Season 7 Stories of the Bible, Podcast 8, “The Fall Pt 7.”

Stories of the Bible, Podcast 8, “The Fall Pt 7.”

Lucifer, having been cast out of heaven, enters the Garden of Eden to tempt Adam and Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit. The creation story is written by Moses. We must assume that Moses had access to ancient records. In the Holy Bible it is recorded that Lucifer, in the form of a serpent, approaches Eve. Originally Lucifer, which means “shining one” or “son of dawn” or “morning star” held a position of great honor and authority. Following the War in Heaven, when he is cast out, he becomes known by other names: Satan, Fallen Angel, the Adversary, The Accuser, Deceiver. Tempter, Devil, Dragon, the Prince of this World, the Prince of the Power of the Air, Prince of Demons, Beelzebub, Abaddon, Apollyon, Destroyer.

Sometimes he appears as an angel of light. 

2 Corinthians 11:13-15

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”
 

The Bible records that he appears to Eve as a Serpent. It is difficult to know if that is literal or merely metaphorical, for he is often referred to as serpent or dragon. Innocent Eve feels comfortable conversing with him, so he certainly doesn’t appear as his true self. Remember a veil is over Eve’s mind. She does not remember the War in Heaven and the fall of Lucifer. There is no veil over Lucifer’s mind, however. He knows who Adam and Eve really are. He knew the Father’s plan, and he is attempting to destroy it by tempting Eve. Lucifer, the father of lies, lies to Eve.

Genesis 3:4

  “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:”

“Surely die” seems to have the connotation of ‘instant death.’ It appears that he is saying something like, ‘You won’t just drop over dead.’ In that part, he is correct. Adam, as recorded in Genesis 5:5, after taking of the forbidden fruit, lived 930 years.  But he knows that if they partake of the forbidden fruit, they will bring death to all the world, and that is what Lucifer wants. What Lucifer apparently does not know is that that was the plan of God from the beginning. The fall of man is very complex. 

God is perfect. God lives the law of justice perfectly. He cannot create imperfect things. That poses a great problem. God created Adam and Eve. That meant their bodies were perfect. It also meant that their bodies were immortal. God is immortal. The earth, when it was first created, was immortal, and their bodies were created from the dust of immortal earth. Scientists just view Genesis as the story of physical creation. Genesis is much much more than that. In a brilliant and economical use of parallelism, Genesis describes both the spiritual and temporal creations. That would have been understood by all ancient Hebrews.

Temporal means time. Mortality means death. Time and mortality are products of the fall. Mortality only came about because a law was broken. The law that was broken was the law of immortality. Science does not and never will have the power to understand spiritual laws for they are not subject to entropy. In a way that we will never understand in a fallen world, the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil introduced mortality into an immortal world. One thing we do know, eating the forbidden fruit directly violated a commandment of God. That alone was significant enough to bring spiritual death into the world and with spiritual death came also temporal death which was also a commandment of God. God said, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” In 2 Peter we read, “