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True Education
and finding greater happiness. He declared that he himself had eaten
of the forbidden fruit and as a result had acquired the power of
speech, and that if they also would eat of it they would attain a more
exalted sphere of existence and enter a broader field of knowledge.
While Satan claimed to have received great good by eating of the
forbidden tree, he did not let it appear that by transgression he had
become an outcast from heaven. Here was falsehood, so concealed
under a covering of apparent truth that Eve, infatuated, flattered,
beguiled, did not discern the deception. She coveted what God had
forbidden, and distrusted His wisdom. She cast away faith, the key
of knowledge.
Distrust of God
When Eve saw “that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took
of its fruit and ate.” As she ate, she seemed to feel a vivifying power,
and imagined herself entering a higher state of existence. Having
herself transgressed, she became a tempter to her husband, “and he
ate.”
Genesis 3:6
.
“Your eyes will be opened,” the enemy had said, “you will be
like God, knowing good and evil.”
Genesis 3:5
. Their eyes were
indeed opened, but how sad the opening! The knowledge of evil and
the curse of sin were all that the transgressors gained. There was
nothing poisonous in the fruit itself, and the sin was not merely in
yielding to appetite. It was distrust of God’s goodness, disbelief of
His word, and rejection of His authority, that made our first parents
transgressors and brought into the world a knowledge of evil. It was
this that opened the door to every species of falsehood and error.
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Our first parents lost all because they chose to listen to the de-
ceiver rather than to Him who alone has understanding. By the
mingling of evil with good, their minds became confused, their men-
tal and spiritual powers benumbed. No longer could they appreciate
the good that God had so freely bestowed.
Adam and Eve had chosen the knowledge of evil. No longer
were they to live in Eden, for in its perfection it could not teach them
the lessons it was now essential for them to learn. In unutterable