'Great
Controversy- Chapter XXXIII- The First
Great Deception
With the earliest
history of man, Satan began his efforts to deceive our race.
He who had incited
rebellion in Heaven desired to bring the inhabitants of the earth to unite with
him in his warfare against the government of God.
Adam and Eve had
been perfectly happy in obedience to the law of God, and this fact was a
constant testimony against the claim which Satan had urged in Heaven, that
God’s law was oppressive, and opposed to the good of his creatures. And,
furthermore, Satan’s envy was excited as he looked upon the beautiful home
prepared for the sinless pair. He determined to cause their fall, that, having
separated them from God, and brought them under his own power, he might gain
possession of the earth, and here establish his kingdom, in opposition to the
Most High.
Had Satan revealed
himself in his real character, he would have been repulsed at once, for Adam
and Eve had been warned against this dangerous foe; but he worked
in the dark, concealing his purpose, that he might more effectually
accomplish his object. Employing as his medium the serpent, then a creature of
fascinating appearance, he addressed himself to Eve, “Hath God said, Ye shall
not eat of every tree of the garden?” [Genesis 3:1.] Had Eve refrained from
entering into argument with the tempter, she would have been safe; but she
ventured to parley with him, and fell a victim to his wiles. It is thus that
many are still overcome. They doubt and argue concerning the requirements of
God, and instead of obeying the divine commands, they accept human theories,
which but disguise the devices of Satan.
“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. 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.” [Genesis 3:2-5.] He declared that they would become like God,
possessing greater wisdom than before, and being capable of a higher state of
existence. Eve yielded to temptation; and through her influence, Adam was led
into sin.
They accepted the
words of the serpent, that God did not mean what he said; they distrusted their
Creator, and imagined that he was restricting their liberty, and that they
might obtain great wisdom and exaltation by transgressing his law. But what did
Adam, after his sin, find to be the meaning of the words, “In the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”? Did he find them to mean, as Satan had
led him to believe, that he was to be ushered into a more exalted state of
existence? Then indeed there was great good to be gained by transgression, and
Satan was proved to be a benefactor of the race. But Adam did not find this to
be the meaning of the divine sentence.
God declared that as a penalty for his sin,
man should return to the ground whence he was taken: “Dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return.” [Genesis 3:19.] The words of Satan, “Your eyes shall
be opened, ”proved to be true in this sense only: After Adam and Eve had
disobeyed God, their eyes were opened to discern their folly; they did know
evil, and they tasted the bitter fruit of transgression. In the midst of Eden
grew the tree of life, whose fruit had the power of perpetuating life. Had Adam
remained obedient to God, he would have continued to enjoy free access to this
tree, and would have lived forever. But when he sinned, he was cut off from
partaking of the tree of life, and he became subject to death.
The divine sentence,
“Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,” points to the utter
extinction of life.
Immortality,
promised to man on condition of obedience, had been forfeited by transgression.
Adam could not
transmit to his posterity that which he did not possess; and there could have
been no hope for the fallen race, had not God, by the sacrifice of his Son,
brought immortality within their reach. While “death passed upon all men, for
that all have sinned,” Christ “hath brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel.” [Romans 5:12; 2 Timothy 1:10.]
And only through
Christ can immortality be obtained. Said Jesus, “He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life.”
[John 3:36.]
Every man may come in possession of this
priceless blessing if he will comply with the conditions. All “who by patient
continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality,” will
receive eternal life. [Romans 2:7.]
The only one who
promised Adam life in disobedience was the great deceiver. And the declaration
of the serpent to Eve in Eden,—“Ye shall not surely die,“—was the first sermon
ever preached upon the immortality of the soul.
Yet this
declaration, resting solely upon the authority of Satan, is echoed from the
pulpits of Christendom, and is received by the majority of mankind as readily
as it was received by our first parents. The divine sentence, “The soul that
sinneth, it shall die,” [Ezekiel 18:20.] is made to mean, The soul that
sinneth, it shall not die, but live eternally. We cannot but wonder at the
strange infatuation which renders men so credulous concerning the words of
Satan, and so unbelieving in regard to the words of God.
Had man, after his
fall, been allowed free access to the tree of life, he would have lived
forever, and thus sin would have been immortalized.
But cherubim and a
flaming sword kept “the way of the tree of life,” [Genesis 3:24.] and not one of
the family of Adam has been permitted to pass that barrier and partake of the
life-giving fruit. Therefore there is not an immortal sinner.
But after the fall, Satan bade his angels make
a special effort to inculcate the belief in man’s natural immortality; and
having induced the people to receive this error, they were to lead them on to
conclude that the sinner would live in eternal misery.
Now the prince of
darkness, working through his agents, represents God as a revengeful tyrant,
declaring that he plunges into hell all those who do not please him, and causes
them ever to feel his wrath; and that while they suffer unutterable anguish, and
writhe in the eternal flames, their Creator looks down upon them with
satisfaction. Thus the arch-fiend clothes with his own attributes the Creator
and Benefactor of mankind. Cruelty is Satanic. God is love; and all that he
created was pure, holy, and lovely ,until sin was brought in by the first great
rebel. Satan himself is the enemy who tempts man to sin, and then destroys him
if he can; and when he has made sure of his victim, then he exults in the ruin
he has wrought. If permitted, he would sweep the entire race into his net. Were
it not for the interposition of divine power, not one son or daughter of Adam
would escape. He is seeking to overcome men today, as he overcame our first
parents, by shaking their confidence in their Creator, and leading them to doubt
the wisdom of his government and the justice of his laws. Satan and his
emissaries represent God as even worse than themselves, in order to justify
their own malignity and rebellion.
To be continued….
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