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3. The Fall of Men.
The history of the first men
and their first descendants can only be properly viewed with a childlike and
pious mind. For we look back into a wondrous pre-world where everything is
different, as in a dream that takes shape in a pious soul, where heaven stands
open above the earth and where angels come down and greet and bless the good
children. But the wicked warn them and weep over their deception.
Adam and Eve still walked around naked like little children and did not know it.
They were still innocent like children and did not yet know the difference
between good and evil. They felt no pain; they felt no sorrow. They knew nothing
of death. The Lord God gave them a beautiful garden in a watery place to live
in, which is called the Garden of God or Eden or Paradise. In the garden were
trees of all kinds, beautiful to look at and inviting to enjoy their delicious
fruit.
But in the middle of the garden stood two marvellous trees, a tree of life and a
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord God visited his children in the
garden; he came to them and said: ‘You may eat from all the trees in the garden,
but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if you
eat from it you will die.’ God wanted to give them the opportunity to
demonstrate their trust in him, their love and their gratitude through obedience.
For it is only through childlike obedience that true trust and true love for the
Father in heaven, as well as for the parents on earth, is manifested. -
Then a smooth serpent came with colourful, shimmering scales and beautiful coils;
for this is how seduction comes. The serpent came to the woman and said, ‘Is it
so that God has forbidden you to eat of the trees of the garden?’ Eve said, ‘We
eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. Only of the fruit of the tree in
the middle of the garden has God said, ‘Do not eat of it, nor touch it, lest you
die. Then the serpent said that this was not what was meant. ‘You will by no
means die, but the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be
like God and know what is good and what is evil. God knows that.’
So Eve looked at the tree, and when she looked at it, the sin was already half
committed. For whoever stops where temptation lures and takes pleasure in its
smooth lies, and looks at what is forbidden so that it may be sweet and pleasing,
has already half committed sin. So Eve did, despising God's warning, and took
and ate and gave to her husband. But when they had eaten, they looked at each
other, and suddenly fear came over them, and each felt that they had now
forfeited their innocence and the bliss of paradise, and did not need to tell
each other. They went quietly into the bushes and hid themself.
God came into the garden in the cool of the day: ‘Adam, where are you? Have you
not eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, that you should not eat of it?’
Adam said, ‘The woman deceived me.’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me.’
The transgression is followed by the reward. -
God said: ‘I will put enmity between the serpent and the woman and her offspring.
The woman's offspring shall bruise the serpent's head, and she shall bruise his
heel.’ God said to the woman, ’Much pain shall be the fruit of your
transgression. In pain you shall bring forth children, and your will shall be
subject to your husband.’ But to Adam he said: ‘You shall feed yourself with
sorrow from the field all your life. In the sweat of your face you shall eat
your bread, until you return to the ground from which you were taken. For you
are earth and shall become earth.’ Then the Lord God gave them garments to cover
their nakedness, and took them out of the beautiful garden into a desolate place,
so that Adam clothed himself with the earth from which he had been taken.
For when they had lost their innocence and sinned, they could never enjoy the
peace of life and the blissful childhood pleasures of paradise. Those who have
lost their innocence can no longer be happy in paradise. They were no longer
able to taste the rejuvenating fruit of the tree of life.
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