WRITTEN BY: C.U.EBONG (SUNDAY SCHOOL PRESIDENT OF APOSTOLIC VOICE OF

REDEMPTION MISSION INT’L)

CHAPTER ONE

THE CONCEPT OF CREATION

he term “Creation” has so many definitions but we will consider a few. Creation simply means to bring something which has never existed before to

existence. Oxford Advanced Dictionary defines creation “as to cause something to exist; to make something new or original”. Generally, Creation is the act of bringing the world into ordered existence by God. First there was nothing and then there was something, Earth never existed before, the Creator spoke things into existence. So Creation was done by the word of the Creator. (Gen. 1:1, John 1:1). In Genesis 1, we read of a series of “And God said” statements. Also we read in Psalm 33:6 & Psalm 33:9, “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.”

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THE ORIGIN OF MAN

(How did man came into being?)

Did mankind accidentally evolve from lifeless matter, or were we the intended product of some form of intelligent action? Did man evolve from Apes according to Charles Darwin? Or was man created by God? When did the Universe appear?

Looking from the account of Genesis 1:1 the world that we are today never existed, for man to come into being,

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then a habitat must be prepared, fashioned and be habitable for man’s survival “For this is what the Lord says, he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited; - Isaiah 45:18.

That was why God in his own wisdom created heaven and earth to be inhabited by man. The earth itself which is the dwelling place of men was without form, shapeless, haphazard, a world of darkness in fact there was nothing like land everywhere was covered by water. We will look at the origin of man in two categories

a. The world’s view and;b. The Biblical view.

THE WORLD’S VIEW (EVOLUTION)

The world’s view of Man’s origin is in terms of evolution this is as a result of science exploration. The disciples of science who were concerned about the origin of nature like Charles Darwin theorized that the world and its components including man arrived as a result of Evolution. In retrospect, the theory of evolution has intrigued many, this theory attempts to explain that all living things, of either animals or plants origin, originated as a product of a gradual improvement that developed over many millions of years. The problem with evolution is that it is a theory that has yet to be proven.

THE BIBLICAL VIEW.

According to the scripture we believe that man is not a product of Evolution. Other abiotic (non-living things)

components on the planet earth may evolve but in terms of humanity it is not applicable. No man originates from apes or gorilla according to the scripture all men were created

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perfectly by a supreme being called God. It is God in his own wise counsel that brought man into existence (creation).

The bible pictured man as a created being. The verifiability of this statement is seen in Genesis 1:27 “so God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”. The Origin/existence of the earth and its component (man) has brought a lot of controversial criticisms in many disciplines of Anthropology, science related fields, Philosophy and other fields. But the truth of the matter is, in spite of all this, no one has ever come up with a realistic and better explanation of the origin and nature of man but it is only the scripture that tells us "when" "how" and "where" man came into being.

There is no situation that a cat will metamorphosed or change to a dog and vice versa, a tree remains a tree though it may vary in its structure due to its different arrangement of its constituent or its basic building block (atom).

Despite the glamorous of science, scientist has never been able to produce life out of that which has no life therefore the theory of evolution is meaningless because it can not proffer a solution to the controversy of the origin of life. From our tour, the scripture remains the most viable and effective tool which is able to give an explanation to the origin and existence of man without any form of error in both practical and hypothetical view-point.

From the account of Genesis 1:7 “man was made in the image and likeness of God”. No scientific technology even till date can take specie and produce it which will corresponds to the image of the creator. Man is the object of God’s creation, in the first chapter of Genesis alone the fact of man’s creation is stated repeatedly. Also John 1:2-3, “the word was with God in the beginning through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made”. Colossians 1:16 “For by him all things were

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created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. According to Hebrews 11:3, “by Faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”

If a believer accepts the Scripture as the Word of God in other matters, one must necessarily accept the bible when it indicates that God is the creator and originator of all that has been created. 2 Peter 3:4. “They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming?” For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation”. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God”.

You must understand that there is no alternative explanation to the doctrine of creation that satisfies the questions that are raised by the nature of our universe and the nature of man. Man, then, is not a graduate ape. He is the very offspring of God.

WHAT DOES THIS MEANS TO CHRISTIAN

It means that we should unashamedly acknowledge the divine source of man's origin without shame.

We should discount evolutionistic concepts concerning man's origin as not only scientifically inadequate but as essentially dishonouring to the perspicuity of the Scripture.

It means that we should believe the teachings of God's Word regarding the time of man's origin. This we need to do, no matter how many erudite scientists may currently be teaching views to the contrary.That would then enable us to see the limited value of all non-revelatory human knowledge. This, in turn, would

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strengthen our faith in that knowledge which ultimately, For we are also His offspring".

CHAPTER TWO

WHEN DID THE UNIVERSE APPEAR?

I want to know how God created this world."- Albert Einstein.

Hebrews 11:3."By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible,"

When did the universe appear and when did man originate? These are some questions that leave many scholars in total confusion when it comes to man’s origin. The scripture stated that there was a beginning; "In the beginning, God..." (Gen. 1:1). Moses was able to write this information down Some 3,200 years ago as God directed him.We will consider the emergence of the universe in two approaches;

a. the scientific approach and;b. the Biblical approach

The scientist did not just stand and see the earth forming or appearing. It was as a result of careful observation that they came up with the ideology of how the earth was form. The Bible on its part asserted that God formed the earth and everything on it. The Bible does not just state this, it describes a specific order of events which God orchestrated to result in today's earth. This biblical account is what we will compare with modern scientific observations. The biblical account, 3,200 years old, was written by Moses who claims that it was given to him by God. If Moses' account is

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identical with modern observations, and if those observations are indeed correct, it corroborates Moses' claim to have had access to a reliable source - the Creator himself.

The scientific details of the earth formation will be examined first. Then the scriptural approach will also be considered with clear comparison and resemblance. THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

Most scientists on the secular side of the field, right or wrong, generally state the following events as having resulted in the formation of the earth.

From hydrogenThe beginning of the universe produced

immeasurable amounts of hydrogen. The second most common element produced was oxygen, followed by trace amounts of other elements. The dispersion of this matter into the cosmos was not uniform and so, by gravity and magnetic attraction, individual particles began to be drawn together into nebulae (meaning vapor or clouds). These clouds sometimes appear red because of nearby stars that illuminate their massive hydrogen content. In actuality, cosmic clouds of particles are dark because they generate no light and are more often seen by the light they mask out.

Our star began as a similar dark cloud of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, sulfur, and other elements. While the majority of the nebula's mass was collecting in its center to form the sun, other large bodies or planetesimals were simultaneously forming farther out. The entire solar system was being born in this sort of embryonic fluid of hydrogen, oxygen and other particulate matter. Many researchers believe that the asteroid belt is a fossilized remnant of our own long-gone planetesimal population. In the belt, growth processes apparently were halted by the gravitational

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disturbances of nearby Jupiter. The existence of the asteroid belt supports the general theory of dust-grain accretion. The terrestrial planets, such as Earth and Mars, probably grew to their present size by this process.

Here Comes The Sun Fusion finally ignited in the sun:

Stars and their accompanying planets are born in the gravitational collapse of a cloud of interstellar gas and dust. The collision of the gas molecules in the interior of the cloud heats it, eventually to the point where hydrogen begins to fuse into helium;... The star has turned on. The gravitational collapse of the prestellar cloud has been halted. The weight of the outer layers of the star are now supported by the high temperatures and pressure generated in the interior nuclear reactions.

