" (Gospel Principles, 16).