WAS THERE A SIMILAR
FALL ON OTHER WORLDS?
In short, it seems possible that the
answer is no. To understand why will take a little explaining. Of course, we
are now in the realm of speculation. In trying to describe why Satan was
condemned for introducing the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge to Adam and Eve, Hugh
Nibley wrote: “Satan disobeyed orders when he revealed certain secrets to Adam
and Eve, not because they were not known and done in other worlds, but because hew
as not authorized in that time and place to convey them” ([Jeffrey M. Bradshaw,
In God’s Image and Likeness, 1], 249) Although Satan had “given the
fruit to Adam and Eve, it was not his prerogative to do so—regardless of what
had been done in other worlds. (When the time comes for such fruit, it will be
given us legitimately)” (JMBIGIL1, 249) Nibley’s statements provide helpful
answers to the question of why Satan should not have done what he did, but the question
remains Why was timing an issue?
Wondering similarly, the fifteenth-century
Adamgirk asks: “If a good secret [or mystery (p. 53n108; compare JSTPJS,
5 October 1840, 169]) was in [the evil fruit], why did [God] say not to draw near?”
([Michael E. Stone, ed. Adamgirk’: The Adam Book of Arak’el of Siwnik’],
3:2;5, p. 53) The text then answers its own question implicitly. Simply put, it
says that the gift by which Adam and Eve would “become divine” (ADAMGIRK,
1:3:71, p. 101) and for which the tree of knowledge evidently constituted a
part of the approach was, as yet, “an unattainable thing that was not in its
time” (ADAMGIRK, 1:3:27, p. 96, emphasis added). This thought evokes a statement
often attributed to Joseph Smith: “That which I wrong under one circumstance,
may be, and often is, right under another . . . Everything that God gives us is
lawful and right; and it is proper that we should enjoy His gifts and blessings
whenever and wherever He is disposed to bestow; but if we should seize upon
those same blessings and enjoyments without law, without revelation, without commandment,
those blessings and enjoyments would prove cursings and vexation” (JSDHC, 11
April 1842, 5:135).
The application of these statements of
the eating of the fruit from the two special trees seem clear. In both cases,
those who eat become in some measure “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter
1:3). While the tree of knowledge is meant to help those who ingest its fruit legitimately
to become “as gods, knowing good and evil” (Moses 4:1; see also 4:28), the tree
of life seems to symbolize the means by which eternal life itself is granted to
the faithful. But the story of the Fall teaches, that eating the fruit of the
tree of knowledge in an unprepared state brings about serious consequences that
can be reversed only through Christ’s atonement, enabling Aam and Eve to overcome
spiritual and physical death.
Going further, although Satan seems to
have been aware of what had been “done in other worlds” (JMBIGIL 1, 249),
Moses 4:6 makes it clear that he “knew not the mind of God” with respect to this
one. Indeed, we might say that it was his very ignorance of God’s designs
that paved the way of knowledge for Adam and Eve. The Adversary intended to
thwart God’s plan by inducing their transgression, but instead unknowingly
served as the required catalyst for the divinely ordained exercise of human
choice. In this set up for Satan, God had in some sense beat the Devil at his
own game . . .
What would have been different about this
world as compared to the others Satan apparently knew? Intriguingly, scripture
mentions one respect in which this earth is unique: namely that it here that Jesus
Christ wrought out His atonement. Though Latter-day Saint teachings affirm that
many worlds shared the same Creator and Savior (Doctrine and Covenants
76:23-24), they are also clear in asserting that the Atonement took place once
and for all. Also, we are told why our planet was singled out: it was the
only one among His creations that would be wicked enough to crucify their
Redeemer (see 2 Nephi 10:3; Moses 7:36).
With this understanding we might be
led to ask whether there are some worlds, more enlightened than our own, on
which the fruit of the tree of knowledge was not forbidden at the outset and on
which there was no corresponding Fall. Specifically, are there children of God
who undergo the entirety of their mortal probation on Eden-like terrestrial
worlds—that is, people in addition to those who were translated to go there
after having already lived or a time on a telestial world? We already know that
Enoch and Jesus Christ Himself ministered to translated beings living on such
worlds (JSWORDS, 3 October 1841, 77; JSTPJS, 5 October 1840, 170-71; JTMEDIATION,
76-78), “every kingdom . . . in its time” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:61). C. S.
Lewis tried to imagine such a world—populated by intelligent, innocent
creatures—in Perlandra, the second volume of his space trilogy. In addition,
he seemed to have imagined a universe in which our own world, “the silent
planet,” was an exception to the general rule—a “shadowland” that, unlike other
planets, was greatly influenced if not largely controlled, by evil immortals.
In brief, Satan’s shortsighted strategy
seems to have been to opportunistically exploit his discovery of differences
between this world and the “other worlds” he had known. God’s success in
co-opting the devil’s strategy seems to have resulted, at least in part, from Satan’s
ignorance of His unique designs for our world. (Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, The
First Days & The Last Days: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary on the Book of Moses and
JS-Matthew in Light of the Temple [Orem, Utah: The Interpreter Foundation,
2021], 88)