Once the sun began to shine, the lightest atoms, moving the most rapidly, escaped from the vicinity of the four closest protoplanets (planets in formation). The four giant planets, on the other hand, managed to retain large quantities, if not all, of their original hydrogen and helium... The Earth's primitive atmosphere - the hydrogen and helium gases that once formed most of the local agglomeration - escaped as the sun began to shine.

The Air and the Seas

By this time, the newly formed solar system had acquired rotation because of the contraction of the nebula and by what is known as the conservation of angular momentum. The earth was not yet habitable because radioactive elements such as potassium and uranium gave off great amounts of heat while decaying into other elements.

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Initially, our planet was a molten spheroidal mass with surface temperatures in excess of 80000C... As the earth cooled, a solid crust formed and the gases that had been dissolved in the molten rock were gradually released, a process called degassing... The principal components of this 'new' atmosphere were probably water vapor, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen.

The degassing of the earth was likely being expedited by countless volcanoes which, as David Attenborough points out, often produces eruptions not of lava but of scalding water and steam... The seas, which had condensed from clouds of steam that surrounded this new planet, were still hot and water was gushing into them from volcanic sources deep in the crust. Thus, both a new atmosphere and the world's oceans were simultaneously born. The relatively smooth young earth became completely covered with water to a general depth of about two miles.

It was not until later when tectonic motion would create enough ridges and fissures for the water to recede to today's condition of covering only two-thirds of the earth's surface; in some places more than seven miles deep.

The Continents are Formed

When the cooling of the earth had hardened the outer crust, this thin shell was now essentially floating atop the still molten interior of the planet. Pressure and stress began to build up between the hot interior and the stationary, cooler, outer crust. The result was the fracture of the brittle crust into shifting plates - each thousands of miles wide. The slow, constant shifting of these plates transformed the relatively smoother character of the young earth into today's surface of deep fissures and high mountains. Plate motion, or tectonics, still continues; the vibrations of which are felt in what we call earthquakes.

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Vegetation appeared

The earth, even after its all-encompassing ocean was divided by the appearance of continents, may or may not have been ready for habitation. One theory suggests the possibility that sufficient amounts of oxygen were freed in the formation of the atmosphere and seas so as to create an atmosphere very much like what we have today. Another suggests that the air contained great amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) with little free oxygen molecules (O2). This latter theory attributes the young atmosphere's transformation into today's life-friendly one to plants, working cooperatively, had made a stunning change in the environment of the Earth. Green plants generate molecular oxygen... The nitrogen in the Earth's atmosphere is much more chemically inert and therefore much more benign than oxygen. But it, too, is biologically sustained. Thus, 99 percent of the Earth's atmosphere is of biological origin. The sky is made by life.

The Atmosphere Cleared For the First Time Plant life had another effect on the planet. Carbon

dioxide clouds the atmosphere and entraps heat. This is called the greenhouse effect. Sufficiently large amounts of CO2 result in a total and otherwise permanent masking of a planet's surface, as has apparently happened on the planet Venus. Earth could have been similarly masked as

The same processes may have occurred on Venus as on the earth, but the Venusian atmosphere retained a much higher concentration of CO2... Today, life itself plays a vital role in maintaining a rather constant low CO2 level in the earth's atmosphere. Plants, through the process of photosynthesis, convert CO2 to oxygen.

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Through this conversion, plant life eventually cleared the sky of cloud cover for the first time since the sky had formed. The resulting sunlight paved the way for greater vegetation, which in turn provided oxygen, as well as a food source, for animal life.

In summary, this scenario of the formation of our planet has described earth's earliest moments just as though we were observing it through a telescope from some faraway planet. This is appropriate since telescopic observation is how some of the basis data was obtained.

The Bible, too, gives a very specific accounting of events of the earth's beginnings. However, the perspective Moses offers does not read as an observer light years distant to the event. The perspective he was given reads as though the observer was virtually centered in all the activities which combined to become our solar system and the earth itself. The perspective is different, but the events are the same.

THE BIBLICAL APPROACH

Genesis 1:1-2. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

The Bible gives a very specific accounting of events of the earth's beginnings. In contrast the Bible's order of events is perfect as far as today's science can confirm. The Bible communicates to us on several levels at one time. Specifically, its literal truths are often found accompanied by spiritual truths. God’s introduction of light and order into a dark and chaotic universe, for example, has as much

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application for us personally as it effectively communicates natural origins.

From water to formation:

The first verse of the Bible is the original inflationary theory - a definite beginning to space, time, and matter. The description of the earth being "formless and empty" is an accurate description of the nebula from which our solar system is believed to have formed if that is indeed how it happened. The nebula would have contained no objects, per se, but particulate matter and no light as the nebula had not yet formed the sun. The nebula, being multiple cubic light years in volume, would even have blocked out all light, if any, from surrounding space - "darkness over the surface of the deep." The water over which the Spirit of God is said to be hovering was previously demonstrated to be either literal water (a primary molecule in nebulae) or its major constituent hydrogen (the dominant atom in all of space).

Meanwhile, the significance of the action by the "Spirit of God" in this passage may allude to the extreme uniqueness of this planet in contrast to all the others, and the careful events which God may have orchestrated to produce it. Size of our earth is important because it plays a critical role in establishing the kind of atmosphere we live in, an atmosphere with just the right gases to support a high order of life. Distance of the earth from the sun determines its mean temperature, and this range of temperature is quite critical. Carbon chains which constitute an essential component of flexible living tissue can only form and survive within the range of temperature that is true for the earth. A little closer

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to the sun and these chains would be unstable and a little further away and they would be inflexible. Rate of revolution of the earth seems to be important for the maintenance in a suitable form of the air we breathe because the alternating periods of light and dark are required by plants as they act to regenerate the atmosphere which we, by the very act of respiration, cause to degenerate. Proportion of land to water surface seems to be ideally suited to maintain a constant circulation of moist air to irrigate the land. Tilt of the earth's axis is sufficient to produce seasonal variations which, if they did not exist, would almost certainly allow certain forms of disease-causing bacteria to multiply continuously and bring about the virtual disabling, if not death, of man perhaps of animals also. Epidemics have restraints placed upon their continuance by the changing of the seasons. The atmosphere, he says, is too nicely adapted to life's needs to be accidental. With no oxygen, for instance, there would be no respiration. With just a little more oxygen, on the other hand - even 25 percent instead of 21 - the whole living world would burst spontaneously into flames. Earth's air holds just the optimum amount. Similarly, without carbon dioxide, photosynthesis would fail, more carbon dioxide, however, so much heat would be trapped in air and sea by the greenhouse effect that the planet would descend into hell... The atmosphere 'is not merely a biological product, but more probably a biological construction: not living, but like a cat's fur, a bird's feathers, or the paper of a wasp's nest, an extension of a living system designed to maintain a chosen environment.In conclusion, the parallels between the biblical account and modern planet formation theory are striking. The chronology of events, as described by scientific observation and theory, is of the same general

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description and identical chronology as that found in the Bible. From a scientific perspective, one could argue that the Bible confirms the following order of events:

The world began dark and formless, (Gen. 1:2)

Particles which came together consisted almost entirely of the same atoms that make up water - including water itself, (Ps. 148:4,5, 2 Pet. 3:5)

