2 Nephi 2:21-30
2:21 – I’ve never thought as in depth about or understood the concept of agency as much as I have within the last few days. I guess logically, I could see a mild connection between “opposition in all things” and the ability to choose for ourselves. But honestly, even though I believe that Heavenly Father would only do what’s best for us, deep down I’ve still been that hurt little girl who thought Satan’s plan was better because I wouldn’t have suffered. It really wasn’t until yesterday that I truly realized that Satan didn’t make his plan to keep us from suffering; he came up with his plans to make us all his slaves. The ultimate betrayal would have come from him, not my loving and just God. We were all given the ability to choose for ourselves, moral agency, which I’m going to have to research a little bit more later. And to make the playing field even, he had our first parents fall. We are all born into different circumstances, with different personalities and different resources; it wouldn’t be fair and just if only some were fallen and some were not. So that all can be given an equal chance “he showed unto all men that they were lost, because of the transgression of their parents.”
2:22-25 – The Institute manual quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching “Mortality and procreation and death all had their beginnings with the Fall… An infinite creator…made the earth and man and all forms of life in such a state that they could fall. This fall involved a change of status… (Before the fall) all forms of life lived in a higher state than now prevails.” I had never considered that everything was at a different operating level before the fall. I guess it makes sense with the “lamb and the lion” thing, but even when I imagined the Garden of Eden or the interaction between Adam and Eve, I only considered it on my own level of consciousness. But looking at in in the way of perpetual serenity, I can imagine everyone just sitting around the garden, just chillin. No worries, no problems, nobody upset, and really I think that’s what a lot of us are searching for in this life, just some down time, to relax and rest and gather ourselves together, I know I would just love a day or two where I could sleep as much as I wanted, go outside, look at stuff, and just have it be quiet. But then again, that implies that I live in a loud world where I get very little sleep. Because to know I want sleep I have to be exhausted right? Opposition in all things?
The manual then goes on to talk about the difference between a “sin” and a “transgression.” I had never thought that there was a difference, I was always taught that wrong is wrong and everything is the same amount of wrong no matter if you told a lie or stabbed someone in the chest, it was all the same seriousness, which I guess is kind of a heavy burden to carry especially as a child, when I say a swear word and I feel as guilty as if I had murdered someone. There is a sense of hopelessness in that, swear twice in one day and it’s over. Elder Dallin H. Oaks teaches that “Some acts, like murder, are crimes because they are inherently wrong. Other acts, like operating without a license, are crimes only because they are legally prohibited.” It helps to understand that when they ate the forbidden fruit it wasn’t as serious as an “inherently wrong” crime.
“Adam fell that men might be.” Honestly I hadn't recognized the significance that the fall had in our whole eternal experience. I had never put these dots in a row before. Earlier on in the chapter in the Institute manual, there's a quote by Elder Bruce R. McConkie that really put a lot in perspective for me. "The creation, the Fall and the Atonement are inseparably women together to form one plan of salvation... No one of them stands alone; each of them ties into the other two." Without the creation, there would have been no where for anyone to go to gain bodies, without the fall, our existence on this planet wouldn't have been possible. And without the atonement, our lives here would have been pointless because we would have all been lost without any way back.
2:26-30 - Lehi pleads with his sons to follow Christ and have eternal life, and he says "and not choose eternal death." I think one way to look at this is to say "if someone came up to me and offered me eternal life or eternal damnation, which would I choose?" Clearly, unless you're a complete psycho, which there are out there so I have to put it out there as an option, you'd choose eternal life and run away screaming from eternal damnation. Why then do so many people end up going the way of spiritual death? Why would Lehi have to basically beg his sons to turn away from the chains of the devil? Shouldn't it be obvious what you should and shouldn't do for your own happiness? But here we are in a constant struggle everyday. Satan employs a very subtle mix of deception and other terrible things that we have to be so very careful of.
2:22-25 – The Institute manual quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching “Mortality and procreation and death all had their beginnings with the Fall… An infinite creator…made the earth and man and all forms of life in such a state that they could fall. This fall involved a change of status… (Before the fall) all forms of life lived in a higher state than now prevails.” I had never considered that everything was at a different operating level before the fall. I guess it makes sense with the “lamb and the lion” thing, but even when I imagined the Garden of Eden or the interaction between Adam and Eve, I only considered it on my own level of consciousness. But looking at in in the way of perpetual serenity, I can imagine everyone just sitting around the garden, just chillin. No worries, no problems, nobody upset, and really I think that’s what a lot of us are searching for in this life, just some down time, to relax and rest and gather ourselves together, I know I would just love a day or two where I could sleep as much as I wanted, go outside, look at stuff, and just have it be quiet. But then again, that implies that I live in a loud world where I get very little sleep. Because to know I want sleep I have to be exhausted right? Opposition in all things?
The manual then goes on to talk about the difference between a “sin” and a “transgression.” I had never thought that there was a difference, I was always taught that wrong is wrong and everything is the same amount of wrong no matter if you told a lie or stabbed someone in the chest, it was all the same seriousness, which I guess is kind of a heavy burden to carry especially as a child, when I say a swear word and I feel as guilty as if I had murdered someone. There is a sense of hopelessness in that, swear twice in one day and it’s over. Elder Dallin H. Oaks teaches that “Some acts, like murder, are crimes because they are inherently wrong. Other acts, like operating without a license, are crimes only because they are legally prohibited.” It helps to understand that when they ate the forbidden fruit it wasn’t as serious as an “inherently wrong” crime.
“Adam fell that men might be.” Honestly I hadn't recognized the significance that the fall had in our whole eternal experience. I had never put these dots in a row before. Earlier on in the chapter in the Institute manual, there's a quote by Elder Bruce R. McConkie that really put a lot in perspective for me. "The creation, the Fall and the Atonement are inseparably women together to form one plan of salvation... No one of them stands alone; each of them ties into the other two." Without the creation, there would have been no where for anyone to go to gain bodies, without the fall, our existence on this planet wouldn't have been possible. And without the atonement, our lives here would have been pointless because we would have all been lost without any way back.
2:26-30 - Lehi pleads with his sons to follow Christ and have eternal life, and he says "and not choose eternal death." I think one way to look at this is to say "if someone came up to me and offered me eternal life or eternal damnation, which would I choose?" Clearly, unless you're a complete psycho, which there are out there so I have to put it out there as an option, you'd choose eternal life and run away screaming from eternal damnation. Why then do so many people end up going the way of spiritual death? Why would Lehi have to basically beg his sons to turn away from the chains of the devil? Shouldn't it be obvious what you should and shouldn't do for your own happiness? But here we are in a constant struggle everyday. Satan employs a very subtle mix of deception and other terrible things that we have to be so very careful of.
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