The Pearl of Great Price is an ideal place to learn about agency because it shows us the
story of our first brothers and sisters to practice using agency in the flesh, through Adam and
Eve’s experience falling from the presence of God and exercising their agency outside the
Garden of Eden. Additionally, we learn about how we had agency even before we came to Earth
and received our bodies through the knowledge we can gain about our preearth life, and our
specific choice to follow our Savior, Jesus Christ, and come to earth to receive bodies and be
tested. Through this knowledge, we learn why agency is necessary for us in the first place, how
we can use it to progress during this life, and why it will continue forever. Additionally, …show more content…
The Agency of Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve, our oldest earthly ancestors, had agency in their premortal lives, had
agency in the Garden of Eden, and continued to exercise their agency after they fell from the
Garden. Adam and Eve were given commandments in the Garden, to eat of every tree in the
Garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Moses 3:17). However, in the same
verse, God tells Adam that he “…mayest choose for [himself], for it is given unto [him]…”. This
is the first opportunity we have to learn from Adam and Eve’s experience in the Garden. God
gives us commandments, but he does not expect us to blindly follow, and he wants us to reach
our own conclusions and make our own choices. God also commands Adam and Eve to
“multiply, and replenish the earth”, but as far as the scriptures tell us, He did not instruct them on
exactly how to keep that commandment (Moses 2:28). This gives us the second lesson we can
learn about agency from Adam and Eve’s experience in the Garden of Eden. God will not
instruct us on how to do everything, even those things that he commands us to do. It is
story of our first brothers and sisters to practice using agency in the flesh, through Adam and
Eve’s experience falling from the presence of God and exercising their agency outside the
Garden of Eden. Additionally, we learn about how we had agency even before we came to Earth
and received our bodies through the knowledge we can gain about our preearth life, and our
specific choice to follow our Savior, Jesus Christ, and come to earth to receive bodies and be
tested. Through this knowledge, we learn why agency is necessary for us in the first place, how
we can use it to progress during this life, and why it will continue forever. Additionally, …show more content…
The Agency of Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve, our oldest earthly ancestors, had agency in their premortal lives, had
agency in the Garden of Eden, and continued to exercise their agency after they fell from the
Garden. Adam and Eve were given commandments in the Garden, to eat of every tree in the
Garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Moses 3:17). However, in the same
verse, God tells Adam that he “…mayest choose for [himself], for it is given unto [him]…”. This
is the first opportunity we have to learn from Adam and Eve’s experience in the Garden. God
gives us commandments, but he does not expect us to blindly follow, and he wants us to reach
our own conclusions and make our own choices. God also commands Adam and Eve to
“multiply, and replenish the earth”, but as far as the scriptures tell us, He did not instruct them on
exactly how to keep that commandment (Moses 2:28). This gives us the second lesson we can
learn about agency from Adam and Eve’s experience in the Garden of Eden. God will not
instruct us on how to do everything, even those things that he commands us to do. It is