y not eaten of the tree of life which perpetuates
immortality? He said that God was deceiving them to keep them from a
higher state of felicity and more exalted happiness. The tempter plucked
the fruit and passed it to Eve. She took it in her hand. Now, said the
tempter, you were prohibited from even touching it lest you die. He told
her that she would realize no more sense of evil and death in eating than in
touching or handling the fruit. Eve was emboldened because she felt not
the immediate signs of God’s displeasure. She thought the words of the
tempter all wise and correct. She ate, and was delighted with the fruit. It
seemed delicious to her taste, and she imagined that she realized in herself
the wonderful effects of the fruit.
Eve Becomes a Tempter
She then plucked for herself of the fruit and ate, and imagined she
felt the quickening power of a new and elevated existence as the result of
the exhilarating influence of the forbidden fruit. She was in a strange and
unnatural excitement as she sought her husband with her hands filled with
the forbidden fruit. She related to him the wise discourse of the serpent
and wished to conduct him at once to the tree of knowledge. She told him
she had eaten of the fruit, and instead of her feeling any sense of death, she
realized a pleasing, exhilarating influence. As soon as Eve had disobeyed
she became a powerful medium through which to occasion the fall of her
husband.
I saw a sadness come over the countenance of Adam. He appeared
afraid and astonished. A struggle appeared to be going on in his mind. He
told Eve
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he was quite certain that this was the foe that they had been warned
against, and if so, that she must die. She assured him she felt no ill effects
but rather a very pleasant influence, and entreated him to eat.
Adam quite well understood that his companion had transgressed the
only prohibition laid upon them as a test of their fidelity and love. Eve
reasoned that the serpent said they should not surely die, and his words
must be true, for she felt no signs of God’s displeasure, but a pleasant
influence, as she imagined the angels felt.
Adam regretted that Eve had left his side, but now the deed was
done. He must be separated from her whose society he had loved so
well. How could he have it thus? His love for Eve was strong. And
in utter discouragement he resolved to share her fate. He reasoned that
Eve was a part of himself, and if she must die, he would die with her, for
he could not bear the thought of separation from her. He lacked faith in
his merciful and benevolent Creator. He did not think that God, who had
formed him out of the dust of the ground into a living, beautiful form, and
had created Eve to be his companion, could supply her place. After all,
might not the words of this wise serpent be correct? Eve was before him,
just as lovely and beautiful, and apparently as innocent, as before this act
of disobedience. She expressed greater, higher love for him than before
her disobedience, as the effects of the fruit she had eaten. He saw in her
no signs of death. She had told him of the happy influence of the fruit,
of her ardent love for him, and he decided to brave the consequences. He
seized the fruit and quickly ate it, and like Eve, felt not immediately its ill
effects.
Eve had thought herself capable of deciding between
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right and wrong. The flattering hope of entering a higher state of
knowledge had led her to think that the serpent was her especial friend,
possessing a great interest in her welfare. Had she sought her husband,
and they had related to their Maker the words of the serpent, they would
have been delivered at once from his artful temptation. The Lord would
not have them investigate the fruit of the tree of knowledge, for then they
would be exposed to Satan masked. He knew that they would be perfectly
safe if they touched not the fruit.
Man’s Freedom of Choice
God instructed our first parents in regard to the tree of knowledge,
and they were fully informed relative to the fall of Satan, and the danger
of listening to his suggestions. He did not deprive them of the power of
eating the forbidden fruit. He left them as free moral agents to believe
His word, obey His commandments, and live, or believe the tempter,
disobey, and perish. They both ate, and the great wisdom they obtained
was the knowledge of sin and a sense of guilt. The covering of light about
them soon disappeared, and under a sense of guilt and loss of their divine
covering, a shivering seized them, and they tried to cover their exposed
forms.
Our first parents chose to believe the words, as they thought, of a
serpent; yet he had given them no tokens of his love. He had done nothing
for their happiness and benefit, while God had given them everything that
was good for food and pleasant to the sight. Everywhere the eye might
rest was abundance and beauty; yet Eve was deceived by the serpent, to
think that there was something withheld which would make them wise,
even as God. Instead of believing
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and confiding in God, she basely distrusted His goodness and cherished
the words of Satan.
After Adam’s transgression he at first imagined that he felt the rising
to a new and higher existence. But soon the thought of his transgression
terrified him. The air, that had been of a mild and even temperature,
seemed to chill them. The guilty pair had a sense of sin. They felt a
dread of the future, a sense of want, a nakedness of soul. The sweet
love and peace and happy contented bliss seemed removed from them,
and in its place a want of something came over them that they had never
experienced before. They then for the first time turned their attention to
the external. They had not been clothed but were draped in light as were
the heavenly angels. This light which had enshrouded them had departed.
