A Sad Day for the Universe

[Thompson, Darryl]

A Sad Day for the Universe 

     Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Rom.
5:12.  

     When our first parents were placed in the beautiful garden of Eden,
they were tested in regard to their loyalty to God. They were free to
choose the service of God, or by disobedience to ally themselves with
the enemy of God and man. . . . If they disregard God's commands, and
listened to the voice of Satan, as he spoke through the serpent, they
would not only forfeit their claim to Eden, but to life itself. 

     The first great moral lesson given Adam was that of self-denial.
The reins of self-government were placed in his hands. Judgment, reason,
and conscience were to bear sway. . . .  

     Adam and Eve were permitted to partake of every tree in the Garden
save one. There was only a single prohibition. The forbidden tree was as
attractive and lovely as any of the trees in the Garden. It was called
the tree of knowledge, because in partaking of that tree, of which God
had said, "Thou shalt not eat of it," (Gen. 2:17) they would have a
knowledge of sin, an experience in disobedience.  

     With what intense interest the whole universe watched the conflict
that was to decide the position of Adam and Eve. How attentively the
angels listened to the words of Satan, the originator of sin, as he ...
sought to make of none effect the law of God through his deceptive
reasoning! How anxiously they waited to see if the holy pair would be
deluded by the tempter, and yield to his arts! They asked themselves,
Will the holy pair transfer their faith and love from the Father and Son
to Satan? Will they accept his falsehoods as truth?  

     Adam and Eve persuaded themselves that in so small a matter as
eating of the forbidden fruit, there could not result such terrible
consequences as God had declared. But this small matter was sin, the
transgression of God's immutable and holy law, and it opened the
floodgates of death and untold woe upon our world. . . . Let us not
esteem sin as a trivial thing. 

>From That I May Know Him - Page 14