Genesis 3:5, commentary and pictures

Satan denies that disobedience will bring death, contradicting God's warned penalty and implying transgression has no fearful consequence, while promising that eating will open the eyes to a more exalted godlike existence knowing good and evil. In doing so he accuses God of jealously withholding great good and restricting liberty from selfish arbitrary motives, portraying Him as unkind, untruthful and tyrannical. That promised opening of the eyes was fulfilled only as a curse, bringing not divine wisdom but knowledge of evil, guilt, folly and bitter experience, while God's sentence meant literal death in returning to dust. That twisting of warning into promise began the controversy between the Prince of life and the prince of darkness and laid the foundation for deceptive work to reach full accomplishment through spiritualism in the last time. Where Adam in perfect strength failed, Christ retraced the same ground in weakened humanity and overcame, making it possible to break slavery to appetite and receive moral power to obey.

Promise and False Meaning

The words deny that disobedience brings death, directly contradicting the warned penalty and implying that God did not mean what He said, so that people believe transgression will not bring fearful consequences. Spoken together with Ye shall not surely die, this denial is the first lie and the foundation of the work to deceive the world, laid little by little toward a masterpiece of deception reaching full accomplishment in the last remnant of time when all except those kept by the power of God through faith in His Word will be swept into delusion. It denies the threatened death and assures that man was created immortal and cannot die. It is false assertion and wily insinuation against the character of God, and believing it was the beginning of disobedience and transgression in this world.

The words promise that eating will open the eyes and make humans as gods knowing good and evil, meaning a more exalted existence with broader knowledge, higher perceptions, godlike discernment, equality with God, freedom, happiness and power. They offer greater wisdom and a higher state of existence, enlightening, expanding and ennobling the mind, making transgressors wise above every other gift and exalting them equal with God Himself in knowing good and evil. Eve and Adam accepted the claim, distrusted their Creator, and imagined that transgression would bring wisdom and exaltation. The temptation rests on flattery and desire for forbidden knowledge and ambition for self-exaltation and supremacy, and the promise is echoed in the claim that humanity progresses toward godhood and that each person is judge and standard for himself, which replaces God's righteousness and the perfection of His law with sinful human nature as object of worship and rule of judgment, not upward progress but decline.

The promise was supported by claims that the serpent himself had eaten and gained speech, that the warning was only intimidation and would not actually happen, and that death was impossible because of the tree of life. It insinuates that God jealously withheld the tree because of its wonderful properties and forbade even touching it to keep them from elevation, nobler development and greater happiness. The fruit was presented as desirable and delicious and exhilarating in effect, with the serpent first touching the fruit to prove no harm, and Eve after eating trusted her own pleasurable sensation and imagined she felt quickening power and new life and entrance into a higher state of existence as proof against the positive command. She felt no immediate sign of displeasure and imagined the fruit was producing the promised effects, but the assurances were false.

The words accuse God of jealously withholding great good, restricting liberty, keeping humans subordinate and acting from selfish arbitrary authority. They charge Him with knowing eating would open human understanding and with forbidding the tree to hold back knowledge, which is power, and to keep Adam and Eve in subordination. They portray Him as unkind, untruthful, unjust, severe and tyrannical, as a liar who had deceived them, mixing truth with falsehood until Eve believed God was unkind, distrusted His Word and goodness, and desired to be independent. By that yielding through distrust of the Creator, and through her influence, Adam also was deceived into disobedience.

The words twist the warning that sin brings death into the promise that sinners will not die but will rise to be as gods, and that twisting began the controversy in Eden between Christ as the Prince of life and Satan as the prince of darkness. That same false reading continues where death is declared to be the gate to life and to mean an eternally burning hell, and where God's law is cast into contempt as a yoke of bondage, while entering life requires keeping the commandments and eternal life is God's gift in His Son possessed only by those who have the Son. The verse means Satan insinuated that the law of God was not perfect and needed to be remodeled, which is the same lie as proclaiming the law abolished, and all who since receive the words of the tempting devil and voice that the law does not matter repeat that same lie. It first devised the heresy that God's law can be set aside and sinners are not amenable to its precepts, repeated when professing servants set aside His law and teach sinners they are not accountable, and when ministers disregard His claims and uphold the first day as Sabbath causing a lie to be received as truth. God required obedience from the first parents, and because they accepted fable rather than truth they fell, showing His law was binding from the beginning and that the sacrifice of the Son was given not to abolish the law but to establish it, still requiring perfect obedience.

The promised opening of the eyes was fulfilled only as a curse, giving knowledge of evil, sin, guilt, folly and bitter experience rather than divine wisdom. Their eyes were opened only to discern their folly, to know evil and taste the bitter results of disobedience, to know they were naked after disobedience removed the garments of innocence and surrounding light covering from God. The knowledge obtained was one they would never have had in obedience, an experience in disobedience and disloyalty whose substance was nakedness, which they attempted to replace by sewing fig leaves for aprons representing the arguments transgressors ever since use to cover disobedience and hide nakedness of soul when truth calls. The divine sentence meant literal death by returning to dust, while the promised wisdom came only as wisdom in knowing the evil God meant them never to know.

The fruit itself had no injurious quality and was not poisonous, for the sin lay not merely in yielding to appetite but in distrusting God's goodness, disbelieving His word and rejecting His authority. The vital point was breaking the one prohibition given as a test of loyalty, an experience in disobedience and disloyalty to God. Their choice brought the knowledge of evil into the world and opened the way to falsehood and error. Sincere belief in the lie did not save from penalty, for Eve really believed the claim that breaking the law would bring gain, yet her fall came from disbelieving the words of God. Sincere belief in a lie does not excuse in the judgment; condemnation comes for not believing the truth and neglecting opportunity to learn what is truth, and whatever contradicts God's Word is sure to proceed from Satan. Hearts must be set to know what is truth, and all placed on record in His Word is for warning and instruction to save from deception, for neglect brings ruin, while refusing to walk in obedience ends in ruin and choosing Satan's way instead of God's way is inexcusable. A true experience does not oppose God's expressed will, while an experience that does so is false, and there is only one path to Paradise restored, walking humbly with God, believing His Word and accepting His plans, which is the path of obedience.

Eden Test and Setting

The tree of knowledge stood near the tree of life as a pledge of obedience and love and as a light test of obedience, faith and love, with free permission to eat of every other tree but prohibition of this one on pain of death, and endurance would have placed the pair beyond the tempter's power in perpetual favor. The test was very light yet could not be borne, and its history proves that God's Word is to be sacredly respected and implicitly obeyed, that God means what He says, and that disobedience in little things is the same in His sight as in larger things, bringing fearful consequences and opening the floodgates of woe. Disregarding the prohibition was transgression of law, turning from allegiance through falsehood and misrepresentation and bringing the race under the jurisdiction of the one who declares man cannot obey.

Knowledge of good had been freely given, while knowledge of evil was lovingly withheld, for evil, sin and death were never created by God but are results of disobedience, meaning toil, anxiety, disappointment, grief, pain and death. The knowledge gained by eating was only acquaintance with sin and its results, unlike the knowledge God would have given, which would have brought lasting joy and everlasting good without sin's curse. Had the forbidden tree been left untouched, God would have imparted knowledge bringing lasting joy, but seeking what He had not intended humanity to know through curiosity, presumption, unsatisfied desires and unholy aims brought painful experience and loss of the Eden home. True knowledge of value comes from God, not from unbelievers or wicked people, and is not to be sought merely because the serpent, once a bright angel, urges the claim of knowing good and evil.

Holy angels often visited the garden and had already taught about work and about rebellion and fall, warning about the fallen foe, cautioning not to separate from each other in labor lest contact be made with him, and charging to follow directions closely because only in perfect obedience was there safety and while obedient he could have no power over them. Eve left her husband, lingered at the forbidden tree, listened and dared to doubt whether the warning of certain death meant just what was said, moved by jealousy over supposed withheld good. She imagined she would be highly exalted and happy by having her own unrestrained way in eating what was forbidden even to touch, and she lost all the glories of Eden.

