“All Men Must Repent for He Showed Unto All Men That They Were Lost”

K. Douglas Bassett

Moses 5:10-11; Mormon 9:12-13; Answers to Gospel Questions, Smith, 3:100-101; Doctrines of Salvation, Smith, 1:76-77, 91,107-108; Man: His Origin & Destiny, Smith, pp. 278-280; Conference Report, Apr. 1953, pp. 123-124; The Broken Heart, Hafen; Conference Report, Apr. 1967, p. 122; “Eve and the Fall,” Woman, McConkie, pp. 67-68; The Words of Joseph Smith, Ehat and Cook, p. 63; Journal of Discourses 13:145; Alpha to Omega, Kimball, pp. 46-47

“No, we do not believe, with Calvin, in the moral depravity of men and women. No, we do not believe, with Luther, that man does not even have the power to choose good over evil. And we do not believe that children inherit the so-called sin of Adam through either sexual union or by birth. Rather, children are born into a world of sin; conception is simply the vehicle by which the effects of the Fall (not original guilt) are transmitted to Adam’s posterity. Lehi taught Jacob that in the beginning God ‘Gave commandment that all men must repent; for he showed unto all men that they were lost, because of the transgression of their parents.’ (2 Ne. 2:21.)” (Robert Millet, Ensign, June 1992, p. 8)
“It is easier for me to understand the word fall in the scriptures if I think both in terms of location and condition. The word fall means to descend to a lower place… . The fall of man was a move from the presence of God to mortal life on earth… . Fall may also describe a change in condition… . The word fall describes well what transpired when Adam and Eve were driven from the garden… . The bodies formed for mankind became temporal or physical bodies. The scriptures say ‘the life of all flesh is in the blood thereof’ (Lev. 17:11-13; Deut. 12:23; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 199-200). After the transformation caused by the Fall, bodies of flesh and bone and blood (unlike our spirit bodies), would not endure forever. Somehow the ingredient blood carried with it a limit to life. It was as though a clock were set and a time given. There-after, all living things moved inexorably toward mortal or temporal death. Temporal … means temporary… . Had man evolved from animals, there could have been no fall, no law broken, no penalty, no need for a mediator… . Many who perceive organic evolution to be law rather than theory do not realize they forsake the Atonement in the process.”

(Boyd K. Packer, The Book of Mormon: Jacob Through Words of Mormon, To Learn with Joy, BYU Religious Studies Center, ed. by Nymon & Tate.)

“Adam had a spiritual body until mortality came upon him through the violation of the law under which he was living, but he also had a physical body of flesh and bones. Now what is a spiritual body? It is one that is quickened by spirit and not by blood. Our Father in heaven and our Savior and all those who have passed through the resurrection have physical bodies of flesh and bones, but their bodies are quickened by spirit and not by blood, hence they are spiritual bodies and not blood bodies. The immortal body is quickened by spirit, but the mortal body is quickened by blood… . Now when Adam was in the Garden of Eden, he was not subject to death. There was no blood in his body and he could have remained there forever. This is true of all the other creations.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:76-77)

Latter-Day Commentary on the Book of Mormon

References