Original Sin

Before we examine what transpired between Adam and Eve, after Eve had been deceived by the serpent.  I think that it would helpful to mention that my knowledge of the events that took place in the garden of Eden are not based on the narrow viewpoint of a single church or denomination. Born a Lutheran and my family began attended a Lutheran church in New York regularly during the late 1960’s.  During that time I went to Sunday school and later attended and graduated from confirmation class.  Shortly after that our family got saved and we began attending an assortment of non-denominational house meetings during those years I also went to went to Baptist churches, weekly Catholic Charismatic meetings and later became a member of a non-denominational Pentecostal church. In 1976 I attended bible school and received a two-year degree from them. In 1983 I Pastored for a year or two and I then went on to other things.

Surprising as it may sound all the churches and denominations I have come in contact over the years have generally taught along the same lines concerning Adam and Eve in the Garden. The general view is that Adam and Eve were gardeners or grounds keepers. All these groups believe that Adam and Eve were sent in by God to dress and up-keep a relatively small garden plot that belonged to God. All these groups also believe that almost as soon as they got in the garden, Adam and Eve got themselves in trouble with the serpent, and God in his wrath and fury kicked them out of the Garden. – And because of this; men were to work by the sweat of their brow and women had increased pain in childbirth.  And almost without exception all these churches believe that is the end of the story at least until Jesus Christ showed up some 4000 years later.

I will once again mention that I was generally comfortable with what I had been taught in my youth and had no reason to question what any of these pastors or ministers taught. I find myself more and more on a daily basis having to acknowledge that the traditions and doctrines I was taught in my youth color and frame many passages that I read today, and if anything tend to blind me from being able to read what is plainly written in God’s word.  Only recently have I started to see through this man-made veil of doctrines and traditions created by unregenerate men that supposed that through their redefinition and dumbing down of Salvation and repentance and their corrupt populist teachings that virtually all men could enjoy the same relationship with God that the Apostles did. 

To not notice the disparaging difference between what goes on in a house of God of any denomination today and what we read in the Gospels of the book of Acts should set off alarm bells.  Likewise when pastors are asked why we do or don’t do thus and so like in the bible, when they offer their explanations using tortured interpretations of scripture that includes redefined terminology and definitions that do not exist as such in scripture that should make a believer stand up and take notice.

One of my son’s recently asked me why there should be any importance given to what happened in the Garden of Eden? His reasoning was in the bible there could be nothing farther removed from Christ the church and the New Testament than the Genesis account of the Garden of Eden   -- This is a very valid question.

I told my son that first of all it’s in the Bible, and anything in the word of God is worth our consideration.  2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

I then had to think a few minutes before responding further. I then added that I was firmly convinced that in the Bible God has been doing the same thing over and over again since Adam in the garden.  The from the beginning God has had a certain set goals in scripture and that what we find in the Epistles about the church, we find Christ in the Gospels talking about these same goals, and we find the Prophets of the Old Testament talking about them also.  If we look earlier in the bible we find Moses talking about the same things.

The walk that Christians are called to is the same walk that Christ walked, this is the same walk that John the Baptist walked and it is the same walk the prophets walked that Solomon was called to, that David, Joshua, Moses Abraham, and Noah was called to and finally what Adam was called to in the gardenI tend to be pattern oriented in my view and judgments about life. Let me give you a pattern that I seem In the garden God tabernacled with men. Men sinned and were sent without the camp for cleansing. There was a blood sacrifice in order that they were covered with skins.  Did god waste the corpses of the animals or were Adam and Eve fed as well as clothed? I think they were fed and clothed – so there is an implication of communion with God at the event.  In the tabernacle of Moses God desired to dwell with men when Israelites sinned they were sent out of the camp for cleansing. There was a sacrifice and the priests and the one who made the offering partook of the sacrifice. In the church Christ desires to dwell with men. when there is sin people are sent out of the camp, there is also sacrifice the priest partake of the sacrifice in communion  -- there is a lot more to this we can find a pattern in covenants Adam had the first, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Christ, each covenant replaced the former each was more powerful and had greater promise. And there is more.