The tempter seized the opportunity when she was alone, separated against angelic caution to stay together, absorbed in her task and then gazing with curiosity and admiration on the tree while questioning why its beautiful fruit was withheld, feeling danger yet trusting her own wisdom and strength to discern evil and withstand it. The serpent surprised her by speaking in a musical voice with subtle praise of her loveliness, and because he spoke through the fascinating serpent rather than as an angel-like being that would have excited fear, she was startled but lingered wonderingly to listen instead of fleeing. Entering into controversy was error, for she was charmed by the representation and came to forget great love, beautiful garden, pleasant employment and mercies.

After knowing he could never return to favor, the adversary laid a plan with his angels from envy to destroy the happy pair and ruin the race, for while they obeyed they were safe and happy and he could exercise no power over them and had to lead them to disobey, forfeit favor, incur the frown and come under his direct influence. He assumed another form and pretended interest, insinuated against truthfulness by creating doubt whether what was said about the tree was meant, excited curiosity to pry into unsearchable plans and to reason about the cause of the restriction, repeating the same prying guilt by which he himself had fallen. Enduring the trial as a permitted test of loyalty would have left them in perpetual favor with God and heavenly angels, but failure brought them under his jurisdiction so that he gained supremacy over the human race and brought guilt, sin and ruin upon all.

Dwellers in Eden, like the angels, were on probation, able to obey and live or disobey and perish, retaining their happy estate and rich blessings only on condition of fidelity to the Creator's law, for He who spared not the angels that sinned could not spare them, and disregard of His will would incur transgression, forfeit His gifts and bring misery and ruin. Only one prohibition was laid on the use of all in the garden, making the tree the test of obedience and love, with the same condition of obedience to the Father in heaven and not to His enemy enjoined upon every human being for salvation. They were created innocent and holy but not beyond possibility of wrong, as free moral agents capable of appreciating wisdom, benevolence and justice, with full liberty to yield or withhold obedience and enjoying communion with God and holy angels, yet loyalty had to be tested before being rendered eternally secure, with a check placed at the beginning upon desire for self-indulgence, the fatal passion at the foundation of the fall. To accomplish his work unperceived the destroyer chose the serpent as medium, then one of the wisest and most beautiful creatures, winged and dazzling with the color and brilliancy of burnished gold in flight, resting in the rich-laden branches and regaling itself with the delicious fruit to arrest attention and delight the eye while lurking in the garden of peace watching for prey, and angels warned to guard against unwearied efforts to ensnare, to heed warning and be content with instruction, with every angel ready to help if needed and access permitted only at the forbidden tree if its nature were investigated.

The verse belongs to inspired history recording creation, the introduction of sin and its results upon the race, showing disobedience, impenitence and just retribution in contrast with the holy innocency in which the first parents stood enjoying communion with God and sinless angels, a history traceable step by step down sacred history. It is part of authentic history of the beginning giving true knowledge of the creation and fall and origin of the earth, without which there are only fables, conjectures, false theories, superstition and falsehood that bewilder the mind, subject it to tyranny and enfeeble the intellect, so there is no need to hamper with human conjectures and unreliable theories. It is a great fact and pillar of faith to be accepted with implicit confidence as guide of life, not to be caviled at, spiritualized or explained away, though largely rejected along with creation, atonement and perpetuity of law by those who regard simple confidence as weakness and criticism as wisdom. Knowing this outline of the fall and its flood of woe is among the most important knowledge to be gained, flashing divine light and glory upon all who receive it, possessing amazing strength and beauty as far-reaching as eternity, showing why the Scriptures should be exalted in every school.

The verse belongs to the garden scene at the dense leafy fruit-bearing tree where two people stand on either side reaching toward its branches. The sinless pair were privileged to behold the beauty and permitted to eat of all trees except one, yet the serpent tempted Eve and she tempted her husband and both ate, broke the command, became sinners and were driven out. Cherubim and a flaming sword guarded the way of the tree of life so that fallen man could not eat its fruit which perpetuates immortality and live forever as immortal sinners, and thus sin would not be immortalized. Acceptance of the deceiver's suggestions brought sadness, suffering, disease and death upon the guilty race, which was forbidden access and could no longer live in Eden.

Deceiver Motives and Methods

Genesis 3:5 belongs to the first victory over humanity, gained when the adversary in serpent disguise spoke to Eve in a subtle, artful manner with specious sophistry, falsehood, deceptive science and hypnotic power that charmed her mind. He concealed his identity while presenting error attractively, denying the death penalty and claiming eating would open their eyes and make them as gods knowing good and evil. That representation pictured God as unnecessarily restricting liberty and selfishly holding them back from advancement for their good, until Eve came to think Him selfish and unkind and forgot His love, garden, employment and mercies. She erred by entering into controversy instead of fleeing, and the same sophistry and hypnotism that drew ministers and physicians today and once drew angels in heaven drew her into the snare.

The verse works by flattery kindling desire for forbidden knowledge and ambition for self-exaltation and supremacy, the same evils that caused the adversary's own fall. As a created being who could not comprehend the wisdom of the Infinite or enter His counsels, he had aspired to be equal with God and rebelled, and he now promised humans could become like gods. That fascinating delusion appealing to desire for power is still laid as a snare, repeated in teaching that man is a creature of progression destined toward the Godhead, that each mind judges itself, that judgment is right because it is self-judgment, that the throne is within, that all are fallen or unfallen demigods, and that any just and perfect being is Christ. By this he substitutes sinful erring human nature for the righteousness and perfection of the infinite God as the object of adoration and salvation and for the perfect righteousness of His law as the standard of attainment, making man himself the only rule of judgment, which is progress not upward but downward because beholding changes the beholder and man never rises higher than his standard.

The temptation came on appetite with plausible arguments of flattery, envy, distrust, questioning and unbelief rather than force, for cunning and deceit could accomplish what open attack could not. He flattered Eve that the consequence would not be as fearful as feared and made the forbidden fruit appear more desirable than all she could freely eat. She was intemperate in desire and let appetite control reason, ate and through her influence led her husband to eat, bringing curse on them and the earth. That disobedience began a continuing course in which the family is still beguiled to disregard prohibitions, violate health laws and run to excess, so appetite and passion take control over reason and intellect and disease steadily increases as effect follows cause, as seen when the same enticement fastens the bondage of tobacco, paralyzing brain nerves, confusing judgment and eclipsing eternal realities.

The adversary overcomes by shaking confidence in the Creator and leading men to doubt the wisdom of His government and the justice of His laws. He excuses his own malignity and rebellion by representing God as even worse than himself, shifting his own cruelty upon the heavenly Father, clothing the Creator with his own attributes and picturing Jehovah as a stern unjust governor imposing bondage while presenting liberty under his own mild sway. He perverted God's immutable eternal law to put it in false light and give an unfavorable impression of the Lawgiver as unjust and tyrannical, working under cloak of piety, purity and holiness and blinding eyes so men cannot see his real purpose. That misrepresentation worked on Adam and Eve to lead them to disobey, began his continuing work of misleading minds, and after inducing sin he blamed God's restrictions for the fall just as he blamed them for his own rebellion, luring souls from allegiance and opening the way for belief in natural immortality and eternal misery under a revengeful tyrant.

The verse uses false science, the same agency used in the heavenly courts, made of false assertions and subtle scientific theories like those by which many angels were led from loyalty. Speaking in disguise through the serpent, his science was to lead the pair to question and distrust God and believe words of satanic origin, and he deals in that same science today by filling minds with absorbing scientific problems. He knows both good and evil because educated in the heavenly courts, and the promised knowing good and evil is the mixed wisdom he now possesses, mingling precious bright truths whose source is God with vile error to gain power to deceive. That deceptive scientific devising robes itself in heavenly brightness, works through human agents educated by his methods and inspired by his spirit, sows the devil's seed, exalts science above God, creates infidels, entangles followers until they have no power to escape, and ends in making Christ the Prince of life as nothingness.

