Mormonism 1:2 - “We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.”
What It Is:
This statement, written by Joseph Smith as the second statement establishing their church’s differences from others, responds to the concept of “original sin” believed by many Abrahamic religions. It refers to Adam from the Garden of Eden and his partaking of the fruit from the tree of the “knowledge of good and evil.” This act is considered a sin because it was in direct violation of God’s only commandment. As a result, Adam and Eve and all their descendants were condemned and banished, officially cut off from God’s immediate presence. They were left to live on earth under the shadow of death and pain, to not know the truth, and to suffer and die, beginning with their newly acquired guilt and shame.
When It Started
Aside from the book of Genesis written by Moses, Joseph provided an additional translation of the text, essentially detaching all of Adam’s descendants from his and Eve’s decisions to partake of the fruit and focusing specifically on each individual’s own transgressions against God’s additional commandments. This sets apart individuals' own decisions to be subject to God’s judgment. Furthermore, it affirms that children are all born innocent, ignorant of disobedience, and devoid of condemnation until the age of accountability, when responsibility for their actions is officially accepted following their full immersion baptism.
Where We Relate
As it is revealed through Undefinable and Expansive, in this variation of the world, a being named Adam indeed existed, and while many details of the story have been left out, there was what could be considered a tree offering fruit. It did represent a decision for a transformation that only the being who is to experience it could decide to partake in. Therefore, we agree that there are many decisions which accompany consequential adaptations to one’s previously anticipated future.
In turn, we understand how the natural transformation of the garden was interpreted as a “casting out” and how resentment for regrettable actions naturally distorted the actual events of the story, giving it attributes originally not present. Recognizing the knowledge received was a psychological alteration, which made those processing it experience the same reality in a different way, is a natural occurrence regarding the laws of cause and effect defined within the Universal Constants of Emanation and Reflection. This required the story to play out the way it did in order for the experience of individual free will to be convincing.
We also recognize that all physical human beings continue to experience the repercussions of the decision made to partake of this knowledge. This continues to suggest that the conditions of an individual’s worldly experience depend on their own choices and that they should be held accountable for the actions they remember and identify as bringing into fruition, including admitting that there is a point where one has completed their moral training and can be held responsible for said actions.
Why It Seems
All reality we experience, either firsthand or through stories, is processed through our sensory perceptions and then processed by our brains in the way they were developed to do so. In the third-dimensional perspective, brains were developed to process through a series of resistances, one of which can be referred to as an “idea of separation” or, in this case, as the “knowledge of good and evil.” When this process is used in the observation of reality, the spiritual being will interpret the information it perceives as if it is receiving sensory input from physical objects and various elements around what it now feels and sees as its body.
The knowledge received was a psychological alteration, rearranging their molecular structure into sensory perceptions, designed to depict a complete immersion into the separation of polar oppositions of elements to develop the perceived experience of what we call a physical world.
For this same reason, all revelation cannot be properly understood when the recipient translator cannot recognize beyond their own psychological projections, distorting all perceived information into distinct physical images and culturally relatable representations. Moses did this, as well as Joseph, and you have also, even with the words I speak now.
With An Open-mind
The “original sin” does not require punishment for the action; it is about living out a decision regarding creation actually possessing physical attributes. The garden was not physical, nor did they actually have physical bodies at the time. This “knowledge” distorts the Wholly Spiritual Universe into what now seems to be physical. In other words, right now we all see and experience the illumination and movement of spiritual energy, but the “knowledge of good and evil” twists it to look and sound like these words, like this book, like hands, eyes, brains, and bodies. You cannot see the “earth” as it actually is now, not because of Adam’s sin, but because of our decision to not experience the “earth” as it actually is, but instead as physical dirt within bodies full of opposition.
In the story, the serpent was cursed to live on its belly and eat dirt every day, which implies it did not slither around before this. The woman was cursed to suffer through pregnancy and childbirth, suggesting this did not happen already. The ground was also cursed beneath man’s feet, requiring him to work for food and eat it every day. We often ask why they did this, even though, after partaking of the fruit, their eyes were opened and they saw they were naked, but we never ask why God placed a forbidden tree there.