It is only recently that God has seen fit to open such marvelous truths in this regard that I never heard uttered in any denominational church or Bible school I attended. Instead I was told of two schools of interpretation; dispensationalists, and non-dispensationalists.  In my mind the people that hold dispensational teachings seem to be working on the notion that God has had a series of failed experiments. And the Lord has had to go from one thing to another in hopes for finding something that will work to redeem mankind. I do not believe that God has these cut and dry dispensations where He does something and then He suddenly moves on to something else. I also do not believe that God has failed in His work of creation or in his work of redemption. 

In the 3^rd century men divided the word of God into two separate books and named them the Old and the New Testament – The Jews and Christ called it the Law and the Prophets. In the New Testament when they quote from the Law and the Prophets it is always referred to as “scripture.” No place in the Gospels or Epistles is any writing of another Apostle referred to as scripture. When I saw this for myself in the bible I had to pray and seek God as to why that was, because I was raised calling everything in the bible scripture. Well it turns out that in the Gospel and Epistles they do have a term that they use for what they and the other apostles are writing “Gospel” or good news. And was this not a fulfillment of that which was prophesied by the prophet Isaiah?

Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings (The Gospel) unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

Isaiah 52:7  How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings (The Gospel) that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings (The Gospel) of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

Not only that but when Christ began his ministry He read this very passage in a synagogue as he announced his ministry.  Which is of major significance in itself. So we see that the word of God contains the law the prophets and the Gospels. (Four general gospels of Christ and then shorter gospels of Paul and other apostles to specific churches and people.)

Why is this important? It is important because the word of God is one it is not divided into covenants and it is certainly not further divided into dispensations.  Further, we need to clearly understand that everything in the New Testament is contained in the Old Testament. Not just that but everything in the New Testament is dependant upon the Law and the Prophets for their authority and veracity. And we see that Christ Himself and the Apostles read and quoted from the Old Testament in order to teach us what is in the good tidings of the Gospel. It was intimated to me as a youth that Christ and the Apostles just made things up, and what they made up became the New Testament. –  This is not the testimony of Christ and the Apostles Jesus said

Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

The meaning of this is that the Law has not been superceded as has been preached wrongly for centuries.

Galatians 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
By the Church having divided the bible into two bibles the Jewish Bible and the Christian bible they have done irreparable damage to the Church and believers 

But it goes much further than that. Paul tells us his writings are milk and are for babes. He then tells us that the meat can only be spiritually discerned and he alludes in 1 Corinthians that the wellspring of truth is in what we have come to call the Old Covenant. Simply put, if you do not read the bible of Christ and Paul the Apostle you will not be able to speak the words of Christ or Paul. And do we not plainly see this in every quarter this hour? There is no depth, no revelation, no grasp of even the most basic core teachings of the Gospel.  And this is why in our day more than in any other the sheep are literally starving for knowledge of the Lord.  And thus they have resorted to eating garbage from corrupt books and tapes. And instead of growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord they instead have become weak and sickly.    

We have seen in the first part of the this study great significance in the temptation of Eve and have found not only numerous New Testament references to the event, but that the subject matter of what happened to Eve is described by the Apostles in regards to sin that was befalling the church while they yet taught. After we look a little at the garden itself and what Adam and Eve were up to before the fall we will attempt to bring it home to scriptures pertaining to believers and the Church and how these things still affect us. 