The verse shows seductive charming words and brilliant sparkling philosophical ideas that steal faith, so those who listen cannot keep the word of the living God clearly in mind. As Eve was charmed, listeners charmed in weary perplexed night talks have faith stolen away by a mind influenced by Satan. He chose the serpent as best adapted for his temptations and by mysterious workings and attractive representations can insinuate himself even into circles of the most educated and refined and take them captive, because he remains a fallen angel once exalted to high responsibility, not a monstrous being with hoofs and horns, capable of mingling highest intellectual greatness with basest cruelty. His subtle reasoning still works minds, blinds them so they cannot see error, leads them to reject testimonies of warning for wisdom of men, and by sophistry presented as science with hypnotic power draws even ministers and physicians into the snare through underhand workings that God's law condemns.

The verse shows work through secretive spiritualistic mind-upon-mind power and mysterious workings to weave deceptive influence to seduce minds, with suggestions too often received as truths of heavenly origin. In serpent form he deceived the first woman with deceptive pretenses, seducing attractions and artful wily insinuations against God, working as if a heavenly messenger to undermine confidence, destroy faith and keep the mind under strain to gain some clue from unspoken thoughts and draw into controversy, the same sophistry later used against Christ in the wilderness. He clothed falsehood in attractive garb so error appeared as beautiful truth, and turning from the plain Word to pleasing fables brings hypnotic dazing influence, weakens faith and allures to spiritual death. That same deceiving power, continued in one unbroken line of lying to efface truth and bring in the false, will be brought with intensified force as the second appearing nears, when in fascinating charming form calculated to bewilder he will appear as a human being and impersonate Christ to be received as Lord of lords by a world that rejected truth, working through children of disobedience.

The verse shows the enemy found entrance at the gates of Paradise bringing moral defilement, with both tempter and tempted having access though God had made the garden beautiful and holy. Eden's holiness did not keep tempter or sin out, and no mountain home or secluded bush or woods nor seclusion from the world can enclose against him or sanctify from that defilement. The same work continues when men become his agents and mediums to allure servants from trust and duty by selfish considerations and bribes such as higher wages, bringing both under displeasure.

The verse shows speaking through the serpent to set cavils and objections against God's Word before the mind, sowing seeds of doubt that germinate under temptation and blossom into ruinous fruit. He substituted misleading statements for the Word, misquoted it to substantiate error, made it of no effect even while speaking as a safe guide, and that same work is done when teachers profess safe paths yet misinterpret truth and turn feet into false paths. His method is subtle reasoning that controls the mind, blinds it to plain truth and brings confusion, unbelief and distrust, holding out glorious prospects for doing what God forbade under cover of righteousness to mislead, hoodwink and blind, a corrupting principle begun in heaven and worked through human agents against empires, churches and the world. His words hide a sting wounding the soul and must be turned from as from a serpent, with no sanction to touch or study them even to meet objectors, lest training in doubting and criticizing extend to God's Word, destroy reverence and produce bold assumption, strife and lightness that ruins the soul.

The verse carries into Eden the rebellion begun in heaven by one once highest next to Christ, who did not recognize his attributes as gift, aspired to be like the Most High and ruler of the universe, set himself against God, and was cast out with sympathizing angels. Cast to earth, he determined to set up a kingdom here, deface God's image in man, draw the family into revolt and carry on warfare against God's government upon this earth. He led Adam and Eve to transgress in order to separate them from God, oppose God's government and establish his own, turning them from allegiance by falsehood and misrepresentation afterward demonstrated in the antediluvian world and Sodom and Gomorrah. Carrying out the same aim to be equal with God, he led men to doubt God's word, distrust His goodness and view a God of justice and terrible majesty as severe and unforgiving, so night of woe settled on the world, and he still pursues the same tempting work with double earnestness because his time is short.

Fall and Immediate Aftermath

Eve distrusted her Creator, believed the tempter and yielded, and through her influence and repeating his words Adam was also deceived and disobeyed, so both ate and broke God's command and became sinners. The lie was that God did not mean what He said about death, that He was restricting liberty and withholding wisdom, exaltation and great good, and that by transgressing His law their eyes would be opened to great light and freedom as gods knowing good and evil. Truth was mixed with falsehood until Eve believed God was unkind, distrusted His Word and goodness, desired to be independent, and imagined that transgression would bring wisdom and a higher state of existence. The promised opening of the eyes did come, but only as a curse, giving knowledge of sin, evil and bitter results of disobedience rather than the exaltation offered. The same deceiving power that opened the floodgates of woe then still works to lead minds to refuse God's Word, accept error, and discard His holy Sabbath for a spurious institution.

Adam was not deceived as Eve was, but after hearing her account he doubted whether God meant what He had commanded and rashly ate because his wife had sinned. He was persuaded by his wife rather than deceived by the lie that eating would exalt man to equality with God in knowledge and power. His transgression was presumptuous and inexcusable, a choice to heed Satan's words instead of the plain words of the Lord, thereby insulting his Maker. By that transgression Adam lost Eden, lost the garments of heavenly innocence, and drew about himself dark robes of ignorance of God.

Eve trusted her own pleasurable sensation and the absence of any immediate sign of death as proof against God's positive command. The serpent first touched the fruit himself and put it in her hands to prove touching brought no harm, then claimed eating would do no more harm but give new power, and she believed she felt fulfillment at once in grateful taste, vivifying power, and delicious exhilarating influence thrilling every faculty with new life. Because she felt no displeasure of God and saw no evil result, she took the feeling as proof the assurance was true, and a true experience never opposes God's expressed will, so an experience that does so is false. Adam was then persuaded by her apparent innocence, beauty and affection, saw her with no sign of death, reasoned the serpent might be true, and also ate without immediately feeling harm, to share her fate. They were overcome because they argued with the tempter instead of refusing to argue and repeating God's words in trust.

Disobedience removed the garments of innocence and the surrounding presence of light and covering from God, leaving them to know they were naked. They attempted to replace that covering by sewing fig leaves together for aprons, and those fig leaves represent the arguments transgressors ever since use to cover disobedience and hide the nakedness of the soul when truth calls them to attention. Their eyes were opened not to godhood but to their own shame and ruin, to loss of heavenly light, to nakedness as the result of transgression, and to fear of condemnation so that when they heard His voice in the garden they hid themselves. Adam at first imagined transgression had elevated him, but the result was guilt, fear of the future, sense of need and spiritual nakedness, exposing his crime in its true light and leaving hope that God might excuse disobedience. That new knowledge left human nature depraved, with lessened strength to resist evil and maintain integrity, and opened the way for more ready access of evil, so that despite confession and pledges of future strict obedience they could no longer dwell in Eden.

Eve yielded to flattery portraying God as a deceiver withholding the highest gift and denying that death would follow, and became captive to the tempter's will. She was led to distrust God, question His wisdom, and seek to uncover His plans, and through her Adam was also led to disobey God's express command. They came from God's hand without sin and without taint of evil, with high and holy privileges, free to choose between good and evil, and they could have kept their innocence by living by every word from God's mouth and refusing to listen to the strange voice telling a different story. Resisting the first temptation and defending her Creator would have brought God's aid and preserved her integrity, but by believing the lie what was pure and godlike in their nature was perverted and defiled, leaving man needing Christ as propitiation. Their history remains as a warning, so to be led by the enemy now brings greater blame, and to keep on in sin and not keep His commandments shuts the sinner out of heaven.

The eating was transgression of God's law by selfishness, a step that seemed a small matter, the least test God could give, yet it opened the floodgates of woe upon the world. It is not the greatness of the disobedience but the disobedience itself that is the crime, for sin lies in departing from God's expressed will even in a seemingly small matter, and unfaithfulness in that which is least will soon lead to transgression in that which is great. All violence and crime now existing can be traced to that transgression, whose eternal ruin shows no trivial transgression can be excused. Because sin was a new thing to Adam and Eve, their sin in Eden was of far smaller magnitude than any violation of the principles of justice and mercy in word or deed in this age by those who have the result of that first transgression before them. Adam disobeyed God's express command without openly defying or speaking against God, going directly contrary to what was commanded without reckoning the consequences. In his humanity he had the same free will Christ had in His humanity, and his fall was a choice to let his will leave the side of God's will when by believing God and doing His word he could have resisted, and its terrible results warn later generations who have still greater guilt when they disobey despite that warning and clear light about God's authority.