Fusion began producing the light of the sun, (Gen. 1:3)

The resulting heat dispersed the embryonic cloud which effectively separated the sun from surrounding elements, (Gen. 1:4,5)

The atmosphere and all-encompassing ocean of the earth were simultaneously produced by degassing of the cooling, young planet, (Gen. 1:6,7, Gen. 2:5,6)

The cooling resulted in tectonic plate motion which forced today's continents up from below the water and, as a result, separated the seas, (Gen. 1:8,9)

On the dry ground appeared vegetation, (Gen. 1:11)

Oxygen, produced by vegetation, cleared the cloud cover from the skies making the sun, moon and stars visible, (Gen. 1:14,16)

Oxygen allowed living creatures to appear - first in the water and then on the land, (Gen. 1:20, 24)

The last to appear on the earth was mankind. (Gen. 1:26)

If today's scientific model of planet formation is even close to correct, its correlation with the Bible suggests that Moses had access to knowledge that is impossible to account

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for 3,200 years ago. Even fifty years ago, the best scientific minds did not describe our planet's beginnings as accurately as we now know the Bible extols them.

Did the Creator of the universe really share this information with Moses, or are all these parallels just coincidence? If the biblical account of the planet's origin is identical to twentieth century science in all of its essential aspects, then it is not unreasonable to believe that Moses' information came from a source far more knowledgeable than himself.

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CHAPTER THREE

THE ACCOUNT OF CREATION

The bible scholars fragment the story of creation into two phases according to the actual events that took place. First, the phase described in Genesis 1:1-2, which we shall call the "primordial creation"; and second, the phase described in Genesis 1:3-26, the subsequent six days up to the creation of man, which we shall call "formation week."

PRIMORDIAL CREATION

For it seems throughout Gen.1:1-26, that the works on each of those days were characterized with the theme “And God said” in Gen. 1:3 & 1:6 & 1:9 & 1:14 & 1:20 & 1:24 right after the words “And the evening and the morning were the first day” to “And the evening and the morning were the fifth day” in Gen. 1:5 & 1:8 & 1:13 & 1:19 & 1:23.

After this, the created Earth remained in its pristine condition without form and void, when darkness was upon the surface of the deep. Gen. 1:1-2a. How long this condition continued before God made light, we are not told. It may have lasted less than a second or it may have endured for considerably longer. God has kept this a secret, and not revealed it to us. For "the secret things belong to the Lord our God" -- and not to us or to our children. Deut. 29:29.

The Spirit of God moved upon the surface of the waters as a result the formless and void Earth to start unfolding step by step in order to take on its present shape during and by the end of the subsequent formation week.

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Precisely the words “without form and void” (shapeless and empty) in Gen. 1:2, should cause us to pause. At and by the end of the subsequent formation week, the Earth would no longer be formless but formed, and it would then no longer be empty but full of contents. But seeing that it was formless back at Gen. 1:2, we must conclude that the Universe had a very different format back in Gen. 1:1 and in 1:2 than it would have at the end of the sixth day of its formation. Ex. 20:11.

FORMATION WEEK

After Gen. 1:1 & 1:2, the subsequent formation week commenced when God as FatherSpoke His ordaining Word. John 1:1-5 & 1:14-18. Heb. 9:14. "By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made; and all the host of them by the Spirit of His mouth.... For He [the Father] spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast." Ps. 33:6-9."Then God said, 'Let there be light!' So there was light." Gen. 1:3.

Here, the first day commenced, when God brought light into the previous darkness upon the surface of the deep waters covering our Earth in Gen. 1:2. "And God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light 'Day’ and the darkness He called 'Night.' And the evening and the morning were the first day." Gen.1:4b-5.

This was followed by the second day, on which God made the firmament or atmosphere between the clouds (or the waters above it) and the seas (or the waters beneath it). And that in its turn was followed by the third day, in which God caused the dry land to appear and the Earth to bring forth all manner of plants each according to its kind. Gen. 1:9-13.

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Only on the fourth day were "solar" days introduced. Days subsequently demarcated and "ruled" by the relation of the Earth to the Sun and the Moon, which were only then made and appointed to be "for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years." Gen. 1:14-18. (Acts 17:24-28).

a. Let There Be Light Genesis 1:3 “Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light”.

One inevitable result of the contraction of the nebula would be the fusion reaction within its central collection of matter. This describes the origin of the sun. A consequence of solar ignition would be the dispersion of the sun's embryonic cloud of elements. Under this condition, heat repels elements too light or too distant for gravity to draw in. The sun could then be said to have a definite boundary - "And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness" (Genesis 1:4). And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. - Genesis 1:5

A second result of a nebula's contraction would be to give rotation to the planets forming within it; all along an equatorial plane. The planets' positions would be maintained by a balance between the invisible forces of gravity and centrifugal force. This would give the earth the visual appearance of "being in empty space and hung on nothing" (Job 26:7).

With the introduction of the sun and planets, the time interval called a "day" is defined for the first time. Without the sun, everything was in perpetual night.

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b. The Air and the Seas

Then God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." And God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so Genesis 1:6-7

Stated here might be the biblical parallel to the simultaneous formation of the atmosphere (waters above) and the seas (waters below). Secular opinion attributes the origin of the air and the seas as having come from the early degassing of rocks. A detail from Moses in the second chapter of Genesis favorably compares to this belief of that early time: Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted... But a mist used to rise from the surface of the earth and water the whole surface of the ground, - Genesis 2:5-6.

c. Let the dry land appear

Then God said, "Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good.- Genesis 1:9-10

d. Let the Earth Sprout Vegetation

Secular science offers the belief that vegetation appeared after the formation of land masses. Moses does not differ. Then God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them"; and it was so.- Genesis 1:11

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Once land masses appeared and vegetation began, a change would likely have taken place. In the early atmosphere laden with CO2, the vegetation would have flourished, but the greenhouse effect would have clouded the young earth in a similar manner by which it clouds Venus today. However, we know that vegetation converts CO2 to oxygen and thereby reduces the greenhouse effect. As a result, this would have eventually cleared the dense cloud cover. If that is so, then only at this point would objects above the clouds be clearly discernable. That satisfactorily explains the next observation:

e. Let There Be Lights in the Expanse of the Heavens

Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; - Genesis 1:14And God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. - Genesis 1:16 Genesis 1:14-16 indicates that lights in the sky are distinguishable from one another for the first time. Now, this is obviously not the creation of light as that was attributed to the first day (Genesis 1:3). Nor does the term "made the two great lights" require an interpretation that the sun, moon, and stars are only now being created.

Specifically, the "lesser light" is how light from the moon is described. However, we know the moon has no light of its own. It is only reflecting the one light source in the solar system. In truth there is only one light in our solar system - the sun; the so-called light of the moon being merely a phenomena. In other words, it is described that way only because of its appearance (even by modern

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meteorologists) though the term "moonlight" is technically incorrect.

f. Let the Waters Teem With Living Creatures

Where and in what order do living creatures appear on the earth according to scientific theory? First in the sea, then on land, and lastly mankind. What's next according to Moses? And God said, "Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky. - Genesis 1:20.

g. Let the Land Produce Living Creatures

Genesis 1:24. “And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so”.

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CHAPTER FOUR

LET US MAKE MAN

Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, "Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground”.

WHAT IS MAN MADE OF?