On to the Garden

The bible says that the tree of life was in the midst of the garden. In the middle ages artists depicted the Garden of Eden as a five-acre garden plot.  That would seem rather doubtful as while Adam was in the Garden with God he was busy naming all the animals

All the birds and I guess all the fish this would imply that the garden had one or more lakes streams rivers in its midst or border and access to an ocean as well. And unless the animals were called forth two by two it would further suggest that this garden had quite a bit of terrain to accommodate at the different types of habitats that these creatures would have resided in. In light of that I imagine that God could cram a lot of stuff in a 18-20 square mile site like the of Manhattan in New York City. But realistically the garden would have had to have been quite a bit larger, perhaps on the order of 120-150 square miles or an area covering the entire five boroughs of New York City., long island and the lower part of Westchester county.  For all we know the garden could have been the size of the state of Delaware

I think first we will attempt to try to grasp from the word of God the size and scope of the Garden of Eden. As I mentioned, I was always given was that the Garden of Eden was a relatively small garden plot of maybe 5 – 10 acres. This idea was probably born from medieval illuminated manuscripts, and wood cut diagrams, and paintings made by assorted dark-age artists.

It is not much different that much of the popular theology of this day on the blood of Christ which upon closer examination can be seen coming from 18^th century and 19^th century hymns rather than the word of God itself.    

Genesis 2:10  And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

Oddly enough the bible tells us that there was a river in the garden. Not a creek, or a stream, or a brook, but a full-fledged river that was in fact large enough to split into four major rivers.

One of the river’s that it was connected to was the Euphrates that is a large river that runs around Baghdad to this day. The second river in this passage is mentioned as encompassing Ethiopia (Hebrew is Cush) according to archeologists this river still exists to this day and was once three miles wide but has long since dried up. The third branch of this river is the Tigris which is another large river that exists to this day with a huge flow of water. Some scholars place the Garden of Eden it in southern Iraq while others place it in turkey. At the present time I not as interested in trying to pinpoint its location as approximating the overall size of the garden. 

The fact that you have this one super river running from Eden into this garden to water it and this super river then divides itself into four large rivers either within the garden or just outside of its border kind of wrecks the notion I was taught as a child that the Garden of Eden as some little 5-10 acre garden plot.

We need to ask a question here: Why would God have put a giant river in the garden to water the garden if the water that was required to feed it was little more than a creek. The answer is that for it to have required a water system such as what is suggested in scripture, the Garden of Eden would have had to be huge. Something on the order of California’s Napa and Imperial Valleys combined. Personally if I were to look for the Garden of Eden I would look at Europe and the Middle East’s largest valley as a prime location – today we call that giant valley the Mediterranean Sea. 

It would seem on the basis of these rivers that the Garden of Eden could have covered hundreds if not thousands of square miles. The first point I want to make is that it would have taken Adam and Eve days if not weeks to cross from one side of a garden like this just to get to the other.  And I would say that that would seem to fit the grand scale in which God many times seems to do things.  This garden was more than large enough to house Adam and Eve and a hundred generations of their family. In other words we cannot use the word small, cheap, or temporary, to describe the garden that God laid out for man.

We are going to move on now two a second point that relates to the question of size again.  See if God had provided a postage stamp sized plot for Adam and Eve to prune and to be caretakers thereof that would make sense but if the Garden was the size of New York City and its five boroughs or one quarter or half the size of the Mediterranean Sea that the suggestion that Adam and Eve are Gardeners becomes laughable. If we took Adam and made him an Iowa Farmer outfitted him with the latest John Deere Farm tractor and set him to plowing and planting 12 hours a day six days a week. propping his eyes open with tooth picks and feeding him with an IV solution of straight Dr Pepper Farmer Adam would not by himself be able to plow, plant, had harvest a field that was thirty square miles     

In carefully reading over the account in Genesis I did not find that God gave Adam a hoe or a pruning hook   So, how was Adam and Eve expected to dress and upkeep something the size of Crete or Sicily? 

Genesis 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

In the Greek Septuagint  the word translated as “to dress” is Ergazesthia (Ergon) this is in the present and infinite tenses. Ergon simply means: to work, to be enjoined to ones duty, to exert one’s power, to gain by labor, 

In the Greek Septuagint the word translated as “to keep it “ is Phulassein which means to watch, to guard, to defend, to preserve, or to keep safe.

