BoM 7—2 Nephi 1-2 -Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (5 small, 1 large for each section) -an orange for the fall

Agency Four things necessary for F (2 Nephi 2:27) O(2 Nephi 2:11) L(2 Nephi 2:13) K(2 Nephi 2:5, 26) To have true agency.

Agency Four things necessary for F (2 Nephi 2:27) O(2 Nephi 2:11) Law(2 Nephi 2:13) K(2 Nephi 2:5, 26) To have true agency.

Agency Four things necessary for F (2 Nephi 2:27) Opposition(2 Nephi 2:11) Law(2 Nephi 2:13) K(2 Nephi 2:5, 26) To have true agency.

Agency Four things necessary for F (2 Nephi 2:27) Opposition(2 Nephi 2:11) Law(2 Nephi 2:13) Knowledge(2 Nephi 2:5, 26) To have true agency.

Agency Four things necessary for Freedom(2 Nephi 2:27) Opposition(2 Nephi 2:11) Law(2 Nephi 2:13) Knowledge(2 Nephi 2:5, 26) To have true agency. -What evidences do we have that God treasures agency to an incredible degree? Why?

The Fall 2 Nephi 2:15-25; Moses 3:17, 4:23-25, 5:10-11 GoodsBads

The Fall…Not a Sin “I’m very, very grateful that in the Book of Mormon, and I think elsewhere in our scriptures, the fall of Adam has not been called a sin. It wasn’t a sin.... What did Adam do? The very thing the Lord wanted him to do; and I hate to hear anybody call it a sin, for it wasn’t a sin. Did Adam sin when he partook of the forbidden fruit? I say to you, no, he did not! Now, let me refer to what was written in the book of Moses in regard to the command God gave to Adam. [Moses 3:16–17.] “Now this is the way I interpret that: The Lord said to Adam, here is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you want to stay here, then you cannot eat of that fruit. If you want to stay here, then I forbid you to eat it. But you may act for yourself, and you may eat of it if you want to. And if you eat it, you will die. “I see a great difference between transgressing the law and committing a sin” (Joseph Fielding Smith, “Fall—Atonement—Resurrection— Sacrament,” in Charge to Religious Educators, 124).

The Fall…Necessary “He [Adam] had knowledge, of course. He could speak. He could converse. There were many things he could be taught and was taught; but under the conditions in which he was living at that time it was impossible for him to visualize or understand the power of good and evil. He did not know what pain was. He did not know what sorrow was; and a thousand other things that have come to us in this life that Adam did not know in the Garden of Eden and could not understand and would not have known had he remained there” (Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:107–8).

A Violation…Was Necessary “Adam and Eve were chosen to come here as the primal parents of humanity. And they were placed in the Garden of Eden where there was no death and we read in the scriptures that they could have lived in that Garden forever, but not under the most favorable circumstances. For there, although they were in the presence of God, they were deprived of certain knowledge and understanding in a condition where they could not understand clearly things that were necessary for them to know. Therefore, it became essential to their salvation and to ours that their nature should be changed. The only way it could be changed was by the violation of the law under which they were at that time. Mortality could not come without violation of that law and mortality was essential, a step towards our exaltation. Therefore, Adam partook of the forbidden fruit, forbidden in a rather peculiar manner for it is the only place in all the history where we read that the Lord forbade something and yet said, ‘Nevertheless thou mayest choose for thyself.’ He never said that of any sin. I do not look upon Adam’s fall as a sin, although it was a transgression of the law. It had to be. And Adam came under a different law. The temporal law. And he became subject to death. The partaking of that fruit created blood in his body and that blood became the life-giving influence of mortality” (Joseph Fielding Smith, The Atonement of Jesus Christ, Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year [25 Jan. 1955], 2).

The Fall…Part of the Plan “We came into this world to die. That was understood before we came here. It is part of the plan, all discussed and arranged long before men were placed upon the earth. When Adam was sent into this world, it was with the understanding that he would violate a law, transgress a law, in order to bring to pass this mortal condition which we find ourselves in today” (Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:66).

Foreordained to Eat the Fruit "Adam and Eve came to this world to perform exactly the part that they acted in the garden of Eden; and I will say, they were ordained of God to do what they did, and it was therefore expected that they would eat of the forbidden fruit in order that man might know both good and evil by passing through this school of experience which this life affords us“ (Wilford Woodruff, JD, 23:126).

Transgression was necessary This transition, or "fall," could not happen without a transgression—an exercise of moral agency amounting to a willful breaking of a law (see Moses 6:59). This would be a planned offense, a formality to serve an eternal purpose... It was Eve who first transgressed the limits of Eden in order to initiate the conditions of mortality. Her act... was formally a transgression but eternally a glorious necessity to open the doorway toward eternal life. Adam showed his wisdom by doing the same. And thus Eve and "Adam fell that men might be" (2 Ne. 2:25). 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. (Oaks 1993, 73).

No Veil in the Garden Joseph said Adam was "lord or governor of all things on earth, and at the same time enjoying communion and intercourse with his Maker, without a vail [sic] to separate between”(Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith 2:12). Likewise, Elder Orson Pratt taught that, while in Eden, there was no veil over Adam and Eve. In an 1842 Times and Seasons editorial we are told that, while in Eden, our first parents "could converse with God face to face as we converse with our friends; [with] no intervening veil“ (Times and Season 1843, 672). On several occasions Elder Milton R. Hunter taught that it was after Adam and Eve's Fall that the veil was placed upon them, thus wiping out their memory of the premortal life and ending their direct access to the presence of God the Father. Elder B. H. Roberts taught that "with the fall of Adam there seems to have come a forgetfulness of the plan of salvation.” Many commentators recognize that the notion that Adam and Eve labored under a veil in Eden is illogical. And if there indeed was no veil between them and their God, then how could they have been ignorant as to why they had been sent to the Garden? (Alonzo L. Gaskill, The Savior and the Serpent).

Eve…Beguiled, Adam Knew “Adam voluntarily, and with full knowledge of the consequences, partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that men might be….For his service, we owe Adam an immeasurable debt of gratitude” (Marion G. Romney, Address to Seminary and Institute Employees, 13 July 1966, p. 5).