Paradise Lost
Adam was driven from Eden, and the angels who, before his
transgression, had been appointed to guard him in his Eden home,
were now appointed to guard the gates of paradise and the way of the
tree of life, lest he should return, gain access to the tree of life, and sin
be immortalized.
Sin drove man from paradise; and sin was the cause of the removal
of paradise from the earth. In consequence of transgression of God’s
law, Adam lost paradise. In obedience to the Father’s law, and through
faith in the atoning blood of His Son, paradise may be regained. “Re-
pentance toward God,” because His law has been transgressed, and
faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, as man’s only Redeemer, will be
acceptable with God. Notwithstanding man’s sinfulness, the merits of
God’s dear Son in his behalf will avail with the Father.
Satan was determined to succeed in his temptation of the sinless
Adam and Eve. And he could reach even this holy pair more suc-
cessfully through the medium of appetite than in any other way. The
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fruit of the forbidden tree seemed pleasant to the eye and desirable to
the taste. They ate and fell. They transgressed God’s just command
and became sinners. Satan’s triumph was complete. He then had the
vantage ground over the race. He flattered himself that, through his
subtlety, he had thwarted the purpose of God in the creation of man.
Satan made his exulting boasts to Christ and to loyal angels that
he had succeeded in gaining a portion of the angels in heaven to unite
with him in his daring rebellion; and now that he had succeeded in
overcoming Adam and Eve, he claimed that their Eden home was
his. He proudly boasted that the world which God had made was his
dominion; that having conquered Adam, the monarch of the world,
he had gained the race as his subjects, and should now possess Eden,
making that his headquarters, and would there establish his throne and
be monarch of the world.
But measures were immediately taken in heaven to defeat Satan
in his plans. Strong angels, with beams of light like flaming swords
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