The notion that Adam and Eve were a gardeners pruning shrubs and planting trees and planting vegetables simply does not hold up in the Greek Septuagint    

Let me give you a better translation of Genesis 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of trees of Eden to enjoin his duty (as commanded by God) and to guard and watch over (God’s Garden) it.

Why would God need Adam to guard the garden?  Who or what did God’s garden need protection?  .

A few verses later in the Greek Septuagint we find the answer Genesis 3:2 Now the serpent was the most crafty of all the brutes on the earth . . .

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:

So we see here that the serpent was not the only crafty – deceitful beast on the earth or in the garden, he just happened to be the most deceitful. Maybe these demonized creatures would have fits of rage and tear up everything that was around them. Maybe Adam was watching the garden to prevent any infestation of the serpent and his ilk in the garden. Of all the things that were in the garden the tree of life was the single most important thing that Adam had to guard. God made Adam the original keeper of the way of the tree of life.

Genesis 2:8-9 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.  And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food

If God planted a garden do you suppose that He would have done a good or a bad job? 

Is it reasonable to suggest that when God planted the garden that it would have been in anyway deficient? One faith preacher has asserted that in Genesis everything that God created was good but not perfect. In other words this man claims that there was room for improvement on God’s creation and that Adam and Eve were sent in as a team of troubleshooters to improve upon God’s creation. This is the height of arrogance!

The word Good in the Greek Septuagint for Good is Kalou. The word means beautiful, excellent, choice, virtuous, right, just, and correct.  So when God said his creation and the Garden were Kalou, does that sound at all like they would need improvement?

Did Adam and Eve have to go and fix what God screwed up?

When I was a teenager I got a Job on a large wealthy person’s property called “Garden Way” located in Purchase, New York the place had green houses and 3-4 acres of Gardens. The gardens had been neglected for decades and had become unkempt and disorderly over run with grass and weeds. I had to work there all summer 8 hours a day and after all of that the place was very mediocre hardly a showplace that was once featured in gardening magazines In the garden of God there were no weeds no thorns no thistles no termites no bug infestations no death so even when a peach would fall of the peach tree it would not bruise and it did not rot. Probably you could break a branch off a tree and stick it in the dirt and it would grow. So if the garden that God planted was good and if it was weed and pest free what was Adams labor duties? The bible again provides some answers, naming animals, naming birds, naming fish, naming plants, and trees, developing this dominion over all of Gods creation, and guarding the garden from the serpent and his ilk. For one guy that would be quite a lot of work.

So if this garden was 10 miles wide and 10 miles deep Adam was given duty over 100 square miles of land.  If the garden was 120 miles wide by 120 miles deep that would put Adam’s duty to working over 1440 square miles of land.

So with the dominion that Adam and Eve had received from God they began laboring and protecting the garden while presumably working on a path to the tree of Life in the midst of the garden. 

The Church has been at a loss to explain why they would not have eaten of the tree of life – some have espoused that the fruits were not yet ready to eat – yet in Genesis all the trees are spoken of plainly being planted with fruit, which Adam and eve could freely eat. It has been theorized that God had not given them permission to eat of it – yet again  Scripture says; that they were free to eat of all of the trees except of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And even though the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was forbidden they ate thereof so if God had put a temporary limit on the tree of life  

That would no more stopped them than forbidding them.

Genesis 3:6 . . . and (Eve) 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.

To help us gain some understanding of this relatively short passage we need to ask some questions here. Why did the serpent not tempt Adam himself? Or why did the serpent not accompany Eve on this all-important mission of death?

The bible does not say that the serpent was created that day, – nor does it tell us that the serpent dropped down out of the sky that day. The implication is that the serpent was in God’s creation there from the beginning. In other words the serpent was there before God created Adam.

I Corinthians 15:44-50 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.  And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.  

It is here that Paul tells us that Christ was the second and last Adam – Cain was not the second Adam, and Abel was not the third.  If Paul called Christ the second Adam then he would seem to indicate that there were some similarities between Christ and his mission and Adam and his mission. 

Luke 3:38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

Adam was called the Son of God because God breathed his breath of life in him. Christ was conceived when the Holy Spirit breathed on Mary’s seed.

