Chapter 6
The Fall of Man and Original Sin
It is important to understand how sin came into the world. We cannot understand redemptive history and its ending, unless we understand its beginning. It is so important to understand the need for a Savior, why He had to die, why He has to return again, and restore this world to its original character, and then ultimately destroy the entire universe, and in its place, recreate a new heaven and a new earth.
For us to understand all of those sweeping events, the comprehensive elements of redemptive history, we must understand the Fall of man and how it came about. We cannot accomplish any of this without a thorough knowledge of Genesis Chapter 3. It explains the universal condition of man. It explains why there must be a Savior, and why the universe must ultimately be destroyed and a new cosmos brought into existence in its place.
The third chapter of Genesis describes the origin of sin; it deals with the serpent in the garden, temptation, forbidden fruit, a woman who was deceived, a man who followed her in violating God's word and God's command. Then talks about the curse, the price that was paid for that disobedience. Genesis 3 is actual history, it is an accurate historical record of what actually happened in the garden. It is as the word of God says it is. It is not myth; it is not legend. It is actual history. It is the true and accurate record from God about how sin came into the world, and how sin caused all the problems that exist in our universe.
This Chapter may well be the most important chapter in the Bible. Certainly, it is true that if you don't understand this chapter, you won’t understand the rest of the Bible. You cannot understand the solution to the problem, unless you understand the problem. You cannot understand the cure unless you understand the diagnosis. You will never be able to understand God's remedy for this world, if you don't understand the malady under which this world lives and functions. Genesis 3 explains absolutely everything about our universe, and about life in that universe, and all of us who live in it. It explains everything about why things are the way they are, why we are the way we are, and what God is doing in history, and why He's doing it in terms of salvation.
If you go to the last chapter of Genesis 1 it says: "And God saw all that He had made." And He had made all that has ever been made, so He saw the whole created universe. "And, behold, it was very good." When God completed the original creation, He declared everything was "very good." because: There was no disorder. There was no chaos. There was no conflict. There was no struggle. There was no pain. There was no disease. There was no death. There was no discord. There was no decline. But now we all live our whole lives with all of that. Presently, life is defined by disorder, chaos, conflict, struggle, pain, discord, disease, decline and death. We look at the physical world around us, and we see it decaying and tending toward disorder and chaos, disintegration and death.
Genesis 3 explains the human dilemma. All the problems in the universe have their origin in the events of this historic account -- physical problems, spiritual problems, moral problems, social problems, economic problems, political problems -- all the problems in the universe have their origin in the events of this historic account. This Chapter then is the foundation of any true and accurate world view. And without this foundation, every and any world view is utterly in error.
The Doctrine of Original Sin
The doctrine of original sin is the identification given to the concept of the entrance of sin into the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, called “The Fall.” It is this event that forms the ground for the remainder of all human history.
Adam and Eve, when they were created in the Garden of Eden, were without sin. Because of that, they were perfect and flawless. Why, if Adam and Eve were perfect, did they yield to Satan? How did Satan deceive Eve? Satan tempted Eve. He did not disclose his design at first, but he put a question which seemed innocent. “Has God said?” He quoted the command wrong. He spoke in a taunting way. It was Eve's weakness to enter into this talk with the serpent: she might have perceived by his question, that he had no good design, and should therefore have started back. Satan teaches men first to doubt, and then to deny. He promises advantage from their eating this fruit. He aims to make them discontented with their present state, as if it were not so good as it might be, and should be. No condition will of itself bring content, unless the mind be brought to it. He tempts them to seek preferment, as if they were fit to be gods. Firstly, Satan ruined himself by desiring to be like the Most High, and secondly, he sought to infect our first parents with the same desire, that he might ruin them too. And still Satan draws people into his interest, by suggesting to them hard thoughts of God, and false hopes of advantage by sin. Like God, they had freewill, but freewill gave them the option to choose right from wrong. “What ought I to do?” Were Adam and Eve equipped to decide right and wrong for themselves? Can we say they used poor judgment, that they were unable to understand the outcome of their decisions. Top of FormBottom of Form
Free will is a product of the intrinsic human soul, the part of the soul that is united with God. We believe Divine omnipotence cannot be separated from divine goodness. As a truly omnipotent and good being, God could create beings with true freedom over God. Furthermore, God would voluntarily do so because "the greatest good... which can be done for a being, greater than anything else that one can do for it, is to be truly free. The biblical ground for free will originates with God. Scripture tells us God created man in His image. Free will is an attribute of God that was passed onto man. The ”Fall” into sin by Adam and Eve occurred in their “willfully chosen” disobedience to God.
