Alma, Probation, and the Tree of Life

The tree of life makes another appearance at the end of Genesis 3. After pronouncing the consequences of Adam and Eve’s transgression, God prevents them from accessing the tree, ensuring their mortality:

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Genesis 3:22-24

On its face, this passage makes God sound exclusive, even vengeful. “The man is become as one of us” suggests a desire to retain distance and protect divine status. But a reader who assumes that God loves His children would naturally look for a more generous interpretation for a seemingly harsh action.

Writing in the late second century, Irenaeus rejected the notion that this denial of access was motivated by rivalry:

Wherefore also He drove him out of Paradise, and removed him far from the tree of life, not because He envied him the tree of life, as some venture to assert, but because He pitied him, [and did not desire] that he should continue a sinner for ever, nor that the sin which surrounded him should be immortal, and evil interminable and irremediable. But He set a bound to his [state of] sin, by interposing death, and thus causing sin to cease, putting an end to it by the dissolution of the flesh, which should take place in the earth, so that man, ceasing at length to live to sin, and dying to it, might begin to live to God.

Against Heresy III:23, 4

Like Irenaeus, Alma assumes a loving God who acts for the benefit of His children. Building on earlier interpretations of the Fall, he characterizes the exclusion of access to the tree of life as a temporary measure.

As the keeper of the Nephite record, Alma would have been familiar with Lehi’s dream, which presents the tree of life as the goal of mortality. Lehi described the fruit of the tree, which he tasted in his dream, as “most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted,” and added, “it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy” (1 Nephi 8:11-12). Alma himself used the tree of life as a metaphor for the maturation of faith in his sermon to the Zoramites, telling them that if they would nourish the word of God in their hearts, with diligence and patience, they would eventually partake of the fruit of the tree of life (Alma 32:40-41).

For Alma, patience and diligence are the key to the story. This fruit isn’t immediately accessible; it becomes available only with sustained effort over time. So when Antionah, a “chief ruler” in the city of Ammonihah, uses this Genesis passage as evidence against life after death, Alma responds with a concept that Lehi had introduced in his own discussion of the Garden of Eden: probation. (See 2 Nephi 2:21.)

Here’s Antionah’s question, which comes laden with his own interpretation of the passage:

What does the scripture mean, which saith that God placed cherubim and a flaming sword on the east of the garden of Eden, lest our first parents should enter and partake of the fruit of the tree of life, and live forever? And thus we see that there was no possible chance that they should live forever.

Alma 12:21

Alma responds that this interdiction served a more tactical purpose: upholding the established consequence for partaking of the forbidden fruit:

If it had been possible for Adam to have partaken of the fruit of the tree of life at that time, there would have been no death, and the word would have been void, making God a liar, for he said: If thou eat thou shalt surely die.

Alma 12:23

But this does not imply that eternal life was permanently inaccessible, only that it would be preceded by physical death.

And we see that death comes upon mankind … nevertheless there was a space granted unto man in which he might repent; therefore this life became a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead.

Alma 12:24

Later, speaking to his wayward son Corianton, Alma develops this concept further, describing what would have happened if Adam and Eve had been permitted to eat the fruit of the tree of life immediately:

Now, we see that the man had become as God, knowing good and evil; and lest he should put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever, the Lord God placed cherubim and the flaming sword, that he should not partake of the fruit—

And thus we see, that there was a time granted unto man to repent, yea, a probationary time, a time to repent and serve God.

For behold, if Adam had put forth his hand immediately, and partaken of the tree of life, he would have lived forever, according to the word of God, having no space for repentance; yea, and also the word of God would have been void, and the great plan of salvation would have been frustrated.

Alma 42:3-5

By preventing access to the tree of life, in other words, God gave Adam and Eve a period of time to change, to mature. Like a clay pot that is fired too soon, if they had eaten the fruit immediately, they would have lost the malleability associated with mortal life. They would have settled too soon, losing the opportunity for growth and progression which mortal life affords.

So in Alma’s reading, Genesis 3 ends with a firm but loving gesture from God. Adam and Eve are blessed with time to grow. The cherubim don’t diminish or destroy Adam and Eve’s happiness; they enable it.

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Today I will take advantage of opportunities to grow, remembering that delayed access to the tree of life is intentional and is conducive to my development and maturation.