Little Children and The Fall

Saturday, January 2, 2016

I believe it is important to understand the fall better than we do, so that we can know how to rise.

In temple ceremonies of ancient times, was the Garden of Eden depicting a historical man named Adam? Is it depicting everyman? Or is depicting you?¹

As little children, we are born into heaven.

"Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 19:14)

"...teach parents that they must repent and be baptized, and humble themselves as their little children, and they shall all be saved with their little children."²

We see blasphemy all around us. We see our parents, our teachers, our siblings all breaking the first commandment.

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." (Exodus 20:3-5)

We often see shame and self rejection and fear as motivating causes. But as little children we reject it, because we know our true selves and are not pursuaded. We also see flashes of the child-like, or heaven in older people.

The scriptures were written to a fallen people, not to children. The children have no need of, or reason for them. The scriptures describe our walk back to God, why would a child need this, when God already abides with them and has made them His tabernacle?

But children grow in this toxic, blasphemous environment where everyone is rejecting themselves. Because only one had the strength to never sin, they begin to sin and blaspheme also.

"See—you are naked. Take some fig leaves and make you aprons. Father will see your nakedness. Quick! Hide!"

What they "learn" is to be ashamed of who they are. They "learn" they should be ashamed of being naked. They "learn" false doctrine that in order to be loved by parents, siblings and teachers that they must fall down and worship the false images they have for them. They "learn" that they are not worthy of the love of God because of a deficiency that was never real, a false image.

"Here is some of the fruit of that tree. It will make you wise."

All those things that they "learn" is false knowledge. By learning this false knowledge, they taste the bitter in the hopes that one day, they may learn to taste the sweet.

"A man is his own tormenter and his own condemner. Hence the saying, They shall go into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. The torment of disappointment in the mind of man is as exquisite as a lake burning with fire and brimstone. I say, so is the torment of man." (Joseph Smith, TPJS p. 357)

But in breaking the commandment, they gain wisdom, they gain experience. By partaking, they learn to a greater degree what ought to be prized, and what ought to be rejected.

"Faith, hope and charity."

Some of these one-time little children return to the Cherubim who by now is terrifying to them, holding a flaming sword, and face the terrible and wonderful truth which cuts them to the center.³ But he is guarding something that they want, above all else. These one-time children partake of life, they lay down their false images of perfection, they cut down the grove of idols, they cease to blaspheme and no greater joy wells up inside their soul, than to make this discovery. All malice ceases, all contention is gone, nothing but love exists for themselves and for all of their fellow man. They would gladly lay down their life for a brother who desires to take it.

They see the Father, and a heavenly host.

They have returned to the garden where fruit is spontaneously produced. While it is the same world that their fellows live in,⁴ it is a pure joy. They desire that all come and partake. They desire that their eyes might be opened, not to false knowledge, but this time, a walk back to truth. "Come! Come again and be innocent like when you were a child!" They have come to deliver a message that is now alive and reborn inside of them. Once a tree of "knowledge" grew there and produced myriad seeds of death, thorns and thistles, but now a new fruit has been consumed, and it is delicious, and desireable above all else.

Many who remain in the grove of death see this new messenger who has been reborn.⁵ They feel a need well up inside their own souls, but instead of facing the Cherubim, they begin to imitate the message of life, and use it to get gain and praise in this difficult world. It is a balm which brings no true comfort. More confusion spreads, the grove of grows thicker but the darker⁶ it gets, the more beautiful is the sliver of blue sky when it pierces through, the rememberance of holiness.

Notes

1. Margaret Barker, a methodist preacher who has devoted her life to researching ancient Christianity has shown that in the ancient temple, the portrayal of the drama of the creation story and it's relevance to the individual was being taught. In implying that the creation story is embodied in each individual, I am not implying that Adam was not also a historical man.

2. "Listen to the words of Christ, your Redeemer, your Lord and your God. Behold, I came into the world not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance; the whole need no physician, but they that are sick; wherefore, little children are whole, for they are not capable of committing sin; wherefore the curse of Adam is taken from them in me, that it hath no power over them...And after this manner did the Holy Ghost manifest the word of God unto me; wherefore, my beloved son, I know that it is solemn mockery before God, that ye should baptize little children. Behold I say unto you that this thing shall ye teach—repentance and baptism unto those who are accountable and capable of committing sin; yea, teach parents that they must repent and be baptized, and humble themselves as their little children, and they shall all be saved with their little children." (Moroni 8:8-11)

3. Sex is a symbol of this. It has been called a "beautiful agony" and the result is that real fruit is produced.

4. "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20-21)

"A man is his own tormenter and his own condemner. Hence the saying, They shall go into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. The torment of disappointment in the mind of man is as exquisite as a lake burning with fire and brimstone. I say, so is the torment of man." (Joseph Smith, TPJS p. 357)

5. "[You] might as well be baptize a bag of sand as a man if not done in view of the getting of the Holy Ghost.—baptism by water is but half a baptism—& is good for nothing with the other, the Holy Ghost." (Joseph Smith, WJS, July 9, 1843)

6. "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? Behold all ye that kindle fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand—ye shall lie down in sorrow." (Isaiah 50:10-11, Also 2 Nephi 7:10-11)

Little Children and The Fall

Notes

See Also