Eve led her husband into sin. A wife must not follow Eve in leading into sin. With a firm hold on Jesus she must be a true helpmeet who leads away from sin and pride and love of show into meekness and lowliness of heart, helping her husband bear his burdens in saving souls.

Consequences for Humanity

Believing the lie and disobeying opened the floodgates of woe upon the world, for that belief was the beginning of disobedience and transgression here, and the forbidden knowledge sought was in fact the knowledge of guilt. It was the first contradiction of God's Word, denying that death would follow disobedience while promising opened eyes and godlike knowing of good and evil, making God appear to withhold something most desirable by arbitrary authority. Eve believed and fell and led Adam to fall, and by listening sin entered the world and death by sin. The test was very light, yet they could not bear it, proving that disobedience in little things is the same in God's sight as in larger things and that God's Word is to be sacredly respected and His requirements implicitly obeyed, leaving no excuse for transgression. The act looked simple and unworthy of notice, but it brought bitter experience and awful consequences, guilt and sorrow, a curse upon Adam and Eve and the earth, and ruin to the whole race, and the same deceiving work begun in Eden continues to set men's assertions against God and against Christ as He seeks to restore His image in man.

That disobedience forfeited what man had at creation, marring the divine likeness until it was well-nigh obliterated, weakening physical powers, lessening mental capacity, dimming spiritual vision, and bringing man under subjection to death. Sin defaced God's image and darkened understanding, severing connection with Him so that the light that had enshrouded the holy pair departed, and God must send His only-begotten Son to shine as the light of the world. Yet the race was not left without hope, for by infinite love and mercy a plan of salvation was devised and a life of probation granted to restore the image of the Maker, bring man back to created perfection, and develop body, mind and soul for the divine purpose, a work to be carried into eternal life where all will have opportunity to work. As soon as man transgressed Christ began His converting work, so that through obedience and faith, cultivation of righteous principles and Heaven-given grace, the bias to evil may be overcome, the warped senses and perverted faculties purified, a new character formed and the debasement of sin overcome, without meaning God implanted new sinful energies or passions after the fall.

By choosing the deceiver over the God of truth humanity lost what God had freely given, for transgression came from distrusting His goodness, disbelieving His word and rejecting His authority, not from any poison in the fruit itself. Evil mingled with good, confusing the mind and dulling mental and spiritual powers so people could no longer appreciate the good. The light of heavenly innocence departed, and deprived of that light men could no longer discern God's character perfectly through His works. The curse also marred nature and brought a blight upon the earth that intervened between nature and nature's God, so marred nature bears only imperfect testimony, no longer revealing only goodness but bearing marks of evil, warning of sin's results, with decay and death in drooping flower and falling leaf making that knowledge a continual lesson. That disobedience estranged humanity from God and separated earth from heaven, and had the tree been left untouched God would have given knowledge without sin's curse and with everlasting joy.

By that transgression Adam lost beautiful Eden his home, and after eating they were driven from the garden and from open fellowship with God and holy angels into a fallen condition of sin, suffering, death and exposure to temptation. God expelled them from the garden given them to cultivate and placed angels toward the tree of life lest they partake and immortalize transgression, bringing His curse upon the earth, and until Adam transgressed the adversary had control of no part of the vineyard but then gained entrance and began sowing evil until the whole earth became corrupt. Sin grew steadily worse, men becoming more and more bold in disobedience, until the impenitent rebellious race was swept away by the flood and death became their portion, saving only Noah and his sons, exemplifying that God means what He says. Since then sin has steadily increased whenever His plain command is set aside, as in discarding His Sabbath for a spurious sabbath.

By believing the lie the first parents sold themselves and their descendants to the enemy, forfeiting all claim to be called loyal subjects and leaving humanity needy rather than good, unable of itself to do any good thing or redeem itself, hopelessly ruined except for a way of escape. By that fall humanity was brought into subjection, made prisoners and captives claimed as subjects with the adversary as jailor, his possession held not by lawful conquest but under false pretenses so that he had no right to demand a price. No human being could be man's intercessor, so the First Begotten Himself had to enter the fierce conflict to liberate the captives, offering to stand as substitute and surety, taking humanity and passing over the same ground where Adam stumbled without swerving, to provide return to loyalty. God loved the needy because of that need and revealed His love by purchasing at infinite cost the gift of everlasting life, gaining the right to rescue by paying the redemption price on the cross.

The retribution for so simple-looking an act shows God severe and exacting toward disobedience and not merely lax mercy, for the guilt was so great that He gave His darling Son from heaven to die to pay the debt of transgression and make it possible through His blood to keep the law, exalting the law and proving its sacred character. In that transgression the justice of God is revealed, with the Son stepping in and pledging His life as penalty to give man another trial, a provision that did not abolish the law to give unconditional pardon, for the Father did not put benevolence above justice lest righteousness be set aside and impenitent sin exalted and encouraged. The nature of Christ's sacrifice shows the greatness of even small violation of the holy law that binds every human being, and should create elevated ideas of the law, making man afraid to do the smallest disobedient act and to avoid the least step over the boundary from obedience. That choice cost the life of the Son of God, yet God's goodness shines brighter now than at creation where grace abounded, though man has no excuse for continuing in sin, for mercy does not excuse continuance or lessen guilt but covers guilt only after sin is repented and forsaken, so that breaking the Sabbath law brings guilt as does stealing, murder or adultery, and without atonement there could be no pardon lest sin be immortalized and perpetrated boldly without restraint. By that transgression immortality was forfeited and God's law made void, causing Christ to enter His work as Redeemer and probation to be granted to the world, with the death penalty delayed because a ransom was found in God's beloved Son volunteering to bear sin and make atonement.

The verse belongs to the fall from a perfect and holy state through transgression of God's law, and since the fall disease, suffering and death have increased, though God still loves humanity and gives light to show that life requires harmony with the natural laws governing the body. That fall turned on intemperate desire for food, with appetite leading to disregard of prohibition under promise of higher experience and opened understanding, obscuring the penalty of violated divine and natural law. Intemperance in eating the forbidden fruit was transgression that lost Eden, weakening moral nature and giving access to the soul to disease and destroy it, while errors in food and its preparation, habit, delicate unhealthful cooking and unhealthful dress still weaken physical, mental and moral efficiency and make overcoming temptation impossible. As intemperance caused the fall so temperance in all things keeps mental and moral faculties healthy to guide to right action and restoration to Eden, requiring aroused consciences, decided reforms, and time to meditate, search Scripture and pray rather than occupation with unimportant things. Where Adam fell through appetite Christ came to take up the battle, meeting the powers of darkness and winning victories at every point of failure to save the lost from their fallen condition, elevate and purify character through pardon and peace in His merits, make them more than conquerors with a seat on His throne, and cleanse the soul temple of defilement and self-indulgence.

That successful deception was wrought by one filled with implacable hatred against God, working through the senses to influence the mind and gain control of man's power of action in order to efface God's image from the family and stamp his own satanic image in its place and conform the parents of humanity to his nature and rebellion. Yielding to his suggestions, though made in God's image our first parents lost innocence, became transgressors and disloyal subjects, placed themselves under his influence and became selfish instead of reflecting the Creator's moral image, and began their downward career. Their yielding opened the floodgates of evil upon the world, making sin a dreadful universal evil that began in Paradise and has extended down through the ages. He deceives by setting darkness and falsehood in place of light and truth to bring minds under his control instead of God's, his sophistry accepted because it suits corrupt hearts and lives while saving truth is rejected as delusion, the same deception later practiced on Noah's generation who rejected warning and refused to become wise unto salvation.

