The Purpose for the Fall of Adam

Many religions consider the fall of Adam a disaster. They blame him for eating the fruit of Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and expelling himself and his wife, Eve, from the Garden of Eden. With this reasoning, if it hadn't been for Adam and Eve's disobedience, all mankind would now be living in peace and prosperity in the Garden. There would be no pain, no disease, and no need to work for sustenance. The food would just be there for the taking. Life would be an easy, idyllic experience.

It's a nice fantasy, and that's all it could have ever been. God did not create man to put him in a natural, open-air cocktail lounge.

First, we learn from the Book of Mormon that Adam and Eve could not have had children in the Garden of Eden. The prophet Lehi taught, "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" (2 Nephi 2:22-23).

Second, God never intended this life to be Heaven. That is to come after, if we live worthy of it. This life is a testing ground. We are here to prove that we can walk by faith. That we will obey despite obstacles, setbacks and doubts. Those purposes would have been frustrated if we were all living in the Garden of Eden in luxury and bliss, and life would be meaningless.

Now, let's consider what it would say about God if He being expelled from the Garden was an avoidable disaster. It would mean that God condemned billions of His own children to live in a harsh, painful, miserable world when they could have been living in the lap of luxury because of the foolish actions of one man and one woman who lived thousands of years ago. That sounds pretty harsh. That's not the God that I want to worship. The God that I worship has plans that cannot be frustrated by the mistakes of men or the designs of Satan. The God that I worship does not punish the innocent because of the actions of the guilty. The God that I worship has a plan for his children, and Lehi makes that plan clear in his discourse: "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy" (2 Nephi 2:25).