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Genesis
3
22 ¶And
the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put
forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden
of Eden, to till the ground
from whence he was taken.
24 So
he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims,
and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Genesis
2
9 And
out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is
pleasant to the sight, and good
for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and
the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every
tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in
the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die.
Romans
3
23 For
all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus:
2
Corinthians 5
10 For we
must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that
every one may receive the things done in his body, according to
that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Psalms
130
7 Let
Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy,
and with him is plenteous redemption.
8 And he
shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
Genesis
3
22 ¶And
the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:
Romans
5
11 And not only so, but we
also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement.
12 Wherefore, as by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13 (For until the law sin was in the world:
but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to
Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression,
who is the figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offence, so also is the
free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more
the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man,
Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And
not as it was by one that sinned, so is the
gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the
free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For
if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall
reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment
came upon all men to condemnation; even so by
the righteousness of one the free gift came upon
all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one
man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence
might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21 That
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord.
Romans
8
5 For
they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but
they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death;
but to be spiritually minded is life
and peace.
7 Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God:
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So
then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Titus
3
3 For
we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living
in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one
another.
4 But
after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour
toward man appeared,
5 Not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he
saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of
the Holy Ghost;
6 Which
he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
7 That
being justified by his grace, we should be
made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
8 This
is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm
constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain
good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.
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Alma
12
21 What
does the scripture mean, which saith that God placed cherubim and
a flaming sword on the east of the garden of Eden, lest our first
parents should enter and partake of the fruit of the tree of life, and
live forever? And thus we see that there was no possible chance that they
should live forever.
22 Now
Alma said unto him: This is the thing which I was about to explain. Now we
see that Adam did fall by the partaking of the forbidden fruit, according to the word of God; and thus we
see, that by his fall, all mankind became a lost and fallen people.
23 And
now behold, I say unto you that if it had been possible for Adam to
have partaken of the fruit of the tree of life at that time,
there would have been no death, and the word would have been void, making God
a liar, for he said: If thou eat thou shalt surely die.
24 And
we see that death comes upon mankind, yea, the death which has been
spoken of by Amulek, which is the temporal death; nevertheless there was a space granted unto man in which he
might repent; therefore this life became a probationary state; a time
to prepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state
which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead.
25 Now,
if it had not been for the plan of redemption, which was laid from the
foundation of the world, there could have been no resurrection of
the dead; but there was a plan of redemption laid, which
shall bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, of which has been spoken.
26 And
now behold, if it were possible that our first parents could have gone forth
and partaken of the tree of life they would have been
forever miserable, having no
preparatory state; and thus the plan of redemption would
have been frustrated, and the word of God would have been void, taking none
effect.
27 But
behold, it was not so; but it was appointed unto men that they must
die; and after death, they must come to judgment, even that same judgment
of which we have spoken, which is the end.
28 And
after God had appointed that these things should come unto man, behold, then
he saw that it was expedient that man should know concerning the things
whereof he had appointed unto them;
29 Therefore
he sent angels to converse with them, who caused men to behold of
his glory.
30 And
they began from that time forth to call on his name; therefore
God conversed with men, and made known unto them the plan of redemption,
which had been prepared from the foundation of the world; and this
he made known unto them according to their faith and repentance and
their holy works.
31 Wherefore,
he gave commandments unto men, they having first transgressed the first commandments
as to things which were temporal, and becoming as gods, knowing good from evil, placing themselves in
a state to act, or being placed in a state to act according to their
wills and pleasures, whether to do evil or to do good—
32 Therefore
God gave unto them commandments, after having made known unto them
the plan of redemption, that they should not do evil, the penalty thereof
being a second death, which was an everlasting death as to
things pertaining unto righteousness; for on such the plan of redemption
could have no power, for the works of justice could not be
destroyed, according to the supreme goodness of God.
33 But
God did call on men, in the name of his Son, (this being the plan of redemption which
was laid) saying: If ye will repent, and harden not your hearts, then
will I have mercy upon you, through mine Only Begotten Son;
34 Therefore,
whosoever repenteth, and hardeneth
not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine
Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins; and these shall
enter into my rest.
35 And
whosoever will harden his heart and will do iniquity, behold, I swear in
my wrath that he shall not enter into my rest.
36 And
now, my brethren, behold I say unto you, that if ye will harden your hearts
ye shall not enter into the rest of the Lord; therefore your iniquity provoketh him that he sendeth
down his wrath upon you as in the first provocation, yea,
according to his word in the last provocation as well as the first, to the
everlasting destruction of your souls; therefore, according to his
word, unto the last death, as well as the first.
