Myths Refuted #2: The Notion of Original Sin

To continue with my study and summary of the Myths of Christianity that the Book of Mormon Refutes (see myth #1 here), I will move onto how the Book of Mormon refutes the notion of Original Sin, but to do so, I think it will require some explanation of the Christian theology of Original Sin. I have found in my interactions with Christian friends over the years that the concept of Original Sin as explained in the official declarations of most Christian’s sects is not well understood by parishioners. In fact, most of the time my non-LDS friends respond positively to the LDS teaching of Original Sin, though it is significantly different then main stream Christianity. This is not to say that there is one consistent teaching of this concept throughout Christianity, but that the ancient teachings of the Catholic Church have left a lasting impact even after the reformation.

In the standard teachings of the Catholic Church for almost two thousand years, "Original sin was defined as (1) the sin that Adam committed; (2) a consequence of this first sin, the hereditary stain with which we are born on account of our origin or descent from Adam." Protestant declarations teach that Original sin is an "ancestral sin stemming from Adam and Eve's rebellion in Eden." It is been written about as being the "inherited sin of disobedience from Adam and Eve to all their descendants even before we are old enough to commit conscious sin."

What Does the Book of Mormon Teach About the Fall and Adam and Eve?

Unlike these descriptions of Adam and Eve as sinful and rebellious, the Book of Mormon teaches that the fall of Adam and Eve is a blessing to both Adam and Eve as well as their posterity. It teaches that it was the intended result of conditions designed by a loving Father in Heaven, and this new understanding of Adam and Eve gives LDS a feeling of gratitude for Adam and Eve and feel that they are worthy of honor for their part in bringing the plan of God into action.

Every Christian believes that the world was created by Christ before Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, and most Christians believe that God created the Earth with the intent to create a home for His children to dwell, thus he placed Adam and Eve upon the earth when he saw that his creation was good. The Book of Mormon reveals that the fall was necessary to bring about God's purposes for man.

In 2 Nephi chapter 2 the Book of Mormon prophet, Lehi, teaches his sons a great sermon on the subject of God's great plan for the happiness and progression of His children. He teaches with great clarity that the fall of Adam and Eve was necessary and planned for, and put in motion by, our Father in Heaven as surely as was the earth was created for this purpose, Adam fell for this purpose. Lehi teaches what would have happened had Adam and Eve not chosen to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

"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)

The implications of this one additional truth about the fall is far reaching. We know from the Book of Mormon that Adam and Eve would have had no children had they not made the choice to partake of the "forbidden fruit" (Lehi addresses the reason why it was forbidden which I will discuss below) Since we know that God created the world with the intention that it would be a home for the human race (we know this because only when He placed Adam and Eve in the garden did he say His creation was complete), and since we know that Adam and Eve would have had no children had they not fallen, it follows that the fall was not an accident, nor was it a sin.

Lehi explains to his sons how God set the stage for Adam and Eve to fall and why he did so.

"To bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents... it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter. Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other... For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so... righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad... Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose"

"To bring about his eternal purposes," it was necessary for Adam and Eve to fall and bring children into the world. The creation of the world was one preparation our Father in Heaven made in preparation for the fall, but now we know that He set up the conditions upon which Adam and Eve would have to make a choice. In Genesis we learn that God commanded Adam and Eve that they were to multiply and replenish the Earth, to fulfill the purpose of the Earth and the "eternal purposes in the end of man." In the Book of Mormon we learn that if they had not partaken of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they would not have been able to keep the first commandment nor fulfilled the purposes for which the earth was prepared and for which they were placed in the garden.

Though it is difficult to understand how God could give Adam and Eve two commandments, of which they could only keep one; it is easier to understand from Lehi's teaching that the principle of agency, the ability for Adam and Eve to act for themselves, was of such importance in God's plan to bring about the progression and righteousness of His children that in this unique circumstance a loving Father created two things in opposition to one another in order that His children might exercise their agency and choose to fall into mortality and begin to participate in a great plan for the spiritual progression of man.

We have known that God created the world for a purpose, but now we know better what that purpose was. We can come to understand from this one extraordinary sermon in the Book of Mormon that mortal life was not a mistake, not the result of some terrible sin or rebellion of our first parents. The context with which this teaching rests is the central point of Lehi's sermon which is that Lehi is teaching his sons that the atonement of Jesus Christ was also planned from the "foundations of the world," (Alma 22:12-14) that like the fall, the atonement was not plan B, not a reaction to the unexpected rebellion and sin of Adam and Eve. Instead the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement make up the three essential pillars of the plan of God for His children. This plan was foreordained as Christ was foreordained (1 Peter 1:19-21).