The promised noble independence and eternal life through knowing good and evil is a lie that will be exposed when the whole life of rebellion is laid open at the final judgment, where it will be evident to all that the wages of sin is not independence and life but slavery, ruin and death. The wicked will then see what they forfeited by believing the lie and choosing rebellion, the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory offered them exchanged for wretchedness, infamy and despair, and their exclusion from heaven shown to be just. The original apostasy also took away man's power to govern his own heart, so that separation from God as Source of strength leaves a person lifted up in pride and unable but to transgress the law of his moral constitution, breaking from conscience until perverted habits and practices gain ascendancy over reason and impulse bears sway from principle into disloyal indulgence, needing restoration to himself almost as much as to God.

Christ Reversing Adam Failure

The testing in Eden where Adam in perfect strength failed is the ground Christ later retraced and passed over again to overcome on behalf of sinners. After forty days and nights of fasting in the wilderness He met temptations in every way greater yet did not swerve a hairsbreadth from allegiance to God but gained the victory with the Word of God. Even weakened by fasting He would not depart from His Father's will to obtain food, and His obedience stands in contrast to disobedience that brought sin, sorrow and death into the world. His humiliation and firm obedience answer that failure, making another trial possible and opening the way to regain what was lost and for every son and daughter of Adam to gain victory in the name of Jesus.

Adam and Eve fell in Eden despite most favorable circumstances, with communion with God and angels, without condemnation of sin, surrounded by divine light and taught by the Author of their existence. They stumbled and fell on the point of appetite by failing to live by every word proceeding from the mouth of God, a disgraceful fall costing the right to the tree of life. Christ came to pass over the same ground and redeem that failure, meeting the same appetite temptation in a wilderness trial a hundred times more trying and overcoming by living by every word of God. His victory on that same point makes it possible for man in all future time in His name to overcome the strength of appetite and be brought back to the Eden home. That ground also contains the great leading temptations of appetite, ambition and presumption, and the attractions of the world, and He resisted appetite, overcame ambition and presumption, and overcame the offer of the whole world for worship, withstanding the test on every point where Adam fell.

Adam faced temptation in the purity, strength and favorable surroundings of original creation, while Christ faced Satan in the wilderness with the weaknesses and degeneracy of fallen humanity upon Him. In created human nature identical to our own, without angelic powers, united with the divine nature and capable in His humanity of yielding, He passed over that same ground to endure the test in behalf of the fallen race. He did not yield in a single point, not one jot or tittle, and through the same Source fallen beings joined to the divine nature can stand firmly instead of yielding as Adam did. The test in Eden was far less than His, for He took fallen but uncorrupted nature without sinful corrupt propensities, and that liability to yield makes His humiliation a perfect example and help without degrading His humanity. Fallen people cannot overcome by their own strength, but He overcame on the sinner's behalf and gives strength to overcome in His name.

After His baptism He was led into the wilderness, fasted and prayed forty days, and when weak and emaciated met strong temptations yet resisted every temptation and left Satan a defeated foe. His victory there was as complete as Adam's failure had been complete, though won with inestimable suffering, leaving Him for a season freed from Satan and his legions. The temptation He endured was a hundredfold stronger than at the fall or any ever brought upon the race, and He resisted as every tempted person may, by appealing to the inspired record with It is written. That same beguiling charm of the serpent thrown with all strength in the offer of all kingdoms and glory for worship failed, for in weakness He laid hold of God, stood as commander of heaven, and dismissed Satan to worship and serve God only. Because He conquered where Adam stumbled, those tempted need not be overcome but can successfully resist every assault in His strength.

Where Adam fell by failure to resist appetite, Christ came to take up the battle in behalf of man, meeting the powers of darkness and winning precious victories at every point of failure. Man lost moral power by that failure and fell into slavery of habit and perverted appetite, needing another trial which Christ brings by His coming, baptism, wilderness temptation and victory. Through His merits it is possible to overcome, receive moral power over appetite, break the chain of slavery, and stand accredited in the books of heaven. As men seek forgiveness they find pardon and peace through His merit, with divinity cooperating with humanity to elevate, purify and radically change character. As second Adam and Elder Brother He took human nature, felt keenly sin's sinfulness and shame, bore the world's sin as sin-bearer, lived sinless to prove men can live sinless by God's power, learned obedience by suffering, sympathizes with weakness, succors the tempted and makes a way of escape. He answered each assault from desert to cross by stepping lower in humiliation, self-denial and sacrifice, and overcame where Adam fell to redeem disgraceful failure, glorify God and overthrow Satan's kingdom through agony, sacrifice and death.

The first Adam reasoned with the enemy and thereby gave him advantage and came under his hypnotic power over him and Eve. Christ would not reason, parley or enter into controversy though He recognized Satan from the beginning, but rested in His Father's love and met him with meekness, humility and reliance on the quoted Word. He repulsed him with Scripture, standing unmoved in perfect faith and trust, so Satan knew he had no chance of triumphing and failed to make Him swerve from allegiance. Where Adam fell by questioning God's plans and law and taking an independent position to be as gods in knowledge and power, Christ was steadfast, refused controversy, answered It is written, resisted the devil and as Conqueror won the victory heaven triumphed in. Following that example of holding no converse spares defeat by an enemy whose six thousand years of warring has increased skill to deceive.

Adam's failure gave occasion for Satan to declare God's law unjust and impossible to obey and that no man after Adam could keep it, bringing the race under his control. The only begotten Son came as man over that same ground to reveal men can keep God's law, to represent the Father and show abundant grace for overcoming. Taking created nature identical with our own without even angelic powers, He maintained pure sinless character and lived the law in human character as all may by taking hold of God's strength, refuting the lie. He came to remove deception, make plain what Satan obscures, establish the law Satan seeks to void, and prove the charge false by showing its immutability, holiness, purity, spirituality, dignity and nobility. In His own strength man cannot overcome the powerful foe, but Christ bore the test on man's account, resisted manifold temptations in his behalf, suffered the penalty as Substitute and Surety, and through His name made overcoming possible.

The holy pair's easy yielding encouraged Satan to hope his cunning could also turn Jesus from His Father's will, defeat redemption and preserve his power and kingdom. Success in Eden introducing sin, ruin and death emboldened him to boast to angels that when Christ should appear in man's nature He would be weaker and could be overcome by satanic power. He exulted over more than four thousand years of transgression, increase of sin, controlled appetite, strengthened passions, destroyed dignity and defaced image of God almost obliterated. He rejoiced that the fall might bring the Son down from exalted position and hoped to overpower Him in fallen nature and by tempting Him to depart from the Father's will prevent completed redemption, save his own life and retain claimed dominion.

Adam's transgression of God's law opened the way for Satan's influence and brought death, though his attempt to secure Eden was disappointed. Because our first parents accepted fable rather than truth and fell, God's law is shown binding from the beginning, with false ideas offering an easier way than resisting evil and obeying. Christ's humiliation and firm obedience answer that failure and open the way to regain Eden, yet His suffering was not to give liberty to keep transgressing but because the law was transgressed, to honor, magnify and establish it. His endurance in a conflict a hundredfold greater proves the law stands forever unchangeable to meet man in fallen condition, still requiring perfect obedience from every son and daughter. The fall was sin as transgression of the great moral standard governing heaven and earth and cost paradise, and escape comes not by human strength or claiming belief while disregarding law but by faith in Jesus who saves from transgression and imparts His righteousness earned by death and obedience to every requirement.

Continuing Deceptions Today

Joined with the denial that disobedience brings death, the assurance that eating would open the eyes and make humans as gods knowing good and evil was the first lie and laid little by little the foundation of the long work to deceive the world. That foundation prepares the way for the masterpiece of deception in the development of Spiritualism, which is not yet fully accomplished but will reach its full accomplishment in the last remnant of time. Then miracle-working spirits of devils will go forth to the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Except those kept by the power of God through faith in His Word, the whole world will be swept into the ranks of this delusion, lulled to a fatal security to be awakened only by the outpouring of the wrath of God, when judgment laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet sweeps away the refuge of lies and disannuls the covenant with death. That same falsehood is the foundation of modern Spiritualism and of ancient witchcraft and idol worship, all of which have communion with the dead as their vital principle, all alike based on falsehood, perpetuating the same lie from the father of lies.

