2 Nephi 2:26

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26 And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.

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Creation, Fall, Atonement

These three principles-the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement-are inseparable and have properly been called the three pillars of eternity.

Within the covers of the Bible we can read an account of the Creation, of Adam's fall, and of the events that surrounded Christ's atoning sacrifice. Yet it is to the Book of Mormon that we must turn to learn why things were created as they were, why it was essential to the eternal plan for the salvation of man that Adam fall, and why the blood of Christ needed to be shed in an infinite sacrifice. To this end, few verses have ever been penned that are more instructive than those here written by father Lehi. First, he told us that if Adam had not fallen, all created things- that is, Adam, Eve, plants, animals, and even the earth itself- would have remained forever in the paradisiacal state in which they had been created. None would know death, none would know corruption or change of any kind, and none could produce after their own kind. All must have remained forever as they existed at the completion of the creative act.

The book of Moses, which is the Joseph Smith Translation account of the Creation, sustains the testimony of Lehi. In it we are told that all things were "spiritual" in the day in which they were created, meaning that they were not subject to death or change. The full implication of this account will be missed by those who have not understood the manner in which the scriptures use the word spiritual. For instance, Amulek defined the resurrection as a state in which body and spirit are united "never to be divided; thus the whole becoming spiritual and immortal, that they can no more see corruption" (Alma 11:45, italics added). Thus the physical body in its resurrected or deathless state is said to be a spiritual body. This same terminology was used by Paul. "It is sown a natural body," he said, "it is raised a spiritual body." There is a natural body, and then is a spiritual body." (1 Corinthians 15:44.) Those without the understanding that the resurrection is the inseparable reunion of body and spirit have supposed that Paul was saying that in the world to come we will exist only as spirits. Our own revelations are consistent with the manner in which the ancients used the word spiritual. "For notwithstanding they die, they also shall rise again, a spiritual body. They who are of a celestial spirit shall receive the same body which was a natural body," stated the Lord,". . . and your glory shall be that glory by which your bodies are quickened." (D&C 88:27-28.)

Thus, when the Lord describes the Creation by saying that it was "spiritual in the day that I created it; for it remaineth in the sphere in which I, God, created it, yea, even all things which I prepared for the use of man" (Moses 3:9), we understand the Lord to be saying that there was no death or corruption among God's creations. We would hardly expect God to create things in a state in which they are to die, decay, and dissolve. It was from this state- in which none of God's creations were subject to death, corruption, or change- that Adam fell. Further, Lehi told us that in this state no living thing could enjoy the privilege of procreation. Thus Lehi brought us to the understanding that Adam fell to keep the great commandment of God that he and Eve have posterity. In so doing they introduced death to all things- temporal death or the separation of body and spirit, and a spiritual death in that they no longer lived in the divine presence. The Fall thus created the need for a redemption from death and from the separation of man from God. Lehi testified that such a Redeemer would come in the fulness of time.

Mother Eve gave a most perfect expression of the doctrine of the Fall, saying: "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).

Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 4 vols., 1:, p.199-201