February- Article of Faith 2

We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.

I began this month by focusing a lot of my study on the Planof Salvation.  Before the world was created there was a counsel in Heaven where our Heavenly Father laid forth his plan for his children on this earth.  During this counsel (war) Satan presented a plan in which the people would have no agency and no choice (and no option to choose evil) and therefore we would all return to live with our Heavenly Father.  Another plan was presented in which there would be opposition in all things, agency would be in full effect and the Lord would give commandments to guide us to choose the right.  This plan would allow growth and faith in the people but would require a Savior, at which time Jesus Christ was pre-appointed to be that Savior.  

I studied the Plan of Salvation to better understand the mindset of both Adam and Eve and of our Heavenly Father when they were placed in the garden.  In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were in the presence of Heavenly Father and were commanded NOT to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17)  However they were also commanded to multiply and replenish the earth (Genesis 1:28), which was impossible in their state of innocence in the garden.  These two commandment are not able to both be followed and therefore Adam and Eve had to make a choice (as the Plan of Salvation intended)

'President Smith taught: “The Lord said to Adam that if he wished to remain as he was in the garden, then he was not to eat the fruit, but if he desired to eat it and partake of death he was at liberty to do so.” Faced with this dilemma, Adam and Eve chose death—both physical and spiritual—which opened the door for themselves and their posterity to gain knowledge and experience and to participate in the Father’s plan of happiness leading to eternal life.'

I had never thought of mankind being punished for Adam's transgression because I knew and had learnt the plan of Salvation and the need for agency as a child.  I had always been taught that because Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, we were able to be born and receive our physical bodies and therefore learn and grow. I tried to study with the mindset of a new member or nonmember and to separate the idea of mankind being blessed by the opportunity to have bodies and being physically seperate from our Heavenly Father and experiencing challenges.  This concept was very challenging for me and hard for me to understand the other side of the argument. 

Another thing that I studied, through conference talks and the words of our Latter-day Prophets was the distinction between SIN and TRANSGRESSION. Regarding this distinction, Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles observed: “This suggested contrast between a sin and a transgression reminds us of the careful wording in the second article of faith: ‘We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression’ (emphasis added). It also echoes a familiar distinction in the law. 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.” 

 

President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972) said: “I never speak of the part Eve took in this fall as a sin, nor do I accuse Adam of a sin. … This was a transgression of the law, but not a sin … for it was something that Adam and Eve had to do!”

I enjoyed studying the Plan of Salvation and the Fall of Adam in more detail this month.  I have a strong testimony that how the life and fall of Adam transpired was by divine design and that because of this the world was able to have a Savior.  And that because of this I am able to have a mortal body and to learn and grow, through my trials and through faith, so that I might be stronger when I once again return to live with my Heavenly Father.