Choosing Self.

CHAPTER 2   (The Great Controversy)

The Fall of Man

I saw that the holy angels often visited the garden, and gave instruction to Adam and Eve concerning their employment, and also taught them concerning the rebellion of Satan and his fall. 

The angels warned them of Satan, and cautioned them not to separate from each other in their employment, for they might be brought in contact with this fallen foe. 

The angels enjoined upon them to closely follow the directions God had given them, for in perfect obedience only were they safe.  And if they were obedient, this fallen foe could have no power over them.

 Satan commenced his work with Eve, to cause her to disobey.  She first erred in wandering from her husband, next, in lingering around the forbidden tree, and next in listening to the voice of the tempter, and even daring to doubt what God had said -- In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.  She thought, Perhaps it does not mean just as the Lord said.  She ventured to disobey. 

She put forth her hand, took of the fruit, and ate.  It was pleasing to the eye, and pleasant to the taste.  She was jealous that God had withheld from them what was really for their good.  She offered the fruit to her husband, thereby tempting him.  She related to Adam all that the serpent had said, and expressed her astonishment that he had the power of speech.

 I saw a sadness came over Adam’s countenance.  He appeared afraid and astonished.  A struggle appeared to be going on in his mind.  He felt sure that this was the foe which they had been warned against, and that his wife must die.  They must be separated.  His love for Eve was strong.  And in utter discouragement he resolved to share her fate.  He seized the fruit, and quickly ate it.  Then Satan exulted.  He had rebelled in heaven, and had sympathizers who loved him, and followed him in his rebellion.  He fell, and caused others to fall with him.  And he had now tempted the woman to distrust God, to inquire into his wisdom, and to seek to penetrate his all-wise plans.  Satan knew the woman would not fall alone. Adam, through his love for Eve, disobeyed the command of God and fell with her.

 

 The news of man’s fall spread through heaven.  Every harp was hushed.  The angels cast their crowns from their heads in sorrow.  All heaven was in agitation.  A counsel was held to decide what must be done with the guilty pair.  The angels feared that they would put forth the hand, and eat of the tree of life, and be immortal sinners.  But God said that he would drive the transgressors from the garden.  Angels were commissioned immediately to guard the way of the tree of life.  It had been Satan’s studied plan that Adam and Eve should disobey God, receive his frown, and then be led on to partake of the tree of life, that they might live forever in sin and disobedience, and thus sin be immortalized.  But holy angels were sent to drive them out of the garden, while another company of angels were commissioned to guard the way to the tree of life.  Each of these mighty angels appeared to have something in their right hand, which looked like a glittering sword.

 Then Satan triumphed.  Others he had made to suffer by his fall.  He had been shut out of heaven, they out of Paradise.

See Genesis chap.3

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 

Gen 3:2  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 

Gen 3:3  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. 

Gen 3:4  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 

Gen 3:5  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. 

Gen 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. 

Gen 3:7  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 

Gen 3:8  And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 

Gen 3:9  And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 

Gen 3:10  And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 

Gen 3:11  And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 

Gen 3:12  And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 

Gen 3:13  And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 

Gen 3:14  And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 

Gen 3:16  Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 

Gen 3:17  And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 

Gen 3:18  Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 

Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 

Gen 3:20  And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 

Gen 3:21  Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them. 

Gen 3:22  And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 

Gen 3:23  Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 

Gen 3:24  So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. 

