The angel quotes the Lord by further explaining that the gift of the restoration can be either a tremendous blessing (conferring life everlasting) or a curse (its rejection bringing eternal destruction). Human beings must exercise their agency, selecting which of the two they will have.
The dual nature of God’s revelations is discussed in various ways throughout the scriptures and forms the basis for Lehi’s later discussion of opposition in all things. In the Old World, early Christian literature emphasized this dual nature frequently enough that the motif is known as the “Doctrine of the Two Ways.” (See commentary accompanying 1 Nephi 14:9–10.)