The Fall ~ The Four Great Global Events of Genesis
The book of Genesis outlines four great global events, The Fall is the second. The first event, the Creation, was meant to reveal from where all mankind originated, and his purpose. The second great global event has been called the Fall. This word captures the historical and universal significance of what took place in Genesis 3.
The Fall
The Fall was actually a series of corruptive events and consequences that changed the way all people would relate to God, the spiritual realm, and to one another from that time forward. Genesis 1-2 makes it very clear that Adam and Eve were the first human beings on this planet, and from them all subsequent humans have descended. Consequently, the Fall is a global event. It impacted all of mankind.
The Fall had eternal consequences because it took away the innocence of man and caused Adam and Eve to pass on the inclination to do evil. This resulted in physical death and eternal loss.
The very first sentence of Genesis 3 sets the tone for this event: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” It is clear from this passage that something is not quite right. What is this creature doing in the garden that God had made for Adam and Eve?
This creature in the garden had the ability to talk and think. No other creature had this ability. It is easy, therefore, to see how Adam and Eve could have thought that he knew more then they did, and was wise. 1 Corinthians tells us that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. We see this very thing happening in the garden.
In looking at the Fall, we notice that the first thing to happen was for the Devil to usurp God’s authority. He says, “Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?”
The name, Satan means an adversary or one who resists. Only an adversary would work at cross purposes with God. The friend of God would strive to help another believe God’s words, not undermine them.
In response to the devil’s challenge, Eve tells the serpent that the penalty for disobeying God was death. He responded (Gen. 3:14), “You surely will not die. For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
So the devil’s tactics in Genesis 3 were:
- To attempt to twist God’s word
- Contradict God’s word
- Offer an alternative to God’s word – his own opinion.
- Make his own opinion appealing by casting doubt on God’s character.
This theme appears again and again in history.
Ephesians 6:16 says, “in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.” The word faith (or believe) means to trust. As the serpent throws missiles over the walls we have set up, above all, we are to take up believing in God’s word so that those missiles can be extinguished. Not trusting and listening to God’s word was the beginning of the Fall.
The Second Stage of The Fall
The second stage of the Fall took place shortly after this, an enlightenment of sorts. Gen. 3:7 says, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” This enlightenment that was brought to them resulted in shame, guilt, and fear, and they attempted to cover their sin.
Like this enlightenment, the Enlightenment of the 1700-1800s, brought great breakthroughs in medicine and science. But this Enlightenment was also very similar to what happened in the garden. Science began to take over the role of revealing things that really could not be known by science – the age of the earth, the age of dinosaurs, the age of rock layers, the origin of man, and so on. For the last 250 years, science has dominated the historical and philosophical realm, in addition to its own realm. It has taken the place of what God had revealed to us in His Scriptures.
This has led to disastrous acts and events. For instance, the ideas of evolution and naturalism brought us the horrors of WW II. Nazis and Japanese rationalized their brutal treatment of people because they thought that they were the superior race. Evolution, part of the offspring of the Enlightenment, was the root of our modern thinking about races.
The Fall tore mankind away from his creator and the relationship for which man and woman were created. The Fall brought:
- Fear, guilt and shame
- Distrust of God’sword
- Blaming those closet to us for shortcomings
- Superstition and religious worship of other gods
- Hatred of others not like me
- Self-centeredness and greed
- Pain, sorrow, and death
- Broken relationships
- Broken promises
- War
Nothing good has come from breaking free from our Creator. The Fall so ruined man that it took God to set it right again in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, who took the penalty that we rightly deserved for our rebellion. Rom 5:6, 18-19 says, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly…So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.”
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