It is really disturbing to me that this thread has gone on for three pages without anyone pointing out that the idea of The Fall being a good thing is not confined to LDS theology, but is, in fact, a tenet of the very most orthodox schools of Christian theology, beginning with St. Augustine.
His reasoning went like this:
- Since God is wonderful, God's creation must be as close to wonderful as can be managed.
- A world in which evil had never existed would be pretty wonderful, but
- A world in which good triumphs over evil is even more wonderful
- Therefore, The Fall is a wonderful thing, since it allows for Christ's redemption of the world
In fact, we more liturgical Christians sing about it every Easter Sunday,
"O Happy Fault, O necessary sin of Adam, that won for us so great a Savior."
As a Mormon I have a wealth of scriptures and prophets to draw from so that I can understand why the fall.
In Gen 1God made a purpose statement
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion …..So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
In Gen 3 Yahweh says at less part of the plan has come to pass
'And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil..'
1 God must not exist in a state of eternal bless because he knows evil, I didn’t say he does evil but he knows what it is. He has seen how awful evil can be. He knows what sorrow it can bring.
2 In order for us to be made in his perfect image we to had to understand evil too.
The Book of Mormon helps explain why God but those two different trees in the Garden and it’s almost what you have said;
1 Nephi 2
11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.
12 Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God.
13 And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.
14 And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon.
15 And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, 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.
16 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.
Now I’m turning to a talk give by Elder L. Lionel Kendrick, one of our Seventy
Moral agency is an inherent part of our existence. The Lord revealed to Joseph Smith: “Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.
“All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence.”
And from D&C 101
78 That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.
And back to the Book of Mormon 2Nephi 2
26 And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, 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.
27 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.
28 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;
Now my own summery. If man had not been give the knowledge of good and evil then we could not have been made in God’s image and God’s eternal purpose would have been for not. We needed to taste the bitter to comprehend the sweet, thus we have moral agency to act. We can choose between Jesus the mediator or Satan and the death he brings. Adam choosing to partake of the Tree of Knowledge brought about God’s eternal plan, that was a good thing.
