The Fall: Downward, Yet Forward
Elder Orson F. Whitney, Saturday Night Thoughts, 83. The fall had a two-fold direction — downward, yet forward. It brought man into the world and set his feet upon progression’s highway. But it also brought death, with all its sad concomitants [associates]. Not such a death as the righteous now contemplate, and such as both righteous and unrighteous must undergo, as a change preparatory to resurrection; but eternal death — death of the spirit as well as the body. There was no resurrection when Adam fell — not upon this planet.
Elder Orson F. Whitney, Conference Report, April 1908, 90. Adam’s fall was a step downward, but it was also a step forward — a step in the eternal march of human progress; and it is by means of this everlasting Gospel, and our own individual efforts in making use of the powers that God has given us, that we lay hold upon eternal life, and go on to perfection.