Freedom of Choice and the Fall of Adam and Eve

After God created Adam and Eve, he placed them in the Garden of Eden, in a paradisiacal state unimaginable to us now. However, when Jesus comes again, we will experience that blessed condition, for the earth will be renewed and once again receive its paradisiacal glory. 1

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were innocent and lived in God’s presence. “As things were then constituted, death had not entered the world either for Adam and Eve or for any living creature; there was no procreation; and all things were in a state of pristine innocence and beauty.” 2

God gave Adam and Eve freedom of choice

God gave Adam and Eve the gift of moral agency 3—the freedom of choice--and God gave them laws pertaining to their unique situation. Two of those laws were:

1. “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” 4
2. Do not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 5

Laws have blessings and consequences.

The consequence for partaking of the forbidden fruit was physical death: “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Another consequence follows every broken law—spiritual death, which is the separation of man from God, because “no unclean thing can dwell with God.” 6

Freedom of choice and eternal progression

As it was with Adam and Eve so it is with us: our eternal progression depends on how we use our freedom of choice. Satan would have us misuse our freedom of choice and sin, which always leads to misery, hardness of heart, spiritual blindness, and temporal and spiritual destruction, according to the captivity of the devil, 7 for certainly “the wages of sin are death.”

On the other hand, proper use of freedom of choice yields incredible blessings: “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” 8

If we misuse our freedom of choice and sin, we can repent and be forgiven and redeemed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, we can be made perfect “through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again.” 9

Jesus Christ covers our misuse of freedom of choice and makes it possible for us to return to Heavenly Father’s presence.

Misuse of freedom of choice and the fall of Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve misused their freedom of choice by partaking of the forbidden fruit. The consequences of their action was expulsion from the Garden of Eden, representing separation from God or spiritual death, and eventual physical death. These consequences are called the Fall of Adam, an important and planned-for part of God's Plan of Salvation. Although the Fall of Adam was necessary to God's plan for us, it has ongoing effects—good and bad--on all the children of Adam and Eve.

1. Inherited fallen condition--As children of Adam and Eve, we inherit their fallen condition, which includes physical death and spiritual death. Also, our fallen condition makes us susceptible to life’s difficulties and Satan’s temptations, both of which provide an environment of intense testing of our character. By means of this testing, we prove our loyalty to God and our determination to make and keep eternal covenants with him.



2. Conflict of wills—We feel an acute, internal conflict of wills. First, as spirit children of God, we have a divine nature 10 that causes us to yearn to become like him and return to him. Second, we are prone to be “natural” men and women, which pulls us sharply toward the world. Unchecked, the “natural man” is an enemy to God. By nature, the natural man is “carnal, sensual, and devilish,” [and therefore] shut out from the presence of God.” 11. In this miserable situation, the natural man remains subject to the devil 12 unless he repents and “…yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord….” 13



3. Temporarily blind--In our fallen state we are blind to our former glory and must “walk by faith rather than by sight” 14; “for now we see through a glass, darkly.” 15. Why must we grope our way through this life? Because our desperate seeking to find the Light in a world of darkness will ensure that once we find it we will never let it go; because no moral choice is more powerful than the one made in pain or alone in the face of fierce and constant opposition. Therefore, in our present fallen state we are left to choose for ourselves “to see if [we] will do all things whatsoever the Lord [our] God shall command [us],” with the certain promise that our righteous and consistent choices will result in “glory added upon [our] heads for ever and ever.” 16

Effects of freedom of choice and the Fall of Adam and Eve

Thus, according to the Plan of Salvation, Adam and Eve became mortal. In doing so they underwent a physical change so they were able to have children. Moreover, they were now subject to sin and death.

We, as their children, inherit all the positive and negative realities of their mortality, but we do not inherit their transgression for which they alone fully repented and were forgiven. 17 Therefore, we were not born into sin, rather, we were born into the conditions of mortality: “We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.” 18

God's gift of freedom of choice provided for the Fall of Adam and Eve and a Savior

Becoming mortal through the Fall of Adam and Eve was is the only way we could receive a physical body and fully exercise our freedom of choice--the ability to choose between good and evil. That we will all sin and suffer the effects of a mortal existence was provided for in Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation.

The Savior, Jesus Christ, became our only hope of deliverance from the Fall of Adam and Eve. Only the Savior can redeem us from physical death by means of the universal resurrection. Only the Savior can rescue us from life’s problems and our personal weaknesses. Only the Savior can save us from the effects of sin--our misusing our freedom of choice--that result in spiritual death. Only the Savior can show us the way and lead us back to Heavenly Father through the laws and ordinances of the gospel. “This is the plan of salvation.” 19

Questions about 'Freedom of Choice and the Fall of Adam and Eve'

• In the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam and Eve two laws pertaining to their unique situation and the freedom of choice to obey or disobey those laws. What were these laws, and what were their consequences?



• How do God and Satan prompt us to use our freedom of choice? What are the blessings and consequences of our choices?



• If we misues our freedom of choice, how can we be forgiven? Will the sin be erased?



• Because Adam and Eve misused their freedom of choice, they suffered the 'Fall of Adam.' As their children we inherit the conditions, but not the sins, of our parents. What are the inherited conditions of the Fall of Adam?



• Was the Fall of Adam necessary to God's Plan of Salvation for his children?



• Whom did Heavenly Father choose to overcome the Fall of Adam and our misuses of our freedom of choice?



• Only the Savior can provide us deliverance from the effects of the Fall of Adam and the misuses of our freedom of choice? What are some of the things that only he can do for us?

References for 'Freedom of Choice and the Fall of Adam and Eve'

1. (Articles of Faith: 10) – We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
2. (see Mormon Doctrine, p. 303; 2 Nephi 2:19-25) – And after Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit they were driven out of the garden of Eden, to till the earth. And they have brought forth children; yea, even the family of all the earth. And the days of the children of men were prolonged, according to the will of God, that they might repent while in the flesh; wherefore, their state became a state of probation, and their time was lengthened, according to the commandments which the Lord God gave unto the children of men. For he gave commandment that all men must repent; for he showed unto all men that they were lost, because of the transgression of their parents. 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. 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.
3. (Moses 5:56) – And God cursed the earth with a sore curse, and was angry with the wicked, with all the sons of men whom he had made
4. (Gen 1:28)
5. (Genesis 2:16-17) – And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
6. 1 Nephi 10:21)
7. (1 Nephi 14:7) – For the time cometh, saith the Lamb of God, that I will work a great and a marvelous work among the children of men; a work which shall be everlasting, either on the one hand or on the other—either to the convincing of them unto peace and life eternal, or unto the deliverance of them to the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds unto their being brought down into captivity, and also into destruction, both temporally and spiritually, according to the captivity of the devil, of which I have spoken.
8. (Romans 6:23)
9. (2 Nephi 2:8)
10. (2 Peter 1:4) – Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
11. (Mosiah 6:49)
12. (Mosiah 16:3) – 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.
13. (Mosiah 3:19)
14. (2 Corinthians 5:7)
15. (1 Corinthians 13:12)
16. (Abraham 3:25-26)
17. (Moses 6:53) – And our father Adam spake unto the Lord, and said: Why is it that men must repent and be baptized in water? And the Lord said unto Adam: Behold I have forgiven thee thy transgression in the Garden of Eden.
18. (see Articles of Faith: 2)
19. (Moses 6:57-62) – Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time. Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children, saying: That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory; For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified; Therefore it is given to abide in you; the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things, and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment. And now, behold, I say unto you: This is the plan of salvation unto all men, through the blood of mine Only Begotten, who shall come in the meridian of time.