The lie reveals the source behind pretended communion with the dead, for the familiar spirits are not the spirits of the dead but evil angels, the messengers of Satan. Ancient idolatry in worshiping the dead and seeking communion with them was in reality worshiping demons. He who in the form of a serpent deceived the first woman still uses deception to gain control of minds, presenting himself as departed friends and using claims of communication with the dead to lead away from God's word. That lie continues in the teaching of the immortality of the soul, which is part of the wine of Babylon, a kindred heresy with exalting the false and spurious Sabbath above the Sabbath which the Lord Jehovah blessed and sanctified for the use of man, and these heresies joined with rejection of truth turn the church into Babylon, where kings, merchants, rulers, and religious teachers stand in corrupt harmony.

The same lie is reiterated in teaching that salvation in heaven depends on nothing done in this life, neither present change of heart nor present belief nor present profession of religion. It is taught that the vilest sinners — the murderer, the thief, the adulterer, the incestuous drunkard — are at death transported to abodes of bliss, released from temptation and the bondage and corruption of sin, with darkened souls enlightened by the Holy Spirit, minds unfolded to heavenly wisdom and immortal love, and natures purified, sanctified and made holy, and thus prepared to enter immortal bliss and the companionship of ascended spirits, sinless angels, and the heavenly inheritance. This is Satan's own doctrine, a pleasing fable suited to gratify the carnal heart, rocking multitudes to sleep in carnal security and causing wickedness to abound by emboldening the wicked in iniquity. The promise that sinners will be made fit for heavenly bliss after death repeats the serpent's deception by denying that death ends their opportunity for salvation.

The promise was flattery kindling desire to obtain forbidden knowledge and ambition for self-exaltation, the same evils that caused the fall of him who as a created being desired to be equal with God, and through them he still aims to compass the ruin of men. It is now repeated in Spiritualism's teaching that man is the creature of progression destined from birth to progress to eternity toward the Godhead, that each mind judges itself, that judgment is right because it is self-judgment, that the throne is within, that all are fallen or unfallen demigods, and that any just and perfect being is Christ. By this promise sinful erring human nature itself is substituted as the only object of adoration, the only rule of judgment, and the standard of character, in place of the righteousness and perfection of the infinite God as the true object of adoration and salvation and in place of the perfect righteousness of His law as the true standard of human attainment and character. This is progress not upward but downward, because by beholding man becomes changed, the mind adapts and becomes assimilated to what it loves and reverences, and man never rises higher than his standard of purity or goodness or truth; if self is his loftiest ideal he never attains anything more exalted but constantly sinks lower and lower, and the grace of God alone has power to exalt him, left to himself his course must inevitably be downward.

The same lie misrepresented God as withholding a higher education that would make humans as God, as he had by ingenious misrepresentation already deceived angels in heaven, and it is repeated today in sophistries and seductive theories presented as more wonderful, higher, and grander than the teachings of Christ. Listening implants the false idea of popular religion that men develop into gods until there is no place in their lives for God or for Christ, and all who listen, including ministers and medical workers to whom he is presenting his sophistries, are in danger of being deceived. The verse means exalting man to the place where God should be by questioning God's words and holding out a flattering inducement to sin against God and His commandments, and that same deceiving work by the originator of sin, who is the alpha and omega of them, is being carried on today in so-called higher science theories, as men grasp sentiments that place man where God should be, contrary to God's purpose that men and women be one with Christ carrying out God's will and way as His stewards.

The fascinating delusion promising godhood appeals to the desire for power and supremacy, the same ambition that led to rebellion in wanting to be as God, and is still laid as a snare for souls today to bring error after error to bewilder minds. Those willing to listen enter upon a course of action under his guidance while thinking to accomplish some great thing, and all who give heed to such sophistries will be filled with a wonderful zeal that threatens to deceive even the elect. Those who love the seducing presentation come under mesmeric influence and are among those who depart from the faith and weave beautiful allurements to charm the senses, loving and adoring nature, talking science, and cherishing fine theories that please worldly fancy but are an abomination to the Lord, exposing the idol in every uncleansed heart, and there is death in the beautiful theories worshiped. The promise comes in great swelling words of vanity about human power, bearing a science which once received pollutes the whole being, body, soul, and spirit, and it is the pattern of false teachers coming under guise of godliness with appearance of righteousness yet leading minds into heresy and darkness, turning men and women from obedience to disobedience, from the pure doctrines of Christianity which make men loyal and true to God's commandments to doctrines of unrighteousness which drag them down to ruin.

The desire to know what God had not intended humanity to know led to disobedience and brought knowledge of evil into the world; evil, sin, and death were not created by God but resulted from disobedience. Like Eve, descendants pursue forbidden knowledge out of curiosity and presumption, gaining an experience God did not intend and suffering the loss of their Eden home, for the knowledge offered had its foundation in disobedience to God's will, not in divine teaching, and drew them away from God and their allegiance to His commandments. The same deceiving power that denied death now sets aside God's holy Sabbath and substitutes Sunday to lead the world into marked rebellion and obliterate the sign God instituted to distinguish His commandment-keeping people, for the lie spoken through the serpent coming as an angel of light made God's reservation of one tree look like arbitrary authority, denied death would follow, and claimed eating would open eyes to godlike knowledge, and Eve believed and fell and led Adam to fall, opening the floodgates of woe upon the world. That same claim that transgressing God's law brings exaltation instead of death is voiced by ministers inspired by a power from beneath who disregard God's claim and uphold the first day of the week as the Sabbath, teaching that the law can be broken with impunity, gaining control of all human minds that receive those lies, causing the lie to be received as truth and laboring to establish a spurious man-made Sabbath honored by most of the world, while neither worldwide homage nor hoary age can make a common working day holy or turn error into truth.

That same promise that in disobedience and transgression would be found liberty and freedom making humans as gods is still used to solicit youth for companionship with glowing advantages, drawing thousands into the broad road that leads to destruction. The tempter is a powerful foe with an inviting appearance who endeavored to change God's law by instituting a spurious sabbath, and who uses every device to induce men and women to unite with him in apostasy, so that under his leadership the Christian world has chosen another mark than that of God. The verse records stirring desire for forbidden knowledge with the promise of rising to a godlike state with discernment of right and wrong, and men are tempted in the same way now through Spiritualism; the wisdom gained by yielding to that promise does not come from above but is earthly, sensual and devilish. The promise represents effort to draw people into seeking knowledge God has withheld while disregarding what God has revealed and commanded, so people may pride themselves on progress and philosophy yet remain ignorant of true knowledge, replacing God's word with a theory that brings disobedience.

Seeking knowledge apart from God repeats the disobedience of taking by disobedience the knowledge held out at the tree, wearying minds to death with unnecessary work to obtain what is only wood and stubble to be consumed in the last fire, and shutting out and dimming the Word of God, whereas if they had not touched it God would have given true knowledge from His Word, knowledge that does not perish with this world but can be carried into the paradise of God. The same sophistry that worked in Eden still works on human minds today through deceptive words leading to doubt God's word and to put a false theory in its place, holding out that a forbidden action will make humans as gods and that disobedience will bring freedom and make them like gods, turning people from God's word and exalting human wisdom above divine revelation. The promise of knowledge of good and evil is reflected in nature after the Fall: nature no longer reveals only God's goodness but also bears the marks of evil and warns of sin's results. Decay and death, seen in drooping flowers, falling leaves, and even the air, make that knowledge a continual lesson, for by that temptation seeds of death were planted in the human system, and though God placed no noxious plant in His great garden, after sin poisonous herbs sprang up from that sowing, and by amalgamation the earth was corrupted with tares.

Physicians who resort to poisonous drugs that leave deadly evil in the system, weakening, clogging and destroying God's fine arrangements, continue that death-work instead of using cleansing remedies of nature that restore the life Christ came to restore, whereas Christ never planted seeds of death. Eating of the tree estranges the heart from God, for the tree represents education after the wisdom of this world, which is foolishness, set against education after God's order. Eating of it hardens the heart into disobedience and feeds vanity and pride, while the education that is as enduring as eternity is opposite to it, giving a decided knowledge of God's Word and bringing the soul into vital connection with God. That promised knowledge is forbidden knowledge warned against, a poisonous, subtle instruction that perverts the intellect and counterworks the truth, by which the first parents were beguiled and by which men and women are still beguiled today, including through erroneous, bewitching matter brought into publishing houses.

