Second Article of Faith

The Second Article of Faith in the belief of the Mormons is: "We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression."

What this means is that we will not be punished for the choices Adam made in the Garden of Eden. We can only pay the price of our own sins. I'm not sure why people would think that we would be punished for anyone else's sins or transgressions.

Ezekiel 18:20 "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him."

Actually, we need to be grateful to Adam and Eve for their choices in the Garden of Eden. By choosing to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they were able to put God's plan into play. His plan was for His children to come to earth, to receive a body, and learn to live our lives the way our Heavenly Father wanted us to so we can return back to him someday with honor. We cannot prove ourselves unless we live in a world where everyone has choices and where we pay the price for that agency. Now we can show Heavenly Father that we love him and that we are willing to live our lives as He commands us to. Commandments are laws that we are required to live in order to know true happiness while living in this world. If we choose not to live them then there are consequences that can hurt us or will not allow us to return to live with Him.

Because of the choices made in the Garden of Eden we needed a Savior to help us return home and that Savior is Jesus Christ. But I will talk about that in the next Article of Faith post. But here is scripture to help understand part of the Plan of Salvation regarding Adam and Eve's role in the Plan of Salvation.

1 Cor. 15: 22, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

Part of the Plan of Salvation help 

As I have studied more about Adam and Eve I have come to love them and appreciate their understanding of the choice they made that gives us the opportunity to prove ourselves worthy to live with our Heavenly Father. I am grateful for them and their wisdom. And now I can have that same wisdom as I continue to learn and grow here in this world.