Scripture views all humanity as naturally possessing the “free choice of the will.” If “free will” is taken to mean unconstrained and voluntary choice, the Bible assumes that all people, unregenerate and regenerate, possess it. For examples, “free will” is taught in Matthew 23:37 and Revelation 22:17. The Bible testifies to the need for acquired freedom because no one “is free for obedience and faith till he is freed from sin’s dominion.” People possess natural freedom but their “voluntary choices” serving sin until they acquire freedom from “sin’s dominion.” This acquired freedom for “obedience and faith” is said to be “free will” in a theological sense. Therefore, in biblical thinking, an acquired freedom from being “enslaved to sin” is needed “to live up to Jesus’ commandments to love God and love neighbor.” Jesus told his hearers that they needed to be made “free indeed” (John 8:36). “Free indeed” means “truly free” or “really free,” as it is in some translations. Being made “free indeed” means freedom from “bondage to sin.” This acquired freedom is “freedom to serve the Lord.” Being “free indeed” (i.e., true freedom) comes by “God’s changing our nature” to free us from being “slaves to sin.” and endowing us with “the freedom to choose to be righteous.”
Most Christians believe that while God is all-knowing and always knows what choices each person will make, he still gives them the ability to choose (or not choose) everything, regardless of whether there are any internal or external factors contributing to that choice. Concerning grace and free will, Scriptures teach that Free will is unable to begin or to perfect any true and spiritual good, without grace.... This grace goes before, accompanies, and follows; it excites, assists, operates that we will, and cooperates unless we will in vain.
Prevenient grace is divine grace which precedes human decision. It exists prior to and without reference to anything humans may have done. As humans are corrupted by the effects of sin, prevenient grace allows persons to engage their God-given free will to choose the salvation offered by God in Jesus Christ or to reject that saving offer.
God acts preveniently to give freedom/agency to all creatures. This gift comes from God's eternal essence, and is therefore necessary. God remains free in choosing how to love, but the fact that God loves and therefore gives freedom/agency to others is a necessary part of what it means to be divine. For example, go to Luke 13:34, “ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!” Here we see Jesus lamenting that He is unable to save Jerusalem as they are not willing. We see that while Jesus wants to save Jerusalem He does not interfere with their choice despite His will that they be saved.
God did not deem it necessary to provide an accurate timeline for the period between the creation of man and the introduction of sin and evil into the world. According to the Book of Genesis the time period in years between the creation of man and his fall appears to be very short, however, it has not been specifically stated.
The term Original Sin is used among all Christian churches to define the doctrine surrounding Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:22, in which the apostle Paul identifies Adam as the man through whom death came into the world. Sin came into the world through Satan who then caused Adam and Eve to fall.
Paul writes to Timothy that Adam was not deceived. He wasn’t caught in a moment of weakness as Eve was. But, he knew full well what he was doing and what the consequences would be. He had to make a choice. Is he going to eat and stay with his beautiful helpmeet, the woman, or is he going to refuse, lose the helpmeet and remain obedient to the Creator? After contemplation, the last four words of verse 6 tells all --“and he did eat.” There was the original sin of man.
"Wherefore, as by one man ( referring to Adam.) sin entered into the world, and death (let me use the verb, entered) by sin; (in other words, before Adam ate, nothing died. Death was an unknown entity. But, once he ate, sin came in and along with sin came death.) and so death passed upon (how many?) all men,..." (Romans 5:12a) "... for that all have sinned:" (Romans 5:12b) ALL, Paul says in Romans chapter 3 – ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No one escapes it because we have been born of Adam. So death passed upon ALL men.
In the Book of Romans Paul tells us that sin and death came on the human race the moment Adam ate. On top of that, Adam immediately lost fellowship with his Creator(spiritual death). At the same moment, his soul; that mind, will and emotion part of him, the personality part of Adam, immediately became a sin nature. It took on a sinful rebellious attitude against God. We are all in Adam and it’s by virtue of Adam’s sin that you and I are born sinners.
