Creation and the Fall of Mankind
Before there was anything, God was not alone. In Himself dwells a community of three persons. This is a great mystery and difficult to explain but very important and true. God is Father, God is Son, and God is Holy Spirit. Each personality is unique and yet perfectly in harmony with each other. God created many creatures to share his community of three. The Bible tells us these unseen creatures are called angels or messengers of God. They are magnificent and powerful but the one known as Satan became very proud and thought he should be equal with God. Together with about one third of all the angels, Satan is in rebellion against God. These “fallen angels” are now called demons.
In the beginning of what we call time, God decided to create a new being and the Bible tells us that they would be “in His own image”. This new creature was man. However, man would be different from the angels in several ways. First, they would have physical bodies that require an environment. So, God created the heavens and the earth to be the dwelling place of man. Second, the originals would be able to produce offspring that could also reproduce. So, God created both man and woman. Finally, these human beings would be a unique combination of mind, body and soul that in some mysterious way was similar to their creator. Humans are not now and never will be God. However, we are a special creation of God that has the ability to relate to Him in a unique manner.
All that we know exists was created by God as the physical environment for man. God designed it perfectly. However, we know that the earth and mankind is not perfect. So, what happened?
This is the story of mankind’s fall from perfection. When God was finished creating all things that exist He placed man in the Garden of Eden. The Bible tells us that God called this first man, Adam and his wife, the first woman was called Eve. They were placed in a perfect environment with clean air and consistently warm temperature and cool breezes in the evening. The animals all co-existed without the need to attack or harm one another because God provided plants and water for their sustenance. Adam and Eve were provided the various fruits of trees to eat and it was more than sufficient. All that God created was good. Community life between God and man was perfect. Until one day Satan decided to disrupt the harmony between God and man.
Satan had the ability to appear in various shapes and the Bible tells us that he came to Eve one day as a beautiful serpent creature that could speak. Satan asked Eve if she had ever tasted the fruit of the tree located in the center of the garden. This tree was one –of-a-kind. God called it the tree of knowledge between good and evil. He had warned both Adam and Eve never to eat of its fruit or they would die. Eve told Satan what God had said but Satan lied and told her that they would not die. Satan told Eve that if she ate of this fruit she would become like God and know all things. He also tempted her by saying that the fruit was the most delicious of all God’s creation. Eve was weak and perhaps a little envious of the “forbidden knowledge” so she took fruit from the special tree, ate some and gave some to Adam who was nearby. He also ate. They did not physically die but they became aware of their nakedness and were ashamed for their disobedience so they made clothes from leaves and hid from God. When God came looking for them He knew already what they had done. He called them out and informed them that they had broken the special relationship between God and mankind by their act of disobedience which the Bible calls Sin.
The punishment for this original Sin was the death of their individual soul or spirit. Their physical bodies would also now suffer the curse that God proclaimed. God ordered them out of the Garden of Eden and put a faithful Angel to guard the entrance so that man could never return. He cursed the serpent form that Satan had used to deceive Eve and said that it must always crawl on its belly in the dust of the earth. He also created a natural fear between serpent and human so that we would crush them with our heels but they would bite us in the foot. Eve was punished with additional pain during childbirth and was put under the authority of her husband. Adam was cursed to work hard all his life in an effort to produce food by the sweat of his brow in order to survive. The entire universe was cursed because of Man’s Original Sin and is suffering the effect of degeneration.
The guilt of Adam has been inherited by all of his ancestors. That includes you and me here today. We suffer all our physical lives to survive but each and every one of us eventually dies physically. The real problem many of us are not even aware of is the spiritual death we also inherited from our common forefather Adam. This spiritual death means separation from God eternally. Our souls or spirits are dead to God. We are eternally separated from His community. This serious problem is not without hope. The Bible teaches us that God loves us, His creation, so much that He provided a solution. We will learn more about this “Good News” as were hear the stories from God’s Word, the Bible.
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