We believe in 3 kingdoms or levels of glory, called the celestial, terrestrial and telestial. We don't know much about the details, but we have some points of reference within each category.
Celestial - God's state of glory, his presence
Terrestrial - The paradisaical state of Eden, the millennial state of the earth
Telestial - This earth in its fallen state
This will do for the purpose of this blog post, even though I know that a telestial glory in the telestial kingdom is not the same as living mortal life on a telestial earth.
The plan of salvation can therefore be summed up in a journey down through the ranks and up again. We are in the presence of heavenly parents in the pre-mortal existence. The earth is created in a terrestrial state and "man" (Adam in Hebrew) is created to dwell there. The history of man on earth starts with the fall resulting in the transition to a telestial state. It ends with the millennial reign where the earth returns to a paradisaical/terrestrial state. Finally, through the redeeming power of Christ, we can reach exaltation, a return to the celestial state, but this time with a celestial body and necessary experiences that makes this state very different from the pre-mortal existence. The fall and subsequent arising and exaltation are all part of the plan.
It is primarily the transition from the terrestrial to the telestial when Adam partook of the fruit, that we refer to as "the fall". But reading Helaman 4:26 the other day, I noticed the word "fallen" and started reflecting on how often this is used in the scriptures both with reference to the fall of man in the Garden of Eden and the fall of specific people throughout history.
For behold, they saw that the strength of the Lamanites was as great as their strength, even man for man. And thus had they fallen into this great transgression; yea, thus had they become , because of their transgression, in the space of .
How can you fall when you are already in a telestial state? The simple answer could of course be that this is not referring to the different states or degrees as given above but is just an idiom. But I want to challenge that notion and make a case for "fallen" in the scriptures applying to both Adam in the garden and Adam/mankind in the telestial world in the same way.
Our purpose on earth is to eventually get back to the celestial state. In this fallen state we need to prepare for that by arising and ascending. This ascension starts here on earth in this life. We are asked to "arise from the dust". We are asked to live in the world but not to be of the world. We are asked to make covenants that bind us to a being on a higher state than ourselves with the power to lift us up. We commit to live a higher law than the telestial. The scriptures are full of symbols and language typifying this ascension. Here is a great description of Lehi's dream in this context. There is also beautiful symmetry in the partaking of fruit as part of the fall and then partaking of fruit again as part of the ascension, both as integral elements of the plan.
The temple endowment is also an ascension story as is the ancient temple. We notice that mountains were used when temples were not available. The two most notable visions on mountains in the Book of Mormon (Nephi in 1 Nephi 11-14 and the Brother of Jared in Ether 3-4) happened in circumstances where no temple was available. Nephi was "caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, into an exceedingly high mountain" (1 Nephi 11:1). Here are the words of a Jewish rabbi commenting on this verse
High mountain: In ancient Mesopotamia a high mountain was the place where the gods were worshipped because it was believed to be the closest places to heaven from an earthly perspective. This theme is found all throughout the Jewish Bible. When Nephi says that he was taken to an exceedingly high mountain upon which he had never set foot before it means two things:
#1# The mountain being exceedingly high shows that there is no other G-d besides the G-d that Nephi worshipped.
#2# The fact that he had never set foot on it would be understood as Nephi having received such a profound level of closeness to G-d that he had never experienced before.
I believe that this event was an important part of the background for Nephi introducing himself in the Book of Mormon as "highly favored". But this description has also been used for the Nephites in general. Even though not everyone literally climbed that mountain, they did have temples. As we leave this telestial state (while still in our mortal lives on earth) through covenants, we have the potential to fall, just like Adam. The verse I quoted in Helaman 4 is a description of precisely that, a covenant people who had fallen into transgression. Another example in Alma 9.
19 For he will not suffer you that ye shall live in your iniquities, to his people. I say unto you, Nay; he would rather suffer that the Lamanites might destroy all his people who are called the people of Nephi, if it were possible that they could into sins and transgressions, after having had so much light and so much knowledge given unto them of the Lord their God;
20 Yea, after having been such a highly favored people of the Lord; yea, after having been favored above every other , kindred, tongue, or people; after having had all things known unto them, according to their desires, and their faith, and prayers, of that which has been, and which is, and which is to come;
...
30 And now, my brethren, for ye are my brethren, and ye ought to be beloved, and ye ought to bring forth works which are meet for repentance, seeing that your hearts have been grossly hardened against the word of God, and seeing that ye are a and a fallen people.
Notice the description of their status as highly favored with knowledge given to them, echoing Nephi's description in 1 Nephi 1:1. They were a covenant people and had been on Nephi's mountain in the form of the temple. But because of their hardened hearts they had become a "fallen people". Falling into "sins and transgressions" is a symbolic fall down from that mountain back to the telestial state.
I will create a second part, because I think there is some beautiful symbolism related to this topic found in the story of the Brother of Jared.