Sunday, September 6, 2020

Brigham Young on the Sin (not merely "transgression") of Adam and Eve and the Concept of a "Felix Culpa"

Brigham Young, in a sermon dated May 18, 1873, said the following negative comments about the Fall and Eve’s actions:

 

The teaching of grown people is the same as teaching the children. We receive impressions when very young, and grow up to further knowledge; it is the same in receiving the Gospel. When we talk to persons who have not previously heard the Gospel, we have to reason with them on the propriety of receiving the truth. We also have to reason with and persuade the Latter-day Saints, and it is to them I wish principally to talk this afternoon. When the Gospel is preached to the honest in heart they receive it by faith, but when they obey it labor is required. To practice the Gospel requires time, faith, the heart's affections and a great deal of labor. Here many stop. They hear and believe, but before they go on to practice they begin to think that they were mistaken, and unbelief enters into their hearts. There has been unbelief since the beginning of the world. Have you not read the sayings of Moses in regard to our mother Eve? She had heard the voice of the Lord and understood it, saying concerning the fruit of a certain tree, "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." When her husband was in another part of the garden, a certain character came along and commenced to reason with her. "That is very fine fruit: I understand the Lord says you must not partake of it." "Yes, for in the day we eat of it he says we shall die." "Well," says he, "that is not so. You must not believe all that is told you, but think for yourself. Now I will tell you something. If you eat of that fruit your eyes will be opened, and you will see as the Gods." He hands her a little of the fruit, just to try,—no matter whether it was an apple, a grape, or what it was,—she tastes of it, and does not die, and likes it so well that when Adam comes along she says, "Husband, this fruit is delightful; I have tasted it, and it is desirable to make one wise; take some." "No," says he, "I shall not, the Lord has commanded us not to eat of it." But just as it is with other husbands, she coaxes and persuades, and finally he gives way and partakes of the forbidden fruit. Now do you see how unbelief entered into the world in the beginning? (JOD 16:40-41)

 

Of course, Brigham did not hold to a totally negative view of the fall, but instead a felix culpa like that of Irenaeus of Lyons. Elsewhere, he said the following about the sin (not merely “transgression”) of Adam and Eve:

 

Some may regret that our first parents sinned. This is nonsense. If we had been there, and they had not sinned, we should have sinned. I will not blame Adam or Eve, why? Because it was necessary that sin should enter into the world; no man could ever understand the principle of exaltation without its opposite; no one could ever receive an exaltation without being acquainted with its opposite. How did Adam and Eve sin? Did they come out in direct opposition to God and to His government? No. But they transgressed a command of the Lord, and through that transgression sin came into the world. The Lord knew they would do this, and He had designed that they should. Then came the curse upon the fruit, upon the vegetables, and upon our mother earth; and it came upon the creeping things, upon the grain in the field, the fish in the sea, and upon all things pertaining to this earth, through man's transgression. This washer through an angel. Now then what have we to do? We have to labor to remove the curse from the earth, from the vegetation, from every creeping thing, and from ourselves, by the help of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Is not this a great work? Yes, and it is something we have to take an active part in. If it had been left for us, we should have brought sin into the world just as mother Eve did; and inasmuch as this is done, we have to go to work, by the power of God, and restore all things according to the revelations that have been given in former and in modern times. We have to remove the curse; but remember, we shall never be able to save ourselves without help, but with that help which the Almighty has promised we can accomplish all things. We cannot receive the things of God, except through the order that he has ordained. (JOD 10:312 | June 11, 1864)