Matthew 1:20  . . . behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto Joseph in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

Adam was given dominion over all the creation the birds of the air the fish of the sea the animals on land, earth itself, the water itself and much more.

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of (and) the sea, and over the fowl of (and) the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth..
Christ demonstrated that dominion over all of creation.  He walked on water, healed the sick raised the dead and even demons were subject to his voice. Corruption had not entered the world but don’t you think that Adam before the fall was exercising some of that dominion.

Psalm 72:8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.

Jude 1:25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Adam was given a bride by God without spot and wrinkle.

Christ was given a bride. by God without Spot and wrinkle.

I believe that this dominion that God gave Adam and Eve in the garden had something to do Adam’s heavenly inheritance and the tree of life. 

Genesis 3:24 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.

After Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden God said that he had to block the entrance to the garden and the way to the tree of life from Adam and Eve who by that point had been infused with corrupted knowledge. The knowledge of axes sledgehammers, and the pry bars, with which theoretically could to force their way to the tree of life. The phrase to keep the way of the tree of life – to guard the path of the tree of life.  The Cherubim became the keeper replacing Adam or we could say that the keeper became corrupted so that God had to protect the garden from its keeper.

Now oddly enough there is also a river in heaven, and it is with the throne of God, and the tree of life.

Revelation 22:1-3 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Paul says first in the natural and then in the spiritual. The Bible says that that the things Mosses saw in the heavens he build something earthly to represent them. Here in the spiritual realm of heaven is the tree of life we read that there is a street or path or way to the tree of life and that there is a spiritual river. In the literal garden of Eden I believe that the words dress and keep had something to do with creating a way to the tree of life – that had not been made manifest yet.

Hebrews 9:7-9 But into the second (Holy of Holies) went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:  The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:  Which was a figure for the time then present,

The way to the tree of life was a foreshadowing of the way of salvation.  In the book of Hebrews we are told that the Holy Ghost signified that the way to the Holiest was not yet made manifest in the tabernacle of Moses and the tabernacle of David and the temple of Solomon. And mind you the Lord appeared in a pillar of flame by night and a cloud by day in the days of Moses, God said Moses in my friend and to him He spoke face to face – and even so the way to the Holiest was not yet made manifest. Likewise in the garden Adam was the friend of God, and God spoke with Adam face to face. Adam was placed in a earthly paradise that was representative of his true inheritance in the heavenly paradise with God. And in this paradise he was given certain tasks and was to be tried, tested, and proven.

In light of what has been said I need to ask; how much more in the garden of Eden at the time of Adam had the way to the tree of life (The holiest thing in the entire garden) not yet been made manifest?

What I am suggesting is that there was probably a natural barrier that God created around the tree of life like mountains, valleys, rivers, bodies of water, and impassable forests of trees. So like John the Baptist I believe they were in fact making the crooked places straight casting out the stones filling in the low places moving mountains and trees and walking on water if need be. In saying that I am not saying that Adam was fully walking in this, but I am saying that he was called to so, and in some measure Adam and Eve were moving towards their goal of the tree of life, before they were expelled from the garden. I further think that, Eve’s attraction to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil might have been in regards to their quest for the tree of knowledge I can almost hear Eve pouting that the harder they worked the farther away the tree of life seemed to be. And that conceivably it could take them months if not years to reach it. That working the way of the Lord was proving to be a lot harder than she originally thought it would be. And if only they had some of that good knowledge of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would be able to do their task that much faster and easier.

Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but (He) was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

When I read Paul calling Christ the second and Last Adam it would seem to imply that the first Adam had much of the powers the second Adam – Jesus Christ had. If there was no comparison and nothing in common between Adam and Christ in mission and calling why then would Paul call Christ the second and last Adam? If only it were the issue of Christ and Adam being breathed upon by God and being called the son of God Paul would have limited his comparison to only those two aspects. Besides this verse Paul refers to Adam by name in at least six other verses and makes a huge comparison to between the two men.  I mention them so that you will not think that this is built solely on a verse or two from Genesis 3 and 1 Corinthians 15 We will specifically look at those other verses about Adam and Christ in the third part of this study.

