"If we cannot be good, except as we resist and overcome evil, then evil must be present to be resisted."

I would like to interest you in a piece of property. It spans farther than the eye can see. It consists of gentle rolling hills covered in lush green grass and brightly colored flowers. There are plenty of shade trees perfect for napping. The weather is perfect—partly sunny with a slight breeze; you will find yourself comfortable in the sun or the shade. There are slow-moving streams and clean, blue, open waters. Bugs, snakes, and ugly creatures are not a concern. The air always smells like fresh cut grass or an afternoon rain shower. The price? It is absolutely free. Better yet, you do not have to work at all to maintain this serenity. Are you ready to sign the papers?

But wait, there’s more. There is another amazing feature. You can talk and walk with Heavenly Father any time you want. Sounds perfect. For most people, this would be ideal.

This is what I imagine the Garden of Eden to have been like. Now why would Adam and Eve ever want to give this up?

Fortunately for us, they were not like most people. Adam and Eve were among “the noble and great ones.” (Abraham 3:22) They were chosen for their special calling because of their faithfulness.

While the conditions of the Garden were wonderful, Adam and Eve understood that it lacked many essential things. Joseph Fielding Smith explained, “They were placed in the Garden of Eden where there was no death and we read in the scriptures that they could have lived in that Garden forever, but not under the most favorable circumstances. For there, although they were in the presence of God, they were deprived of certain knowledge and understanding in a condition where they could not understand clearly things that were necessary for them to know. Therefore, it became essential to their salvation and to ours that their nature should be changed.”

While in the Garden, Adam and Eve had limited choices. Though possessing knowledge, they could not comprehend the difference between good and evil. There was no opposition or sin, so there was no opportunity to choose righteousness. They could not be tried, tested, nor proved. “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.” (2 Nephi 2:23) Without sin, there is no need for repentance, meaning there would be no need for the Atonement or the Savior. Without the Savior, there would be no opportunity for exaltation. Had they remained in the Garden, there would have been no progression.

While in the Garden, Adam and Eve were given two commandments. First, they were commanded to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” (Moses 2:28) Thus, Adam and Eve were given dominion over every living thing. And the second commandment. “And I, the Lord God, commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of 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.” (Moses 3:16-17)

This was the one and only time that God has given a commandment and followed it by saying, “nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself.” This is a demonstration of the very law that makes the Plan of Salvation work. Adam and Eve were given their agency, the power to choose. Elder Boyd K. Packer taught, “There was too much at issue to introduce man into mortality by force. That would contravene the very law essential to the plan.” So Adam and Eve had to choose to enter the mortal state.

Opposition is necessary to practice our agency. This is how Lucifer plays an important role in this story and in our probationary state.

Satan, the father of all lies, sought to beguile Eve, but “he knew not the mind of God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world.” (Moses 4:6) Satan tempted Eve by focusing on the one thing she could not have, as she had dominion with Adam over everything. He told a truth, stating that if she partook of the fruit that she would gain the knowledge of good and evil. He combined it with a lie and tried to convince her that she would not die.

Satan, not knowing the mind of God, was hoping to frustrate God’s plan, but rather he played a necessary role. He provided the needed opposition so that the decision Eve and then Adam made would have been a true practice of agency. Elder George Q. Morris taught, “If we cannot be good, except as we resist and overcome evil, then evil must be present to be resisted.”

Eve was not tricked. She did not partake of the fruit because Satan had beguiled her. Eve knew that in order to progress, she had to enter a new state. She chose to partake of the fruit, not in disobedience, but in order to gain wisdom.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks testified, “It was Eve who first transgressed the limits of Eden in order to initiate the conditions of mortality. Her act, whatever its nature, was formally a transgression but eternally a glorious necessity to open the doorway toward eternal life. Adam showed his wisdom by doing the same…We celebrate Eve’s act and honor her great wisdom and courage in the great episode called the Fall…”

After Eve and Adam partook of the fruit, they were cast out of the Garden and began their mortal lives, their probationary state. As a result, they were able to have children. Their lives were drastically different. They were partakers of misery and woe, capable of sinning, required to work, and now would taste death—their spiritual death, or separation from God’s presence, was immediate, and their physical death came later. But each of these negative consequences provided much opportunity.

Elder Morris continued, “So this earth life is set up according to true principles, and these conditions that followed the transgression [of Adam] were not, in the usual sense, penalties that were inflicted upon us. All these…that seem to be sad inflictions of punishment, sorrow, and trouble are in the end not that. They are blessings. We have attained a knowledge of good and evil, the power to prize the sweet, to become agents unto ourselves, the power to obtain redemption and eternal life. These things had their origin in the transgression. The Lord has set the earth up so we have to labor if we are going to live, which preserves us from the curse of idleness and indolence; and though the Lord condemns us to death—mortal death—it is one of the greatest blessings that comes to us here because it is the doorway to immortality, and we can never attain immortality without dying.

“So these are all real blessings. We come to the earth with all these conditions arranged as they are so that we have to struggle constantly against evil, struggle to preserve our lives, struggle for everything of true value—that is the thing for us to understand—this is the course of life that is most desirable, and for our good. We have no need to find fault with these conditions. The Lord has ordained them all for our welfare and happiness.”

Adam and Eve acknowledged the blessings of the new situation and expressed it. “And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God. And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.” (Moses 5:10-11)

The Fall of Adam was essential for God’s Plan of Happiness to be carried out.

Moroni taught, “By Adam came the fall of man. And because of the fall of man came Jesus Christ, and because of Jesus Christ came the redemption of man.” Were it not for the Fall, we would have no need for Jesus Christ to act as our Savior and our Redeemer and to make is possible to overcome physical and spiritual death. Without the Fall, there would be no exaltation.

President Ezra Taft Benson explained, “Just as a man does not really desire food until he is hungry, so he does not desire the salvation of Christ until he knows why he needs Christ. No one adequately and properly knows why he needs Christ until he understands and accepts the doctrine of the Fall and its effect upon all mankind.”