Originally Posted by Chris-WA
Paul, I think this assertion is highly mistaken, and not just a matter of interpretation either. What Adam did was a great sin, and calling it a “transgression” doesn’t somehow lower its gravity. Remember God’s ominous warning to him if he partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, “For in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” That’s pretty darn serious, don’t you think? One does not earn spiritual death for some trivial violation. One receives spiritual death from sin and sin only.
Your next question might be, “If they were innocent, would they even know what death meant?” After all, nothing had died yet. But the answer has to be an emphatic “yes,” necessarily so, since it would be sensless to threaten a man with a meaningless penalty. It’s not clear how Adam knew, but it’s reasonably certain that he knew to partake of the fruit was a serious violation of God’s commandment. Whatever he thought death was, he had to know that it was something really bad, and thus to be avoided at all costs. Again, God’s penalty would have been meaningless if Adam didn’t have a good idea what God meant.
And if that’s not sufficient for you, let’s hear what St. Paul says about Adam’s sin:
Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned–for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law. But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come.
Romans 5:12-14
So even though sin wasn’t accounted for before the law (which refers to the law of Moses), sin was still sin, and it was in the world from the time of Adam’s first sin. St. Paul tells us that all have sinned (even those up to the time of the law, including Adam). And if you still don’t believe, this will really drive it home:
And the gift is not like the result of the one person’s sinning. For after one sin there was the judgement that brought condemnation; but the gift, after many transgressions, brought acquittal. For if, by the transgression of one person, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one person Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:16-17 (emphasis added)
Who was the one person who sinned? Adam. For after one sin refers to which sin? Adam’s. St. Paul makes no distinction here between sinning, trespassing, or transgressing. They’re all three the same thing–sin. So I think we can now safely dismiss this notion that Adam did not sin when he violated God’s commandment.
Are there any LDS out there who still believe Adam’s disobedience was not sin?