I Corinthians 15:44-50 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.  And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.  

Moving along with this, understand that there is a scriptural relationship between what Christ did and what Adam was called to. It is therefore reasonable to say that if Christ was tempted and tested on all points that Adam would have been tested in like manner also.  The reason that we do not see the serpent going to Adam is that he already had already tempted him on this particular point and no doubt other points as well and he failed on all counts. And because of that the serpent had thought the better of accompanying Eve to oversee the fall of Adam on that fateful day in the garden.  The game would have been all but over it Adam had seen the serpent because Adam was already acquainted with this corrupt creature and his devices.      

1 Timothy 2:13-14 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.  And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

Lets now talk a little about Eve. Eve wasn’t just anyone she was Adam’s wife, and his mate. She was a believer, she was a trusted member of his fellowship, she was taken from his side; bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. She was Adam’s glory and she was every bit as beloved as Isaac was by Abraham.

Talk about a husband and wife having full communications, there was no deceit or anything hidden between the two because deception had not yet entered the race. There

was no competition or struggling for authority between the two. As a person who loves God in spirit and in truth would seek do anything to please God so Eve would have sought to please her husband who’s side she had been drawn from. This is the sin-laden vessel that was sent to Adam.  A vessel that was an impeccable source that Adam loved as he loved his own soul.

2 Corinthians 11:2-4 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

It is no less than the Paul the Apostle that makes the assertion that Eve is not only a type of the followers of Christ, but that the Eve’s corruption was something on the order of what was occurring with alarming frequency to believers while Paul and the Apostles were yet teaching. 

How much more without us having had Apostles and Prophets to say this is the way walk therein are we now in peril from 1800 years of cumulative teachings and traditions of men’s corrupt imaginations? 

Genesis 3:13 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.

This verse tells us a few things it tells us that after the serpent beguiled her that she “I (singular) did eat”.  Compare that now with the biblical record in Genesis 3:6

Genesis 3:6 . . . and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
⁷   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.

Note that in this verse that after she gave it unto her husband and that “he (singular) did eat”. She had eaten already her eyes had been opened previous to this even but after they had both eaten both of their eyes were opened and both knew that they were naked and both sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

Genesis 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done?

Note here that God did not turn to Adam and say: “Why didst thou not defend the woman?” Or “Why didst thou not guard the woman, for the moment thou left her uncovered thou knewest the serpent would come and beguile her?”  I have heard this sentiment preached.  To do so is to find fault with God who knew the truth before he turned to Eve and demanded an accounting of what she had done.

So lets now look now at what Eve did. To put this as plain as I can Eve allowed herself to become an emissary or agent of Satan. Scripture does not say that she was deceived into doing this act, let us be clear she had been taken in temptation, but then she willing in turn became the tempter, allowing herself to become a very powerful effective weapon in Satan’s arsenal. She was after all Adam’s wife, and his mate his intimate.  She was a trusted believer, she was a member of his fellowship, she part of him body soul and spirit.  Beloved of Adam’s every bit as Isaac was loved by Abraham.

I have no idea what really happened that day in the garden so while what I have written below is nothing more than a guess and should not be treated as anything more than rank speculation on my part..

At first Adam did not know what Eve had done and how that she had utterly corrupted herself.  The sweet trusted holy woman, the love of his soul that had left him hours earlier was now gone forever. And what now approaching him was a woman filled with deceit and deception. After having tasted of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Eve no longer had a goal of walking with God, being wholly pleasing to her husband, and going on the quest for the tree of life. Now her heart and soul was on fire filled with envy, wrath, hatred, lust, and deceit. The urges that cried out from within she had never felt before, and were probably almost uncontrollable.

Eve comes over to Adam with something wrapped up in leaves her face is flushed and she’s excited like he has never seen her before. 

