The Necessity of Adam's Transgression

If Adam and Eve needed to eat the fruit in order for man to exist* making it "right" to eat, why did God command them not to eat it? Why did He make it wrong? 

I think the answer is in 2 Nephi 2, specifically verse 13. "And if ye say there is no law, ye shall say there is no sin." Right, if God did not make a law for them to not eat the fruit, they would not have sinned by eating it. But Lehi continues "If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away. And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon."

Backing up to verse 11 "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad."

God had to give them an opposition. He had to give them a scenario where they could exercise their agency. He specifically says "thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it,"** Creating a world without sin was Satan's plan. We needed a world of opposition so we could choose righteousness. Eden was not that world. Earth was not yet that world. We need a fallen world, and someone had to make it fallen by choosing to break God's commandments. God knew that, and so He set up an opportunity for it to happen.




*2 Nephi 2:22-25
**Moses 3:17

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