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)
