Moses 2:28, 3:16-17, Moses 4:18
“Adam did not commit sin in eating the fruits, for God had decreed that he should eat and fall.” (Joseph Smith, The Words of Joseph Smith, p. 63)
“What did Adam do? The very thing the Lord wanted him to do; And I hate to hear anybody call it a sin, for it wasn’t a sin. Now this is the way I interpret that: [Moses 3:16-17]. The Lord said to Adam, here is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you want to stay here, then I forbid you to eat it. But you may act for yourself, and you may eat of it if you want to. And if you eat it, you will die.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Charge to Religious Educators, p. 124)
“Adam and Eve therefore did the very thing that the Lord intended them to do… . The Lord said to Adam that if he wished to remain in the garden, then he was not to eat the fruit, but if he desired to eat it and partake of death he was at liberty to do so. So really it was not in the true sense a transgression of a divine commandment… . It was the divine plan from the very beginning that man should be placed on the earth and be subject to mortal conditions and pass through a probationary state as explained in the Book of Mormon… .” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, 4:79-82)
“God issued to Adam and Eve the first commandment ever given to mankind. It was a commandment to beget children. A law was explained to them. Should they eat from ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ (Gen. 2:17), their bodies would change; mortality and eventual death would come upon them. But partaking of that fruit was prerequisite to their parenthood… . Their bodies did change; blood began to circulate in their bodies. Adam and Eve thereby became mortal. Happily for us, they could also beget children and fulfill the purposes for which the world was created… . We and all mankind are forever blessed because of Eve’s great courage and wisdom. By partaking of the fruit first, she did what needed to be done. Adam was wise enough to do likewise. Accordingly, we could speak of the fall of Adam in terms of a mortal creation, because ‘Adam fell that men might be’ (2 Ne. 2:25). Other blessings came to us through the Fall. It activated two closely coupled additional gifts from God, nearly as precious as life itself—agency and accountability. We became ‘free to choose liberty and eternal life … or to choose captivity and death’ (2 Ne. 2:27).” (Russell M. Nelson, Ensign, Nov. 1993, p. 34)
“When Adam and Eve received the first commandment, they were in a transitional state, no longer in the spirit world but with physical bodies not yet subject to death and not yet capable of procreation. They could not fulfill the Father’s first commandment without transgressing… . For reasons that have not been revealed, this transition, or ‘fall,’ could not happen without a transgression … It was Eve who first transgressed the limits of Eden in order to initiate the conditions of mortality… . Adam showed his wisdom by doing the same. And thus Eve and ‘Adam fell that men might be’ (v. 25). Some Christians condemn Eve for her act, concluding that she and her daughters are somehow flawed by it. Not the Latter-day Saints! Informed by revelation, we celebrate Eve’s act and honor her wisdom and courage in the great episode called the Fall… . Modern revelation shows that our first parents understood the necessity of the Fall.” (Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign, Nov. 1993, pp. 72-73)
“I do not look upon Adam’s action as sin. I think it was a deliberate act of free agency.” (Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, Apr. 1953, p. 124)
“Adam and Eve … were ordained of God to do what they did, and it was therefore expected that they would eat of the forbidden fruit in order that man might know both good and evil by passing through this school of experience which this life affords us.” (Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses 23:125)
“President Smith also gave an enlightening definition and application to the idea of the ‘forbidden fruit.’ He indicated that the ‘forbidden’ aspect was not in the partaking, but instead had reference to Adam and Eve’s not being able to remain in the garden if they partook. This explanation suggests that the Lord wanted the Fall to occur.”
((Unpublished address given by Joseph Fielding Smith at the LDS Institute of Religion, SLC, Utah, Jan. 14, 1961. Transcript approved by President Smith)
“Lehi explains that if Adam had not fallen, he and Eve would have remained endlessly in the Garden of Eden and that all things that had been created would have ‘remained in the same state in which they were after they were created.’ There would have been an endless state in which there was no change: no aging, no separation of the body and spirit in death, no reunion of the same in resurrection, no rewards for righteousness, no punishments for wickedness, no future kingdom of glory, no eternal life. Nor is this all, for Adam and Eve would have remained incapable of having seed of their own. Thus, as Lehi so eloquently stated it, ‘Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy.’ (2 Nephi 2:22-25).” (R. Millet and J. F. McConkie, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 1:11-12)