The Fall of Man

This is the most tragic deed for mankind, For into the lives of people enter suffering and death. The Bible recounts these events thus: Genesis 2:16-17 "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

The punishment for breaking this spiritual commandment was death— Immediate spiritual death, and slow physical death.

When Adam named the beasts and birds, He perceived that among them were males and females. Each creature had a pair—like unto itself, yet somewhat different. This must have moved Adam to think that he too needed a helper like himself. Adam's bride was made from his own rib, taken while he slept. And from the side of Christ, pierced by the spear, Shedding blood in unspeakable agony, came salvation for His Bride.

Woman was made not from the head, that she should not rule over man, Nor from the foot, that she should not be trampled, But from beneath the arm—that she might be protected, From a place near the heart—that she might be loved. God made the husband head of the family even before sin entered the world.

The Apostle Paul argues this by the order of creation (man was created first) And the purpose of creation (woman was created for man) (1 Corinthians 11:8-9). And though Eve sinned first, it is said that sin entered the world through Adam. Adam was head of the family, and all responsibility lay upon him.

This event is described in Genesis 3:1-19: "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman: Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent: We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman: Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, Then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, And that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise; She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; And they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him: Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And He said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And Adam said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman: What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the serpent: Because thou hast done this, Thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman He said: I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam He said: Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, And hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; For out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

And this sorrowful prophecy might have continued forever, Yet God in His great mercy and love for His creation Did not permit man to approach the tree of life.

Genesis 3:22-24: "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."

In this passage of Scripture it is written: "Surely Adam and Eve, upon tasting the fruit of the tree, came to know good and evil, But even before tasting, they knew good by experience; of evil they only heard. After tasting, the reverse occurred: of good they came only to hear, While evil they experienced in deed, For God took from them the glory in which they were clothed, And sorrow overtook them, which before had not touched them.

Now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever— If Adam dared to taste of the tree from which it was forbidden to eat, How much more would he hasten to the tree whose fruit was not forbidden?

But since God had already decreed to the first parents That they should pass their life in labor and sweat, in sorrows and sicknesses, Lest by tasting the fruit of the tree of life and receiving eternal life, They should eternally suffer in this life, God would not suffer those under curse to taste of that tree Which was prepared for their immortality, To give it to them when they shall be free from curses and clothed in glory. He did this lest the life-giving gift should serve their harm, And the fruit of the tree of life should bring them greater misery Than that which the tree of knowledge brought them. From one they received temporal sickness; from the other would come eternal sickness. From one they gained death, which releases them from the bonds of disease; From the other they would become as the buried while yet living, For it would preserve them for eternal torment in suffering. Therefore God took from them the tree of life. Moreover, it would not have been fitting for blissful life to exist upon a cursed earth, Or for eternal life to be found in a passing world."

In such sorrowful condition mankind found itself; Instead of repenting, it went ever further from God... And so depraved did men become that God decided to destroy the whole world.

Genesis 6:5-7: "And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually: And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth: and it grieved Him at His heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; Both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; For it repenteth me that I have made them."

"The root of the deep corruption of pre-flood mankind is indicated in the corruption of the heart, And since the latter, according to biblical understanding, is considered the central focus Of all man's conscious activity, then its corruption is equivalent to the poisoning Of the very source of life (Matthew 15:19). Genesis 6:6—'And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth.' The nature of repentance attributed to God may be understood from the account of Saul, Where repentance is twice attributed to God (1 Samuel 15:11, 35), And yet Samuel speaks of God, that He is not a man, that He should repent (1 Samuel 15:29). From this it is clear that when He is spoken of as man, it is because, As Abén Ezra expressed it, the law speaks in the language of the sons of men— That is, in the language of simple, popular understanding. In particular, God's 'repentance'—as a special manner of change in the unchangeable— Is the highest expression of the thought of extreme divine sorrow, Reaching the point where even the unchangeable Being itself seemed ready to change.

'And it grieved Him at His heart.' Like the foregoing, this too is such an anthropomorphic expression. 'God's sorrow—the foresight that it is impossible for man, created with free will, Consciously and stubbornly misusing it, to return to the good path; Therefore, where God's sorrow is spoken of, as, for instance, of cities That have brought upon themselves God's wrath (Matthew 11:20-26; Luke 10:13), There we must understand that 'the sentence of eternal divine justice has been passed, That this race or person must perish, that evil be not eternalized.'

Genesis 6:7—'And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; Both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; For it repenteth me that I have made them.' Here is given a stronger expression of the same thought— Of the deep disharmony between the actions of human freedom and the plans of divine providence, And the desire of the Almighty to destroy this discord. 'The sorrowful fate of man, by the sentence of divine judgment, was to be shared By the whole world of living creatures around him, For between the destiny of man and the life of nature, according to Scripture's teaching, There exists the closest moral connection; Whence the fall and rising of man is correspondingly reflected in all the rest of creation.'

Therefore—sorrowful consequence!—all God's creation was to perish. But by God's great mercy, one man named Noah found favor with God. And God saved mankind from destruction through Noah and his family Consisting of eight persons. All the rest of mankind was destroyed by God.

In this part of the book we have learned one important reason why God created man. He created him for His own glory, that man might behold this glory and live And glorify God. But, greatly to our sorrow, man did not obey God And lost this possibility—to dwell in His holiness; He died spiritually and began to die physically.

But God, in His great mercy, offered man a way out of this sorrowful situation: How to regain the presence of God's glory and enter into it and dwell in it forever. Of this is written in the further text of this book. And if you wish to know how this came to pass And to enter into eternal glory of God, You shall be able to do so by reading this book to the end...