Lehi teaches that without the fall and the atonement the creation of the world "would have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation." The fall brought about the need for the atonement, but the atonement brings about the way to fulfill the eternal purposes of God. Lehi brings these three pillars of the plan together perfectly with these verses:

"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. And the Messiah cometh... that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given. Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself. And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit."

For the joy of redemption and the spiritual progression that comes to us through mortal life we can be grateful to our first parents, Adam and Eve, for seeking to fulfill the will of the Lord. The fall becomes a beloved step in God's grand plan for the salvation of His children rather than a great stumbling shared by all humans. For this clarity we can thank God for the Book of Mormon, for the Book of Mormon places these truths in their proper place.

What does Original Sin mean to LDS people?

LDS teaching does not use the term Original Sin, because we don't think of the choice made in the Garden of Eden as a sin, we do refer to it as the transgression of Adam. Joseph Smith wrote in the second Article of Faith, "We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression."

Though Adam and Eve played their part well, and though the plan worked just as God intended, for Adam and Eve and their children the consequences of the fall were no less perilous. As a result of the fall we are cut off from God and lost to death, if not for the atonement and resurrection of Christ. These perilous consequences are understood and accepted by LDS people as necessary conditions of mortality, and mortality is accepted as a necessary step to immortality. Like the Catholic theologian St. Augustine taught, LDS people also believe that the fall brought about a separation between God and man (spiritual death) because of the fallen state of human nature. In mortality humans have a tendency to sin as a consequence of the Fall. In this world we are weak, sinful, and without Christ we are lost; but the good news is that we are here because of the fall and because of the fall we have need for the atonement of Jesus Christ.

The consequences of the fall, in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, are more positive then they are negative. The "forbidden" fruit from The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, is mistakenly viewed in traditional Christian teaching as cursed fruit that brought death and damnation, in general it was seen as more evil than good. The fruit of this tree did bring death into the world, but there is a joyful consequence of that mortality, the tree brought birth and life. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil had the power to make Adam and Eve mortal and give them knowledge and the ability to progress (i.e. learn and mature), a condition that made Adam and Eve more like God. Which is taught in Genesis when God says, "Man is become as one of us, to know good and evil." (Genesis 3:22)

The Book of Mormon contains another important sermon, by another prophet who is speaking to his son, which explains the good and bad consequences of the fall and the essential role that these consequences play in the plan of redemption by which God's children progress and receive eternal life in the kingdom of their Father. Alma teaches about the purpose and significance of the two trees in the Garden of Eden. Yes, there were two. Less familiar among Christians today is that the Tree of Life was also placed in the Garden by God. (Genesis 2:9) The fruit of this tree had the power to make Adam and Eve immortal. While in the garden they ate of this tree freely, and they were immortal in the garden state, and as we learned from the prophet Lehi in the Book of Mormon they would have remained in this state forever had they not partaken of the fruit of The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Alma describes what follows Adam and Eve's choice to partake of the forbidden fruit and explains that mortal life and death are necessary in the plan of God to work (Alma 42):

"After the Lord God sent our first parents forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground, from whence they were taken—yea, he drew out the man, and he placed at the east end of the garden of Eden, cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the tree of life— Now, we see that the man had become as God, knowing good and evil; and lest he should put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever, the Lord God placed cherubim and the flaming sword, that he should not partake of the fruit—And thus we see, that there was a time granted unto man to repent, yea, a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God.

“For behold, if Adam had put forth his hand immediately, and partaken of the tree of life, he would have lived forever, according to the word of God, having no space for repentance; yea, and also the word of God would have been void, and the great plan of salvation would have been frustrated. But behold, it was appointed unto man to die... it was not expedient that man should be reclaimed from this temporal death, for that would destroy the great plan of happiness.

"Therefore, as the soul could never die, and the fall had brought upon all mankind a spiritual death as well as a temporal, that is, they were cut off from the presence of the Lord, it was expedient that mankind should be reclaimed from this spiritual death. Therefore... this probationary state became a state for them to prepare; it became a preparatory state.

"Therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also. And thus God bringeth about his great and eternal purposes, which were prepared from the foundation of the world. And thus cometh about the salvation and the redemption of men... Therefore, O my son, whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life freely; and whosoever will not come the same is not compelled to come; but in the last day it shall be restored unto him according to his deeds.

