Do Mormons believe in Original Sin?

[LAMBOFGODGIRLY]

I was talking to someone who is a Mormon the other day and they made the comment that they did not believe in Original Sin, and I thought that sounded strange. Can someone let me know if that is wrong?

Thanks and God Bless,
Alisha

 

[Marie5890]

They do believe in the fall of Adam and Eve and believe that the Atonement of Christ has made it’s reparation for that.

Do they believe that we are born with original sin? No. It’s why they oppose infant baptism for they believe Christ atonement wiped that out already.

 

[ParkerD]

I was talking to someone who is a Mormon the other day and they made the comment that they did not believe in Original Sin, and I thought that sounded strange. Can someone let me know if that is wrong?

Thanks and God Bless,
Alisha

Hi, Alisha,
I sincerely hope all is well in your family and with the special event that is a part of your life upcoming, if I have understood correctly.

The term “original sin” brings a lot of connotations with those two words, so what the person means needs to be clarified. Mormons believe that Eve was tempted by Satan and thought about her desire to progress and learn (her innate curiosity), and decided that she was willing to risk “death” in order to progress and learn by experiences that were going to be different than what they had in the Garden of Eden. Adam basically had to go along with what Eve had chosen because Eve had been given to him as “an help meet” (Genesis 2:18), and to “cleave unto his wife” (Genesis 2:23) and to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,” (Genesis 1:28) and he could not do any of those things if he were to have made the choice to not partake of the forbidden fruit after Eve had already done so.

So they both “fell” and became subject to spiritual death (becoming the natural and carnal “man”) and physical death. Christ rescues from both of these deaths–the physical (by our resurrection) and the spiritual (by our being reborn and changed from a fallen state to a spiritually awakened and spiritually alive state or condition where we can become sanctified by the Spirit). Mormons believe that little children are born into mortality with the possibility of experiencing “spiritual death” at the point in time when they begin to make choices that alienate them from God, but that they are not “spiritually dead” when they are born inasmuch as they were “created” by God and are wonderfully gifted with His light and goodness, and have the atonement of Christ already in effect for them until such time as they deliberately sin knowing what they are doing when they make mistakes.

Have a good day, Alisha.

 

[Marie5890]

Mormons believe that Eve was tempted by Satan and thought about her desire to progress and learn (her innate curiosity), and decided that she was willing to risk “death” in order to progress and learn by experiences that were going to be different than what they had in the Garden of Eden. Adam basically had to go along with what Eve had chosen because Eve had been given to him as “an help meet” (Genesis 2:18), and to “cleave unto his wife” (Genesis 2:23) and to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,” (Genesis 1:28) and he could not do any of those things if he were to have made the choice to not partake of the forbidden fruit after Eve had already done so.

Parker, just so I understand, are you saying that, in the LDS view, Eve’s actions were not born of rebellion against God but of curiousity?

That somehow God setup Adam and Eve so that they would sin and fall?

Do Mormons believe that Adam and Eve’s fall was due to sin or not?

 

[ParkerD]

Parker, just so I understand, are you saying that, in the LDS view, Eve’s actions were not born of rebellion against God but of curiousity?

That somehow God setup Adam and Eve so that they would sin and fall?

Do Mormons believe that Adam and Eve’s fall was due to sin or not?

Marie5890,
Of course Eve was acting out of curiosity and not out of rebellion. She showed not a single sign of being rebellious against God. She did show curiosity, however.

God gave Adam and Eve choices. If for you that means they were “setup” then I guess you have a different view of what the opportunity to choose means than I do.

The fall was due directly to the choice Eve made to partake of the forbidden fruit. God had commanded them not to eat it or they would die. He gave them the choice, and told them the consequences if they chose to eat. They did break the commandment, so by the definition of sin which means “to break a commandment”, they sinned. Later, they repented of having disobeyed God in that way, and the atonement of Christ redeemed them from the effects of that disobedience, just as it does for us for any of our disobedience as we repent and come unto Christ.