The Garden of Eden and Lehi’s Dream

By Frshanadu – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=112091294

When Adam and Eve were driven out, an angel in all his angelic ferocity was put to guard the tree of life so Adam and  Eve would not be cursed with undying mortality.  There is no record that the tree of life was barred to them before them.  So if they had already eaten the fruit of the tree of life, why would barring them after make any difference?  Why would shutting the barn door help when the horse is already out?

There are a variety of answers, but one answer is that the fruit of the tree isn’t just a one time thing.  You have to keep eating it.  So Adam and Eve were deathless only so long as they had continued access to the three.  Once the angel cut them off, their mortality became mortal.

We broke some new ground in our understanding of Lehi’s Dream this year.  Instead of the normal static interpretation we discovered that it was possible to view the dream as a series of vignettes all of which have the same point–you have to keep coming back to the source.  We discovered that the key difference between those who fall away from the tree in Lehi’s Dream and those who don’t is not whether they endure to the end but whether they enjoy to the end–in other words, whether they keep eating of the fruit after their first one.

Hmm.  Now isn’t that odd?  The tree of life in Lehi’s Dream and the tree of life in the Garden of Eden may both have as key features that to continue benefiting from them you have to continue partaking.  Since these are at least symbolically these same tree, it seems we may be on the right track.  These interpretations are mutally confirming.