In the original creation as stated in Genesis 1:27, man was made in the image and likeness of God. This means that he has the essential qualities of personality, which are intellect or mind, sensibility or feeling, and will, .i.e. the ability to make moral choices. These qualities do not exist in any creature other than man, these traits makes it possible for him to have communion with God and also to be morally responsible for his actions. Then God said, "Let Us make man in our image, according to our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:26-27).

According to the Bible, mankind is distinct from all the rest of the creation, including the animals, in that he is made in the image of God. As God is a tripartite: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so man is composed of three distinct parts body, soul and spirit. Accordingly, man has a body and he has life. In considering the matter of the life of man, the Scriptures record, “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath

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of life, and the man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7). In the most explicit example from Scripture of these divisions, the Apostle Paul writes: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”. (1Thessalonians 5:23).

Man is made up of physical material otherwise the “visible parts”, which is the body that can be touch and feel. And is also made up of the immaterial aspects otherwise “invisible parts”, which are intangible and abstract, this includes the soul, spirit, intellect, will, emotions, conscience, etc.. The immaterial part of man is considered under two major aspects-that of spirit and soul. These immaterial characteristics exist beyond the physical lifespan of the human body and are therefore eternal. When man was created, And when God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, man became (like the animals) a living soul. This certainly points away from human evolution and rather indicates man's unique creation. For prior to this divine inbreathing, whereby man became a living soul according to Genesis 2:7, he “became a living being,” literally, man became “a living soul” . Several hundred times in both the Old and New Testaments man is declared to possess a soul.

These immaterial aspects; the spirit, soul, heart, conscience, mind and emotions made up the whole personality. The Bible makes it clear that the soul and spirit are the primary immaterial aspects of humanity, while the body is the physical container that holds them on this earth.

The Body (Greek, "soma")

This is the entire material or physical structure of a human being, it is the physical part of a person that can be seen, touch and felt. The Apostle Paul, writing to the

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Romans again connects the body, the mind (soul) and the spirit “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2).For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body (1 Cor. 6:20).

The Soul (Greek, "psyche")

Genesis 2:7 states that Man was created as a "living soul." The soul consists of the mind (which includes the conscience), the will and the emotions. The soul and the spirit are mysteriously tied together and make up what the Scriptures call the "heart."

The writer of Proverbs declares, " Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life." (Prov. 4:23). We see here that the "heart" is central to our emotions and will. In general, the word “soul” seems to refer to the psychological aspect of man or his natural experience of life.

The Spirit (Greek " Pneuma")

The word “spirit” seems rather to refer to his God-consciousness and his ability to function in moral and spiritual realms. Moses and Aaron, In Numbers 16:22 “fell upon their faces and said, 'O God, God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will you be angry with the entire congregation?'" This verse names God as the God of the spirits that are possessed by all humanity. Notice also that it

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mentions the flesh (body) of all mankind, connecting it with the spirit.  Another key verse that describes the separation between soul and spirit is Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). We see in this passage of Scripture that the soul and spirit can be divided and that it is the Word of God that pierces our heart to bring the division of soul and spirit, something that only God can do. As human beings, we live eternally as a spirit, we have a soul, and we dwell in a body. We can rejoice with the Psalmist and declare, “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well (Ps. 139:13-14). While the body of a Christian is considered sinful, it, nevertheless, is referred to in Scripture as the “temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19). The bodies of Christians should be kept under control and made to submit to the human mind (1 Cor. 9:27). The bodies of Christians, which now are corrupt and sinful, are going to be transformed, cleansed from sin, and made new like the resurrection body of Christ, at the time of resurrection or rapture (Rom. 8:11, 17-18, 23; 1 Cor. 6:13-20; Phil. 3:20-21). Though man in his present humanity is sinful and comes short of what God would have him to be and do, Christians can look forward to the time when their bodies will be made perfect in the presence of God.

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CHAPTER FIVE

THE FALL OF SATAN AND EDEN’S DESCRIPTION

The Fall of SatanSatan is a created being, an angel called a cherub. In

Ezekiel 28:12-17, the Bible gives us information concerning Satan. Though the passage states this is referring to the King of Tyre, it is clear that Satan had indwelled this king, for the King of Tyre was not in the Garden of Eden as verse 13 says. It was Satan who was in the Garden of Eden. Verses 13 and 17, state Satan was created beautiful. He was covered with precious stones. And as a Cherub he was the highest of all the angels God created. He had a special place of prominence. On the Ark of the Covenant, it is Cherubs whose out stretched wings guarded the mercy seat. (Ex. 25:20) Verse 15, illustrated that Satan was created perfect without sin.   Yet, Satan sinned against God and God cast him down from his high position. Isa. 14:12-14, further describes Satan's sin. He is called "Lucifer" meaning the “bright one”, "the son of the morning". He was cast down to the ground because of his sin “he said in his heart that he would be above God”. He was determined to set up his own throne that men might worship him. Yet God said he would be brought down.   It is obvious that Satan first led a rebellion in heaven against God (Matthew 12:24, 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6, Revelation 12:4) and then proceeded to tempt man also to disobey God. WHEN DID SATAN FALL ?

The question always arises as to when Satan's fall in Heaven took place. In Genesis 2:1, God pronounced that

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"the heavens and the earth and all the host of them" were "very good". Henry Morris, believes that the "host of heaven includes the angels as well as the stars. Charles Ryrie, concludes that by referring to stars (Neh. 9:6), and to angels (1 Kings 22:19), and this use of the term "the host" simply means all the things God created. This would mean the Fall of Satan took place between the completions of the Creation or between Genesis 2:25, and Genesis 3:1. Whether we accept that the term "host of heaven", included the angels and Satan, it is clear that Satan's Fall took place before Genesis 3, and that is all we can be sure of. Those who believe in the "gap theory" preclude that Satan's Fall took place after Genesis 1:1, and before Genesis 1:2. Weston Fields explains the "gap theory" this way: "In the far distant dateless past, God created a perfect heaven and perfect earth. Satan was ruler of the earth which was peopled by a race of "men" without souls. Eventually, Satan, who dwelled in a garden of Eden composed of minerals (Ezek. 28), rebelled by desiring to become like God (Isa. 14). Because of Satan's fall, sin entered the universe and brought on the earth God's judgment in the form of a flood (indicated by the water of 1:2), and then a global ice-age when the light and heat from the sun were somehow removed. All the plant, animal, and human fossil upon the earth today date from this "Lucifer's flood" and do not bear any genetic relationship with the plants, animals and fossils living on the earth today."

At the heart of the "gap theory" is the effort to place in time the Fall of Satan. But it is not a proper or correct method of interpreting Scripture to the existence of a supposed prior earth which was destroyed. There is no Biblical or Scientific evidence to support such an idea. Thus, if we honestly want to teach what the Bible truly says we

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can only state that the Fall of Satan took place before Genesis 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE GARDEN OF EDENThe only thing the Bible tells us concerning the

Garden of Eden’s location is found in Genesis 2:10-14, “A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.” The exact identities of the Pishon and Gihon Rivers are unknown, but the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are well known. If the Tigris and Euphrates mentioned are the same rivers by those names today, that would put the Garden of Eden somewhere in the Middle East, likely in Iraq. However, even a small local flood can change the course of a river, and the Flood of Noah’s day was more than a localized flood. The Deluge completely changed the topography of the earth. Because of this, the original location of the Tigris and Euphrates is uncertain. It could be that the modern rivers called the Tigris and Euphrates are simply named after those associated with Eden, in the same way that Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is named after the town in Judea. If the Middle East region is where the Garden of Eden was, and if crude oil is, as most scientists believe, primarily decayed vegetation and animal matter, then it stands to reason that the Middle East is where we would find the greatest oil deposits. Many people speculate that the vast stores of oil in the Middle East are the result of the decomposition of Earth’s organic materials in the Garden of Eden. While the oil in the Middle East could be the dregs of Eden, but those who promote such ideas are simply theorizing. People have searched for the Garden of

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Eden for centuries to no avail. There are various spots claimed as the original location of Eden, but no one can be sure. What happened to the Garden of Eden? The Bible does not specifically say. It is likely that the Garden was completely destroyed in the Flood.

