“They Were Cut off from the Presence of the Lord”

Joseph F. McConkie, Robert L. Millet

Once again, from the Prophet’s translation of Genesis we read that after the Fall “Adam and Eve, his wife, called upon the name of the Lord, and they heard the voice of the Lord from the way toward the Garden of Eden, speaking unto them, and they saw him not; for they were shut out from his presence” (Moses 5:4).

In a modern revelation ye learn that “the devil tempted Adam, and he partook of the forbidden fruit and transgressed the commandment, wherein he became subject to the will of the devil, because he yielded unto temptation.

Wherefore, I, the Lord God, caused that he should be cast out from the Garden of Eden, from my presence, because of his transgression, wherein he became spiritually dead.” (D&C 29:40-41.) To experience spiritual death is to be removed from the presence of God and to die as to things pertaining to righteousness (see Alma 12:16, 32; Alma 40:26; Alma 42:9).

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1

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