Raising my children, I know that putting something in front of them and insisting they must not touch it, especially when I insist upon it passionately or threaten them with a spanking, often results in them doing exactly what I asked them not to do. This means I must want them to experience pain. As an all-knowing God, surely I would know that. Therefore, there must be another reason, a purpose we cannot recognize, or else this God was not all-knowing and actually made a mistake—a “sin” of its own, now thrashing about and taking it out on its children. I do not believe this is the case; I believe there is more to the story to know.
It’s true we cannot blame our choices for “sins” on Adam’s partaking of the knowledge, but we can surely recognize that every atom now represents opposition. We all seem to live as bodies because of the molecular transformation we each underwent, transforming from spiritual beings into physical ones. This is not simply so we can die, but so we can learn to overcome the decision for death, the decision which makes death seem possible, the decision for the “knowledge of good and evil.” We can learn not just to obey actions in accordance with God’s will but to think and process our observations of “earth” in accordance with God’s sight. It is interesting to consider that this “serpent” might have already possessed this knowledge and was still allowed in the garden.
How We Unite
If the knowledge gave them the ability to recognize good and evil, then it is required to judge if someone is “good or evil,” or even if something is “safe or harmful,” or if it is “healthy or unwholesome.” Therefore, it is not simply “knowledge” but an ability to judge—an ability to discern and assess differences. Its opposite, the tree of eternal life, would be achieved when this ability is surrendered.
Our “punishment” would not be in the future; it is the natural manifestation of living as physical bodies sentenced to fend off death and suffer in fear of pain. Yes, we are able to do so because of what occurred in this story making it possible, but because we each have chosen it for ourselves.
We cannot be “even as gods” simply because our eyes are opened to recognizing good actions from bad actions, but we can become a step closer when we choose to surrender such an ability. When we choose to forgive the concept of separation, observe reality by overcoming the “knowledge of good and evil,” and instead partake of and use the “tree of life,” then we learn to be as gods. This step requires that we partake of the first in order to know.
Being the opposing factor in the story, it remains so in our lives, and their difference can be understood through their names. Adam and Eve were innocent, allowed to eat of anything, even from the tree of life; it was only the tree of this separate knowledge that was forbidden at the time. But after partaking of its fruit, now it was the tree of life that was forbidden. Perhaps the revelation in this does not reside in the two trees but instead in the word “forbidden.” As the original opposing factors, it is not that we must not have both, but that their knowledge contradicts each other. You may either live forever or know of good and evil. For those willing to understand, this could reveal exactly how to overcome it.
Neither Eve nor Adam, without the knowledge, had the ability to determine if taking the fruit was a good idea or a bad one, even when they were told directly what not to do and what it would result in if they did it. Regardless of how you may now judge this god to be, recognize that this way of thinking is the way of eternal life. Perhaps with the wisdom of these opposing factors, but only when accompanied by a harmonious land with peace among creatures and peace among people.
How Its True
Knowing what I know now from personal experience beyond this knowledge, this rendition of the story was more adapted to Moses’s understanding when he reached out to receive it. This is why it appears to have space for interpretation, further acknowledged by Joseph because of his revision of it himself. What matters for your experience is your interpretation—not just of the story itself but of what you use to interpret it and reality.
You might find yourself agreeing or disagreeing with what has been said or with the events spoken of and their accuracy. All this is a form of assessment, a thought system which, one way or another, makes living as bodies possible. Therefore, liberation from its suffering would reflect the surrender of the thought system. You are currently choosing which “kingdom” you live by how you interpret the reality you now perceive. You cannot live in a celestial kingdom if you continue to judge reality terrestrially; discernment of opposition is the decision for the terrestrial.
“Why They Are Right” (book series)
By Rev. Devan Jesse Byrne
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The author of The Statutes Of The Divinely Realized the essence of Undefinable and Expansive, here to coach spiritual people to discover their multidimensional reality beyond the veil.
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