The Great Controversy- by EG White

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Protected, not denied. We protect our children, yet often they tell us we are denying them freedom in life. At very young ages our children begin to show the first signs of defiance. From the innocent and in NO way malicious twisting and turning about on a changing table struggling not to be still while a diaper is changed, to the tossing of their heads back and forth so as not to take the milk you are offering them. Their first signs of independence, of self-awareness, of desiring different than what is offered them, even for innocent reasons because most assuredly their thoughts are not meant to be defiant. In fact we don't imagine an infant has much independent thought, the reasoning, the thought process just isn't there yet as they lay helpless, reliant upon someone to care for their every need. That helpless infant grows and as they grow they begin to show real reasoning, real knowing and by the time they are a year old most of the children have begun to learn to walk, and before that they crawl and as they gain their mobility they gain the ability to harm themselves with many things about them. So as they become mobile, caregivers will either change their environment to one that can't bring any harm - rugs on hard floors, protectors on sharp edges, locks on cabinets and so on Or they will confine the child to a protected area - a playpen, a play room, etc. The child is protected from themselves, their own curiosity. Then as the child gets older and begins to truly comprehend right from wrong, the protected areas are no longer needed because a caregiver trusts that the child knows if they do wrong they will suffer for it in some manner and that is something they don't want. And still as they continue their journey in humanity, they are protected from things they think they don't need protection from. Why can't they stay out all night? Why can't they drink alcohol and do drugs? Why can't they have intimate physical relationships with others? Why can't they just do as they want to do, simply because they desire to do so? The desire is there, so why don't parents just let the children indulge those desires? We tell them the desires aren't wrong (mostly) if treated in certain ways (modest, conservative ways), but they need to be older before they can fulfil those desires, often desires to emulate things they see and hear, others do. We want them to be old enough to take responsibility for their actions should they abuse the desired longings. We tell them only aging will give them such responsibility.  My cousin and I were just emailing each other the other day about the memories of longing to be grown up, to become of legal age so the restrictions on our lives would cease.  I digress a bit though.  The point I think I'm trying to make is as a parent what we often call protection our children call denying.  The struggle is real as most parents will attest to. It starts young, very young and only multiplies as time goes on. We want to protect, they want to do as they please. 

God wanted to protect.

After Satan rebelled in heaven and the horrors of sin were fully manifested, God knew Satan could not be allowed to live. However, simply blotting him out of existence would not destroy sin. Just as killing a single person riddled with a contagious disease does not kill the disease. Sin must be destroyed. Sin couldn't be hidden, and creature after creature showing the least inkling towards sin destroyed. What am I saying, sure God could have reacted that way to sin. God could have set up an endless blotting out whenever sin appeared. Lucifer (Satan) could have been poofed from existence along with any other angel inclined towards sin, but what then?

Could God sin? No. God could not sin. But God realized there existed the ability to do so.

We have no way of knowing how many years of time existed before Lucifer, a covering cherub, an angel closest to God decided to yield to the thought of not simply being content being an angel. He saw God with God, He saw the plan unfold for creatures unlike angels, yet those to be created as counterparts to God and therefore to live an existence different from his own. He witnessed a part of the plan that changed God with God, as one God agreed to be declared a Son to the other, as one was begotten not created. He watched as the Begotten of God, still God with God recognized a need that as yet did not exist, a need only the Begotten of God could ever fulfil. As he witnessed the creating power possessed by God and the Begotten even when it had not yet been fully realized, Lucifer yielded to the desire to no longer wanting to be an angel- no matter how cherished he was as one, he wanted to be changed in another God.  He witnessed God with God the Begotten and he witness God in Spirit different from God, different than God the Begotten. Lucifer could watch as these three Gods undertook their creation of humanity plans and was no longer satisfied to watch from the sidelines. Lucifer wanted to join their rank, a created being wanted to alter his own existence into the impossible of no longer being created but beyond that to being a God.

Why? He had all things to please him, he wasn't wanting for anything, yet he didn't want to simply look on as new and different creatures were brought into existence that could possibly replace him? That spark of temptation that the three Gods allowed simply because there is absolutely no freedom without that ability, but rather a bunch of automated puppets. That bit of themselves they allowed in giving the knowledge of simply knowing a choice exists, that something horrific could exist was there and Lucifer chose to indulge that temptation, he chose to embrace the self-serving and ultimately self-serving leads to complete destruction of life.  We are taught to believe otherwise, but it is truth.

God would protect His newly created creatures, humans, from Satan's path. They were taught from their very beginning of existence that they were to live their lives content in comprehension that their Creator loved them and there was no need for more than that love. Yet, Satan wasn't content to allow them that existence uncontested. These new creatures were no better than he was and he'd prove it,

Warned of the existence of straying, of losing all they had, wasn't enough after they were put to Satan's test. Eve yielded.

Yes, we know parents do a lot to protect their children- endless warnings, admonishing's, punishments to keep the child from harm after harm. We also know that a child has to make its own choices especially after that child has matured to adulthood. While we may wish we could sit back and make every single choice, leaving no possibility for our child to go astray, that strips a child of individuality- of that ability to choose. There is no love - no choosing to serve others, if you are forced to do so.

God help us to choose to serve, to love.