Eyes, hands, and mind are entrusted by God to be used for His glory, not lent to service of evil, so no worker may set or handle a sentence of that knowledge; each is personally responsible and must refuse, resist, and call for united understanding rather than leaving responsibility to managers. To take part in preparing it is to stand on the deceiver's side, to scatter abroad instead of gathering with Christ, instead of having the divine mind and revealing Christ's life in word and action. That eating is seeking knowledge God has condemned, and it is repeated when infidel authors are placed in the hands of students as essential to higher education and when thousands are led by condemned infidel books to forsake the study of the Scriptures for a line of education that is not essential and not safe. Those works charm human minds with lies and produce in the mind a distaste for contemplation of the Word of God, which if received and appreciated gives eternal life to the receiver, charming thousands where the first pair were charmed and making them distaste the word of God.

The forbidden tree of knowledge is a present danger to leave Christ alone for human devising, human methods and expedients. To take its leaf or pluck its fruit means to trust human rites and ways that have no atoning efficacy instead of hanging the helpless soul on Christ the Mediator, lifting the cross of Calvary, following His self-denying footsteps, and using the means of grace heaven has provided under the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. That false knowledge opens the way for wisdom and arts of evil under the name of science and gives the devil place, especially in methods of relieving the sick, and eating it brings death. To study human science apart from the Word of God is to be taught by the same deceiver who taught the first parents to seek knowledge apart from the Word and caused their fall by that deception, and those who do so fall as victims and in turn become deceivers with the blood of souls upon their garments, working out a philosophy of antagonism and apostasy for which they will be sentenced according to their deeds, searching out scientific problems and erroneous sentiments with him as leader, no longer safe leaders not knowing where they are led, in no greater danger than refusing to confess error and trying to climb to heaven through study of science, and whoever stubbornly refuses light will be given up to sophistry and lose power to distinguish truth from error.

In Eden the fascinating, charming serpent form calculated to bewilder and confuse the mind worked in a subtle manner upon human imagination to corrupt mind and body and lead to transgression, usurping God's rule in the kingdoms of the world. That same deceiving power will be brought to bear with intensified force as the second appearing of Jesus draws near, when Satan will appear as a human being and impersonate Jesus Christ and be received by the world that has rejected truth as Lord of lords and King of kings, working through the children of disobedience, so that men again reject Christ as in the days when the almost universal cry was Barabbas and Crucify him. The same work continues today as sophistry presents the loss they will sustain if they obey and leads men to transgress the divine precept and cast off allegiance to God, while men lie in deep stupor failing to consider his works as they are and thus help the archdeceiver. He is come down in great power knowing his time is short and works with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, and would deceive the very elect if possible, so his sophistry must not be accepted as Bible truth, nor his will and mind for the will and mind of God; he does not tell men that keeping God's commandments brings salvation but tells an altogether different story that keeping God's law means fallen from grace, a lie now repeated by ministers.

The working of the tempting spirit overcame the first pair by opening mind and heart to control of the enemy, and that same spirit still overcomes those who discard reproof. Those who yield to it come onto a false track and labor under deceptive imaginings, reading into God's messages things that are not there but agree with false statements already listened to, reading in the light of their own kindling, and being deceived they deceive others.

Warning and Call to Obedience

The serpent's promise is a false assurance that disregarding God's expressed will brings good and greatness without harm, making transgression appear only as benefit under a bewitching spell that captivates senses and misleads understanding. Eating what God forbade leads not to freedom and happiness but to a fall, for obedience is freedom and disobedience is bondage, and professions of holiness that reject God's law repeat the same argument. The same deception still tells sinners they will prosper in disobedience and draws them into snares that look attractive or harmless.

Taking even one step from the ordained path exposes a person to temptation and belief of a lie, and occupying the mind with sophistry and strained misinterpretations leads on and on until beguiling makes repentance seem too late. Staying in God's way in obedience keeps soul and body pure and holy, brings communion with angels as teachers, and makes happiness depend on righteous living. Adam's experience is therefore a constant warning never to turn aside from God's word, for God does not force obedience but leaves free choice between His help and evil imaginations. The same sophistry that tempted the first parents will test every pillar of faith, drawing minds from practicing God's words into turning after other gods and into darkness while insisting they are not led astray.

The first parents transgressed while presuming God's great love would save them from consequences, claiming favor without obedience, but that is not faith, for genuine faith trusts God's love and obeys His commands and mercy is claimed only on its conditions. The same flattery still urges that one's own way is as good as God's way, excusing disobedience by a self-made religion. The proposition of opened eyes and godlike exaltation seemed to offer great advantage, yet refusing obedience ends in ruin, and every calamity and death witnesses to the evil unleashed and to the truth of the living God who does not change. That test is repeated now when men in responsibility overestimate their right to control others and devise beyond what God laid on them, taking their own way instead of standing on God's foundation and walking humbly in His straight paths.

The fall came through intemperate desire to gratify taste, with Eve transgressing first and then prevailing on her husband by telling him no harm had come to her, while Adam, though not deceived as Eve was, yielded because he could not endure separation and thereby fell from integrity. That eating introduced sin with an accumulation of misery, and lustful appetite has become the prevailing sin, weakening moral nature, giving Satan access to the soul, and filling the world with mental and moral wrecks. Satan overcame there by tempting indulgence of appetite, and he tempts Christ and every man on the same point because he knows his power there. Where Adam fell by failing to resist appetite, Christ came to take up the battle, win victories at every point of failure, and work pardon, peace, and cleansing of the soul temple so the fallen can become more than conquerors. The serpent's seduction led Eve to disregard prohibition for promised higher experience and godlike knowledge, bringing the penalty of violated divine and natural law, and as intemperance caused the fall so temperance keeps mental and moral faculties healthy for keeping God's law.

Though created pure and upright with no taint of evil, no corrupt principles, and no predisposition to sin, Adam and Eve fell by listening to disguised presentations, not discerning a fallen angel in the serpent. God had warned them of the disobedience of the highest created being, so differing words should have caused them to turn away, and their experience constantly warns never to turn aside from God's Word under any circumstances. The same happens when people set aside sanctifying truth for pleasing delusion because truth involves a cross, thereby opening the door to temptation. Their failure came from not keeping God's Word before them and not diligently studying His will, and with sin's results before them men should be fortified, never misusing God-given powers to hurt God's children or become Satan's agents to deceive others.

The first parents lost Eden by yielding to appetite through seeking what was forbidden, and regaining Eden requires denying appetite and passion. Satan, the first apostate, used appetite to lead them to eat, and his work never ceases, yet Christ made infinite sacrifice to break appetite's power, uniting divine power with human effort so that sons of God may gain Eden back through His merits, with even the feeblest prayer heard. Adam's transgression brought sin into the world and stands as warning, yet people repeat it by yielding to appetite and passion in violation of God's law. Christians must not repeat that disobedience that forfeited the Eden home but must overcome by perfect obedience as Christ overcame, and thereby be brought back to Eden while a heavenward life points others there.

Disregarding God's will opened the way for suffering, expulsion from Eden, and bitter learning that God punishes transgression, so departing from commandments brings unhappiness and ruin. The Eden account forces a choice whether to repeat that transgression or walk in humble obedience to God. The same attitude continues through agents who disregard God's law, teach transgression with impunity, and claim sanctification while breaking it, having failed the single test God imposed. The garden example teaches that commands are to be obeyed, that true beauty of soul is obedience from love to Jesus, and that even disobedience in a very small matter cost Eden.