The Garden was the first habitable place that God furnished and blesses it with every living creatures and God saw that it was good. Gen 1:26 “let us make man in our image, after our likeness: 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 creep upon the earth”.

MAN IN THE GARDEN

According to the Bible, then, God made man as the last of all His creatures. Man was and is the very crown of God’s creation. Gen. 2:7 & Acts 17:26. For man alone is the image of God; the offspring of God.. Man, or Adam, was created when the Lord God caused a mist to go up from the Earth; to water the whole surface of the ground. Then God plastically formed him (out of the) clay or dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7a) out of the Earth -- earthy (I Cor. 15:47). For dust he is. Gen. 3:19. Yes, God remembers that we are dust (Ps. 103:14) and consist of at least sixteen elements of the Earth. God created man to exercised managerial functions in the garden, man was meant to, plan, control, lead, command, and organize the components of the garden Gen 2: 15 “and the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Gen 1:28-30 God gave him dominion and power over every other thing he has created with such authority man was able to name every creature in the garden Gen 2:20. So man was a manager in the garden, man is also quite unique in that he alone was created as the very image of God, and predestined to dominate to the glory

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of the Lord all other creatures which were placed under his feet and at his service Everything was going fine, man was happy and comfortable but for God to show that he has power over man, he gave man an instruction, a command in Gen.2: 16 “and the Lord God commanded man, saying of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it: for in the day that thou eat thereof thou shall surely die”. That was the golden rule for man to obey and lived forever which he continued to obey it till a time came when Eve arrived.

In Gen 2:20-24 God took one of Adam’s ribs because he was lonely and made he a woman and brought her unto the man and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Genesis Chapter three gives us a clearer picture of what happen to man in the beautiful garden. At the time when Eve was brought into the garden, it is evidently clear in verse 2-3 that the Adam passed the golden rule/commandment to his wife, that was why when the serpent the devil came and “said to the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden”?. And the woman “said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die”.

EVE'S RESPONSE TO TEMPTATION

Genesis 3:6 “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.

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Satan who is the father of lies, then blatantly lies and tells Eve that she would not die! And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. The devil came to question God’s rulership by professing to Eve that God is a liar. If God was sincere, why will he withheld you from eating the fruit?. The subtle beast strategized means to distract Eve from obeying God; God is not a good ruler, his plan for you is not good, he is deceiving you, he doesn’t care about you, just listen to me eve eat this fruit and let me be your new king, and I will show you the great and mighty things that your so faithful God is denying you of. The devil promises Eve a lot of good things if only she will eat the fruit and that she shouldn’t be afraid that she will not die. With all these, Eve was convinced and she saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Eve responded to the temptation in three ways. Firstly, Eve saw that the fruit was good for food, appealing to the flesh and bodily senses. Secondly, She saw that it was pretty, appealing to the emotions, and finally, it appealed to her mind and intellect, in that she wanted to be wise.  Satan used the same line of attack in tempting the Lord Jesus. He first suggested Jesus, "Command that these stones be made bread", appealing to Christ's bodily senses. Next, challenging the Lord's courage and His emotions, Satan said, "Cast thyself down". Lastly, the Devil appealed to the spiritual pride and said, "Fall down and worship me". (Luke 4:1-13)

Satan's attack was outward which appealed to the inward heart of man. God's appeal is first an inward one that when accepted changes the outward character of man.

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Satan's tools of deception remain the same today. He appeals to the weakness of our flesh, emotions and intellect. Eve's failure was a series of multiple errors; She refused to simply accept God at His Word, She added to and subtracted from it Revelation 22:19, She doubted God, opening the door to the Devil's appeal to the flesh and her spiritual pride, She succumbed and sinned and in doing so plunged all the world thereafter into sin.

She also failed in the area of her position as Adam's helper. She made the decision to disobey God by herself. She did not involve Adam in any way until the act of disobedience was done. Then she became an instrument of temptation herself and offered the fruit to her husband. She failed in her role as a helper and was the means bringing his downfall.   Even today Satan still tempts gullible man into believing he can become as his Creator. The devil dangles this before the eyes of the cults and they believe Satan rather than what God has clearly stated. It is the ultimate and most despicable act of the pride of man to even entertain the idea we can be "like God". Satan is cunning he knows his subject well. Being a creature of pride, he knows of pride's weakness. The cults and the false teachers of today question the stated Word of God. They add, subtract, twist and lie as to what God has said. Many are they that fall victim.

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CHAPTER SIX

WHY DID GOD PUT THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN?"

God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden to give Adam and Eve a choice to obey Him or disobey Him. Adam and Eve were free to do anything they wanted, except eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:16-17, “And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’” If God had not given Adam and Eve the choice, they would have essentially been robots, simply doing what they were programmed to do. God created Adam and Eve to be “free” beings, able to make decisions, able to choose between good and evil. In order for Adam and Eve to truly be free, they had to have a choice.There was nothing essentially evil about the tree or the fruit of the tree. It is unlikely that eating the fruit truly gave Adam and Eve any further knowledge. It was the act of disobedience that opened Adam and Eve’s eyes to evil. Their sin of disobeying God brought sin and evil into the world and into their lives. Eating the fruit, as an act of disobedience against God, was what gave Adam and Eve knowledge of evil (Genesis3:6-7).God did not want Adam and Eve to sin. God knew ahead of time what the results of sin would be. God knew that Adam and Eve would sin and would thereby bring evil, suffering, and death into the world. Why, then, did God allow Satan to tempt Adam and Eve? God allowed Satan to tempt Adam and Eve to force them to make the choice. Adam and Eve

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chose, of their own free will, to disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit. The results; evil, sin, suffering, sickness, and death have plagued the world ever since. Adam and Eve's decision results in every person being born with a sin nature (Adamic covenant), a tendency to sin. Adam and Eve's decision is what ultimately required Jesus Christ to die on the cross and shed His blood on our behalf. Through faith in Christ, we can be free from sin's consequences, and ultimately free from sin itself. May we echo the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:24-25, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”Adam was without sin, but God had given him a will which gave Adam the potential to sin. At first, Adam exercised his will toward God and had fellowship with Him.

THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD FOR THE SERPENT

Genesis 3:14-15 “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”.       God must judge sin. Without responsibility for our actions the law is invalid. God made the serpent a perpetual example to man of the Fall. The serpent lost its place as the "most subtle" of all the beasts of the field and was made the lowest. It would crawl on its belly from that day forward. The judgment and effects of sin extended not only to the serpent but to all the animal kingdom. (See Jer. 12:4, Rom. 8:20)

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        Further, God said there would be "enmity" between the serpent and woman. The curse goes much deeper than just establishing an ill feeling between woman and serpents. It was addressed to Satan himself. Man would not be Satan's willing ally and the seed of woman, referring ultimately to Christ, would crush the head of Satan which is a fatal blow. Satan's power would be only to cripple mankind, and not be able to destroy it.

