According to LDS what is the Biblical basis for commending Adam's disobedience in the Garden of Eden?

Upvote:1

Orson Pratt answered your question back in June 1853.

"The Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil." (Gen 3:22) God and the heavenly host had attained to the knowledge of good and evil, and therefore they were capable of enjoying happiness and judging righteously according to the principles of right and wrong, justice and mercy. Adam, by his transgression, had become like one of the Gods to know good and evil. Now can it be supposed, for a moment, that the Lord did not wish Adam to become like himself? Was He not desirous that he should learn how to distinguish between that which was good, and that which was evil? Or did He design that man should forever be deprived of that information which alone could give him joy? Was not the only Begotten Son willing, even before the world was made, to be sent forth in the meridian of time to suffer and die, in order to atone for a transgression which would place Adam in the same condition as the Gods in respect to good and evil? The Son did not consider death to be too great a sacrifice, in order that man might be raised from the very depths of ignorance and be placed on an equal footing with the Gods, as far as it regards good and evil and all their accompanying consequences.

  • Orson Pratt, "The Pre-Existence of Man" (June 1853)

Upvote:2

I believe there is a slight misinterpretation (missing the point) of Joseph Fielding Smith's quote

In contrast to most readers of the Bible, we believe that Adam and Eve both should be commended for what they did to bring about the Fall.

This comment does not end at ...commended for what they did (sin/transgress, which is condemned by God/bible), it continues on to explain exactly what they should be commended for exactly (bringing about the Fall, moving God's plan forward).

The Church of Jesus Christ believe (from 2 Nephi 2:15-16)

15 And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter.

16 Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.

Later on (2 Nephi 2:22-25) (see also Luke 23:34, 1 Tim 1:13, referencing accountability tied knowledge)

22 And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.

23 And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.

24 But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.

25 Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.

So even though Adam transgressed1, it was part of God's plan (agency and future necessary atonement) and without the transgression progress for all of mankind would've been halted/frozen/stuck there in the Garden.

From FAIR (unofficial LDS apologist site)

LDS doctrine does not praise the decision to disobey. However, it acknowledges that God anticipated their disobedience, and that this eventual disobedience was part of God's plan. God had prepared the atonement of His Son to permit us the benefits which came from Adam and Eve's disobedience, without requiring that they or we suffer forever because of it. Because of the atonement and God's plan of happiness, LDS doctrine does not see the Fall as unalloyed tragedy.

All emphasis mine

1 Articles of Faith, by James E Talmage or this SE answer

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