Christ is the Reason

Lesson 13 The Bad News (The Fall)

“But, remember, the Atonement came because of the Fall. Christ paid the ransom for Adam’s transgression. If there had been no Fall, there would be no Atonement with its consequent immortality and eternal life. Thus, just as surely as salvation comes because of the Atonement, so also salvation comes because of the Fall.” –Bruce R. McConkie Christ and the Creation

Fall of Man

- Moses 2:28, The commandment to have children.

- Moses 3:15-17 Commandment not to eat of the tree of knowledge.[1]

- Moses 4:6 Satan seeks to “beguile Eve”.

Before the Fall

a. Adam and Eve could not procreate

b. Adam and Eve had no knowledge of good and evil

c. They could not experience physical deterioration or death

d. They were allowed to be in God’s physical presence.

After the Fall

a. Adam and Eve received the power of procreation.

b. Adam and Eve gained a knowledge of good and evil by their own experience.

c. Their bodies became subject to deterioration, leading eventually to their physical death.

d. They were banished or cast out from the presence of God. This banishment is called spiritual death.

Effects of the Fall

“We talk about ‘health problems,’ ‘I.Q. problems’, ‘lack of will power,’ or ‘trouble controlling my thoughts’ without realizing that these are just isolated symptoms of a bigger problem—the fall of the human race...First, the teeth get cavities, the waistline thickens, the knees go bad, the hair falls out. First we need glasses, then stronger prescriptions, then bifocals, then trifocals. We don’t often think of the dentist, the optometrist, or the toupee-maker as helping us cope with the effects of the Fall, but that is what they do. Moreover, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, psychiatrists, psychologists, physical therapists, lab technicians, dieticians, and manufacturers of vitamins, health foods, exercise bikes, and stair-steppers-all these and many more occupations exist only to help us briefly hold at bay the effects of the Fall. But no one can stop the process, for funeral directors, morticians, and gravediggers are also in the ‘Fall’ business and are its ultimate and inevitable conclusion in this world.” – Stephen Robinson Following Christ (Italics added)

Other Points

- Mortality is not our proper state. We did not live in this state in the Pre-Existence and Christ will reverse the effects of the fall completely at His Second Coming. (Article of Faith 10, Revelation 21:1-2, D&C 77:1-2)

- Adam and Eve have been absolved from the sins of others because of the Fall (See Moses 6:53) and God has made a way to escape the effects of the Fall, therefore you are personally responsible for your won sins.[2]

Scriptures Relating to the Fall

Luke 5:8 Peter “I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

Romans 3:10 “There is none righteous”

Romans 3: 23 “all have sinned”

1 Corinthians 2:14 : Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.

1 Timothy 1:15 Paul “Chief” among sinners

2 Nephi 2:11 “Opposition in all things”

2 Nephi 4:17-19 Nephi a “wretched man”

2 Nephi 9:27 Awful is the state of those that waste their probation.

Mosiah 3:19 “Natural Man is an enemy to God”

Mosiah 16:3 “all mankind carnal”

Ether 3:2 Jared “unworthy” before the Lord.

D&C 29:41 Adam became spiritually dead

“[Our] flesh has no conscience…Flesh can distinguish only between pleasure and pain, between ‘feels good’ and ‘doesn’t feel good’, and therefore it urges us to act upon that distinction alone…Unredeemed and without the guidance of spirit, our flesh is morally blind and is therefore an enemy to God.” - Stephen Robinson Following Christ

“Do not suppose that we shall ever in the flesh be free from temptations to sin. Some suppose that they can in the flesh be sanctified body and spirit and become so pure that they will never again feel the effects of the power of the adversary of truth. Were it possible for a person to attain to this degree of perfection in the flesh, he could not die neither remain in a world where sin predominates…I think we should more or less feel the effects of sin so long as we live, and finally have to pass the ordeals of death.” (Brigham Young, JoD 10:173)

Conclusion

It is impossible to understand and to fully appreciate Christ’s atonement without fully understanding how absolutely dire our situation is without it. Look at Nephi’s description of what the world would look like if the Fall was the only reality, if Christ and His atonement were somehow hypothetically taken away:

“And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness.” (2 Nephi 9:9)

This is exactly how one feels when they sin, because they are spiritually separated from God, which separation was introduced by Adam’s transgression. Listen to Alma’s language before he applied the atonement: “for three days and for three nights was I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.” (Alma 36:16) Our investigators need to understand how precarious the situation is for all of us. Only then, after properly harrowing up “the memory of my many sins” can we appreciate “the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, [who will] atone for the sins of the world.” (Alma 36:17)