THE JUDGMENT OF GOD FOR THE WOMAN

Genesis 3:16 “To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”       God's judgment on woman was that her sorrow and conception be multiplied. The result of sin was that the length and pain of child birth was increased.        Further, the woman would have a strong desire to rule over her husband, however her husband would rule over her. Having overstepped the bounds of her position and responsibility, she would be mastered by him. She would always be in subjection to man, and in her carnal nature, never be satisfied with this situation. You should also note that when God says “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” he alone knows how the multiplication sequence could have occur but because of the disobedience of Eve the sequence was reversed into hard labour coupled with pains.

THE JUDGMENT OF GOD FOR THE MAN

Genesis 3:17-19 “And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘you shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all

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the days of your life; 19 “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.        Man's sin brought the judgment of having to toil and have great hardships in making a livelihood. The same word which describes the pain of women in childbirth is used her to describe man's pain in laboring for a living.         The life of man would be one of hard work caused by "thorns and thistles" indicating that even the plants of earth were adversely effected by man's sin. After a hard life man would die and be returned to the dust from which he was formed.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR SIN

Genesis 3:7 “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths”After Adam and Eve had sinned, both their eyes were opened and they saw themselves, naked and ashamed. The had succumbed to temptation, and instead of being elevated to the status of a god, they had been plunged down into the depths of destruction. What an awful realization it must have been. What emptiness and depths of shame they must have felt.        They immediately sought to cover their nakedness and sewed fig leaves together into an apron. There was no way to hide or undo their sin. The leaves sewn together were a poor and useless substitute for the purity they had before they sinned.

THE FURTHER CONSEQUENCES

Genesis 3:8-24 “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man

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and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden”.

Adam and Eve, having sinned had broken intimate fellowship with God. The effect of sin is always separation from God. This does not mean that God does not love us, but it means that God by His nature must be separated from sin.

The sin that plunged mankind into sin was not murder or some other gross sin, but a simple act of eating the fruit of a prohibited tree. The sin was disobedience. It shows that man was not capable of determining what was good and evil and that man must trust God in the matter. The tree was placed there to define good and evil. On all the earth there was only one source of temptation, that one tree. Adam and Eve, in reality did already know what was right and wrong. It was wrong to eat the fruit of that one tree. That had to exercise trust in God; God said it was forbidden and thus they had to accept that it was. God is our creator and thus has the right to establish laws that His creation live in an orderly manner. God's laws are both spiritual and material.

God wanted the very best for man, thus he had the right to prohibit man from doing that which was destructive to him. Thus he instructed man to always obey him. The tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil established the bonds of man's responsibility. Of all the trees in the garden man could freely eat, however this one tree was harmful and God told man not to eat of it.

Note that God had given man a will. There was a need of a prohibition on man's will. Man was not God and did not have the knowledge of God, thus was and is a creature who needs guidance and help. Man was not a robot programmed to be a performer. Man was made a free being able and expected to use his God given ability to choose to correctly obey God.

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There are many questions these brief notes do not explain. Man has sought to find the answers throughout history, yet without success. We then are left with a mystery. We do not know the mind of God in why man was created or understand how all this came to be. But we do know this, whether we understand it or not, God is not the author of sin. Man was created in God's image, able to exercise his will yet; man was created Holy, separate from sin. Sin originates when man disobeyed and God allowed it to happen. God will not violate man's will. To do so would turn man into a robot. The sun is not the source of darkness, but darkness exists where the sun does not shine. God is not the source of sin, but when man disobeyed God's good law, God withdrew and darkness came upon man.

ADAM AND EVE HIDE FROM GOD

Genesis 3:9-10 “But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “where are you?”.

God came as usual in the cool of the day to fellowship with Adam and Eve, but they withdrew. This is the hard fact that man withdrew from God, not God from man. It is clear that man tried to hide from God, and yet he could not. The created could not divorce itself from his Creator.

These two sinners could not escape the presence of God, and when called responded honestly, “I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself"(Gen. 3:10). When we come in contact with God face to face we are left with no defense. Isaiah, the prophet of God, cried, "Woe is me!, for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclear lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." The holiness of God exposes our sin.

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CHAPTER SEVEN

HOW DID THE FALL OF MAN AFFECT HUMAN RACE?

Romans 5:12. “Just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so sin spread through all

men”The effects of the Fall of man are numerous and far

reaching. Sin has affected every aspect of our being, and every living creature on earth suffers the penalty of the Adamic sin. It has also affected our lives on earth and our eternal destiny.God created man to live forever, to be fruitful and to subdue but disobedience neglected man from enjoying the benefits of God. One of the immediate effects of the Fall was that mankind was separated from God. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had perfect communion and fellowship with God. When they rebelled against Him, that fellowship was broken. They became aware of their sin and were ashamed before Him. They hid from Him (Genesis 3:8-10), and man has been hiding from God ever since. Only through Christ can that fellowship be restored, because in Him we are made as righteous and sinless in God’s eyes as Adam and Eve were before they sinned. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because of the Fall, death became a reality, and all creation was subject to it. All men die, all animals die, all plant life dies. The “whole creation groans” (Romans 8:22), waiting for the time when Christ will return to liberate it from the effects of death. Because of sin, death is an inescapable

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reality and inevitable and no one is immune. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Worse still, we not only die, but if we die without Christ, we experience eternal death.

Another effect of the Fall is that humans have lost sight of the purpose for which they were created. Man’s chief end and highest purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (Romans 11:36; 1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Psalm 86:9). Hence, love to God is the core of all morality and goodness. Selfishness is the essence of the Fall, and what follows are all other crimes against God. In all ways sin is a turning in upon oneself, which is confirmed in how we live our lives. We call attention to ourselves and to our good qualities and accomplishments. We minimize our shortcomings. We seek special favors and opportunities in life, wanting an extra edge that no one else has. We display vigilance to our own wants and needs, while we ignore those of others. In short, we place ourselves upon the throne of our lives, usurping God’s role. When Adam chose to rebel against his Creator, he lost his innocence, incurred the penalty of physical and spiritual death, and his mind was darkened by sin, which he passed till this day. Apostle Paul said of pagans, “Since they do not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind” (Romans 1:28). He told the Corinthians that “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Jesus said, “I have come into the world as a light so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness” (John 12:46). Paul reminded the Ephesians, “You were once in darkness but now you are in the light of the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8). The purpose of salvation is “to

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open the eyes of unbelievers and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18).

The Fall produced in humans a state of depravity. Paul spoke of those “whose consciences are seared” (1 Timothy 4:2) and those whose minds are spiritually darkened as a result of rejecting the truth (Romans 1:21). In this state, man is utterly incapable of doing or choosing that which is acceptable to God, apart from divine grace. “The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so” (Romans8:7). Without the supernatural regeneration by the Holy Spirit, all men would remain in their fallen state. But in His grace, mercy and loving-kindness, God sent His Son to die on the cross and take the penalty of our sin, reconciling us to God and making eternal life with Him possible. What was lost at the Fall is reclaimed at the Cross.