To relieve their sense of lack and nakedness which they realized, their
attention was directed to seek a covering for their forms, for how could
they meet the eye of God and angels unclothed?
Their crime is now before them in its true light. Their transgression
of God’s express command assumes a clearer character. Adam censured
Eve’s folly in leaving his side and being deceived by the serpent. They
both flattered themselves that God, who had given them everything to
make them happy, might yet excuse their disobedience because of His
great love to them and that their punishment would not be so dreadful
after all.
Satan exulted in his success. He had now tempted the woman to
distrust God, to question His wisdom, and to seek to penetrate His all-wise
plans. And through her he had also caused the overthrow of Adam, who,
in consequence of his love for Eve, disobeyed the command of God and
fell with her.
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The news of man’s fall spread through heaven—every harp was
hushed. The angels cast their crowns from their heads in sorrow. All
heaven was in agitation. The angels were grieved at the base ingratitude
of man in return for the rich bounties God had provided. A council was
held to decide what must be done with the guilty pair. The angels feared
that they would put forth the hand and eat of the tree of life, and thus
perpetuate a life of sin.
The Lord visited Adam and Eve, and made known to them the
consequence of their disobedience. As they heard God’s majestic
approach they sought to hide themselves from His inspection, whom they
delighted, while in their innocence and holiness, to meet. “And the Lord
God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I
heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I
hid myself. And He said, Who told Thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou
eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?”
This question was asked by the Lord, not because He needed information,
but for the conviction of the guilty pair. How didst thou become ashamed
and fearful? Adam acknowledged his transgression, not because he was
penitent for his great disobedience, but to cast reflection upon God. “The
woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and
I did eat.” The woman was then addressed: “What is this that thou hast
done?” Eve answered, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”
The Curse
The Lord then addressed the serpent: “Because thou hast done this,
thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon
thy belly
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shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.” As the
serpent had been exalted above the beasts of the field, he should be
degraded beneath them all, and be detested by man, inasmuch as he
was the medium through which Satan acted. “And unto Adam He said,
Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it:
cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days
of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou
shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
till thou return unto the ground.”
God cursed the ground because of their sin in eating of the tree of
knowledge, and declared, “In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy
life.” He had apportioned them the good, but withheld the evil. Now He
declares that they shall eat of it, that is, they should be acquainted with
evil all the days of their life.
The race from that time forward was to be afflicted by Satan’s
temptations. A life of perpetual toil and anxiety was appointed unto
Adam, instead of the happy, cheerful labor he had hitherto enjoyed. They
should be subject to disappointment, grief, and pain, and finally come to
dissolution. They were made of the dust of the earth, and unto dust should
they return.
They were informed that they would have to lose their Eden home.
They had yielded to Satan’s deception and believed the word of Satan,
that God would lie. By their transgression they had opened a way for
Satan to gain access to them more readily, and it was not safe for them to
remain in the Garden of Eden, lest in their state of sin they gain access to
the tree of
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life and perpetuate a life of sin. They entreated to be permitted to remain,
although they acknowledged that they had forfeited all right to blissful
Eden. They promised that they would in the future yield to God implicit
obedience. They were informed that in their fall from innocence to guilt
they gained no strength but great weakness. They had not preserved their
integrity while they were in a state of holy, happy innocence, and they
would have far less strength to remain true and loyal in a state of conscious
guilt. They were filled with keenest anguish and remorse. They now
realized that the penalty of sin was death.
Angels were commissioned to immediately guard the way of the tree
of life. It was Satan’s studied plan that Adam and Eve should disobey
God, receive His frown, and then partake of the tree of life, that they
might perpetuate a life of sin. But holy angels were sent to debar their
way to the tree of life. Around these angels flashed beams of light on
every side, which had the appearance of glittering swords.
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5: The Plan of Salvation
https://goo.gl/gA6sCb
Sorrow filled heaven, as it was realized that man was lost and that
world which God had created was to be filled with mortals doomed to
misery, sickness, and death, and there was no way of escape for the
offender. The whole family of Adam must die. I saw the lovely Jesus
and beheld an expression of sympathy and sorrow upon His countenance.
Soon I saw Him approach the exceeding bright light which enshrouded
the Father. Said my accompanying angel, He is in close converse with His
Father. The anxiety of the angels seemed to be intense while Jesus was
communing with His Father. Three times He w