Moses 4, Genesis 3 THE FALL

DEFINE: SELFISH

Selfish: lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one's own personal profit or pleasure.

HOW DID LUCIFER BECOME SATAN? Moses 4:1-4 – What does vs 1 teach about selfishness? – What does vs 2 teach about selflessness? – What does vs 3 teach about the Plan of Salvation? – What does vs 4 teach about Lucifer, Satan and the Devil?

QUESTION FROM THE LEARNING ASSESSMENT What did Heavenly Father do during our premortal existence that provided a way for us to overcome the affects of the fall? A. He cast out Satan and his followers B. Nothing, because He didn’t know yet that the Fall would occur C. He chose Jesus Christ to be the Savior of all mankind

TWO COMMANDMENTS Moses 2:28 Moses 3:16-17 Where was the tree planted? (Moses 3:9) Could they keep both commandments? CROSS REFERENCE: 2 Nephi 2:22-23

WHY GIVE THEM COMMANDMENTS THEY CAN’T KEEP? “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.” “Fall—Atonement—Resurrection—Sacrament” [address given at LDS Institute of Religion, Salt Lake City, Utah, Jan. 14, 1961]). Joseph Fielding Smith

SO WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? Moses 4:6-12 What does vs 12 teach about the steps of sinning?

WHY GIVE THEM COMMANDMENTS THEY CAN’T KEEP? “For reasons that have not been revealed, this transition, or ‘fall,’ could not happen without a transgression—an exercise of moral agency amounting to a willful breaking of a law. 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, whatever its nature, 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.’” “The Great Plan of Happiness,” Ensign, Nov. 1993, 73 Dallin H. Oaks

WHY GIVE THEM COMMANDMENTS THEY CAN’T KEEP? “The fall had a twofold direction— downward, yet forward. It brought man into the world and set his feet on progression’s highway.” Cowley and Whitney on Doctrine, comp. Forace Green [1963], 287 Orson F. Whitney

PRACTICE: A FRIEND ASKS YOU TO EXPLAIN THE FALL…GIVE IT YOUR BEST SHOT.

THE FALL BEFORE & AFTER Make a list of what it was like before the fall and after the fall, based on what you can glean from these verses: Moses 3:8-9 Moses 4:13 Moses 4:22-25 Moses 4:31 Moses 5: Nephi 2:19 2 Nephi 2:22-23 D&C 29:40-42 Before After

ARE WE SAVED FROM THE FALL?

Moses 4, Genesis 3 THE FALL