OUR PREMIER FATHER, ADAM

     In the opening chapters of Genesis we see something of the wisdom of GOD in the order by which He unfolded the existence of life on a world that a mere seven days before “the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Gen.1:2.

     On the sixth day, after GOD completed the plethora of life that was mature and given a constitution of emotions and instincts that would sustain “the balance of nature” forever He formed Adam from the soil of the earth. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Gen.2:7.

     After introducing Adam to his perfect earthly home with its impeccable beauty of the life and the diversity of the landscape where “the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone” ornamenting the trees, plants, streams and flowers—everything was provided for Adam to insure an eternal life of joy and discovery. There was nothing Adam could do to make more complete what GOD established “In the beginning.”

     From Adam’s magnificent intelligence, his emotional constitution, to the variety of food, and all essential comforts, the LORD’S creation of life showed Adam the great love and care of GOD. Then came Adam’s introduction to “the tree of life” and “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” It was very important to place in Adam’s mind the knowledge of the boundaries where his life would be eternally safe vs. the things that would come to threaten his safety even to cause his death as he explored the Earth. Instinctively he would know that he could not breathe under water or leap off a precipice without threatening bodily harm to himself. The physical instincts for survival were all there. But where Adam would be vulnerable is in his emotional constitution. His freewill had to be settled to follow GOD’S every instruction.

     But then, what followed is the first yearning Adam would experience. “And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” Gen.2:19. When it was seen that all of the creatures GOD created had companions the question came to Adam’s mind: Do I have a companion with whom I can share my life? The GOD of heaven anticipated this response from His son:

“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him… And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” Gen.2:18,21-25.

     Adam was made from the soil of the Earth, while Eve was taken from his side: to be his equal, his companion, and together they were to share the joys of a tranquil life for all eternity. All this took place on the sixth day. “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Gen.2:2,3. Our premier parents’ first full day of life was the Sabbath rest: the promise of GOD that through His love and care the happy couple would live tranquil lives, to explore, discover and share the wonders GOD had created for their joy.

     But then Satan showed up. This is the true ‘alien invasion’ that our secular society refuses to acknowledge. After his “war in heaven” he was cast out “and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev.12:9). The once great Lucifer inaugurated tyranny in the universe. And the violence he inaugurated he brought to our world to remove the tranquility of life GOD had established, and thus robbed from GOD the joyful rest of the Sabbath day.

     Using Eve as his bait Satan “beguiled” her to take a stand against GOD and His Word by lying to Eve and exploiting her trust and ambition for life’s experience. The devil reeled her in just as a fisherman reels in his catch. After eating the fruit that GOD warned was poisonous to her soul she brought the fruit to Adam.

     Adam was faced with a hardest choice of his young life. Adam knew that his wife must die, for GOD said this to be the fate for anyone who ate of that fruit. But Adam deeply loved his wife. The great depth and sensitivity of Adam’s love for Eve men today cannot fathom. Men today are dwarfs in every respect when compared to the great intellect, physical coordination and sensitivities of Adam. Adam cried more bitterly for a dying leaf than you or I could cry for our dearest loved-one. His compassion and fear for Eve overwhelmed him, and he had to choose to live without her or die with her. Adam chose to eat the fruit and die with Eve. While his love may seem touching his method of expression was destructive; for all that has transpired in this world’s pathetic history of torture, murder, lies, theft and adultery was all the result of corrupting the greatest gift that GOD could bestow to the creation of life: His gift of Love.

     Had Adam upheld his love for GOD as supreme, this would have demonstrated a more excellent love for Eve, for Adam would have discovered that GOD had already found a way to rescue his wife. He did not have to die with her! How different would the history of man have been! GOD would have become the Christ and laid down His life for Eve just as He has done for the multitudes of her children. Christ would readily die for the one as for the many. Jesus said it plain enough: “it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” Matt.18:14.

