Volume 2 Lesson 2: Origin of Evil and The fall of man

Origin of Evil and The fall of man

Sin brings Separation from God

Separation from God
(From Forerunner Commentary) Genesis 3:7-10
Genesis 3:7-10 illustrates how no one is ever quite the same after sinning with knowledge. Notice Adam and Eve's sin occurs after God had instructed them (Genesis 2:16-17). Nobody had to tell them they had done wrong—they knew! Now they looked at things differently than they had before; a sense of wrong rushed in on them immediately. Just moments before, all had been friendly and joyful. All of nature seemed obedient to their every wish, and life was good. Suddenly, however, they felt guilt and fear, and it seemed as if every creature in the Garden had witnessed their act and condemned them. Feeling exposed, they sought to hide, illustrating that separation from the purity of God began immediately. The virtue of their innocence began to lose its luster.

David writes in Psalm 40:11-13:
Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O LORD; let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart fails me. Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me!

Sin creates a sense of estrangement from God, leaving a tarnishing film on a person's mind. Paul reminds Titus, "To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled" (Titus 1:15). Sin perverts the mind so that one does not look at life in the same way as before. Jeremiah 6:15 describes a sickening end to repeated sin:

"Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time I punish them, they shall be cast down," says the LORD.

Some children are adorable because we love to see the beauty of their innocence. But what happens on the trip to adulthood? Sin alters the way a person looks at life and the world. With maturity, people become distrustful, sophisticated, competitive, cosmopolitan, cynical, suspicious, sarcastic, prejudiced, self-centered, and uninvolved. It is sin that drives people apart and creates fear.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Elements of Motivation (Part Seven): Fear of Judgment

1.       With whom did sin originate? 1 john 3:8

2.       How does the bible speak of the fall of Satan? Rev 12:7-9

3.       Who else was involved in this rebellion? Same scripture and Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4

4.       What did Jesus say of the devil? John 8:44

5.       How did Satan appear to Eve in order to deceive her? Gen 3:1-5

6.       For whom did God prepare the lake of fire? Matt 25:41

7.       What original sin resulted in the fall of man? Gen3:6

8.       As a consequence of this sin how many have become sinners? Rom 5:12

9.       What was the immediate result of sin? Gen 3:7,10

10.   What curse fell upon womanhood? Gen 3:16

11.   What curse fell upon man? Gen3:17-19

12.   What curse came upon the ground? Gen 3:17,18; 4:11, 12

13.   What curse was pronounced upon the serpent? Gen 3:14,15

14.   What did God do to prevent Adam from living forever as a sinner? Gen 3:22,24

15.   Did God place man on the earth without any governing laws? Gen 2:15-17

16.   What did God say would be the result of disobedience? Gen2:17; Rom 6:23

17.   What judgment fell upon the antediluvian world? Gen 6:5-7 ; 7:21-23

18.   How will God destroy the world the second time? 2Peter 3:10-12 ; Mal 4:1,3

19.   Is there any hope for the ones who obey God? Gen3:15 ;Rom 3:24,25 ; Jn 3:16

20.Will God’s plan for this world and for man finally be realized? Rev 21: 1; 22:1-5;2 peter 3:9,13

Genesis 3:22
Exile is a form of punishment that God has used from the very beginning. Here in Genesis 3, in the book of beginnings, we have the first instance of exile imposed by God Himself. It was exile from the Garden of Eden, from all that was wonderful and good that God had created, the perfect environment in which He had placed Adam and Eve. They could never go back. God placed an angel with a flaming sword that would turn whichever way any man juked to get back. If it were still there, it would deny us "paradise" even now.

This context shows three reasons we can glean to determine why God uses exile. The first one is evident—it was punishment for their sins. Adam and Eve took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil when God said they should not take of it. That is sin, breaking a direct command of God. Exile was the punishment.

What else can we glean? What did their exile do? It separated them from access to Him. So, secondly, exile separates man from God. He does not want to be separated from us, but because of sin, it happens. It must happen because He does not like sin in the least. So this is a kind of corollary to the first point. Sin brings exile, and sin causes separation from God.

The third point must be read into it, but it is obvious from God's intent and the way God is. God imposes exile to spur repentance because it should be the natural inclination of men who have known God and all the glorious things that we can have in His presence to return to His good graces.
In summary, the first point is exile occurs because of sin. The second point is exile happens because sinners must be separated from God. And the third point is God uses exile as a goad to motivate sinners to repent.

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
How to Survive Exile

Prophecies Relating to Christ's Birth Lesson 1

Volume 2 Lesson 1: Weekly Bible lessons
1 How did Moses speak of Christ? Deuteronomy 18:15.
2 How may we know that the Prophet here spoken of is Christ? Acts 3:22, 24.
3 Of whom was He to be born? Isaiah 7:14; Matt.1:22, 23
4 Where was He to be born? Micah 5:2.
5 Was this prediction fulfilled? Matthew 2:1.
6 How was His advent to be heralded? Isaiah 40:3.
7 By whom was this fulfilled? John 1:19, 23.
8 For what purpose did Jesus Christ come into the world? 1Timothy 1:15; John 1:29
9 What does John say of the incarnation of Christ? John 1:1-3,14
10 Did Jesus accept his humiliation willingly?Philippians 2:5-8
11 In order to be our Saviour what did He take upon Himself? 1 Peter 2:24
12 What did Jesus suffer in the Garden of Gethsemane? Matthew 26:36-44
13 Read Matthew 26, 27 & 28
14 Therefore, what did Christ declare Himself to be? John 10:9; 14:6
15 Who then purchased our Redemption, and by what? 1 Peter 1:18,19; Acts 20:28

Prophecies Fulfilment


" Would be the "Seed of a Woman"
GENESIS 3:15: "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
GALATIANS 4:4: "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law." (LUKE 2:7; REVELATION 12:5)

Promised Seed of Abraham
GENESIS 18:18: "Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?" (GENESIS 12:3)
ACTS 3:25: "Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed." (MATTHEW 1:1; LUKE 3:34)

Promised Seed of Isaac
GENESIS 17:19: "And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him." MATTHEW 1:2: "Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;" (LUKE 3:34)

Promised Seed of Jacob

NUMBERS 24:17: "I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth." (GENESIS 28:14)
LUKE 3:34: "Which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Thara, which was the son of Nachor," (MATTHEW 1:2)

" Will Descend from the Tribe of Judah

GENESIS 49:10: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
LUKE 3:33: "Which was the son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Esrom, which was the son of Phares, which was the son of Juda." (MATTHEW 1:2-3)

The Heir to the Throne of David

ISAIAH 9:7: "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this." (ISAIAH 11:1-5; 2 SAMUEL 7:13)
MATTHEW 1:1: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." (MATTHEW 1:6)

Place of Birth

MICAH 5:2: "But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."
MATTHEW 2:1: "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem." (LUKE 2:4-7)

Time of Birth

DANIEL 9:25: "Know therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times."
LUKE 2:1-2: "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)" (LUKE 2:3-7)

Born of a Virgin

ISAIAH 7:14: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
MATTHEW 1:18: "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." (LUKE 1:26-35)

Massacre of Infants

JEREMIAH 31:15: "Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not."  MATTHEW 2:16: "Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men." (MATTHEW 2:17-18)

Flight into Egypt

HOSEA 11:1: "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt."
MATTHEW 2:14: "When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt:" (MATTHEW 2:15)

Ministry in Galilee

ISAIAH 9:1-2: "Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined."
MATTHEW 4:12-16: "Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;
And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,
The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;
The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up."

View this video: Non Biblical evidence as Proof for Jesus Christ

The Soldier of Truth