The LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  (Genesis 2:7-9)  The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”  (Genesis 2:15-18)

God created Man. God created an environment for Man to live in.

• God gave them food, water, and work to do. Everything they needed…
• God planted freedom in the garden. Freedom to choose Life or Death.
• The tree of Life or the tree of Science (Latin for ‘knowledge’).

Here’s some Science for you:

• Genetically, mutations occur at a rate of about 60 per generation. Most are neutral in effect, some harmful (Currently some 6,000 genetic diseases are recognized)
• This debunks any theory that life evolved in a positive genetic mutative way.
• Only one bone in the human body can regrow if removed. Care to guess which one?
  • Ribs, if removed carefully will regrow within 3-6 months!

The fruit of Science was not an apple. Just as the fruit of Life was not any fruit we now have on the planet. How did the fruit of Science become associated with apple?

• The Hebrew word for evil is ‘ra’ (Coincidence that the Sun God of Egypt is Ra?)
• Ates da’ath tobe ra’a (Hebrew ‘etz hadat tov vera’ - Tree of knowledge of good and evil)
• In the 4^th century, the Hebrew bible was translated to Latin. (ra became mălum)
• The Greek word μῆλον (mēlon) ‘fruit tree’, was borrowed into Latin mālum to mean apple. The Latin word Pomum ‘fruit’ was borrowed by the French to mean Apple. And the Latin word for “evil” is mălum. Who knows what came first!
• John Milton’s 1667 poem “Paradise Lost” names the fruit an apple and Renaissance painters of Adam and Eve painted apples.
• So… in Latin, they ate from the tree of the Science of good and apple

How were Adam and Eve named?

• The man (hā’āḏām) Adam (‘āḏām), made from the ground (‘ăḏāmâ), was the first of mankind (‘āḏām). Basically Adam’s name came from the Hebrew word Ground]
• Eve’s name means “to give life”

And so this is the story of Ground and Life Giver who chose Science and became aware of good and apple

But there is one more player in this story. The great dragon [that] was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world  (Revelation 12:9)

• Here also we are taught it was a snake. The Bible says serpent.
• What’s the difference? I don’t know, What’s the difference between fruit and apple?
• But the snake became popular because it crawls on its belly and strikes at people’s heals and makes a good illustration of the protoevangelium (Genesis 3:15)

And this is how it happened:

• The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field… He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you ’” (Genesis 3:1-3)
• The serpent said, ‘You will not die, you will be like God, with science’ (Knowledge)

So Ground and Life Giver were given a choice:

• The tree of Life or the tree of Science. (And God said science will kill you)
• However, Science was pleasing to the eye and inviting so Eve chose Science.
• When Science didn’t kill Eve as God said it would, Adam chose Science too

Some think Eve alone was tempted. And Paul does say it was Eve who was deceived (I Timothy 2:14), but Genesis 3:6 specifically says, “and she also gave some to her husband who was with her”

The Serpent, crafty as he is, had convinced Eve that the Tree of the knowledge of good and EVIL, that God said would kill them, was actually

• The tree of the Science of good apples.

Adam and Eve sinned in their choice to choose Science over God (which people continue to do today), and God cursed the Serpent, the Woman and the Man.

• They were removed from Eden (and Life) and disfellowshipped with God

That’s the story, that is the HISTORY of the Death of Mankind.

• Likely very quickly after creation was completed
• It only took 15-20 years after Charles Darwin publishing his ‘tree of science’ in ‘The Origin of Species’ for the world to turn back from a Christian worldview to a science that denied God.
• Sadly many Christians even today try to fit their understanding of God into science rather than their understanding of science into the Truth of God.

The Death of Humanity did occur that very day that knowledge became more important to Adam and Eve than God was. They were removed from access to the Tree of Life and their spirits died, their bodies began to decay, as did the rest of creation as a result of their choice.

What can we know about these first two humans? What can we understand from their tragedy to increase the faithfulness of our own lives?

1. God made them in His own Image… and we in theirs retain that Image of God
2. The guilty cannot hide from God… and yet they tried to, as do we today
3. God expected, and accounted for the Fall… just as He knows our choices too
4. God values ALL who bare His Image… providing grace to any who turn back

God Made Them In His Own Image

 What does it mean to be made in the image of God?

• Free Will – Choice
  • We make choices and are morally responsible for the choices we make

 Uniqueness – Individual – Fearfully and wonderfully made

 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. (Genesis 5:3)

• Our kids have a lot of us in them, but are also very different
• God created us ‘like’ Him, and yet uniquely ourselves. Just as He is Himself one if a kind

 Infinitely Valuable (It is God who defines the value of what He has created)

• • Not simply spoken, but hand-crafted by God

The Guilty Cannot Hide From God

 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”  (Genesis 3:8-9)

• Did God not know where they were?
• Did they think He couldn’t see everything?

 There was shame and regret for the sin they committed…  but not honesty.

• They would not take responsibility for the choice they made
• Adam blamed Eve. (Genesis 3:12) Eve blamed the Serpent. (Genesis 3:13)
• The woman you gave me… the serpent you created…

They may have been passing the blame with ‘the Devil made me do it’ or ‘we were born this way’ by ultimately blaming God Himself for the design flaw of choice.

• They bore the Image of God, represented Him in His creation, given authority
• And they degraded His Image trying to deceive as they had been deceived

God Expected and Accounted For the Fall

 God KNEW they has sinned. He KNEW they were hiding… where AND why.

• Death had been the warning and WOULD be the consequence
• Separation from God… physically out of the Garden. Spiritually out of Relationship with God… and the slow decay of the body

 But their choice did NOT surprise God. Do any of us believe He didn’t see it coming?

• He judged their choices by cursing creation for their sin, causing the ground (‘ăḏāmâ) to produce thorns and thistles, to increase the pain of childbirth
• All of Adam (creation, mankind and Adam himself) was doomed to hardship

 This was not a wrath of God, but a consequence of being separated from His Life

• But the judgement on the Serpent demonstrates His continued Love for Man

 The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”  (Genesis 3:14-15)

 The protoevangelium demonstrated that God planned for the Fall and how He would repair the break. It would not be forever for those who would take responsibility for their sin and receive God’s Grace.

 As by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.  (1 Corinthians 15:21-22)

• The work of Jesus already planned in Genesis!

  Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned  (Romans 5:12)

God values ALL who bare His Image

 Given the severity of the sin of Adam and Eve and the consequence of it corrupting not only every human being, but also all of His creation…

• How does God demonstrate His love for the fallen?
• The LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.(Genesis 3:21)
• This was NOT an angry God seeking retribution

 Even throwing them out of the garden was mercy.

The LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever-” therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22-24)

• God saw what an immortal corrupt Mankind would become. Hell on earth.
• He allows death to the body so that those who receive His grace would regain a Good… eternal Life.

 God did not abandon Adam and Eve and Humanity to death.

• It is clear that God continued to communicate with them from a distance
• They taught their children about the goodness of God (evidenced by offerings)

 Even those who are corrupted beyond any acceptance of Grace… God cares for.

• When Cain and Able made offerings to God and Cain hated his brother for it
• The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”(Genesis 4:6-7)
• Even Judas was one of the 12 closest followers of Jesus.

 What have we learned?

• God gives you choice even if He knows you will choose poorly.
• God knows your weaknesses, He wants you to be honest about them
• God values you greatly and offers your life restored

Choose the Grace of God over the Science of Man