     A deep-rooted fear of GOD has ruled the hearts of men ever since Adam and Eve violated their own conscience by eating the one fruit that GOD had warned them would kill them if they ate it. This single act of eating the forbidden fruit permanently crippled their ability to be entrusted as stewards over the life of Earth. Therefore GOD prevented access to the fruit of “the tree of life” through whose nutrition immortality is maintained. Today, “the tree of life” is found in the New Jerusalem, nowhere else (Rev.22:1-3). So the common religious teaching that man is immortal is a lie and tool of Satan to promote the doctrine of eternal torture in hellfire for all who reject the love of GOD. There is no "tree of life" on the banks of hell! The prophecy of Satan and his minions is clear: "they shall be as though they had never been." Ob.v.16. Yes, there is coming a "lake of fire." But it takes place on the surface of the Earth to remove every trace of man's sinful pollution (Rev.20:7-21:1). And after the fire goes out Christ creates "the new earth" for the saints to dwell and live forever in the tranquil peace GOD established "In the beginning."

     Satan has always exploited man’s fears to bring about great harm to the innocent. But this inherent fear has directed GOD to enact a plan of restoration that through His gift of moral discernment given to every man, one or more of His means of influence may reach our hearts and draw from us a desire for His companionship. GOD'S objective is to restore all that was lost when Adam and Eve chose to sin & die.

     How is this fear overcome?

Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

     GOD has placed a great capacity for love into the heart of man. And it is only through love’s voice that GOD speaks to our hearts. This, united with His gift of a freewill determines our advancement in—or retreat from—heaven’s love; for GOD avoids every hint of compulsion in His work of restoring the bond of man's heart to His own. Christ forced the will of no man! This is why the Apostle Paul said: “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” II Cor.9:7.

     How does GOD restore man's faith in His love?

I Corinthians 2:11-14 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

     GOD'S wisdom has chosen the heart-drawing but unseen power of the Holy Spirit to restore man's ability to love and to follow Jesus Christ. The recipient is given complete freedom to embrace and nurture their friendship with GOD, or to even flat-out reject His call on the hearts of men. The “still small voice” of the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts with a gentle decency—He never yells.

     Satan’s war against life’s tranquility, of which the seventh day Sabbath lay at its core, man has become entangled in his defiance of GOD’S laws that govern life’s perpetuation and its tranquility. Since then, Satan has led all men to imitate his defiance of GOD to one degree or another. He instills his arrogant, violent spirit on weak-minded men, prodding them to sin against GOD. But because sin is like the temporary “fix” of drug addition, it has no lasting power to sustain the feelings of satisfaction. Man keeps trying to satisfy “the lust of the flesh,” which can never be satisfied (I Jn.2:16; Eccl.4:8).

     Without GOD’S intervention to hold back man’s destructive inclinations the extinction of the human race would have come a long time ago through war and disease (Mal.3:5,6). And yet, society is so blind to its suicidal course that sin is now declared a virtue and an acceptable moral judgment even among the ruling religions of Earth, including Christianity who evangelizes the world into universal sin against two of the Ten Commandments. Sin has breeched the Holy Law that alone preserves the safety of life. And this is the reason our civilization is increasingly facing the threat of extinction as prophesied thousands of years ago by “the prophets” (Isa.24:1-6; Jer.4:23-28).

     In purely social terms, sin has led mankind to disregard the utopian standard that GOD commanded to insure our mutual peace and safety. And through a righteous man’s compliance to its jurisdiction it guaranties the peace and prosperity of everyone associated with that man in the midst of a fundamentally immoral world. Said GOD by His prophet; “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.” Jer.6:16. The fact that the world is filled with unrest proves that mankind stands defiant against GOD and His Holy Law: the Law given to save; not destroy: to set free; not oppress.

     In conclusion:

Sin leads to violence
Sin leads to lying
Sin leads to pride
Sin leads to suicide

     How then can the family of humanity be redeemed from sin’s condemnation of death?

Romans 5:12-6:6 Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed [or assigned] when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come [Jesus Christ, “the last Adam” (I Cor.15:45)]. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one [Adam] judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one [Jesus Christ] the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

     When Adam sinned he condemned his entire family to the same fate as himself. At that moment, man’s salvation became dependent on the “Everlasting Father” of man, Jesus, our “near kinsman” (Ruth 3:9). Only the Father of Adam had the legal right to redeem the family of Adam (Lu.3:38; Jn.1:3); by becoming as one of His children; live the sinless life that we could not; bear our condemnation from sin’s inheritance to the grave; and then conquer the jurisdiction of death that its power over the family of Adam would be broken; and thus, place all mankind “in Christ” as “the last Adam.” The “Everlasting Father” of man became “the Son of man” to redeem “the children of men” (Isa.9:6; Matt.12:8; Ps.36:7).

“O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” Ps.136:1.