2 Nephi 2:11 - 2:15

2 Nephi 2:11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

Lehi explains that all this evil in the world requiring the atonement is because it is the only way we can know what it means to be good. You cannot know if you behaving righteously if you do not know what bad behavior is. You cannot know if you are treating others well if you do not know how to treat them badly.

Nothing has life to you if you cannot tell its quality. If you cannot tell if something is good or bad, it unknown to you. You can’t discern its makeup or value to you or to anyone else. It is in fact a useless thing and can be ignored.

2 Nephi 2:12 Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God.

If a thing seems to have no value in teaching you the difference between good and bad, it is not doing what all other things are doing in this world. Everything else on this planet is here to learn the reason for its existence. Everything here is to show to very other thing the difference between what is good and what is not. If it is not accomplishing this end, it is of not value to anyone. In fact it is not doing what it is supposed too.

So anything that does not show this difference does not give us training. If such is allowed to exist, it shows God does not know what He is doing and that would mean He is no God. That He does not have all power. That He is not able to teach us all that we need to know.

And since it is His purpose to teach us, these mistakes would not allow God to show us mercy and justice. Therefore opposition is necessary for our training to become like God and to allow Him to show us mercy.

2 Nephi 2:13 And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.

Now if one would say that no such thing exist as laws to regulate behavior, then you will have to say that there is no such thing as violating laws. You cannot brake a law if it does not exists. I can’t brake traffic laws if there are none. In addition you cannot say you are obeying laws if there are none on the books.

So if there are no laws, one cannot say one is obeying or violating anything, so there is no showing to anyone one is good or not good. And if you have no measure of goodness then you do not know if you are happy or not. You will not even know if you are unhappy and miserable.

If you do not know if you are happy or miserable, then it shows there is no God who is trying to show us how to be happy. And if there is no God there is no creation or earth because this earth is no accident. And since there are no accidental creations then there is no God and we do not exist. All this is a figment of our imagination.

2 Nephi 2:14 And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon.

Now since this is ridiculous, God does exist and He did make the earth and everything else we see. So there are things to act and to be acted upon. If a human exist, he will be effected by nature and he will have an effect on other humans around him, for either good or evil.

2 Nephi 2:15 And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter.

In order to help man in his progression, God allowed opposition among all His creatures. He allow for our benefit choice between that which brought true happiness or that which brought misery. It was all started by the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. Adam and Eve could chose which of the trees they wanted to eat from.