I disagree.
It was not a lie.
Once they knew right from wrong, they did become more like god.
Unless of course your argument is that God does not know right from wrong....
Now if you were to say that Satan misled them...
That I can agree with.
I agree - the fall was necessary for our progression strange as it sounds. There is a reason behind everything. Not knowing evil meant not knowing good. Good and evil are relative terms, they do not exist without eachother.
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In contrast to most readers of the Bible, we believe that Adam and Eve both should be commended for what they did to bring about the Fall. We understand that without the Fall none of us could have come to the earth and the whole plan of salvation would have been frustrated (see
2 Ne. 2:25). Adam said: “Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God” (
Moses 5:10). Eve likewise rejoiced: “Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient” (
Moses 5:11).
The Lord gave Adam and Eve four commandments in the Garden of Eden. They were to multiply and replenish the earth (see
Gen. 1:28;
Moses 2:28;
Abr. 4:28). They were to govern the earth wisely (have dominion over it) (see
Moses 2:28;
Abr. 4:26). They were not to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and if they did they would experience serious consequences (see
Gen. 2:17;
Moses 3:17;
Abr. 5:13). And they were to remain with each other (see
Gen. 2:24;
Moses 3:24;
Abr. 5:18). In the case of two of these commandments—to multiply and replenish the earth and to refrain from partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil—Adam and Eve had to choose which they were to obey. Procreation was not possible for them in their immortal state (see
2 Ne. 2:22–25), yet Heavenly Father would not rob them of their agency by making the choice for them. President Joseph Fielding Smith wrote:
“The Lord said to Adam that if he wished to remain as he was 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.” 19 In essence the Lord told Adam that there were two directions to go, each with its unique consequences—and that Adam was to choose which one.
From President Brigham Young we learn: “Some may regret that our first parents sinned. This is nonsense. If we had been there, and they had not sinned, we should have sinned. I will not blame Adam or Eve. Why? Because
it was necessary that sin should enter into the world; no man could ever understand the principle of exaltation without its opposite; no one could ever receive an exaltation without being acquainted with its opposite. How did Adam and Eve sin? Did they come out in direct opposition to God and to his government? No. But they transgressed a command of the Lord, and through that transgression sin came into the world. The Lord knew they would do this, and he had designed that they should. Then came the curse upon the fruit, upon the vegetables, and upon our mother earth; and it came upon the creeping things, upon the grain in the field, the fish in the sea, and upon all things pertaining to this earth, through man’s transgression.”
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The Prophet Joseph Smith referred to their choice to eat of the fruit as a “transgression,” not a sin (
A of F 1:2). Similarly, Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained: “It is proper and according to the scriptural pattern to speak of the
transgression of Adam, but not the
sin of Adam. (D. & C. 20:20; 29:40 [
D&C 20:20;
D&C 29:40];
Job 31:33;
Rom. 5:14;
1 Tim. 2:14;
Alma 12:31; Second Article of Faith.) Lehi says, for instance, ‘If Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen.’ Then he explains that while in their state of innocence in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve ‘knew no sin.’ (
2 Ne. 2:22–23.) Knowledge of good and evil is an essential element in the commission of sin, and our first parents did not have this knowledge until after they had partaken of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
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Thus, by being required to leave the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve caused the great plan of happiness to go forward. Mortality came to all living things; procreation began the process of bringing us, the sons and daughters of God, to earth as Adam and Eve’s posterity. We who have come here or will yet come agreed to the conditions of mortality in order to participate in the plan, and we counted as a great blessing the opportunity to live in this imperfect world (see
Job 38:4–7). While those who do not understand the plan may feel that all of us are stained with sin when we are born, we know that this is erroneous thinking. Elder Joseph Fielding Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote: “Adam’s transgression was banishment from the presence of God and bringing the physical death into the world. The majority in the religious world maintain that every child born into this world is tainted with ‘original sin,’ or partakes of Adam’s transgression in his birth. The second Article of Faith contradicts this foolish and erroneous doctrine.”
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