. . . if we assume that Adam and
the rest of the Garden inhabitants were in an immortal state, then we might
also assume that Lehi’s intimation of no death prior to the fall might have
pertained only to those immortal inhabitants of Eden, and not to the temporal
world. Another possible interpretation of the above scripture hinges on the
definition of the word “state.” Perhaps it refers to the immortal state in the
Garden in which all creatures were unable to return to God. Adam and Eve in the
Garden were not in full association with God, although He could visit them.
Only via the fall and then the redemption would they return to full fellowship
with God. Nothing on this earth could be eligible for the resurrection until
Christ arose from the dead. Thus, “all things which were created” would have
remained in the “state” of ineligibility for the resurrection unless Adam fell
from immortality to mortality and thus became subject to death. This
interpretation would allow us to think that there was death before the fall—death
for mortal creatures. (A. Lester Allen, “Divinely Directed Development of the
Earth and Its Biota: A Dynamic Scenario—How an LDS Biologist Resolves the
Evolution Question,” in Science and Religion: Toward a More Useful Dialogue,
ed. Wilford M. Hess, Raymond T. Matheny, and Donlu D. Thayer, 2 vols. [Geneva,
Ill.: Paladin House Publishers, 1979], 2:19)