The Articles of Faith: The Principal Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
it was, regarding the endless torment awaiting every sinner, that even before the Church had been formally organized in the present dispensation, God gave a revelation through the Prophet Joseph Smith, touching this matter, in which we read:—"And surely every man must repent or suffer; for I, God, am endless: wherefore I revoke not the judgments which I shall pass, but woes shall go forth, weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, yea to those who are found on my left hand; nevertheless it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment. Again it is written eternal damnation … for behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand, is endless punishment, for Endless is my name; wherefore, eternal punishment is God's punishment. Endless punishment is God's punishment.160"
19. Satan.—We have had occasion to refer frequently to the author of evil among men. This is Satan,161 the adversary or opponent of the Lord, the chief of all evil spirits, called also the Devil,162 Beelzebub,163 or the Prince of Devils, Perdition,164 and Belial.165 The figurative appellations Dragon and Serpent are applied to Satan, when reference is made to his fall.166 We learn from the revealed word167 that Satan was once an angel of light; he was then known as Lucifer, a Son of the Morning, but his uncontrolled ambition prompted him to aspire to the glory and power of the Father, to secure which he made the unjust proposition to redeem the human family by compulsion; failing in this purpose, he headed an open rebellion against the Father and the Son, drawing a third of the hosts of heaven into his impious league.168 These rebellious spirits were expelled from heaven, and have since followed the impulses of their wicked natures by seeking to lead human souls to their own condition of darkness. They are the Devil and his angels. The right of free agency, maintained and vindicated by the fateful strife in heaven, prevents the possibility of compulsion being employed in this fiendish work of degradation; but the powers of these malignant spirits to tempt and persuade are used to their utmost limits. Satan tempted Eve to transgress the law of God;169 it was he who imparted the secret of murder to the fratricide, Cain.170
20. Satan exerts a mastery over the spirits that have been corrupted by his practices; he is the foremost of the angels who were thrust down, and the instigator of the ruin of those who fall in this life; he seeks to molest and hinder mankind in good efforts, by tempting to sin; it may be by imposing sickness,171 or possibly death. Yet in all these malignant doings, he can go no farther than the transgressions of the victim may enable him, or the wisdom of God may permit him to go, and he may at any time be checked by the superior power. Indeed, even the operations of his utmost malice may be turned to the accomplishment of Divine purposes. The scriptures prove to us that the days of Satan's power are already numbered,172 his doom has been pronounced, and in the Lord's own time he will be completely overcome. He is to be bound during the millennial reign,173 and after that thousand years of blessed peace, he will be loosed for a little season; then his defeat will be made complete, and his power over the children of God will be entirely destroyed.
THE FALL.
21. Our First Parents in Eden.174—The crowning scene of the great drama of creation was the forming of man in the image of his spiritual Father, God.175 For the reception of the first man, the Creator had specially prepared a choice region of earth, and had embellished it with natural beauties calculated to gladden the heart of its royal possessor. "The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden,176 and there he put the man whom he had formed."177 Soon after man's advent upon the earth the Lord created for him a companion or help-meet, declaring that it was not good that man should be alone,178 Thus, male and female, Adam and his wife Eve, were placed in the Garden. They had been given dominion "over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."179 With this great power were associated certain special commands, the first of which in point of importance was that they "be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it;" then, that they refrain from eating or even touching the fruit of a certain tree, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which grew in the midst of the Garden, though of all other fruits they were permitted to freely partake. The words of God concerning this command and its penalty are:—"And I, the Lord God, commanded the man, saying, of every tree in the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; nevertheless thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee, but remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."180
22. The Temptation to disobey this command soon came. Satan presented himself before Eve in the Garden, and, speaking by the mouth of the serpent, questioned her about the commands which God had given respecting the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eve answered that they were forbidden even to touch the fruit of that tree, under penalty of death. Satan then sought to beguile the woman, contradicting the Lord's statement, and declaring that death would not follow a violation of the Divine injunction; but that, on the other hand, by doing that which the Lord had forbidden, she and her husband would become like unto the gods, knowing good and evil for themselves. The woman was captivated by these representations; and, being eager to possess the advantages pictured by Satan, she disobeyed the command of the Lord, and partook of the fruit forbidden. She feared not evil, for she knew it not. Then, telling Adam what she had done, she urged him to do likewise.
23. Adam found himself in a position that impelled him to disobey one of the requirements of God. He and his wife had been commanded to multiply and replenish the earth. Adam was still immortal; Eve had come under the penalty of mortality; and in such dissimilar conditions, the two could not remain together, and therefore could not fulfill the Divine requirement. On the other hand, Adam would be disobeying another command by yielding to his wife's request. He deliberately and wisely decided to stand by the first and greater commandment; and, therefore, with a full comprehension of the nature of his act, he also partook of the fruit that grew on the Tree of Knowledge. The fact that Adam acted understandingly in this matter is affirmed by the scriptures. Paul, in writing to Timothy, explained that "Adam was not deceived; but the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression."181 The prophet Lehi, in expounding the scriptures to his sons, declared "Adam fell that man might be, and men are that they might have joy."182
24. The Tree of Life.—There was another tree of special virtues in Eden; its fruit insured life to all who ate of it. While Adam and Eve lived in innocent immortality, this tree had not been forbidden them; the celestial fruit indeed was fitting food for their sinless state. Now that they had transgressed, however, now that the Divine decree had issued, fixing death as their lot, it was not proper that the fruit of the Tree of Life should be longer within their reach. They were, therefore, expelled from the Garden, and cherubim with a flaming sword guarded the way, that man might not return in an unregenerate state. By the act of transgression, our first parents acquired a knowledge, which in their condition of pristine innocence they had not possessed—the experimental knowledge of good and evil. The result of the Fall could have been of none but ill effect had the fallen ones been immediately restored to a condition of immortality, without repentance, without atonement. In the despair that followed their realization of the great change that had come upon them, and in the light of the knowledge gained at such cost as to the virtues of the fruit that grew on the Tree of Life, it would have been but natural for them to seek the seeming advantages of an immediate escape, by partaking of the celestial food. It was in mercy that they were deprived of the means of so doing.
25. The words of the Creator are unmistakable as to the necessity of banishing His first earthly children from Eden:—"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 forever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."183
26. Alma, the Nephite prophet, comprehended the result that would have followed had Adam and his wife eaten of the Tree of Life; he thus explained the matter:—"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