Once it becomes clear that Adam and Eve were not sinful or rebellious, but rather seeking to fulfill the plan of God, much of what has been taught about the hereditary stain, inherited sin, and the punishment for this sin takes on a new light. Instead of the consequences of the fall being mostly evil, we see that the fall was prepared, intended, and planned for by a loving Father who knew that this mortal life and death was an essential step in the progression of His children.

The Damage of the False Doctrines of Original Sin

False teachings of Original Sin have resulted in false ideas about the character of Adam and Eve, and sadly these false teachings have led to some verily toxic ideas about the nature of man and our relationship to God.

Implied in the traditional Christian theology of Original Sin is the idea that Adam and Eve were sinful and rebellious, and that Eve was particularly so, and that humans are born sinful and as such little children need to be cleansed of original sin to prevent them from being spiritually lost if they were to die at a young age. The practice of infant baptism, which is much less popular in the Christian world today, was for almost two thousand years believed to be necessary to save a child from eternal damnation. Infants who died without baptism were believed to be lost forever which belief caused great pain for Christians throughout the world. I will treat the teaching of infant baptism as a separate myth the Book of Mormon refutes because the Book of Mormon very particularly addresses infant baptism in the writings of the final prophet in the book.

These false teachings about the character of Adam and Eve and the anger of Lord against them for their act has been taken to extremes within the teachings of the Christian world and led to serious evils. For example, the foundational thinker of Latin Christianity, St. Augustine, in the late fourth and early fifth centuries established certain assumptions that have led to great oppression of women throughout the Christian world. Augustine taught that "women’s disproportionate guilt for the fall of humanity into sin, rooted in women’s disobedience to their subordination, meant that women could only be redeemed by accepting a redoubled subjugation to the male, even coercively so. For Augustine the female could never represent God. Maleness was the appropriate image of rationality and spirituality, while the feminine represented the body and the material world." (The Curious Appeal of Roman Catholicism, Valarie M. Hudson.)

An LDS scholar who grew up Catholic, Valarie M. Hudson recalls how painful it was for her as a young girl when she remembers "stumbling across these lines from Tertullian, a second to third century Church writer," who taught that women “might more fully expiate that which she derives from Eve—the ignominy, I mean, of the first sin, and the odium (attaching to her as the cause) of human perdition. ‘In pains and in anxieties does thou bear (children), woman; and toward thine husband (is) thy inclination and he lords it over thee.’ And do you not know that you are (each) an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age: the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the devil’s gateway: you are the unsealer of that (forbidden) tree: you are the first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God’s image, man. On account of your desert—that is, death—even the Son of God had to die.”

As Elder Dallin H. Oaks, an apostle of the LDS Church, has said, “Some Christians condemn Eve for her act, concluding that she and her daughters are somehow flawed by it. Not the Latter-day Saints! Informed by revelation, we celebrate Eve’s act and honor her wisdom and courage in the great episode called the Fall.” (Dallin H. Oaks, “The Great Plan of Happiness,” Ensign, November 1993)

Hudson continues: "Did God curse Adam and Eve as is the standard teaching of Christianity? In the teachings of the LDS Church, we do not believe that that was a curse meant to punish them—it was a curse meant to start that law of opposites that undergirds agency: virtue and vice, pleasure and pain, light and darkness, truth and lies (2 Ne 2:11-13). Eve was told she would labor in childbirth—was this a cursing of Eve? Again, from the LDS perspective, absolutely not. To have children, to be able to fully give the gift of Eve, is one of the most soul-satisfying parts of a woman’s life... In the King James Version of the Bible, we are told that Eve, as part of her punishment, was told that Adam would rule over her. Is that what the LDS believe? Actually not. Elder Bruce C. Hafen, a seventy in the LDS Church, says: “Genesis 3:16 states that Adam is to “rule over” Eve, but. . . over in “rule over” uses the Hebrew bet, which means ruling with, not ruling over. . . . The concept of interdependent equal partners is well-grounded in the doctrine of the restored gospel.”

How we see ourselves in relation to God, how men and women view their relation to each other, and how we view the nature of every innocent child born into the world are colored by our understanding of the proper place and purpose of the fall in God's design for His children. Clearly greater clarity in Christian teaching was needed, and the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon through the gift and power of God was the answer to countless Christian prayers over the ages.