# Chain: The Fall > *The fall as the declining of a gift, not a transgression punished* **The argument it traces:** God placed His individuated reflection in the first parents -> He offered them the Essence of His Being, and offered it as a choice -> content in what they already had, they declined it -> the Gift was withdrawn until Jesus, a soul again free of sin and error, accepted it and brought it back -> so the fall is a refusal, and the Essence remains a choice for every soul since **3** messages · **4** supporting · main statement not yet chosen --- ## Foundation ### 2016-03-31 - [[2016-03-31 The Purpose of Divine Love|The Purpose of Divine Love]] The refusal told from the offer's side, and stated as a rejection rather than a transgression. God placed "a reflection of God Himself in the form of a soul" in the first two human beings, gave them free will, and set them in an environment that "nurtured them fully," with the wisdom a pure soul carries. Then came a greater offer: "another Gift, a more beautiful Gift, the Gift of His Essence. Not the mere reflection of His Being, but the Essence of His Being." What defeated it was contentment, not disobedience: "it was rejected, for the happiness of those original beings was great and full in their existence as it was. And so they decided that they were indeed fulfilled in their lives as they were." The consequence is withdrawal rather than punishment, and it is temporary: "the Gift was withdrawn until another beautiful soul was incarnated into this world free of sin and error." No serpent, no fruit, no curse, no expulsion. The doctrinal weight sits on the fact that the offer was declined by souls who were doing well, which makes the refusal a live possibility rather than a historical mistake. ### 2016-05-29 - [[2016-05-29 Aman Speaks of the Original State of Humanity and the Fall from Grace|Aman Speaks of the Original State of Humanity and the Fall from Grace]] Aman's own verdict on the choice, which only he can give. He does not excuse it, "I have always carried deep regrets about how we chose to turn away from God," and he accepts the consequences as his: "I cannot condemn those who are immersed in darkness because I sowed the seeds to your fate many years ago." But he also reads the refusal as close to inevitable given what God had already given them: "in my own soul wisdom I see that this choice was almost a forgone conclusion as God gifted all with free will…..a most powerful Gift." That is a claim about free will itself, that a gift real enough to matter is a gift real enough to be used wrongly, and it converts the fall from an accident into a demonstration of what free will costs. ### 2016-05-29 - [[2016-05-29 Aman Speaks of the Original State of Humanity and the Fall from Grace|Aman Speaks of the Original State of Humanity and the Fall from Grace]] The refusal told by the one who made it. Aman gives the original state in physical detail: bodies "perfectly proportioned, lean and fit," taller than people today, "without flaws or disease," minds "keen and clear," souls "untainted with sin," no need to forage or eat except for pleasure, "in part ethereal in our spiritual and physical existence." God and His angels were companions, teaching them to build shelters they did not need. Then the offer, put as a question: "We were asked if we would care to receive a further gift of His Love, the essence of His soul into our hearts so that we may progress further in our natures and happiness." He does not claim to fully understand the refusal, "The great mystery is why we chose not to receive this gift," but he names two causes and they are precise. Self-absorption: "we were so enamoured with our own beings that such a gift seemed unnecessary." And then the thing itself, which he calls the first sin and which is not disobedience: "We felt suspicion. This was our first sin and it grew into a dark canker upon our souls." The fall follows as consequence rather than punishment, and it is physical as well as moral: pain felt for the first time, then "anger and resentment," the dispensation lost, and "our bodies reflected this choice as we became more flesh and blood than spirit and grace." The arc closes with the second chance taken: after passing into spirit they regained the sixth sphere, and "it was not until after the coming of Jesus and the reopening of the doors to the Father's Love that we were able to choose, this time more wisely, the way of the Divine Love." --- ## Also touches on this *These messages restate or echo the idea rather than carry it forward, so they sit alongside the thread rather than in it.* - **2015-06-15** [[2015-06-15 The Imaginings and Ideas of Men Create Falsehoods and Misinterpretations|The Imaginings and Ideas of Men Create Falsehoods and Misinterpretations]] (sighting) - The fall attributed to the appetite for power, "The source of the great fall of mankind is to be powerful, to not acknowledge the power of God." A different account from the Judas Foundation, where the refusal came from contentment. - **2016-05-29** [[2016-05-29 Aman Speaks of the Original State of Humanity and the Fall from Grace|Aman Speaks of the Original State of Humanity and the Fall from Grace]] (build) - This message bears directly on the contentment-versus-ambition tension. Aman names contentment and suspicion, not ambition; the desire for power that Joseph Smith calls the fall's source appears here only afterwards, as part of the degeneration ("we chose to follow our own wills ever more deeply into a confused and darkened state"). That ordering would reconcile the two accounts: contentment and suspicion caused the refusal, and the appetite for power characterises what the fall produced. Recorded as evidence for the open question rather than as a resolution. - **2016-09-02** [[2016-09-02 I Am Your Brother|I Am Your Brother]] (witness) - The reopening stated in the first person and extended beyond mankind, "in my discovery opened the doors to its existence amongst mankind and all spirits". [[2016-03-31 The Purpose of Divine Love|2016-03-31-af-judas]] gives the gift offered, declined and withdrawn "until Jesus"; this is that clause from the other end, and it adds a further reach, that the reopening covered spirits as well as the living. - **2016-12-02** [[2016-12-02 A Prayer for Those on the Path of Love|A Prayer for Those on the Path of Love]] (sighting) - The gift given because it is accepted rather than because a soul is singled out, "This is God's gift to you, beloveds, not because He has pointed you out but because you have accepted this gift and you desire this gift." Nothing is said about the first parents.