This doctrine is accepted as orthodoxy almost universally in our churches, the doctrine that all of humanity sinned in Adam when he ate the forbidden fruit. That Adam's sin, its guilt, and its curse were imputed to all his descendants, and that all of his descendants are now born with an Adamic sin nature which makes sin unavoidable and makes us "by nature the children of wrath."
The ramifications of the concept of original sin are far-reaching in Christian theology. This idea has led to the formulation(rightly or wrongly) of such doctrines as infant baptism, the sinless birth of Christ with associated doctrines in the Catholic Church of the immaculate conception and the assumption of Mary.
Are men born sinners? Did God fashion men into sinners in their mother's womb? Our answer to these questions is of supreme importance. For how we answer them will have a direct bearing on our attitude toward sin, toward God, and toward holy Christian living.
Scripture teaches that the first man(Adam) created by God was sinless. God had prepared a perfect place for man and then gave them the gift of freewill. Freewill is an attribute of God which He imputed to both man and angels at creation. Sovereignty is an attribute of God that He does not share with either man nor angels.. A search of Scripture reveals that freewill in man comes with responsibility and consequences.
At the conclusion of God's six days of creating and making all things, He placed it all under man's dominion and then pronounced it all to be "very good" (Genesis 1:26,28,31).
There was, therefore, nothing bad in that created world, no hunger, no struggle for existence, no suffering, and certainly no death of animal or human life anywhere in God's perfect creation (plant "life," created as food for men and animals, does not "die" in the Biblical sense). There was no carnivorous activity at that time, for God had said: "And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat, and it was so" (Genesis 1:30).
God had placed trees in the midst of the garden. Adam and Eve could freely eat the fruit from any tree except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. “But the LORD God gave him this warning: 'You may freely eat any fruit in the garden except fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you will surely die' (Genesis 2:16-17).
Adam and Eve did not physically die immediately after they ate of the tree but they were spiritually separated from God, which meant an eternal separation -- death. Faced with the choice to accept the lie of Satan, and disobey God's command came the first sin, and the consequences of that sin was spiritual separation and eventually physical death. Because of their sin, all those who were born into their union were sinners and that has continued to the present. The only offspring that human beings can bring into the world are children with the sin of Adam and that requires a remedy. God in His grace provided Adam and Eve a covering (Genesis 3:21) made from animal skins as the first picture of a sacrifice that had to be made continually to cover sin looking forward to that day, in the fullness of time, when the promised Redeemer would come (Genesis 3:15).
First Came Satan
In chapter 4 of our Treatise, on the subject of angelology, the existence and activity of the angel Lucifer(Satan) was thoroughly reviewed, but now we will examine the significance of Satan in regard to the problem of original sin in man.
From the Book of Ezekiel we learn that “Thou (Lucifer) hast been in Eden the garden of God”, and “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.”
Here God is addressing the angel Lucifer:
“11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying , 12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created . 14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth ; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created , till iniquity was found in thee. ”(Ezekiel 28:11-15).
Apparently Lucifer had quite an impressive position with God at that time. According to Ezekiel he was one of the two cherubim that covered the Throne of God with their wings. He was, as the Bible puts it, “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created . . .” (Ezek. 28:15)
From these verses it is not clear when God placed Lucifer in the Garden of Eden, nor when iniquity(sin) was found in him. However, there seems to be a connection between the creation of Adam and the formation of iniquity taking place in Lucifer.
After God Created Adam and Eve He made it plain what He expected of them:
“And God said…and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth…And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26, 28 KJV)
We know that until the creation of Adam and Eve, Lucifer reigned supreme in the eyes of God, and the next thing that happens is that when man was created in the image of God they supplanted Lucifer and the angels as the primary object of His plan. It was at this time God’s angels were slated to serve man as well as God. Therefore because of our status as sinful men, we can relate as to how Lucifer was overcome with jealous pride.(referring back to chapter 4, pp 88). Lucifer’s jealous pride then led to a blatant hatred resulting in his “Fall” from grace.