Adam being perplexed asks “Is everything is well with your soul?”

Eve speaking uncharacteristically assertively laughs while doing a pirouette. “How do you like the new me?”      

“What happened to you? What do you mean by new me?”

Eve tersely replies. I’m not dead! Look at me Adam I have never been more alive.

Still puzzled Adam asks. “What do you mean by you’re not dead. Anyone can plainly see that you are alive.”

“No Adam, I am more than just alive.  I now can see so many things that I never saw before. How stupid we have been. We’ve been doing everything the hard way instead of seeking dominion over this bush we should exert dominion.”

Eve then proceeds to go over to a bush by where Adam is working. She grabs the bush by its branches and rips it out of the ground breaking off several branches as she tries until it tears free from the ground she then puts it on the ground a few feet away and kicks dirt over its roots.

Adam is horrified/ “You have hurt it. You have hurt a creation of God.”

Eve dusts off her hands and says: “It will grow. It always has, and always will.”

Looking angrily up now at Adam Eve says: “Do you know what your problem is?”

“No what?”

“You are too weak and tender hearted. Look around you. We have been here now for x number of months, and look at how little you have gotten done. If you want to impress God you are going to have to show him that you can get the job done. God has obviously given us this impossible task to perform because he is a hard task master. He wants us to keep this garden for him because he wants to take from us what he did not grow and if he is not pleased with our work he will take these stones and will raise up other workers to tend this garden in our stead.”

Adam is stunned by Eve’s angry outburst. “You must be sick woman sit down and I will pray for you.”

Eve steps away from the man’s reach. “I’m fine I’ve never been better. You just don’t get it. God has been using us all along.”

“Where did you hear that from? Have you spoken with the serpent?”

“And what if I did or didn’t speak with him? What are you going to do about it Adam? Are you going to leave me if I did?”

No. Adam replied quietly. “You know I would never leave you. But you shouldn’t talk to the serpent he is filled with hate and evil and he wants nothing more than to hurt us.”

Job 31:32-34 The st ranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.  If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:  Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

Note here that Job is implying that the reason Adam decided to sin was for his wife’s fellowship, and more particularly Job had fear of her contempt. What Job says here is that Adam should have not been cowed by Eve, he should have not kept silent and that Adam should have left her to find God and see if God could help her?

2 Timothy 2:16-17 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker:

1 Timothy 6:4-5 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.

Had Adam walked away things might have been greatly different.

When Eve ate of the fruit and she received knowledge – this was the first lying sign and wonder recorded in the word of God.

It was not a lying sign and wonder because the event in itself was false. Eve really received a good dose of the knowledge of good and evil.  It is a lying sign and wonder because it was an attestation to a lie – That her eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was good for you and not evil and that she had not crossed from the path of life to the path of death and corruption.

Matthew 6:22-23 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

I think that Christ here is talking about light or revelation that comes from the knowledge of good and evil.  And when your revelation or enlightenment comes from your corrupt understanding how great is your darkness. Once Eve was overthrown Christ is implying here that she no longer had the ability to discern between light and darkness everything that she said and did was now corrupt.

John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Adam was still filled with light and what once Eve had loved now she now hated. She had to make him like her. She felt compelled to corrupt him as she had been corrupted realizing that she would have been left alone in sin and possibly be destroyed by God and she could not let that happen.

So if Adam didn’t bite her sales job, and if Adam didn’t bite on her little demonstrations of the power of her new found knowledge, she knew then it came down to the bonds of Adams undying love for her. And her ability using her newfound female wiles along with playing on his fears with large doses contempt.

Regardless of what really took place that day we do know from scripture that Adam succumbed to Eve’s demands

Genesis 3:6 . . . and (she) gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

And we know that God knew

Genesis 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done?

And we know from the Apostle Paul

1 Timothy 2:13-14 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.  And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

So if Adam was not deceived he made a choice with his eyes wide open.

But unlike Moses Adam could not stand up to so great a temptation.