The devastating effect upon Adam’s personal situation was extended to the entire human race because Adam was the head, or beginner, of humanity. In the discussion of sin and its effect upon the human race, the Bible teaches that what Adam did was imputed, or reckoned, to all his descendants. Accordingly, it is revealed in Romans 5:12-14 “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come”.

The whole human race was considered as if they themselves had done what Adam did, and the judgment was affirmed that if they had the same opportunity in the same situation that they would have sinned against God also.

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In providing a solution for human sin as intimated in Genesis 3:15, God provided in Christ crucified the One who would make it possible for people to be saved. This required an imputation, or a reckoning, of people’s sin as if Christ Himself had performed it. As stated in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him (Christ) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” When Christ died on the cross, He died in our place as a Lamb of sacrifice because He was bearing the sins of the whole world (John 1:29).

The fact that Christ has died and paid the price of man’s sin makes it possible now for God to reckon, or impute, righteousness to those who believe in Christ. An earlier example of this is the statement that when Abram believed in the Lord concerning his future posterity, “it was credited to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:3). Accordingly, though Abram was a sinner like all other members of the human race, when he put his trust in God as the one who would fulfill His promises, he received by divine reckoning the righteousness that only God can give. Accordingly, the same God who permitted sin to occur also provided a Savior in the person and work of Jesus Christ, which now makes it possible for sinners to be saved and be considered righteous in God’s sight.

The principle of imputation of righteousness to those who believe in Christ is the basis for our justification and is mentioned frequently in Scripture (Rom. 3:22; 4:3, 8, 21-25; 2 Cor. 5:21; Philem. 17-18). Though it is difficult to understand completely what Christ did when He died, He died as our sin-bearer, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, a fact that is mentioned many times in Scripture (Isa. 53:5; John 1:29; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18). The fact that Christians have been made righteous and justified before a holy God makes it possible for them to be a part of

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the body of Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13).

Just as the Scriptures make clear that a believer in Christ is justified by faith, or declared righteous in the sight of a holy God, so it is also true in Scripture that one outside of Christ has none of the benefits of Christ’s redemption. The unsaved have the sin of Adam reckoned to their account; they are born with a sin nature that naturally sins against God; and to this their personal sins are added. Because of Adam’s sin everyone, even those who are Christians, experiences physical death (Rom. 5:12-14). Those who are not saved through faith in Christ are spiritually dead and are separated from God (Eph. 2:1; 4:18-19). They will also experience the second death, which is defined as eternal separation from God (Rev. 2:11; 20:6, 14; 21:8).

WHO IS TO BE BLAME?

Genesis 3:11-13 “The man said, “the woman whom you gave to be with, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate”

       When questioned by God as to how they knew they were naked and asked had they eaten of the forbidden fruit both Adam and Eve tried to justify their action by passing the blame.        Adam, pleaded that it was the fault of the woman, "...whom thou gave to be with me". It seems Adam was indirectly blaming God. As if, if God had not given him the woman he would not have sinned. However, Adam was not deceived as noted earlier. He with full knowledge willfully disobeyed God. Eve, followed Adam's example and said it was the serpent's fault. He tricked me she said and thus she pleaded she was not responsible.

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        Since the Fall it has never helped anyone to blame someone else for our own shortcomings. When we try to justify our actions we are denying our guilt. It are avoiding reality by not facing sin. All the while we are busy trying to justify ourselves we are delaying the cure to the problem. All who come to Christ must plead "guilty". We must accept our responsibility for our actions, and throw ourselves on the mercy of God. Sin and rebellion by its nature is contagious. Its effects are never confined to only the one who sins, it grows; it spreads and seeks to involve others as well. Eve, upon eating the fruit immediately sought the one she was suppose to be a helper to, Adam. She was the source of Adam's temptation, not Satan. I Timothy 2:14, states “Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression”. He fully and completely knew what he was doing in taking the fruit.

The verse further states that it was Eve who was in transgression or became the sinner. Yet, Romans 5:12, 18, “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”. And I Corinthians 15:22, the Bible lays the guilt to Adam, not Eve. The responsibility rests on the shoulders of Adam. Adam was made first, and Eve was from Adam and thus all of mankind is the descendent of him. 1 Timothy 2: 13 “For Adam was first formed then Eye”.

Some have concluded that Adam loved Eve to the point he was willing to sin in order not to lose her or be separated from her. It is a false view because it makes Adam's deed almost honorable. Adam would have given up all for love. All sin is an abomination unto God and the wages of sin, any sin is death. There is nothing honorable about doing wrong.

Satan's goal was to get Adam to sin. He used Eve's gullibility and weaker nature to get at man. Adam saw that

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Eve had eaten of the fruit, and he must have concluded that she was not dead and thus God must have lied to them. He most likely based his response to a false perception of what he thought the situation was. Instead of believing God, he believed what his eyes saw and what his own wisdom concluded it was real. He was wrong! His error was deadly and he willingly accepted his own wisdom over the expressed Word of God.

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CHAPTER EIGHT

A REVIEW ON SIN

The problem of sin in the world has been faced by theologians as well as by philosophers of all kinds, and some explanations have been attempted. People who has ignore the Bible fall into two classifications-those who explain sin as that which occurs because God is not omnipotent and could not do anything to prevent it, and those who postulate that God Himself is sinful and that, therefore, sin is in the universe. Adherents to polytheism, the belief that there are many gods, assume that the gods have limitations, that they are not omnipotent, that they sin. Therefore, they can offer no solution for the sin problem.

Christianity explains the problem in terms of divine revelation and what took place after Adam and Eve were created. The answer to the problem of sin is that man freely chose evil and this brought sin into the human race. God had commanded Adam and Eve, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17). The biblical narrative in Genesis, however, continues with the account of how Eve partook of the fruit of the tree and Adam joined with her in partaking of it (Gen. 3:2-6). The result was that the entire human race was plunged into sin.

The biblical narrative also supplies the fact that Satan, who appeared to Eve in the form of a serpent, was

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evil. This implies that there was an original creation of the angelic world and that some of the angels sinned against God and became the demon world, led by Satan, that exists today. Scripture assumes that God would not create evil but created a world in which there was moral choice possible, and both angels and men chose evil instead of that which was right.

Unlike the philosophic world, which has no solution for the problem of evil, the Bible not only accounts for its origin but also provides a divine remedy in the promise of Genesis 3:15 that the woman would have offspring who would crush the head of the serpent, fulfilled in the death of Christ on the cross and His resurrection. Satan was defeated and his ultimate judgment was assured.

A biblical doctrine of sin is absolutely essential to understanding the Scriptures as an account of God’s revelation of salvation that is available through Christ and a record of victory over sin that is promised to those who will put their trust in God. The doctrine of sin is at the root of explaining history with its record of wickedness, suffering, sin, and death. The proper doctrine of sin is also necessary to understand humankind and his reaction to God and to God’s revelation.

Before Adam sinned he was innocent in thought, word, and deed. He had been created without sin but with moral choice. The challenge of obedience to God was very simple. The only command God gave that could be disobeyed was the command not to partake of the forbidden fruit (Gen. 2:17).