We learn about Satan’s fall from Isaiah 14:12–15‘[KJV]:
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven%
End of Chapter 6
The Fall of Man and Original Sin
It is important to understand how sin came into the world. We cannot understand redemptive history and its ending, unless we understand its beginning. It is so important to understand the need for a Savior, why He had to die, why He has to return again, and restore this world to its original character, and then ultimately destroy the entire universe, and in its place, recreate a new heaven and a new earth.
For us to understand all of those sweeping events, the comprehensive elements of redemptive history, we must understand the Fall of man and how it came about. We cannot accomplish any of this without a thorough knowledge of Genesis Chapter 3. It explains the universal condition of man. It explains why there must be a Savior, and why the universe must ultimately be destroyed and a new cosmos brought into existence in its place.
The third chapter of Genesis describes the origin of sin; it deals with the serpent in the garden, temptation, forbidden fruit, a woman who was deceived, a man who followed her in violating God's word and God's command. Then talks about the curse, the price that was paid for that disobedience. Genesis 3 is actual history, it is an accurate historical record of what actually happened in the garden. It is as the word of God says it is. It is not myth; it is not legend. It is actual history. It is the true and accurate record from God about how sin came into the world, and how sin caused all the problems that exist in our universe.
This Chapter may well be the most important chapter in the Bible. Certainly, it is true that if you don't understand this chapter, you won’t understand the rest of the Bible. You cannot understand the solution to the problem, unless you understand the problem. You cannot understand the cure unless you understand the diagnosis. You will never be able to understand God's remedy for this world, if you don't understand the malady under which this world lives and functions. Genesis 3 explains absolutely everything about our universe, and about life in that universe, and all of us who live in it. It explains everything about why things are the way they are, why we are the way we are, and what God is doing in history, and why He's doing it in terms of salvation.
If you go to the last chapter of Genesis 1 it says: "And God saw all that He had made." And He had made all that has ever been made, so He saw the whole created universe. "And, behold, it was very good." When God completed the original creation, He declared everything was "very good." because: There was no disorder. There was no chaos. There was no conflict. There was no struggle. There was no pain. There was no disease. There was no death. There was no discord. There was no decline. But now we all live our whole lives with all of that. Presently, life is defined by disorder, chaos, conflict, struggle, pain, discord, disease, decline and death. We look at the physical world around us, and we see it decaying and tending toward disorder and chaos, disintegration and death.
Genesis 3 explains the human dilemma. All the problems in the universe have their origin in the events of this historic account -- physical problems, spiritual problems, moral problems, social problems, economic problems, political problems -- all the problems in the universe have their origin in the events of this historic account. This Chapter then is the foundation of any true and accurate world view. And without this foundation, every and any world view is utterly in error.
The Doctrine of Original Sin
The doctrine of original sin is the identification given to the concept of the entrance of sin into the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, called “The Fall.” It is this event that forms the ground for the remainder of all human history.
Adam and Eve, when they were created in the Garden of Eden, were without sin. Because of that, they were perfect and flawless. Why, if Adam and Eve were perfect, did they yield to Satan? How did Satan deceive Eve? Satan tempted Eve. He did not disclose his design at first, but he put a question which seemed innocent. “Has God said?” He quoted the command wrong. He spoke in a taunting way. It was Eve's weakness to enter into this talk with the serpent: she might have perceived by his question, that he had no good design, and should therefore have started back. Satan teaches men first to doubt, and then to deny. He promises advantage from their eating this fruit. He aims to make them discontented with their present state, as if it were not so good as it might be, and should be. No condition will of itself bring content, unless the mind be brought to it. He tempts them to seek preferment, as if they were fit to be gods. Firstly, Satan ruined himself by desiring to be like the Most High, and secondly, he sought to infect our first parents with the same desire, that he might ruin them too. And still Satan draws people into his interest, by suggesting to them hard thoughts of God, and false hopes of advantage by sin. Like God, they had freewill, but freewill gave them the option to choose right from wrong. “What ought I to do?” Were Adam and Eve equipped to decide right and wrong for themselves? Can we say they used poor judgment, that they were unable to understand the outcome of their decisions. Top of FormBottom of Form
Free will is a product of the intrinsic human soul, the part of the soul that is united with God. We believe Divine omnipotence cannot be separated from divine goodness. As a truly omnipotent and good being, God could create beings with true freedom over God. Furthermore, God would voluntarily do so because "the greatest good... which can be done for a being, greater than anything else that one can do for it, is to be truly free. The biblical ground for free will originates with God. Scripture tells us God created man in His image. Free will is an attribute of God that was passed onto man. The ”Fall” into sin by Adam and Eve occurred in their “willfully chosen” disobedience to God.
