Dallin H. Oaks affirms NDBF
According to LDS doctrine, there was no death before the Fall. The creation was paradisiacal. There was no mortality. Death for all forms of life began when Adam fell. During the April 2016 general conference, Dallin H. Oaks affirmed the doctrine of no death before the Fall. He said: "Adam and Eve ... made the choice that introduced mortality." (Ensign, May 2016.) "Introduce" means to bring something into operation for the first time.
In the October 1993 general conference, Dallin H. Oaks said: "It was Eve who first transgressed the limits of Eden in order to initiate the conditions of mortality." (Ensign, Nov. 1993.) In this case, "initiate" means to cause something to begin.
The English definition of "mortality" is the state of being subject to death. Therefore, according to Dallin H. Oaks, there was no death before the Fall.
posted by R. Gary on 4/23/2016 03:16:00 PM
4 Comments:
Hi Gary. This is Greg, still living 11 years in China. As far as I know, you are the ONLY PERSON performing this service - showing that the correlated teachings of the Church support the Scriptures. I have had time to study the Scientific evidence supporting the twin doctrines of Uniformitarianism and Evolution and have found that it really does not exist, upon careful, critical examination. Yet, all of applicable sciences are now crafted upon these two paradigms and thus, Church schools must submit or their teachers and departments suffer excommunication from the academic communities.
My teachers have not come from LDS communities, but, they are excellent. As a trained lawyer, I believe I am qualified to evaluate the validity of the evidence. God bless you on your mission! I know the Scriptures and teachings of the Living Prophets are true!
One could also imply "human". "Adam and Eve ... made the choice that introduced [Human] mortality." Otherwise the quote should have been: "Adam and Eve ... made the choice that introduced all life forms to mortality."
How's New York treating you?
Anonymous: In 1993, Dallin Oaks said: "It was Eve who first transgressed the limits of Eden in order to initiate the conditions of mortality." (Ensign, Nov. 1993.) As used here, "initiate" means to cause something to begin.
In 2016, he said: "Adam and Eve ... made the choice that introduced mortality." (Ensign, May 2016.) "Introduce" means to bring something into operation for the first time.
The two statements support and clarify each other. The ambiguity you suggest doesn't exist.
The following paragraphs are copied verbatim from the October 2016 LDS Church publication "The New Era" and can be found online at https://www.lds.org/new-era/2016/10/to-the-point?lang=eng
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The Church has no official position on the theory of evolution. Organic evolution, or changes to species’ inherited traits over time, is a matter for scientific study. Nothing has been revealed concerning evolution. Though the details of what happened on earth before Adam and Eve, including how their bodies were created, have not been revealed, our teachings regarding man’s origin are clear and come from revelation.
Before we were born on earth, we were spirit children of heavenly parents, with bodies in their image. God directed the creation of Adam and Eve and placed their spirits in their bodies. We are all descendants of Adam and Eve, our first parents, who were created in God’s image. There were no spirit children of Heavenly Father on the earth before Adam and Eve were created. In addition, “for a time they lived alone in a paradisiacal setting where there was neither human death nor future family.” They fell from that state, and this Fall was an essential part of Heavenly Father’s plan for us to become like Him. (See Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “Where Justice, Love, and Mercy Meet,” Apr. 2015 general conference.)
For further reference, see “The Origin of Man,” Improvement Era, Nov. 1909, 78; Ensign, Feb. 2002, 29. See also Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 5 vols. (1992), “Evolution,” 2:478.
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