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Chapter 33—What Lies Beyond the Grave?
Satan, who had incited rebellion in heaven, desired to bring the
inhabitants of the earth to unite in his warfare against God. Adam
and Eve had been perfectly happy in obedience to the law of God—a
constant testimony against the claim Satan had urged in heaven that
God’s law was oppressive. Satan determined to cause their fall,
that he might possess the earth and here establish his kingdom in
opposition to the Most High.
Adam and Eve had been warned against this dangerous foe, but
he worked in the dark, concealing his purpose. Employing as his
medium the serpent, then a creature of fascinating appearance, he
addressed Eve: “Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of
the garden?” Eve ventured to parley with him and fell victim to his
wiles: “The woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit
of the trees of the garden: 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. And the serpent said unto the woman,
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.”
Genesis 3:1-5
.
Eve yielded, and through her influence Adam was led into sin.
They accepted the words of the serpent; they distrusted their Creator
and imagined that He was restricting their liberty.
But what did Adam find to be the meaning of the words, “In
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”? Was he to
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be ushered into a more exalted existence? Adam did not find this
to be the meaning of the divine sentence. God declared that as a
penalty for his sin, man should return to the ground: “Dust thou art,
and unto dust shalt thou return.”
Genesis 3:19
. The words of Satan,
“Your eyes shall be opened,” proved to be true in this sense only:
their eyes were opened to discern their folly. They did know evil
and tasted the bitter fruit of transgression.
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