CHAPTER THREE: IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

God recreated the earth in six days. He then rested from His work on the seventh day—the Sabbath. Adam and Eve were placed in the garden paradise of Eden. Their job was to populate the earth and tend and keep the garden until the entire planet was like Eden.
Meanwhile, as he watched events unfold, Satan the devil schemed for a way to stop God’s Plan.

Human Spirit Not Enough
Physically, Adam was created perfect. With Eve as his wife, the married couple was physically complete.

And yet they were spiritually incomplete. Though God created man with creative mind-power, Adam still lacked something. His human spirit was limited to physical knowledge. Adam’s mind could learn only from his five senses—sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell.

But God is Spirit, and His laws are spiritual. Spirit cannot be seen. The five senses cannot know or understand spirit or spiritual things. It would be like trying to describe colours to a person born blind. To know God and keep His spiritual laws, Adam needed something extra in his mind: the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Combined with the creative power of the human spirit, the Holy Spirit would enable Adam to develop a close, father-son relationship with God. It would also lead Adam to obey and understand God’s laws, which define right from wrong, good from evil. When you obey them, good things happen: blessings, protection, happiness, guidance, answered prayers and more.

But when you break God’s laws, bad things happen: suffering, pain, misery and even death! God’s spiritual laws define the right way to live. Based on love and outgoing concern for others, they show you how to love God and how to love and get along with other people (Matthew 22:34-40).

Adam could never discover these spiritual laws on his own. His five senses could not reveal them. God had to reveal them. Adam needed the power of God’s Spirit in his mind to lead his thoughts and desires, and to help him learn how to live.

The Two Trees
In the Garden of Eden, there were two very important trees: the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Each tree represented an opposite way of life.

The Tree of Life represented God’s way of love and outgoing concern for others. If Adam had eaten fruit from that tree, he would have received God’s Holy Spirit. And, if he used it to build godly character, God would some day change Adam from a physical human being to a spirit being.
Then Adam would live forever in the God Family.

But there was a second tree—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It represented Satan’s way of life—the way of selfishness, greed and hate. Eating its fruit would lead to vast suffering and pain, and eventually death!

The Big Lie
After creating Adam, God warned him, “You may eat of every tree in the garden. But do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

For in the day that you eat its fruit, you will surely die!” (Genesis 2:16-17).

The devil saw this as his chance to do evil.
Disguising himself as a serpent, he approached Eve and said, “Has God really said that you can’t eat of every tree in the garden?” Satan wanted Eve to doubt God’s warning. He tried to get her to focus on the one tree she was forbidden to eat of, instead of appreciating all the other trees that were freely available to her (Genesis 3:1).

Eve replied, “We are allowed to eat fruit of any tree in the Garden. But we are not allowed to eat fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or even touch it. If we do, we will die” (Gen 3:2-3).

In a calm, soothing voice, the devil said, “You will not die. You have an immortal soul. You can never die!” (Gen 3:4).

This was one of the biggest lies ever told—that people have immortal souls and cannot die. Even today, millions of people believe this lie.

Yet the Bible teaches that God created people to have temporary, physical lives. As with animals, all people eventually die (Ezekiel 18:4, 20; Romans 6:23).

The devil continued to spread more of his lies. Satan said, “Besides, God knows that if you eat that tree’s fruit, your eyes will be opened.

You’ll get special understanding. You will become so wise that you will be just like God. Then you won’t need Him to tell you right from wrong, or good from bad, anymore. You will know everything you need to know to make your own decisions!” (Genesis 3:5).

As Eve listened to Satan’s cunning string of lies, Adam stood silent.

As her husband and leader, he should have led her away from the ser- pent and his deceit—away from anything contrary to God’s commands. But instead of leading Eve away from trouble, Adam followed his wife into the path of evil.

Eve thought about what the serpent had said. She allowed her mind to be filled with wrong thoughts. She looked at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and focused her mind on what she was not allowed to have.

She thought, “This fruit looks harmless to me. It even looks tasty. I bet it tastes sweet.”
So she stepped closer to the tree.

“What if the serpent is right?” she wondered. “Perhaps I can get special knowledge if I eat this fruit. Why, I would become just like

God! Maybe that’s why God is trying to keep it away from me.” With her mind filled with doubt and clouded by vanity, Eve reached for the nearest, juiciest-looking fruit and took a bite (Gen 3:6). Then she gave a piece of it to her husband. Adam followed her lead and ate.

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