The Gods saw that in order for Adam to be complete, or good, he needed a help meet whom They likewise created in Their image. Adam called her Eve, and the couple, married by God’s word left their fathers and mothers and united and became one. When they were first created, Adam and Eve stood in the presence of God and had a most perfect knowledge of Their existence. God ordained the couple for a priestly role in the Garden and they were in Their presence while they served in that capacity. In order to bring about God’s eternal purposes for mankind, it was imperative that there be opposition in all things in order to preserve mankind’s right to choose for themselves. Therefore, in the midst of the Garden two trees grew: the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The sweet fruit of the tree of life in opposition to the bitter, forbidden fruit. The Gods placed boundaries around the Garden in the form of commandments given to Adam, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You shall not eat of it. Nevertheless, you may choose for yourself, for it is given unto you. But remember that I forbit it, for in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.” These opposing commandments ensured Adam the right to act for himself—for he could not act for himself unless he was enticed by the one or the other.

During the seventh creation period the Gods rested from Their labors, leaving Adam and Eve alone in the Garden. The command to not partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was meant to be a temporary boundary so that there would be no labor performed on the day of rest. It had been God’s intent from the beginning to introduce the fruit to Adam and Eve once the Sabbath day was over, once they had matured enough to handle the responsibility that partaking of that fruit would entail. But Lucifer, as one who had once sat in the council of the Gods, knows how Heaven works and how to imitate heavenly things. Upon his rebellion, he had been cast from Heaven and become miserable for ever, thus he sought the misery of all mankind and became their common enemy.

Desiring to gain power and control over God’s creation, Lucifer began weaving his lies as he came among Adam and Eve to tempt them and to try them, deceiving them by saying unto Eve, “Partake of the forbidden fruit and ye shall not die, but ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.” Desires, appetites, and passions and prone to make people stray well beyond the bounds set by God. Believing Lucifer, or Satan’s deceptions, desiring her own will over that of the Lord’s, and believing that she was ready to move beyond God’s bounds, Eve chose to defy God’s command and partook of the forbidden fruit. She then offered the fruit to Adam, reminding him that God intended for them to continue together for ever. Unless Adam also ate of the fruit he would be left alone in the Garden and the couple would be separated. Choosing to remain with his wife, Adam also partook. Together, they violated the Sabbath day as they rebelled against the Lord’s will.

What is interesting about the idea of the fruit Adam and Eve at is that it was less about eating food that was “delicious to the taste” and more about gaining information, or knowledge. Eve desired the information that would enable her to become like God. Rather than waiting patiently upon the Lord to give her the fruit when He knew she was ready, perhaps Eve chose what she thought would be the quicker route that Satan’s lies afforded her, a veritable guaranteed shortcut to becoming like the Gods. The truth is, for us to become like God we must become precisely and exactly as He is and nothing else. Jesus Christ, who is the prototype, or standard or salvation, moved from grace to grace until He received a fullness. Salvation consists in the glory, authority, majesty, power, and dominion which Jehovah possesses, and in nothing else, and no being can possess it but Himself or one like Him. There are no shortcuts on the path to becoming like the Gods. “God always intended to have mankind gain knowledge of good and evil. But God also intended that the center would be occupied by God, not by man’s ambition and self-will. Christ did nothing but what the father directed to be done. He said nothing other than what the Father commanded Him to say He suffered the will of the Father in all things. Christ performed the priestly service that Adam and Eve neglected to perform.

Adam and Eve were the members of the family of God when they lived in the Garden. Upon their rebellion for eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil out of season all of this world’s creation was cast out o God’s presence and fell. The family of God became separated from Him and broken. Both physical and spiritual death were introduced into the world: spiritual because the man and his wife were cut off from the presence of God, no longer to walk and talk with Him face to face; physical because their immortal state became mortal and subject to entropy, decay, and death.

As a consequence of their rebellion, God placed conditions upon this world. He declared that Eve, and all women after her, would bear the responsibility of bringing forth posterity and that her desire would be to her husband. The eternal role, or responsibility, of the woman is to bring forth children and to become a voice of wisdom because creation will only move forward if guided by wise counsel and prudent adaptations. Man comes into this world through the woman. Adam’s dominion, or responsibilities, included laboring by the sweat of his brow to physically provided for his family and to be a ruler over this creation. A ruler in God’s vocabulary is one who has been shown the “truth of all things” and is thereby able to give an accurate gauge by which to measure all things. The eternal role of man is knowledge. Specifically, it is the man’s responsibility for keeping and teaching a correct knowledge of the true character of God in order that the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve might have faith sufficient to be saved. A man such as this becomes a teacher with the responsibility to declare truth to all of those under his sphere of responsibility. Women are redeemed from this world through the man. Together, the man and his wife are complete.

Despite the transgression, the covenant that had been established by God’s won word between Adam, Eve, and God could not fail, therefore, they were not parted from each other, neither were they deprived of their previous knowledge of the existence of God. The Lord gave Adam, and consequently all men after him, a law and commandment to teach their children that:

[A]ll men everywhere must repent or they can by no means inherit the kingdom of God . . . by reason of transgression comes the Fall, which fall brings death. And inasmuch as you were born into the world by water, and blood, and spirit . . . even so, you must be born again into the kingdom of Heaven of water, and of the spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of my Only Begotten. . . . For by the water you keep the commandment, by the spirit you are justified, and by the blood you are sanctified. . . . [T]his is the plan of salvation unto all men through the blood of my Only Begotten who shall come in the meridian of time. And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me—both things which are temporal and things which are spiritual, things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth. Both above and beneath, all things bear record of me.

In order to restore His Kingdom and family, before He cast them out of the Garden to wander in a lone and dreary world, God taught Adam and Eve the fullness of the Gospel in a pure and unadulterated form. The fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the path of ascension, redemption, and progression whereby mankind can be reconciled with God by ascending above this fallen world into His presence.