After Adam sinned a radical change took place. He died spiritually. Physical aging began, the process that led ultimately to his death, and his conscience was aware of the fact that he had sinned against God. The immediate result of sin was that God cursed the serpent for tempting Eve (Gen. 3:14-15). The woman was promised that she would be

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subject to her husband and that her pain in childbearing would increase (Gen. 3:16). Adam was promised that the ground would be cursed because of him and he would find it difficult to produce food. He was also informed that eventually he would die and return to the dust from which he was made. Because of the changed situation, Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden where they had been placed, which prevented them from eating of the Tree of Life, which would have given them physical life forever (Gen. 3:22-24).

GOD'S PROVISION FOR SINFUL MAN

Genesis 3:21 “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them”.        Adam and Eve, after their act of disobedience, God was still providing for them. God in his mercy made provision for them, made them coats of animal skins for them to wear. Earlier they had made themselves fig leaves to hide their nakedness, however their efforts were lacking.        The word "covering" also means "atonement". We most picture this act of God as being more than just providing clothes, but as an act of God's Grace in providing atonement from sin as well. They responded in their hearts to God and trusted Him, God in turn accepted their faith and saved them.        There was shedding of blood, as a picture of the coming of Christ and His shedding His blood to atone for the sins of all mankind. Animals were killed and their skins used for a "covering" for man.         The Garden of Eden continued on for some time after the Fall, maybe even until the Great Flood. However, God drove Adam and Eve from this special place prepared for them and sent them into a harsh world to hack out a living by the sweat of their brow. They would no longer have to eat

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of the fruit of the tree of life that grew in the garden. The result of sin was death. God had warned them it would be so. Now cut off from the source of everlasting life they face a sure and certain future death.         God placed Cherubim’s with flaming swords to protect the entrance into the Garden and Adam and Eve never again returned to it.        Man's death was spiritual as well as physical. When he sinned he died spiritually being cut off from the source of life, Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death...". Man is given time; to live, to experience life and also to seek God and be saved.         In encapsulating Chapter 3, We have the promise of God, in Genesis 3:15, man had forsaken God, but God had not forsaken man. The Savior was promised and he would come and all that would by faith accept God's provision for atonement would not be taken in the "second" death, that being eternal separation from God in Hell fire. The message is one of man's failure and God's demonstrated mercy to save the sinner.

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CHAPTER NINE

THE HISTORY OF MAN FROM ADAM TO THE TIME OF JESUS.

The history of man since Adam and Eve brought sin into the world has been a sad record of the human race departing from God in spite of all that God has done for them. Though Adam and Eve had consciences that enabled them to distinguish right from wrong, that did not make them good, and their posterity drifted farther and farther from God until God decided to destroy the whole human race, except Noah and his family (Gen. 6:13). Following the flood, God gave to Noah the basic principles of human government. However, the human race again demonstrated its depravity by building the Tower of Babel, and God had to judge by confusing the languages of the people.

With almost the entire world departing from God and sinning flagrantly, God chose Abram to fulfill His purpose in redemption. To Abram was promised that he would be able to bring blessing to the entire world (Gen. 12:1-3), ultimately fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Throughout the Old Testament the descendants of Abram were used as channels of divine revelation. Prophets spoke orally to the people, and some of them wrote the Scriptures, including the opening books of the Bible written by Moses. In spite of increased knowledge of God and His moral standards, the human race became evil, and Israel, the immediate divine recipient of God’s blessing, was also judged sinful and had to be dealt with in the captivities. The Old Testament, instead of being a revelation of improvement

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as envisioned in the theory of evolution, instead took man farther and farther from God with the result that the human race no longer had the longevity it did in creation and that many acts of violence and sin were performed.

After Jesus’ birth in the New Testament with His subsequent life on earth, His rejection by His generation, His crucifixion and death for the sins of the whole world, and His glorious resurrection, a new chapter in the history of man begins. However, just as it was true in the Old Testament, the human race, for the most part, rejected God and went on with their wicked ways.

In the present age God is calling out from both Jew and Gentile those who will believe in Christ and be saved. He is not attempting to judge the sins of the world, though sometimes there is divine judgment upon sin. Even with all the advanced revelation given in the writing of the New Testament and the presentation of Jesus Christ to the world, the moral history of the world has become more and more a record of departure from God.

The apostle Peter recorded in graphic tones how man departed from God and denied redemption by blood (2 Peter 2:1), and how religious leaders who were not saved would, like Balaam, lead people astray (2 Peter 2:15). This would continue even to the time of the second coming of Christ, when scoffers would reject the doctrine and refuse to believe that Christ is coming again to judge the world (2 Peter 3:3-4).

The apostle Paul in his last epistle in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 summarizes the awful extent of human sin, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited,

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lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power.”

The present age of grace will be followed by the Day of the Lord, an age in which God will deal directly with human sin in the time of trouble preceding the second coming of Christ, a time that continues throughout the millennial kingdom when His rule will be one of absolute authority. Though the millennial kingdom in many ways is a bright spot in the future history of the world, even in the millennial kingdom there is rebellion at the end when, in spite of all the divine revelation given to them in the Millennium, people will rebel against Christ and attempt to conquer Jerusalem by force. In the sad destiny of the human race, there will be division of those who are saved and those who are lost, with the saved being in the presence of the Lord forever in the new heaven and the new earth and the new Jerusalem and the lost ultimately being cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15). From God’s viewpoint, out of the dark history of the human race will come those among angels and men who choose to worship God and who will share with them the joy and bliss of eternity in the presence of God in the New Jerusalem.

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QUESTIONS How do the Scriptures represent the creation of man?

What is the claim of the theory of evolution? What solution does evolution have for the origin of life? How does evolution fail to explain that in man which

corresponds to the image of God? How was Jesus Christ related to creation?

From what was the universe formed at God’s command? Why do scoffers have to begin with the concept of creation? Define how man is divided into material and immaterial?

What is “soul” referred to in man? What does “spirit” refer to in man?

How are “soul” and “spirit” contrasted to “body”? Why are these three terms sometimes used to represent the

whole of man? What immaterial aspects of man are mentioned in the Bible

other than soul and spirit? How does the Bible explain the entrance of sin into the

human race? In contrast to the world of philosophy, what does the Bible

offer as a solution for the sin problem? Why is it important to understand what the Bible teaches

about sin? How is physical death related to sin?

What curses did God pronounce upon Satan, woman, and man after Adam and Eve sinned?

How does the sin of Adam relate to us today? How does God solve the sin problem for

people today? What does it mean to be justified by faith?

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What did God do in the time of Noah? What did the descendants of Noah demonstrate

regarding sin at the Tower of Babel? What did God promise Abram?

To what degree were the promises to Abram fulfilled?

How did the world as a whole react to the coming of Christ, His death, and His

resurrection? Does the Bible predict that evil will get worse

or that sin will be gradually overcome? What age follows the present age of grace?

And what does it include?

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Snow, The Dynamic Universe, p. 44; W. Hartmann and C. Impey, Astronomy: The Cosmic Journey (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1994), 5th

edition, p. 44; T. Snow and K. Brownsberger, Universe: Origins and Evolution (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1997), p. 46.

T.H. Huxley, in Contemporary Review, December 1870; cf. in Science and Evolution, p. 398; cf. Rowell, Die Profesieë Getuig (Kenilworth, Cape, South Africa: Sentinel Publishing Co., 1952), p. 55.

Moore, The Theory of Evolution: An Inquiry (Chicago: Lakeside Press, 1931), p.145.

The Ryrie Study Bible, Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Moody Press, 1978, pg 9.

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