Page 15 - That I May Know Him (1964)

A Sad Day for the Universe, January 8
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
Romans 5:12.
When our first parents were placed in the beautiful garden of Eden,
they were tested in regard to their loyalty to God. They were free to choose
the service of God, or by disobedience to ally themselves with the enemy
of God and man.... If they disregard God’s commands, and listened to the
voice of Satan, as he spoke through the serpent, they would not only forfeit
their claim to Eden, but to life itself. 15
The first great moral lesson given Adam was that of self-denial. The
reins of self-government were placed in his hands. Judgment, reason, and
conscience were to bear sway....
Adam and Eve were permitted to partake of every tree in the Garden
save one. There was only a single prohibition. The forbidden tree was as
attractive and lovely as any of the trees in the Garden. It was called the tree
of knowledge, because in partaking of that tree, of which God had said,
“Thou shalt not eat of it,” (Genesis 2:17) they would have a knowledge of
sin, an experience in disobedience.16
With what intense interest the whole universe watched the conflict
that was to decide the position of Adam and Eve. How attentively the
angels listened to the words of Satan, the originator of sin, as he ... sought
to make of none effect the law of God through his deceptive reasoning!
How anxiously they waited to see if the holy pair would be deluded by the
tempter, and yield to his arts! They asked themselves, Will the holy pair
transfer their faith and love from the Father and Son to Satan? Will they
accept his falsehoods as truth?17
Adam and Eve persuaded themselves that in so small a matter as eating
of the forbidden fruit, there could not result such terrible consequences
as God had declared. But this small matter was sin, the transgression of
God’s immutable and holy law, and it opened the floodgates of death and
untold woe upon our world.... Let us not esteem sin as a trivial thing.18 [15]
15Bible Echo, July 24, 1899.
16The Review and Herald, February 24, 1874.
17S.D.A. Bible Commentary 1:1083.
18The Review and Herald, March 27, 1888.
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