Scripture views all humanity as naturally possessing the “free choice of the will.” If “free will” is taken to mean unconstrained and voluntary choice, the Bible assumes that all people, unregenerate and regenerate, possess it. For examples, “free will” is taught in Matthew 23:37 and Revelation 22:17. The Bible testifies to the need for acquired freedom because no one “is free for obedience and faith till he is freed from sin’s dominion.” People possess natural freedom but their “voluntary choices” serving sin until they acquire freedom from “sin’s dominion.” This acquired freedom for “obedience and faith” is said to be “free will” in a theological sense. Therefore, in biblical thinking, an acquired freedom from being “enslaved to sin” is needed “to live up to Jesus’ commandments to love God and love neighbor.” Jesus told his hearers that they needed to be made “free indeed” (John 8:36). “Free indeed” means “truly free” or “really free,” as it is in some translations. Being made “free indeed” means freedom from “bondage to sin.” This acquired freedom is “freedom to serve the Lord.” Being “free indeed” (i.e., true freedom) comes by “God’s changing our nature” to free us from being “slaves to sin.” and endowing us with “the freedom to choose to be righteous.”
Most Christians believe that while God is all-knowing and always knows what choices each person will make, he still gives them the ability to choose (or not choose) everything, regardless of whether there are any internal or external factors contributing to that choice. Concerning grace and free will, Scriptures teach that Free will is unable to begin or to perfect any true and spiritual good, without grace.... This grace goes before, accompanies, and follows; it excites, assists, operates that we will, and cooperates unless we will in vain.
Prevenient grace is divine grace which precedes human decision. It exists prior to and without reference to anything humans may have done. As humans are corrupted by the effects of sin, prevenient grace allows persons to engage their God-given free will to choose the salvation offered by God in Jesus Christ or to reject that saving offer.
God acts preveniently to give freedom/agency to all creatures. This gift comes from God's eternal essence, and is therefore necessary. God remains free in choosing how to love, but the fact that God loves and therefore gives freedom/agency to others is a necessary part of what it means to be divine. For example, go to Luke 13:34, “ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!” Here we see Jesus lamenting that He is unable to save Jerusalem as they are not willing. We see that while Jesus wants to save Jerusalem He does not interfere with their choice despite His will that they be saved.
God did not deem it necessary to provide an accurate timeline for the period between the creation of man and the introduction of sin and evil into the world. According to the Book of Genesis the time period in years between the creation of man and his fall appears to be very short, however, it has not been specifically stated.
The term Original Sin is used among all Christian churches to define the doctrine surrounding Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:22, in which the apostle Paul identifies Adam as the man through whom death came into the world. Sin came into the world through Satan who then caused Adam and Eve to fall.
Paul writes to Timothy that Adam was not deceived. He wasn’t caught in a moment of weakness as Eve was. But, he knew full well what he was doing and what the consequences would be. He had to make a choice. Is he going to eat and stay with his beautiful helpmeet, the woman, or is he going to refuse, lose the helpmeet and remain obedient to the Creator? After contemplation, the last four words of verse 6 tells all --“and he did eat.” There was the original sin of man.
"Wherefore, as by one man ( referring to Adam.) sin entered into the world, and death (let me use the verb, entered) by sin; (in other words, before Adam ate, nothing died. Death was an unknown entity. But, once he ate, sin came in and along with sin came death.) and so death passed upon (how many?) all men,..." (Romans 5:12a) "... for that all have sinned:" (Romans 5:12b) ALL, Paul says in Romans chapter 3 – ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No one escapes it because we have been born of Adam. So death passed upon ALL men.
In the Book of Romans Paul tells us that sin and death came on the human race the moment Adam ate. On top of that, Adam immediately lost fellowship with his Creator(spiritual death). At the same moment, his soul; that mind, will and emotion part of him, the personality part of Adam, immediately became a sin nature. It took on a sinful rebellious attitude against God. We are all in Adam and it’s by virtue of Adam’s sin that you and I are born sinners.
