Temptation and Fall
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pleased to withhold from mortals. They are elated with their ideas of
progression, and charmed with their own vain philosophy; but grope in
midnight darkness relative to true knowledge. They are ever learning,
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
It was not the will of God that this sinless pair should have any
knowledge of evil. He had freely given them the good, but withheld
the evil. Eve thought the words of the serpent wise, and she received
the broad assertion, “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”—making God a liar. Satan boldly
insinuates that God had deceived them to keep them from being exalted
in knowledge equal with himself. God said, If ye eat “ye shall surely
die.” The serpent says, If ye eat “ye shall not surely die.” She ate, and
was delighted with the fruit. It seemed delicious to her taste, and she
imagined that she realized in herself the wonderful effects of the fruit.
She took the fruit and found her husband and related to him the words
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spoken by the serpent, and told him that by eating the fruit she had felt,
instead of death, a pleasing influence. As soon as Eve had disobeyed,
she became a powerful medium through which to occasion the fall of
her husband.
I saw a sadness come over the countenance of Adam. He appeared
afraid and astonished. A struggle appeared to be going on in his mind.
He told Eve he was quite certain that this was the foe that they had
been warned against. If so, that she must die. She assured him she felt
no ill effects, but rather a very pleasant influence, and entreated him to
eat. Adam regretted that Eve had left his side, but now the deed was
done. He must be separated from her whose society he had loved so
well. How could he have it thus. His love for Eve was strong. And
in utter discouragement he resolved to share her fate. He seized the
fruit and quickly ate it, and like Eve felt not immediately its ill effects.
Adam disobeyed and fell.
Eve thought herself capable of deciding between right and wrong.
The flattering hope of entering a higher state of knowledge led her
to think that the serpent was her especial friend, possessing a great
interest in her welfare. Had she sought her husband, and they related to
their Maker the words of the serpent, they would have been delivered
at once from his artful temptation.
God instructed our first parents in regard to the tree of knowledge,
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