37 And
now, my brethren, seeing we know these things, and they are true, let us
repent, and harden not our hearts, that we provoke not the Lord our
God to pull down his wrath upon us in these his second commandments which he
has given unto us; but let us enter into the rest of God, which is
prepared according to his word.
Alma
42
1 And now,
my son, I perceive there is somewhat more which doth worry your mind, which
ye cannot understand—which is concerning the justice of God in
the punishment of the sinner; for ye do try to suppose that it
is injustice that the sinner should be consigned to a state of
misery.
2 Now
behold, my son, I will explain this thing unto thee. For behold, after the
Lord God sent our first parents forth from the garden of Eden, to till
the ground, from whence they were taken—yea, he drew out the man, and he
placed at the east end of the garden of Eden, cherubim, and a flaming
sword which turned every way, to keep the tree of life—
3 Now, we
see that the man had become as God, knowing good and evil; and lest he should
put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live
forever, the Lord God placed cherubim and the flaming sword, that
he should not partake of the fruit—
4 And thus
we see, that there was a time granted unto man to repent, yea,
a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God.
5 For
behold, 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; yea, and also the word of God would have
been void, and the great plan of salvation would have been frustrated.
6 But
behold, it was appointed unto man to die—therefore, as they were cut off
from the tree of life they should be cut off from the face of the earth—and
man became lost forever, yea, they became fallen man.
7 And
now, ye see by this that our first parents were cut off both
temporally and spiritually from the presence of the Lord; and thus
we see they became subjects to follow after their own will.
8 Now
behold, it was not expedient that man should be reclaimed from
this temporal death, for that would destroy the
great plan of happiness.
9 Therefore,
as the soul could never die, and the fall had brought upon all
mankind a spiritual death as well as a temporal, that is, they were
cut off from the presence of the Lord, it was expedient that mankind should
be reclaimed from this spiritual death.
10 Therefore,
as they had become carnal, sensual, and devilish, by nature,
this probationary state became a state for them to prepare; it became
a preparatory state.
11 And
now remember, my son, if it were not for the plan of redemption, (laying it
aside) as soon as they were dead their souls were miserable, being cut
off from the presence of the Lord.
12 And
now, there was no means to reclaim men from this fallen state,
which man had brought upon himself because of his
own disobedience;
13 Therefore,
according to justice, the plan of redemption could not be
brought about, only on conditions of repentance of men in this probationary
state, yea, this preparatory state; for except it were for these conditions,
mercy could not take effect except it should destroy the work of justice. Now
the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God
would cease to be God.
14 And
thus we see that all mankind were fallen, and they were in the grasp
of justice; yea, the justice of God, which consigned them forever to be
cut off from his presence.
15 And
now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should
be made; therefore God himself atoneth for
the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the
demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and
a merciful God also.
16 Now,
repentance could not come unto men except there were a punishment, which
also was eternal as the life of the soul should be,
affixed opposite to the plan of happiness, which was
as eternal also as the life of the soul.
17 Now,
how could a man repent except he should sin? How could he sin if there
was no law? How could there be a law save there was a punishment?
18 Now,
there was a punishment affixed, and a just law given, which brought remorse
of conscience unto man.
19 Now,
if there was no law given—if a man murdered he
should die—would he be afraid he would die if he should murder?
20 And
also, if there was no law given against sin men would not be afraid to sin.
21 And
if there was no law given, if men sinned what could justice do, or
mercy either, for they would have no claim upon the creature?
22 But
there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and
a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth;
otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth
the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would
cease to be God.
23 But
God ceaseth not to be God, and mercy claimeth the penitent, and mercy cometh because of
the atonement; and the atonement bringeth to
pass the resurrection of the dead; and
the resurrection of the dead bringeth back men
into the presence of God; and thus they are restored into his presence, to
be judged according to their works, according to the law and
justice.
24 For
behold, justice exerciseth all his demands, and
also mercy claimeth all which is her own;
and thus, none but the truly penitent are saved.
25 What,
do ye suppose that mercy can rob justice? I say unto you, Nay;
not one whit. If so, God would cease to be God.
26 And
thus God bringeth about his great and
eternal purposes, which were prepared from the foundation of
the world. And thus cometh about the salvation and the redemption of men, and
also their destruction and misery.
27 Therefore,
O my son, whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of
life freely; and whosoever will not come the same is not compelled to come;
but in the last day it shall be restored unto him according to
his deeds.
28 If
he has desired to do evil, and has not repented in his days, behold,
evil shall be done unto him, according to the restoration of God.
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