God created the earth and all things in it. All the earth and its creations obey God. When the Savior calmed the seas the apostles wondered aloud “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him.” Well, He was their creator. When Noah needed to fill the Ark with every kind of creature on earth, the Lord commanded them to come and they came. In Winter, the Lord sends the snow, in spring He sends the rain. He rules all. He rules all except for one creature: man. All creatures and creations on the earth are subject to the will of God. All except man.
Not only is man not subject to the will of the Father, but it seems as though many of them actively resist Him. He has entreated us to come to Him, has promised to “gather us up as a hen would gather her chickens” but we will not. He sends prophets and apostles to reclaim us from our fallen state. He sends angels to teach us and administer to those few who will listen. He sent even His son who ended up paying the ultimate price. We struggle, make war on one another and on our best days embrace the gospel in fits and starts. How did this happen? How did the Lord’s crowning creation, we who are created in His image, end up being so willful and independent? Well, the truth is, we pretty much insisted on it. If we are estranged from our Father, it is because it is what we wanted. It all goes back to the garden of Eden.
In the beginning, there was nothing until God created the earth and everything in it. He created the earth, created day and night, created the sky and stars, the sun and moon. He created the oceans and continents and filled them with plants and tree of all sorts, animals of all kinds and finally, his ultimate creation, us. Man. And He loved us like crazy and was very much pleased with us and all His creations. He made a fantastic place with everything we could possibly imagine, a literal garden of Eden. And we were immortal, we would live forever in a perfect world. So why did we throw all this away?
In the garden, there were two trees. One was the Tree of Life and, being immortal, we could eat freely of that tree. The other tree was the Tree of Knowledge but this one was forbidden to us. Its full name is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Lord had said: thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. You might want to call it the Tree of Death.
We are used to going to school and studying things by learning from a book. Let’s say we want to learn to tie a bowline knot. We’d read about it, look at some diagrams of the knot being tied, watch a few youtube videos and eventually we would be pretty well informed. But you haven’t really learned it until you can actually tie the knot yourself. That’s kind of what the knowledge of good and evil is like, you really need to experience evil in order to know it. And that sort of thing has no place in the garden of Eden.
So what was Adam and Eve’s motivation for wanting to eat from the tree of knowledge? On this, I can only speculate. Although motivation is usually multi-faceted, the account given in Genesis suggests it had to do with having children. Adam and Eve were commanded to go forth and multiply but did not have the power to do so. Nephi helps out here. I will read from 2 Nephi 2:
22 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 things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.
23 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.
I offer the following only as my personal opinion but I think that the charge and desire to have children was only part of the real reason. Adam and Eve realized that they could not always be children in the care of Heavenly Father, that they would have to, even should have to, grow up and take on responsibilities. They wanted to grow and progress beyond the garden and they felt that it was something that they must take on themselves and that maybe Heavenly Father would not ask that of them because it was such a dangerous thing to do. And, as He said, if they went that way, they would surely die.
I want to mention here that what Adam and Eve were contemplating was not a sin. LDS speakers and all of the New Testament apostles never refer to what happened in the garden as a sin. They call it a transgression. To me, a Sin and a transgression sound like the same thing so let’s see what Neal A. Maxwell has to say about it:
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.
So
the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge stood opposed to one another. Eternal life was ours and we would be
sheltered from all evil things but unable to progress. Or we could choose death and pain and
suffering but be free to work our own will. So, what would you do? Is it better
to have a sheltered trouble-free life where nothing bad ever happens or is it
better to face all the troubles and sorrows the world can offer in the hope of
overcoming them? In the Book of Revelations, Jesus appears to the apostle John and tells him, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as
I also overcame." That promise applies to us but not Adam. In their innocent state, there was nothing for Adam and Eve to overcome.
You all know what happened, Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge and lost their innocence. They were sent from the garden, cut off from the presence of God and, a curious thing, a guard and a flaming sword was set around the Tree of Life so they would not eat of it. Cut off from immortality and cut off from the Lord. Physical and Spiritual death.
To reclaim mankind from death, the plan of salvation went into effect. I do apologize for waxing kitchy but this little saying from America’s hippie days back in the 60’s seems to almost be appropriate:
If you love someone, set them free. If they come back they’re yours; if they don’t they never were.
Many of the Adam’s children would go astray but some would choose to follow the Lord and this they would do so willingly. There had to be a way to reclaim them. The prophets and apostles and angelic ministers could only teach and ordain, what was needed was a way to reverse spiritual and physical death. Because we were estranged from the Father, He sent His Son, the Son of God to bring about resurrection and salvation. While the resurrection is for all mankind, coming back into the presence of the Father is by recommend only. It is for those who chose to obey the Father because they are like the Father.
Christ is called Redeemer and the Mediator because he pleads our case with the Father. I wanted to see if I could explain the atonement in as a user friendly way as possible. As stripped down to its core as possible. Perhaps a retelling of the Prodigal Son? Only in the retelling, the older brother is our older brother, Jesus Christ.
The younger of two sons said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! But I have betrayed my Father, disregarded all His teachings and spent my inheritance. I am afraid to return. And not many days after, his older brother found him and he wept and repented of his foolishness but he was sore afraid to return.
The older brother offered, “I will go inquire of our Father what is his will concerning his lost son.” And he went and when he returned from his journey home, he again visited the younger brother. He said, “I have told Father everything and have recommended you to him.” They then both made the journey home. When they were yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
