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ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.' Having by these words of deceit
openly declared that God was a liar, Satan now began to strive to convince Adam
and Eve of the truth of the blasphemous thought that God was not desirous of
their safety and happiness; but on the contrary forbade their attainment of
perfect bliss and glory. Hence Satan, making this false statement, said that
they would not die through eating the fruit of that tree, nay rather through
doing so would soon be perfected in glory and happiness and become like God
Himself. In this way he was trying hard to increase, concerning God's love and
truth, the doubt which he had put into Eve's mind, in order to render them both
proud and devoid of trust in God. Hearing those words of blasphemy, Eve gave
them entrance into her mind, and yielded to the desire to eat the fruit which
God had forbidden, so that she forgot God's commandment. And the fruit of that
tree appealed to her so strongly that she took it and ate, and gave to Adam
also. Thus they committed sin.
When by deceit Satan had led Adam and Eve to trust his word, and, through
obeying him, had made them cast away from their hearts the trust in God and love
of God which they had previously possessed, then that bond of union
(علاقة) which
had existed between Adam and his Creator was broken, and all the happiness which
that union had bestowed was done away. That is to say, since Adam had |
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been created a free agent, it was possible for him to cease to love God and
no longer to seek to do His will, and, according to the manner of the human
heart, his mind became set only upon the thing which pleased himself and upon
which he trusted. Therefore, when unbelief and disobedience took the place of
love and trust, at once that bond of union and all the happiness and glory which
were connected therewith vanished, and Adam fell into as great degradation and
misery after his sin, as he had previously possessed honour and happiness. For
Adam turned away from God and left Him, and yielded to Satan, whom he had
preferred to trust and obey. Thus his will no longer continued to be in
accordance with the will of God, but he became haughty and self-willed, and,
through losing his position of dignity and happiness and becoming stubborn and
disobedient, became acquainted with good and evil. Through attaining this
knowledge he doubtless became, in a manner, like God, in a way in which he had
not previously resembled Him. But Satan, too, is proud and self-willed and free
in precisely the same way as Adam became. Accordingly, had not God helped us in
accordance with the loving purpose by which from eternity1 He had
determined upon the salvation of men, then assuredly man would have been like
Satan and would have shared his punishment. Yes, Adam's sin was so evil and so
great that it cast Adam
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