5 comments so far
Which part do you consider absurd? The romantizing two leading American Founders, the manipulation of a classic Federalist paper to completely reinvent its intended purpose or the idea that it is only when we are completely free to love that it can be created and expand?
So God’s purpose for humans (Gen. 1:28) was inherently incomplete and imperfect and required human rebellion and subsequent suffering to have success? We need the bad to appreciate the good? Do you show your young child horror movies so he can better enjoy the virtue of Dora the Explorer? What dangerously specious reasoning.
God provided everything humans needed to enjoy life and the Earth. Humans thought they could do better. God allowed them to try. Failed. The ransom arrangement provided an opportunity for reconciliation to God, this time with the issue of rightful sovereignty completely laid to rest. It’s a simple concept, and instead of relying on portents and prophecies pulled out of a hat, it’s one that is explained clearly in scripture that is ACTUALLY divinely inspired. (James 1:13; Romans 5:12, 6:23; REV. 22:18,19)
Attributing evil to God and describing the Edenic rebellion as a step forward for mankind is a tremendous perversion (Is. 5:20), and betrays the doctrine’s demonic provenance.
Phillip,
Thank you for catching my spelling error. I did mean “romanticizing.”
Olivia,
Thank you for dropping in and providing us the Protestant view of the Fall that contrasts with the Latter-day Saint view. It enriches the community possible on this site, so I appreciate you taking the time to type up a comment.
Your interpretation of my description is in need of some refining, mainly these two points, “So God’s purpose for humans (Gen. 1:28) was inherently incomplete and imperfect and required human rebellion and subsequent suffering to have success?”… “Attributing evil to God…”
Perhaps you will find C.S. Lewis’ description a bit more palatable. In his chapter, “The Fall of Man,” in his book The Problem of Pain, Mr. Lewis attempts to deal with the source of evil. On page 69, he takes a position that explains in part the Latter-day Saint view of the Fall in terms of the source of evil, “Christianity asserts that God is good; that He made all things good and for the sake of their goodness; that one of the good things He made, namely, the free will of rational creatures, by its very nature included the possibility of evil, and that creatures, availing themselves of this possibility, have become evil.”
My description did not include that “God’s purpose for humans was inherently incomplete and imperfect.” and it was not “Attributing evil to God.” As Mr. Lewis describes, because God is the source of all goodness, evil had to come from a different place. He created the perfect conditions to allow man to exercise their free will and allowed evil to come into the world. He allowed the serpent who was Lucifer, into the garden and allowed Adam and Eve the choice. As shown in the reference you provided us Romans 5:12, it was man (meaning Adam) that ushered sin into the world. It was not God. The “issue of rightful sovereignty” was never in question. It always belonged with God.
And within this description, Dora the Explorer could not exist in a world without the possibility to create a horror movie. That is not to say that a child has to watch them both. Latter-day Saints believe that in the millennium, the thousand years when Christ will reign personally on the earth, that peace is achieved because the people living willing choose to love Christ and live His commandments and this diminishes Satan’s influence so much that he becomes bound. It is an incorrect interpretation of my description to conclude that someone has to experience sin to know the good as if one has to do drugs and steal to understand its inverse. These kinds of spiritual offenses dig a hole for a person to struggle to exit before they can continue on the path to knowing Christ. What I had in mind by someone’s ability to love more deeply when they have known pain was more along the lines of bereavement or loneliness as a result of their life circumstance. Not so much what they inflicted on themselves by “watching horror movies” or by purposefully seeking after evil.
My purpose in composing such posts and responding is to share how a Latter-day Saint views the world. It is not unexpected that Protestants take issue with Latter-day Saint truth claims, especially that the heavens are not closed to modern revelation and they do not limit scriptures to the Bible only. I’m glad that you’re willing to share your view and show the contrast.
[...] Father’s children. Next the Fall: as I developed more in the partially tongue-in-cheek post “Liberty is to [love] what air is to fire” the Fall was key in allowing these spirits to come to earth for a mortal experience. Adam [...]