Adam's disobedience and fall now stands as a beacon warning to shun his example when facing temptation, showing the result of even one wrong act that brought death and woe with loss of Eden. Man has advantage over Adam in possessing that warning together with Christ's example of obedience and self-denial in overcoming appetite on every point and Christ's promise to overcomers, so stumbling leaves no excuse. The inspired account of the fall is foundational truth, yet many professing Christians practically reject it wholly or in part, while after transgression men followed carnal desires and changed God's order. Each person who passes on disease, drunkenness, or sexual wrongdoing to children repeats that fall by handing on inherited harm.

Satan used specious reasoning to make disobedience seem unimportant, asking what difference eating from one tree rather than another could make, yet eating what God forbade was transgression that opened floodgates of woe. He framed lies to substitute for Thus saith the Lord, casting his shadow across the pathway so souls behold him instead of God, and the Christian world still accepts his sophistries, separates from God by wicked works, and loves not to retain God in knowledge. He blinds eyes and confuses understanding about the authority of God's law so men violate it, but in judgment that law will be seen as great like its Author, holy, just, and good with decisive claims. The same deceiver falsifies God's character, presents advantages of disobedience, prepares excuses for delay, and tells men to wait for a more convenient season, working especially against the Sabbath of the fourth commandment whose claims rest on every soul. That temptation aimed to unsettle all truth and set the world adrift in skepticism, and still works to make men believe the fourth commandment can be changed, Sunday kept for Sabbath, and the Ten Commandments nailed to the cross and made of no effect.

The promise of godlike standing appeals to pride and natural unwillingness to be as nothing, to act in meekness, and to recognize Christ as the only One who can save completely. By believing, the first parents placed themselves on Satan's side, seeking in another way what God alone could give and seeking salvation apart from God's appointed way. That alluring elevation above humanity to godlike knowledge caused loss of the original mind God gave, proving disobedience contrary to man's Eden nature. Opposite stands Christ, who laid aside royal position, clothed divinity with humanity, stood at the head of the race within humanity's sphere, and humbled Himself to obedient death to mediate and restore the original mind so obedience is seen as present and eternal good. Only through Christ and His atonement can men sunken in sin and degradation, sold to the enemy, be uplifted to higher life as personal Saviour.

Adam and Eve had light and walked with God, yet refused admonitions and the Holy Spirit's guidance and accepted another teacher, the rebel leader, being allured by seductive speech through the serpent and seduced so fully they could not discern the power leading them into apostasy. They yielded their minds to the deceiver's mind and thereafter lived under his influence, and unless God's mind becomes men's mind through careful obedience to His Word as the standard and through the Spirit's guidance, all remain under that same influence. Satan lied against God, bore false witness of the Creator, and exalted himself in preference to God.

The enemy's presentation captivated them by holding out superior wisdom and deep insight, perverting understanding, and the same work perverts minds today when muddy sophistry is presented as wisdom to win admiration, marring purity and spoiling spiritual perception until men cannot view Christ and holiness soberly. That deceptive power is exercised now not only on inexperienced youth but on mature men and women and men in responsibility in danger of changing leaders, and unless eyes are opened deception is as sure as in Eden. Seducing sentiments and enchantments still seek entrance among God's people, including spiritualistic interpretations of Scripture, so every soul must stay awake, close every avenue, resist with vigilance, keep eyes fixed on Christ, and move steadily in His marked path of truth and obedience. Those who heed warnings and use prayer and study of the Word in defense cannot have spirituality thus undermined, for Christ in human nature withstood every temptation where the first Adam failed and placed men on vantage ground. The devil who presented evils to sinless Adam surely presents them to each person now, but Jesus gave His life so help is available, and full determination with truth purifying the mind makes the devil flee.

The tempter's first success began a mischievous work he still carries on by wily lies to make men his willing captives and dupes, costing Eden and still striving for victory through falsehood and error. He now puts forth efforts in churches, so members must be on guard. Yet through Christ's transforming grace men may prevail, rise against the deceiver, distinguish falsehood from truth, and stand on vantage ground by placing the hand in Christ's hand and following where He leads until salvation is accomplished.

Yielding the mind to that device began the conflict between right and wrong, between God and Satan, that has raged ever since, with good and evil never harmonizing and no compromise between light and darkness. Truth is light revealed and error darkness, having no fellowship, so safety is only in working and sleeping with armor on. Doing right carries divine vitality and power Satan cannot overcome, so truth will at last triumph over falsehood and God will vanquish the enemy. The Christian warfare is not against brethren but against that subtle deceiving influence that creeps into thoughts to deceive and falsify, and believers must give it no foothold, make no provision for the flesh, and resist with assurance that God's angel lifts a standard and causes flight. Against deceptive enslavement stands the Prince of life breaking every yoke to free the oppressed, and men must labor with God to help the needy Christ died to save lest Satan draw them into his ranks.

Satan led humanity into sin by misrepresenting God's character and portraying restrictions as unjust, as he had called law oppressive in heaven, blaming restrictions for the fall while promising liberty through disobedience. He threw discredit and accusation upon God as untrustworthy and unjust, putting God's purpose in false light to turn Eve from allegiance, and yielding to that temptation still leads men to distort the right so it looks crooked and to distrust good plans. That same deceiving mind still inspires spiritualistic ideas, misrepeats and misconstrues true words, and offers common fire for holy fire. Listening to false representations of earthly advantage makes men lose eternity from reckoning, idolize contemptible things, pursue gain by dishonest ways, receive Satan's mind, and become enslaved until evil propensities take them captive. Those who claim great knowledge while disobeying law, arraigning God at their bar and condemning Him and His servants, work on Satan's lines and show ignorance. The same lie is used to say the Father gave His Son to nullify commandments and remove the Sabbath memorial of the Maker, whereas Christ's immense sacrifice was to bring man back to allegiance, not to end Jehovah's laws.

Forbidden eating still happens when men pluck and eat what God forbids, perverting powers to selfish pleasures, corrupting the being, losing eternity from reckoning, spending money for unsanctioned education and selfish indulgences, and defiling the temple with liquor, tobacco, profanity, and foul words. Satan entices through appetite as with Eve, fastening tobacco habit that paralyzes brain nerves, confuses judgment so sacred things are not discerned, grips mind and will into bondage, eclipses eternal realities, and leaves man unable to stand in God-given manhood. The forbidden tree still bears fruit in men whose lives show God is not with them, whose misleading connection causes loss of connection with God and must be avoided. It is plucked when suspicion is planted by words, complaints, and reports, and eaten when accepted into thinking and speaking evil of brethren, poisoning the mind, hindering ministers, and opposing a heart filled with God's word. Satan still lays snares through seemingly innocent experience God never wanted, as in self-pleasing music, concerts, and association with sport, folly, and levity that destroys solidity, while staying out of temptation keeps close happy walking with God. Seeking knowledge of evil is itself eating the fruit, creating appetite for evil and desire to peddle it, as in faultfinding and criticism which are forbidden wares to be refused.

The serpent beguiled Eve through subtilty, and that same subtilty corrupts minds from simplicity in Christ and brings evils into the church. Satan's charming deception that ruined sinless Adam and Eve still charms God's flock as seducing heresies and must be met with firm decided testimony even when it cuts and pains. Yielding opens mind and heart to the enemy's control, puts men on a false track under deceptive imaginings, makes them read into messages things not there but agreeing with falsehoods already heard, and being deceived they deceive others, especially when ministers and physicians discard reproof and testimonies. The same charming sophistry mingles truth with chaff in present specious theories that leaven minds with human sophistry, and honoring erring teachers as only God should be honored displeases God, requiring uprooting of every fiber and warning that covering mistakes sows seeds yielding baleful fruit with more evil to come.

The lie caused humanity's fall into captivity, presenting forbidden knowledge as withheld blessing for greater development and happiness while concealing the tempter's own outcast state, and Eve by coveting the forbidden distrusted God's wisdom and cast away faith, the key of knowledge. The promised excitement, exaltation, equality with God, better condition, and unrestrained happiness became a terrible curse and loss of Eden's glories, for knowledge founded on disobedience draws away from God and ends in eternal death. The same temptation to imagine disobedience brings advancement and improvement still ensnares, offering speculative knowledge apart from divine teaching. What was lost through yielding can yet be regained through Christ, who stood between the living and the dead to give another chance.