Spiritual and Temporal Death.—The fall brought man into the world—into this state of mortality; but it also brought death, with all its sad concomitants. Not such a death as the righteous now contemplate, and such as both righteous and unrighteous must undergo, as a change preparatory to resurrection. There was no resurrection when Adam fell—not upon this planet—nothing but death, resting like a pall over the prospective human race. Adam and Eve, after the fall, were spiritually dead, and were doomed to the temporal death as well—the dissolution of the body—and they had entailed this fate upon their posterity. Hell had triumphed over man's, or rather woman's, weakness. Life was dead, death reigned, and demons held high carnival.
The World in Pawn.—Adam's transgression had put the world in pawn. The name of the pawnbroker was death, and his claim was twofold. Death held all things in his grasp, and there was no help for it this side of heaven. No part of what had been pledged could be used as the means of redemption. Adam could not redeem himself, great and mighty as he was—in the spirit; for he was no other than Michael the archangel, leader of the hosts of heaven. But this puissant Michael was now a weak, frail, mortal man, under the penalty of a broken law, and powerless to repair the injury that had been wrought. He and the race that was to spring from him were utterly lost, unless the Almighty One would intervene, and do for them what they could not do for themselves. If man could have redeemed himself, it would have been required of him; but because self-redemption was impossible, a Redeemer had to be provided.
The Redemption.—Redemption must come, if at all, through some Being high enough and powerful enough to make an infinite atonement, one fully covering the far-reaching effects of the original transgression. The scales of eternal justice, unbalanced by Adam's act, had to be repoised, and right's equilibrium restored. Who could do this? Who could retrieve the situation, bring good out of evil, mould failure into success, and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? Where was the Moses for such an exodus? Where the deliverance from this worse than Egyptian bondage—a bondage of which Egypt's slavery was but typical?
The life of a God was the price of the world's freedom, and that price was paid by the God of Israel, who descended from his glorious throne, made himself mortal, an exile of eternity, walked in the dust of his own footstool, and by submitting to death, broke the bands of death, and made it possible for man to live again, and go on to the goal of endless glory. He was the Lamb "without spot or blemish," typified by the lamb of the Passover, and preordained for sacrifice, to "take away the sins of the world." He gave himself as an offering, as a ransom for human redemption, and by the shedding of his own blood, paid the debt of the universe, took the world out of pawn, and became the Author of Salvation for all mankind.
CHAPTER IV.
The Gods in Council.
Fore-ordination.—The parts played by Adam and Eve in this sublime tragedy were doubtless cast at the same time that the pre-eminent role was assigned to the Redeemer and Savior. Likewise, is it just as reasonable to infer that other great ones were forechosen for service in the cause of humanity. It is more than an inference; it is a revealed fact. What other meaning can be attached to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah (1:5): "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations"? If this be true of Jeremiah, why not true of other prophets, both ancient and modern? Joseph Smith is on record as saying that men who have such callings to minister to the inhabitants of the world, were "ordained to that very purpose in the grand council of heaven before this world was" ("Compendium," p. 285).
Two Plans Proposed.—In that same Grand Council—the "congregation of the mighty" (Ps. 1:5)—there were two candidates, if we may so designate them, for the redeemership. One was like unto the Father, desiring for the pure love of God's children to uplift them, and at the same time glorify the Great Head, by the sacrifice that he proposed to make. The other was proud, self-willed, and bent upon personal aggrandizement, regardless of consequences. The former stood for freedom—man's agency—and the rewarding of all souls according to their works. The latter proposed coercion, so that not one soul should be lost; thinking, perhaps, that his demanded compensation for proposed service might be made in that way all the more abundant.
Lucifer Rebels.—The first was chosen; the second rebelled, and was cast out, with a third of those then populating the spirit world. That third, following Lucifer, who became Satan, were doomed with him to wander up and down the earth, as fallen spirits, tempting and trying the children of men—those who, as a reward for keeping their first estate, where they "walked by sight," were given a second estate—the privilege of taking tabernacles, and "walking by faith" through the shadowed experiences of mortality.