Sterling McMurrin's claim that the Mormon notion of Adam's
transgression mistakenly stresses the "implementation of the moral freedom
of souls," whereas felix culpa produced nothing but "the
abundant grace of Christ" (Sterling McMurrin, The Theological Foundations of
Mormonism (Salt Lake City, 1965), 73-74), shows a fundamental lack of understanding of how these
principles are related in Mormon soteriology. According to the Book of Mormon,
man (who was "carnal, sensual and devilish" until redeemed by the
Atonement, Mosiah 27:25) could not have known good from evil without
opposition, nor could he freely choose between them without redemption
and grace:
God created...all things, both in the heavens and the earth...both
things to act and things to be acted upon...And to bring about his eternal
purposes...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...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...Wherefore, men are free according to the
flesh...and they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great
mediation of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the
captivity and power of the devil" (2 Nephi 2:14-16, 26-27).
This contradicts McMurrin's
conclusion that Mormonism ignores grace in favor of a "doctrine of merit,"
man supposedly being "by nature neither corrupt or depraved" (ibid.,
70). He in fact seems to equivocate when he attributes to Mormonism the
belief that "by the atonement (man) gained the possibility of salvation in
eternal life through merit" (ibid., 71). Actually, salvation
depends "alone upon the merits of Christ (Moroni 6:4), i.e. by
"relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save"
(2 Nephi 31:19). One's own "merits" consist simply of
"retain(ing) a remission of (one's) sins" (Mosiah 4:12), and being
strengthened by the "sufficient grace" of Christ, who is the
"fountain of all righteousness" (Ether 12:27-8; cf. Phil. 3:9). Yet
the informed moral choices one makes in taking advantage of this grace
will eventually determine whether he remains saved, or experiences the
"Second Death" (Helaman 14:17-18), as well as the kind of rewards he
will receive (Alma 9:28; 41:14). (Eugene Seaich, Ancient Texts and Mormonism,
6 vols. [3d ed.; Salt Lake City, Ronald W. Gibson, 2014], 4: 106
n. 327)