In his account of the Fall of Adam , Lehi teaches that the philosophy of opposites is at the heart of the plan of redemption. Scripture relates the principle of opposition to crucial states of human experience. Among them are life and death, knowledge and ignorance, light and darkness, growth and atrophy. They also became subject to spiritual death, which means spiritual separation from God because of sin. Such knowledge is participative.
Life is a predicament in which there are real risks, real gains, real losses.
From such tests emerge responsibility, judgment, and soul growth. Latter-day Saints believe that this encounter with choice and conditions for progression will continue forever. It follows that in the gospel framework, once one is committed, there is no such thing as neutrality or standing still. In some forms of Judaism and Christianity, for example, the view prevails that the flesh and the spirit are opposed and antithetical. Paul is often cited in this connection.