Creation, Fall, Atonement
Matt Baker gave a great lesson in Sunday School on the Creation, Fall and Atonement. He talked about creation, fall, atonement being the three pillars of God’s Plan. All three are interconnected. Without any one of them, the other two cannot support the plan of salvation.
Bruce R. McConkie was one of my favorite speakers and authors. I got to meet him on a couple of occasions. This tall lawyer had a very intimidating sound to his voice as he spoke with authority and conviction. In his last General Conference address, that sound became humble and soft as he bore a final witness of Jesus Christ.
Elder McConkie in 1981 gave a talk at BYU. It can be found here (click here). In this talk, he talks about the Atonement, Creation and Fall and ties it all together quite well.

Looking towards Jerusalem from Gethsemane
Without the creation, man would not be, and there would be no need for a fall or atonement. Without the fall, only Adam and Eve would exist and the plan of the creation would have been thwarted and there would have been no death or resurrection, sin or atonement. And, without the atonement, all mankind would be lost and in a fallen state.
What a marvelous plan! The Plan of Salvation!
Before and After
Matt displayed a chart showing before the fall and after the fall. After staring at it for a while I noticed something missing. (I shared with him my thoughts after class.) The row he didn’t have was before the fall, trees produced fruit spontaneously and there were no weeds to afflict man. After the fall, man had to labor for his food, weeds were placed to afflict man, and anyone who gardens knows plants no longer produce food spontaneously.
Great Plan of Opposition
Of course, this was all part of his lesson on the great plan of opposition as taught by Lehi (2 Ne. 2:11). I know it is hard for people to imagine why God allows so much pain and suffering in the world, but without sorrow and pain we could not appreciate the good, nor discern good from evil.
It was a great lesson.
Soup
We fed the sisters soup from our food storage. For dessert I made a Danish from a recipe found in Martha Stewart Living. (Nope, won’t be making that again.)
After dinner I gave them a sheet of paper and asked Elizabethe to take them downstairs. The paper instructed them to pick 4 items for dinner and 4 items for dessert for next week. Yup, I’m going to do a “Chopped Challenge”.
As they were leaving, I asked, in reference to the items they chose, “Are you scared?”
They laughed and one said, “Only a little.”
It should be entertaining to see what they picked and how I prepare it.