In the beginning, God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, a place free from any knowledge that would exceed their willingness and ability to remain reconciled to God. In their aligned state, they were able to freely interact with God face to face without feeling any guilt, in spite of the fact that they were flawed (as revealed by their nakedness) and that they were capable of sin in environments with more knowledge (as revealed by their imminent fall). Satan exposed them to a greater increment of knowledge, Eve succumbed to his enticements, and Adam succumbed to her enticements, causing both Adam and Eve to be exiled from the presence of God. They received and obeyed commandments from God,3 reconciling themselves to him, culminating in Adam regaining the presence of God prior to his death.4
Adam and Eve provided us with an example of the pattern to which all of us are exposed. They:
- Were aligned with God, enjoying his presence at the level of knowledge they had access to.
- Were exposed to greater knowledge.
- Chose to rebel against God, leaving their state of alignment with him.
- Realigned themselves with God through forsaking past sins and remaining faithful as additional knowledge was given to them.
Access to the Tree of Life comes through justification.1648 When you reconcile yourself to how you understand God to be, you are redeemed from the fall and gain access to his presence.1649 Access to the Tree of Knowledge enables sanctification. A justified individual cannot become more like God than they already are without access to additional knowledge. The goal of mortal life is to regain access to the Tree of Life while retaining greater exposure to the Tree of Knowledge. In greater detail, the goal of mortal life is to become eternally reconciled to God with greater knowledge than was possessed prior to this life, which is the only way for the individual to become more like God than they were before, which is the only way for the individual to have more eternal joy than they had before.
Footnotes
- 1. Justice and judgment are words used interchangeably by scripture translators, even though they have significantly different meanings in English. ↩
- 2. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down. (2 Kings 21:13) Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. (Isaiah 28:17) For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth. (Zechariah 4:10) ↩
- 3. And he gave unto them commandments, that they should worship the Lord their God, and should offer the firstlings of their flocks, for an offering unto the Lord. And Adam was obedient unto the commandments of the Lord. (Moses 5:5) ↩
- 4. Three years previous to the death of Adam, he called Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah, who were all high priests, with the residue of his posterity who were righteous, into the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and there bestowed upon them his last blessing. And the Lord appeared unto them, and they rose up and blessed Adam, and called him Michael, the prince, the archangel. And the Lord administered comfort unto Adam, and said unto him: I have set thee to be at the head; a multitude of nations shall come of thee, and thou art a prince over them forever. (D&C 107:53-55) ↩