I agree that this could get complicated, but that's likely due to some misunderstandings of principles or ideas that are foundational to what we're now discussing. I'm sure we can sort it out though. Once we clear up the foundational stuff, what rests on top of it will be clearer.
I agree, within the confines of what I've already posted, that Adam and Eve were like "little children." There is a certain extent to which that is accurate, but taking it any further does not work.
Adam and Eve were innocent in the Garden of Eden, not knowing good and evil and not feeling any shame or embarrassment over their nakedness. These are emotions that came after the Fall. Adam and Eve were much like [(not exactly like)] little children who are naturally naive and trusting and lacking self-consciousness and knowledge of good and evil because they are innocent. Pearl of Great Price Student Manual - Religion 327 : Moses 3:18 - 25 - Adam and Eve Were Husband and Wife insertion mineAnd as far as their "sin" in concerned, the reason that we call it a transgression rather than a sin is because the act that they dideating a piece of fruitis not inherently wrong. It's not like murder or adultery, for example, which are sinful. It was only wrong in that instance because God had instructed them not to eat that specific fruit, for the reason he spelled outit would cause their death. Also, the eating of the fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil was the actual means established by God himself by which man would bring upon himself mortality. He put the tree there precisely so that they would have the choice to enter mortality. The act that brought about the fall was part of the plan from the beginning. It was something Adam and Eve had to do. (Doctrines of Salvation, vol 1., 115) Of course, God would not force them to do it. He would not impose upon them deathspiritual or physical. They had to choose it for themselves.
I can understand why you thought that Adam and Eve were not accountable, in connection with our referring to them as "like little children." But as I mentioned, there is a certain extent only to which that phrase applies to Adam and Eve.
If I remember correctly, the reason why I though that LDS believed that Adam and Eve were not accountable was because of what at least one LDS poster has stated here. Unfortunately those comments cannot be viewed as they were in the old LDS forum, and my request for that forum to be viewable has been met with silence. IIRC, it was also stated that the reason why LDS consider Adam and Eve eating the fruit to be a transgression rather than a sin, was because they did not know good and evil. I had not heard befor that it was due to the act itself not being inherently wrong.
I agree that accountability is essential to moral agency, but I also believe that moral agency is ours even when we are not facing moral choices (such as with Adam and Eve in the Garden, except in the case of the forbidden fruit), or when, as in the case of little children, accountability is suspended through an act of divine grace. We need to remember that "little children are alive in Christ..." and that "the power of [Christ's] redemption cometh on all them that have no law..." (Moroni 8:22) It is only because God's mercy is extended to them that little children are saved. Otherwise little childrenwho are simply not capable of fulfilling the law"must have gone to an endless hell." (v. 13) But as it is, "Little children cannot repent; wherefore, it is awful wickedness to deny the pure mercies of God unto them, for they are all alive in him because of his mercy." (v. 19)
So accountability is essential to moral agency, but its absence is not necessarily indicative of absence of moral agency.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'm not sure if your last comment is logical.
Now, I don't believe Satan has moral agency anymore. Nor his followers. They are now being acted upon by the law. (2 Ne. 2:11-27) They can no longer choose good. It is not in their power. They can only choose evil. They have no truth in them, and are therefore in total bondage. (John 8:32) That can happen to us as well if we give ourselves wholly over to the influence of Satan. (see Ether 15, where the final destruction of the Jaredites is detailed)
When I brought up those who chose to rebel with Satan (according to LDS theology), I wasn't really concerned with the present but with the time that they chose to do so, the war in heaven, their expulsion and condemnation.
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