This doctrine is accepted as orthodoxy almost universally in our churches, the doctrine that all of humanity sinned in Adam when he ate the forbidden fruit. That Adam's sin, its guilt, and its curse were imputed to all his descendants, and that all of his descendants are now born with an Adamic sin nature which makes sin unavoidable and makes us "by nature the children of wrath."
The ramifications of the concept of original sin are far-reaching in Christian theology. This idea has led to the formulation(rightly or wrongly) of such doctrines as infant baptism, the sinless birth of Christ with associated doctrines in the Catholic Church of the immaculate conception and the assumption of Mary.
Are men born sinners? Did God fashion men into sinners in their mother's womb? Our answer to these questions is of supreme importance. For how we answer them will have a direct bearing on our attitude toward sin, toward God, and toward holy Christian living.
Scripture teaches that the first man(Adam) created by God was sinless. God had prepared a perfect place for man and then gave them the gift of freewill. Freewill is an attribute of God which He imputed to both man and angels at creation. Sovereignty is an attribute of God that He does not share with either man nor angels.. A search of Scripture reveals that freewill in man comes with responsibility and consequences.
At the conclusion of God's six days of creating and making all things, He placed it all under man's dominion and then pronounced it all to be "very good" (Genesis 1:26,28,31).
There was, therefore, nothing bad in that created world, no hunger, no struggle for existence, no suffering, and certainly no death of animal or human life anywhere in God's perfect creation (plant "life," created as food for men and animals, does not "die" in the Biblical sense). There was no carnivorous activity at that time, for God had said: "And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat, and it was so" (Genesis 1:30).
God had placed trees in the midst of the garden. Adam and Eve could freely eat the fruit from any tree except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. “But the LORD God gave him this warning: 'You may freely eat any fruit in the garden except fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you will surely die' (Genesis 2:16-17).
Adam and Eve did not physically die immediately after they ate of the tree but they were spiritually separated from God, which meant an eternal separation -- death. Faced with the choice to accept the lie of Satan, and disobey God's command came the first sin, and the consequences of that sin was spiritual separation and eventually physical death. Because of their sin, all those who were born into their union were sinners and that has continued to the present. The only offspring that human beings can bring into the world are children with the sin of Adam and that requires a remedy. God in His grace provided Adam and Eve a covering (Genesis 3:21) made from animal skins as the first picture of a sacrifice that had to be made continually to cover sin looking forward to that day, in the fullness of time, when the promised Redeemer would come (Genesis 3:15).
First Came Satan
In chapter 4 of our Treatise, on the subject of angelology, the existence and activity of the angel Lucifer(Satan) was thoroughly reviewed, but now we will examine the significance of Satan in regard to the problem of original sin in man.
From the Book of Ezekiel we learn that “Thou (Lucifer) hast been in Eden the garden of God”, and “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.”
Here God is addressing the angel Lucifer:
“11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying , 12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created . 14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth ; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created , till iniquity was found in thee. ”(Ezekiel 28:11-15).
Apparently Lucifer had quite an impressive position with God at that time. According to Ezekiel he was one of the two cherubim that covered the Throne of God with their wings. He was, as the Bible puts it, “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created . . .” (Ezek. 28:15)
From these verses it is not clear when God placed Lucifer in the Garden of Eden, nor when iniquity(sin) was found in him. However, there seems to be a connection between the creation of Adam and the formation of iniquity taking place in Lucifer.
After God Created Adam and Eve He made it plain what He expected of them:
“And God said…and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth…And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26, 28 KJV)
We know that until the creation of Adam and Eve, Lucifer reigned supreme in the eyes of God, and the next thing that happens is that when man was created in the image of God they supplanted Lucifer and the angels as the primary object of His plan. It was at this time God’s angels were slated to serve man as well as God. Therefore because of our status as sinful men, we can relate as to how Lucifer was overcome with jealous pride.(referring back to chapter 4, pp 88). Lucifer’s jealous pride then led to a blatant hatred resulting in his “Fall” from grace.
We learn about Satan’s fall from Isaiah 14:12–15‘[KJV]:
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven%
End of Chapter 6