Hebrews 11:25  (Moses) Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; (Living his days out as the son of Pharoah)

Adam chose pleasure for a season with Eve rather than walking with God and working alone on the path to the tree of life.

Again Job says: Had Adam walked but away from Eve how things might have been different.

In the church of this hour no matter which denominational flavor you select was not built upon the spiritual foundation that one would suppose, instead it was founded on the same carnal knowledge of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that all the other unregenerate religions in the world were founded on.  – Entire ministries have been built on a foundation of corrupt human knowledge and supposition rather than on the written word of God, developing a personal relationship with God, and every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.

In light of what Eve did consider the words of Paul the Apostle:

2 Corinthians 11:2-4 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

Paul the Apostle makes the assertion here that Eve is not only a type of the followers of Christ, but that the Eve’s corruption was something on the order of what was occurring with alarming frequency to believers while Paul and the Apostles were yet teaching. 

2 Corinthians 11:13-15  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Certainly this also applies to what Eve did to Adam she appeared to him as one bearing revelation and understanding while her heart was filled corruption and all manner of deceit. 

Galatians 1--9 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

In our day there are 10,000 gospels being preached by preachers by books written by people that have long been dead, in tapes, videos and TV and on the Internet. We accept every word we hear as truth, from the sources we chose, there is no discernment there is no rightly dividing the word of truth. Long ago the devil stopped visiting the church and its myriad of denominations. He does not have to visit, he does not have to oversee because there are 10,000 Eves with 100,000 Eves waiting in the wings all willing to work as his agent to carry his deception for him and corrupt all that they come in contact with. It is my earnest cry that the eyes of your understanding might be opened. That you will return to the Lord and seek him until you develop a personal relationship with him and can hear from him on your own. That you would open the word of God and have the scales removed from your eves and read what is there instead of hearing the programmed voices of what you have been taught to believe and finally that you would have so great a love for those around you that you can no longer let them perish in the night.   

Colossians 2:3-5   In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.

Colossians 2:17-19  Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

Matthew 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

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Last year among several powerful things in scripture that the Lord opened up to me, He showed me what took place during the temptation of Eve in the garden. As profound as that was with Eve being dawn away by her own lust and utterly corrupting herself, sadly the story of what took place in the garden did not end with the fall of Eve, what was to occur only began there..

The fall of Eve was in fact, only the first act of a three-part tragedy that condemned the entire human race. In looking back now it should have made me suspicious when both secular churches and fundamentalist churches agree that when Satan ensnared Eve that, that was the end of the story.

In Church as a young believer I was taught that this was the end of the story, in bible school I was taught that this was the end of the story but it was not. The enemy had a far greater fish to fry than Eve, it was Adam that he was truly after and at the moment I do not expect you to be able to see that.  The Lord only showed this to me a few days ago and I am only starting to see to far reaching implications  

When Eve was lost in sin Adam did not give himself for her instead he considered his fellowship with her in sin was worth more than his fellowship with God Adam like Esau despised his birthright.  What Adam was supposed to have done was to redeem Eve by giving himself for her like Christ did for the Church. And because Adam chose her fellowship in sin the entire race because of the act of one man was brought into sin

Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Why does not Paul say by Eve sin entered into the world?

Romans 5:15-17 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.  And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

Not once but six times Paul tells us that sin entered into the world by one man – and that man was Adam

Romans 5:18-20 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

What was Adam’s offense? Most people would answer eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What was Adam’s disobedience? Most people would respond that it was He disobeyed the words of God. 

What was the righteous act of Christ? Most believers can answer this question easily. According to Romans 5:18  By Christ’s righteous act we received the free gift of salvation Romans 5:17 . . .Much more they (believers) which receive abundance of grace (Charis- Free gifts) and of the gift (Charisma- Free gift)  of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

What was the act of obedience of Christ? Again most believers can easily answer the question.  According to Romans 5:19  Christ’s obedience made many righteous. Philippians 2:8  And being found in fashion as a man, he (Christ) humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

1 Corinthians 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:46-48 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.