The Fall
Definition
The Fall in the Book of Mormon is the event of Adam and Eve’s departure from the Garden of Eden — but interpreted in a distinctive way. Unlike traditions that view the Fall as a pure tragedy or the origin of “original sin,” the Book of Mormon presents it as a necessary step in the divine plan: “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25). Children are born innocent and do not inherit Adam’s guilt. The Fall introduces opposition into the world — good and evil, pleasure and pain — without which moral agency and growth would be impossible.
Where It Appears
The most developed treatment of the Fall appears in 2 Nephi 2, where the dying Lehi teaches his son Jacob that without the Fall there could be no children, no joy, no righteousness (since righteousness requires the possibility of sin), and no redemption. Other passages develop implications: King Benjamin teaches that the “natural man is an enemy to God” because of the Fall (Mosiah 3:19); Alma teaches that the Fall brought both spiritual and temporal death, both of which Christ’s atonement overcomes (Alma 42).
Narrative and Theological Function
The Fall solves a theological problem: why is there evil and suffering in a world created by a good God? The Book of Mormon’s answer is that opposition is necessary for agency, and agency is necessary for growth. The Fall is not a mistake but a feature — Adam and Eve’s transgression was a transgression of a specific command, not a “sin” in the sense of moral evil, because they did not yet know good from evil. This reframing makes the Fall the precondition for the entire plan of salvation: without the Fall, there would be nothing for Christ to redeem, and no souls to redeem.
Relationship to Other Concepts
The Fall is the problem to which redemption is the solution. The Fall introduces the need for faith and baptism. The Fall and the atonement are a pair: the Fall came by Adam, redemption comes by Christ.
In Comparative Context
The Book of Mormon’s doctrine of the Fall differs from traditional Christian original sin (infants are innocent), from Calvinist total depravity (the Fall wounds but does not wholly destroy human capacity for good), and from the Quranic account (Adam and Eve repent and are forgiven on earth). The text’s language that Adam and Eve’s transgression was necessary for human existence — that they could not have children before the Fall — gives the Fall a positive, generative dimension absent from most Christian theologies.