Adam & Eve Out of the Garden Episode Seven

The Garden of Eden was prepared for perfect beings. Adam and Eve were of divine origin, holy and without blemish. Also, these two were as innocent as little children in their physical state. Having experienced no memories of their home in heaven, the only thing that they would have access to is their personalities, which their experience in mortality would hone and sharpen for their understanding and return to Celestial glory.

Adam and Eve were truly divine in origin of spirit as all of humanity is, but they also were divine in body. No other human being could claim 100% of their physical parentage was divine save Adam and Eve.

As such, those two had to vacate Eden's Garden. They, like Lucifer, fell from the grace of God to be cast out into the lone dreary world. Prayer became their new medium of communicating with God. Adam and Eve hoped in God's plan of salvation prepared before the world was organized through Jesus Christ's atonement. Following is perspective on the First Couple, the true first King and Queen's exodus from heaven on Earth.

Sorrow came to Adam and Eve after banishment from the Garden of Eden because they died spiritually, leaving the presence of God; however, they had obtained a promise from Him of salvation through the coming Savior, Jesus Christ.

Partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil had the chemical effect to change the foundational natures of the bodies of the First Couple in a way to sew seeds of death, an understanding not known to them in the Garden of Eden.

"Adam & Eve - the Fruit They Ate," states that "the tree's fruit had the power to alter the chemical makeup of Adam and Eve's physical bodies. It would change their neurological constitution and cause the poisonous blood to flow through their veins that causes decay and degeneration." [1]

"Now we see," explained Alma, an ancient prophet, to a lawyer in defense of his faith in the plan of salvation through Christ, "that Adam did fall by the partaking of the forbidden fruit, according to the word of God." (Alma 12:22) It was not the fruit per se that caused the mortal descent as it was the fulfilling of a divine decree that death would occur if they ate the fruit.

Properties in the fruit, toxic, as indicated by the quote above, could have changed the natures of immortal beings. Dishonoring themselves by breaking a decree from God alone is enough to cause the elements not to honor mankind.

"Thus we see, that by his fall, all mankind became a lost and fallen people," [Alma 12:22].The elements obeyed the decrees of God. Once Adam and Eve fulfilled the oath that God made to them concerning death, the elements that composed the physical bodies of the First Couple eventually ceased to function.

Why did they need banishment?

Another tree in the Garden acted in the opposite manner of the forbidden tree. This tree made it so that physical life could exist immortally. Eternal beings as they were before they left, eating that tree's fruit would not affect their eternal lives. A fallen or mortal person eating of the fruit would consign them to eternity in that position called the second Death, separation from God the Father.

Alma explains, "if Adam had put forth his hand immediately, and partaken of the tree of life, he would have lived forever, according to the word of God, having no space for repentance ... and the great plan of salvation would have been frustrated." [Alma 42:3]

The First Couple being removed from the garden was as much a blessing to them as it seemed a curse. A curse would come to the First Couple if they partook of the Tree of Life immediately after eating the death fruit of The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Spiritual death, which is separation from God, would have been permanent had they partaken of the fruit of The Tree of Life after falling into mortality. Why? There needed to be time for the two to repent and prepare to meet God again. God put Cherubim and a flaming sword to protect His children from being shut out of His presence permanently.

The memory of the Garden and their association with celestial beings kept Adam and Eve in constant memorial of what they gave up so that they could have a family and populate Earth. Pre-mortal life with God as spirits was not a memory they could access at the time, but Eden's Garden was a "heaven" not removed from their memories. Knowing how great life could be for them and their posterity drove them to return to some semblance of heaven by keeping God's laws. There needed to be time for the two to repent and prepare to meet God again.

Banishment did not mean forever gone. Lovingly, God created the opportunity for Adam and Eve to leave the Garden and enter the land of Eden where they could live out their days working to subdue the Earth and its environs, while slowly growing to understand what loss is so that they could one day grow in maturity towards joint-heirship of the Kingdom in Heaven again.

Banishment meant freedom to make mistakes becoming the beneficiaries of the Atonement of Jesus, which was in their future. Because Adam and Eve knew God as their Father, they also comprehended that He could not lie. Therefore, their faith in the coming Messiah caused them to work hard to live up to their potential as children of God. As Alma explained, mortal life became a probationary state.

God gave Adam and Eve the gift of time. The consequence of eating the fruit was certain death, and the fact that they would eventually die was now a constant reality for them, as it is for all of us. But they didn’t die immediately. [2]