Mormon Cosmology - Temporal Creation and Fall

Temporal Creation and Fall

Further information: Adam and Eve (LDS Church)

Following the War in Heaven, God the Father created the earth. Since all matter is co-eternal with God, creation of the earth was not performed ex nihilo. Rather, God performed creation by organizing pre-existing matter. The earth and everything on it were created spiritually by God before they were created physically. Under the direction of God the Father, Jehovah used the priesthood to create the physical earth and everything in it as well as the sun, moon, stars, and planets. Jehovah had assistance from other children of God, including the archangel Michael. God the Father and Jehovah together created the physical bodies of Adam and Eve, which were patterned after the physical body possessed by God. Michael's spirit was placed in the male body, and a spirit daughter of God was placed in the female body.

Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden. Although they had physical bodies, they were not yet mortal. God the Father commanded them to have children. He also told them that they could eat of any tree in the garden except for the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and that they would "surely die" if they ate of that tree.

Satan tempted Adam and Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit. Eve yielded to temptation and ate the fruit; when she told Adam that she had eaten the fruit, Adam chose to eat also. As a result of their decision to eat the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve underwent the "fall". As God had promised, the bodies of Adam and Eve became mortal and they became subject to physical death, as well as sickness and pain. They also underwent "spiritual death": they were cast out of the Garden of Eden and separated from the presence of God. Due to the fall, Adam and Eve also came to know the difference between good and evil and became capable of having children, as God had originally commanded.

As a direct result of the fall of Adam and Eve, all children of God who would be born into the world suffer physical death and spiritual death. While physical death is the separation of the spirit from the body, spiritual death is the separation of a person from God. Spiritual death results from making sinful decisions between good and evil. Were it not for the atonement of Jesus Christ, physical death and spiritual death would both prevent God's children from returning to him with a physical body.

Unlike some Christians, Latter-day Saints generally do not see the fall as a serious sin or as an overwhelmingly negative event. Rather, the fall is viewed as "a necessary step in the plan of life and a great blessing to all of us. Because of the Fall, we are blessed with physical bodies, the right to choose between good and evil, and the opportunity to gain eternal life. None of these privileges would have been ours had Adam and Eve remained in the garden." Latter-day scripture reports that Adam and Eve later rejoiced that they had chosen to partake of the fruit, and the Book of Mormon teaches that the fall was necessary for humankind to exist and for them to experience joy, which is the ultimate purpose of existence.