Fall of the Universe

Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., Doctrines of Salvation, 2:321.

“The heavens and the earth were thus polluted, that is, the material heavens, and everything connected with our globe all fell when man fell, and became subject to death when man became subject to it. Both man and the earth are redeemed from the original sin without ordinances; but soon we find new sins committed by the fallen sons of Adam, and the earth became corrupted before the Lord by their transgressions. It needs redeeming ordinances for these second transgressions The Lord ordained baptism or immersion of the earth in water as a justifying ordinance.” [Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 1:291.]

The Fall — Not a Myth

Doctrine & Covenants Commentary, by Hyrum M. Smith & Janne M. Sjodahl, rev. by Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, & Marion G. Romney (SLC: Deseret Book Company, 1972), 160–161.

Some have asserted that the story of the fall is but a myth, or an allegory, but it is given in the Scriptures as part of the history of the human family, and must be either accepted as such, or rejected as fiction. The fall was as necessary for the development of the race as was the creation. The story of the first fall is, moreover, the story of every sin. Temptation begins with doubt as to the truth of the prohibition. “Has God said …?” It is continued by a contemplation of the pleasure that may be derived from doing that which has been prohibited. It ends with a sense of shame and degradation and dread of the presence of God. Such is the beginning and development of every transgression.

There are many theories of the origin of sin. The Scriptures tell us that our first parents fell, and that sin thereby was introduced into the world. That there is sin in the world, cannot be denied. What is sin, then, and how did it happen to come among men? Where did it come from? Such are the questions asked by philosophy and theology alike. Some assume the existence of two eternal principles — one good and one evil, and they say that sin comes from the latter. Gnostics and Manichæans regarded matter as evil and sin as a result of the contact of the spirit with matter.Others have held that sin is merely an absence of good, a negation, a limitation. God, they say, is the one good Being, all others being inferior to Him in attributes, and, therefore, sinful. “Evil is what is finite,” says Baur. “If other beings than God are to exist, there must be in them, so far as they are not infinite as God is, for that very reason, a minimum of evil.” Leibnitz holds that sin is due to the imperfection of all that is created. No created being can be perfect. His knowledge is limited and so is his power, and sin comes because of this necessary limitation. “Evil is hidden under good as under a mask.” Another theory derives sin from selfishness, but fails to account for the origin of selfishness, which itself is sinful. Another theory holds that sin is necessary, since all men must be developed by antagonism, and a moral world without sin would be as a stagnant pool. Professor Muller characterized this theory as an approach to “pansatanism..”

How different from all these speculations is the revealed truth! Man has free agency. This presupposes a law and freedom to obey or disobey. The law was given, and man, tempted by the fallen angel, disobeyed. Through Christ Jesus his redemption was accomplished, by which he regained infinitely more than he lost, and thus the fall, as someone has said, became a “fall upwards.” [Cowley & Whitney: “downward but forward.”] Sin, in its outward manifestations, is the breaking of the law.