Speak Up For Women!
Two posts caught my eye today: Karen Hall over at BCC blogs on today being International Women's Day, and Don at Nine Moons asks a question about switching Adam and Eve, and what would have happened if Adam had partaken of the fruit in the Garden of Eden first.
J.Stapley had this comment on the latter post:
This line of questioning presuposes that God wanted them to eat of the fruit when they did. I don't think that this is valid. The whole Eve was so "smart" that she ate the fruit is just bunk. She was *beguiled* and broke a comandment of God. I don't think it had to be that way.
J. Stapley | Email | Homepage | 03.08.05 - 2:40 pm | #
I responded to his comment:
It's not bunk.
"The Lord knew they would do this, and he had designed that they should." --President Brigham Young (speaking on the foreordination of the Fall)
"Adam and Eve did the very thing the Lord intended them to do. If we had the original record we would see the purpose of the Fall clearly and its necessity explained." --President Joseph Fielding Smith
"Adam, our father, and Eve, our mother, must obey. They must fall. They must become mortal. Death must enter the world. There is no other way. They must fall that man may be." --Elder Bruce R. McConkie
"Adam did not commit sin in eating the fruits, for God had decreed that he should eat and fall." --The Prophet Joseph Smith
"The eternal power of choice was respected by the Lord himself.... It really converts the command into a warning, as much as to say, if you do this thing, you will bring upon yourself a certain punishment, but do it if you choose.... The Lord had warned Adam and Eve of the hard battle with earth conditions if they chose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He would not subject his son and daughter to hardship and the death of their bodies unless it be of their own choice. They must choose for themselves. They chose wisely, in accord with the heavenly law of love for others." --Elder John A. Widtsoe
"Such was the problem before our first parents: to remain forever at selfish ease in the Garden of Eden, or to face unselfishly tribulation and death, in bringing to pass the purposes of the Lord for a host of waiting spirit children. They chose the latter. This they did with open eyes and minds as to consequences. The memory of their former estates may have been dimmed, but the gospel had been taught them during their sojourn in the Garden of Eden. They could not have been left in complete ignorance of the purpose of their creation." --Elder John A. Widtsoe
If you don't read Beverly Campbell's Eve and the Choice Made in Eden, at least read the quotes from the Prophets and General Authorities from it that I posted at my blog Oct 26, 2004.
Peggy Cahill | Email | Homepage | 03.08.05 - 3:53 pm | #
I decided that in honor of International Women's Day, I would repost my original post referred to in my comment, in honor of our Glorious Mother Eve and all the elect women who have followed in her footsteps in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I believe that all Latter-day Saints, men and women, need to read Beverly Campbell's book Eve and the Choice Made in Eden. I hear she has some follow-ups available, too.
J.Stapley had this comment on the latter post:
This line of questioning presuposes that God wanted them to eat of the fruit when they did. I don't think that this is valid. The whole Eve was so "smart" that she ate the fruit is just bunk. She was *beguiled* and broke a comandment of God. I don't think it had to be that way.
J. Stapley | Email | Homepage | 03.08.05 - 2:40 pm | #
I responded to his comment:
It's not bunk.
"The Lord knew they would do this, and he had designed that they should." --President Brigham Young (speaking on the foreordination of the Fall)
"Adam and Eve did the very thing the Lord intended them to do. If we had the original record we would see the purpose of the Fall clearly and its necessity explained." --President Joseph Fielding Smith
"Adam, our father, and Eve, our mother, must obey. They must fall. They must become mortal. Death must enter the world. There is no other way. They must fall that man may be." --Elder Bruce R. McConkie
"Adam did not commit sin in eating the fruits, for God had decreed that he should eat and fall." --The Prophet Joseph Smith
"The eternal power of choice was respected by the Lord himself.... It really converts the command into a warning, as much as to say, if you do this thing, you will bring upon yourself a certain punishment, but do it if you choose.... The Lord had warned Adam and Eve of the hard battle with earth conditions if they chose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He would not subject his son and daughter to hardship and the death of their bodies unless it be of their own choice. They must choose for themselves. They chose wisely, in accord with the heavenly law of love for others." --Elder John A. Widtsoe
"Such was the problem before our first parents: to remain forever at selfish ease in the Garden of Eden, or to face unselfishly tribulation and death, in bringing to pass the purposes of the Lord for a host of waiting spirit children. They chose the latter. This they did with open eyes and minds as to consequences. The memory of their former estates may have been dimmed, but the gospel had been taught them during their sojourn in the Garden of Eden. They could not have been left in complete ignorance of the purpose of their creation." --Elder John A. Widtsoe
If you don't read Beverly Campbell's Eve and the Choice Made in Eden, at least read the quotes from the Prophets and General Authorities from it that I posted at my blog Oct 26, 2004.
Peggy Cahill | Email | Homepage | 03.08.05 - 3:53 pm | #
I decided that in honor of International Women's Day, I would repost my original post referred to in my comment, in honor of our Glorious Mother Eve and all the elect women who have followed in her footsteps in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I believe that all Latter-day Saints, men and women, need to read Beverly Campbell's book Eve and the Choice Made in Eden. I hear she has some follow-ups available, too.
posted by Peggy Snow Cahill at 3:59 PM
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