A Frustrating Day

Yesterday was class at the Institute once again. I knew going into it that it would be a difficult day, because the topic for our first class was to be "The Fall" from the book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price. This was not much different from our class on the Fall last year (see the entry dated 6/30/05) except that it was softened a bit and explained in a way that anticipated our objections (such as explaining right off the difference between a "transgression" and a "sin" and giving a handout on why Adam had to choose to go against God's command and why God couldn't have just created us as "mortal"). Sorry, all of these things probably don't make sense to the average reader. Without rehashing their entire doctrine of the fall and how they explain the contradictions in it, I'll try to give a short summary, doing my best to accurately represent/not miscronsture it.
1. Adam and Eve were created innocent in a childlike sense, not knowing good and evil, immortal beings AND unable to bear children (this comes from 2 Nephi 2 in the BOM, not from the Bible).
2. God commanded 2 things in the garden: 1) be fruitful and multiply, and 2) do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
3. In order for Adam to become mortal, having a more mature knowledge of good and evil and in order to bear children, thus fulfilling God's command, he had to "transgress" God's second command. This was actually what God wanted all along, because it was in his plan of salvation.
4. Thus, the Fall was a fall "downward and forward" as Adam and Eve were then able to continue in their mortal existence, bearing children and progressing in the plan of salvation.
The whole tone of the Fall is very different from what we know and talk about. LDS are grateful to Adam and Eve for partaking of the fruit and thus making it possible for all of mankind to exist, taking on earthly bodies in order to chose God and salvation here on earth and progress to exaltation.

We didn't say much in class (besides a few clarifying questions) because it wouldn't have been appropriate. However, our professor joined us a lunch and we then expressed our difficulty with their view. He tried more to explain the parts we saw as contridictions (mainly, how is it possible that it could be in the nature of God to give 2 contradictory commands and thereby apparantly force Adam and Eve to sin?). He then asked us to explain our view of the Fall and asked us some tough questions such as "Wasn't it in God's plan for Adam and Eve to fall?" and "If not, why did God allow Satan into the garden?" Meanwhile, a guy listening from another table joined our conversation and got a little upset about what we were saying about the LDS view of the fall. But, he left after a little while, mostly just listening to the conversation. Interestingly, Brother Williamson showed up again and joined in for the end of the dialogue, which found us on the topic of grace for a few minutes. He actually said he disagreed with our professor's view of grace, seeing it more in the way we as evangelicals would explain it....which was interesting. Of course, I knew that was what he thought, I was just surprised he was willing to openly disagree with a fellow LDS high in the church.

Through all of this, we are really learning to what a great extent the LDS worldview is entirely different from ours...all the way from what existed before creation to the purpse of life. This worldview is what causes the gaps in our view of the Godhead, salvation, etc.

After this, we went to our second class, in which the professor spent 20 minutes clarifying the LDS view of the atonement as happening all the way from the garden up to the crucifiction/moment of death. Some LDS will tell you it all happened in the garden, but he showed how it is closer to the evanglical view and that we are pretty much saying the same thing. He told another story of ways that he had been persecuted as LDS...once again we felt like he was directing most of the class time to us, trying to get us to see how much Christians misrepresent LDS and upset them by not calling them Christian. He had been asked to answer questions from the congregation at a 4 Square church in CA, but it turned out all of the questions were totally set up and loaded against him. The pastor had just finished a 4-week Anti-Mormon series in which he (according to our professor) totally misrepresented and misconstrued their faith, lying about many aspects. These stories sadden us, but I can also understand where the church is coming from. However, I don't think it's fair for them to bring in a Mormon and put him on the spot, like a firing squad.

A good part of the class was afterwards, when we talked with the professor and another LDS student in the class (a friend from last year, in fact) about our view of the Godhead, clarifying the misconception they had that we were Unitarians, which is believing that Jesus Christ is God, but he sometimes morphs to become the Father or the Holy Spirit, but is just one person and one God. For example, the Father became Jesus Christ when he took on flesh and came to earth. I'm surprised they thought this about us, and am glad we got to clarify and explain our view of the Trinity.

So, it was overall a frustrating day, but had its high points. Oh, the other highlight was that Tyler brought his guitar to class and played "Grace Like Rain" in susbsitution for the hymn in our first class. Our second professor saw his guitar and invited us to play for that class another day, so we will probably do that next week. Also, because there are few students who show up on time for the first class, we've been able to do the prayer and the "Scripture thought" for several days in a row. Cool, huh!

Thanks for praying!