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CHRIST CHURCH, LONDON.
r— 0 argument is needed to prove, that
wQr man, as we know him in history, is
IXd a depraved being. I think that is
true of every man and woman here.
\Yjzf y° u stop to go back over
r your life you will realise along
| with the first knowledge of your-
—• I self that you were trying to do
”■ “ something that somebody, who had
superior wisdom, declared you should not do.
The original state of man may furnish
ground for debate with some. They may
have doubt as to whether our first parents were
ever anything else but depraved beings.
However, we are not going to debate the
question. We assume that the Bible account
is true, that “God made man in His own im
age.” That he was at first, absolutely pure
and holy; and afterwards, through yielding to
the temptations of Satan, fell into sin and car
ried the whole race with him.
Now, there are four characters that come to
gether in the fall, Adam and Eve; Satan and
God. .
First we will observe Adam and Eve. They
were perfect beings; perfect in body, soul and
spirit; they knew no sickness or disease in any
respect, of body, soul and spirit. They had a
perfect place of abode. Never mind wliere it
was located, whether in the Euphrates valley,
as some claim, or some other place—Eden lack
ed nothing that perfect man could desire. They
had a perfect Instructor and Guide, for God
was their Instructor and Guide
Then let us look at Satan for a moment. In
to this perfect atmosphere Satan entered.
This is the first mention we have of him; hence,
we naturally stop to ask, How he came, and
where he came from? There is no direct testi
mony to the first question. There does seem
some ground, however, for supposing that he
belonged to the period of time covered by Gen
esis 1:1, when the earth was in a state of perfec
tion, before the catastrophe described in Gen
esis 1:2, which rendered the earth without
form, and void. We have already seen that
the creation described in Genesis 1:1, was sep
arated from the rest of the chapter by perhaps
millions of years. We have also seen from
geology, and other sources, that life existed on
the earth at that time, before the catastrophe
which rendered the earth without form and
void, and perhaps millions of years before the
time of Adam.
Now, many; suppose that the earth during
that period of time, was inhabited by Satan and
his hosts in their unfallen state, and that Satan
The Golden Age for February 13, 1913.
THE FALL OF MAN Genesis 111:1-24
Wednesday Night Bible Lecture by Rev. Len G. Broughton, D.D., of Christ Church, London
Reported for The Golden Age by M. I. H.—Copyright Applied for. : :
was the ruling prince of the earth, and all forms
of life upon it.
It is also claimed that here is where he had
his great fall on account of pride. Probably
also, he and his hosts had bodies of some kind,
and a part of their judgment may have been
that they were disembodied —just as death, aft
er all, is the disembodiment of the spirit, and
a part of the judgment that fell upon man
for his sin.
I want here to call your attention to IT very
interesting prophecy in Ezekiel, as it will help
you to understand the prophecy in the light
of what we are dealing with, as you have never
done before. “Son of man, take up a lamenta
tion against the king of Tyre, and say unto
him, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; thou seal
est up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in
beauty. Thou wast in Eden, the garden of
God; every precious stone was Thy covering;
the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond; the
beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire,
the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold; the
workmanship of thy tabarets and of thy pipes
was in thee; in the day thou was created they
were prepared. Thou was the anointed cherub
that covereth; and I set thee so thou wast
upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast
walked up and down in the midst of the stones
of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from
the day that thou wast created, till unright
eousness was found in thee. By the abundance
of thy traffic they filled the midst of thee
with violence, and thou hast sinned; there
fore I have cast thee as profane out of the
mountain of God; and I have destroyed thee,
0 covering cherub, from the midst of the stones
of fire. Thy heart was lifted up because of
thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom
by reason of thy brightness I have cast thee
to the ground; I have laid thee before kings,
that they may behold thee. By the multitude
of thine iniquities, in the unrighteousness of
thy traffic, thou hast profaned thy sanctuar
ies; therefore have I brought forth a fire
from the midst of thee; it hath devoured thee,
and I have turned thee to ashes upon the
earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
All they that know thee among the peoples
shall be astonished at thee; thou are become
a terror and thou shalt never more have any
being.”
But never mind what his original or future
state, what concerns us most, is his work with
the race of Adam. Os this we have a well-con
nected history in the Word of God.
The first knowledge we have of the devil is
in the form of a serpent; that is, he came in
the form of a serpent. This does not mean
that he came in the form of the repulsive,
venomous reptile that we know at present, for
the serpent had not then been cursed, but held
itself upright; the most intelligent and prob
ably the most beautiful of all the beasts of the
field. It is possible that he had a form of wings.
Observe in this the wisdom of Satan I
And contrast that with the knowledge you
first had of him! Do you know what the first
idea of the devil was to me? A peculiar sort
of half man and half beast a thing that looked
neither like man nor beast, that had a great
long tail dragging on the ground, and with
long sharp horns sticking out in front. That
was the devil as he was presented to me as a
child. If that idea of the devil were true with
me today, I would never be concerned of him
in all the world. As a child I would not have
gone about him for anything in the world. I
would have been afraid of his horns or his tail.
The devil never assumed a form like that. He
began with the first pair in Eden as the most
attractive, winsome, bewitching of all the
beasts of the field —the serpent.
Let us now observe his method of approach.
He approaches Eve. This he regards to be the
surest way to Adam. He gets audience with
her by asking her a question, “Can it be true,
that God has forbidden you to eat of every
tree of the garden!”
Studying this question we see the shrewd
ness that has always characterized the move
ments of the devil. He begins by throwing
Eve off her guard by his pretended ignorance.
He appeals to her vanity, by pretending to
give her a chance to instruct him. He ignores
the covenant closeness of God to Adam and
Eve by using the word “Elohim” for God,
which only presents God as Creator, existing
in some far away place, instead of using the
word of covenant “Jehovah,” which shows
God in covenant partnership with Adam and
Eve. Then, he implies doubt as to the proper
understanding of God’s prohibition, or the wis
dom of it. He implies austerity and harsh
ness on the part of God in His dealings with
His creatures, in that He would forbid them the
use of anything they desired. All this appeal
ed to the woman. First, she grants him audi
ence by answering his question. “And the wo
man said unto the serpent of the fruit of the
trees of the garden we may eat; but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it,
neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” Observe
in this answer three important things. First,
she changes what God said. He said, “Ye
shall not eat of it;” she added, “Neither shall
ye touch it.” God said, “The day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” She
said, “Lest ye die,” “ye may die, perhaps so.”
Second, she follows Satan's wicked, fiendish
leadership by referring to God as “Elohim,”
the far-away God of creation, instead of re
ferring to Him as “Jehovah” the God of co
venant, the present God. In all this she re
veals her doubt, of the closeness of God. He
is “Elohim” far-away, the creator, God. The
one who, way back yonder, in the unthinkable
distance, created the heavens and the earth.
Then again, she doubts the wisdom of God.
She actually essays to change what God said,
as if God did not know what He was talking
about. She doubted the right of God, the
earnestness of God, when she said, “Lest ye
die,” the fixedness of God’s word, and changes
it to suit herself.
Then I want us to notice the devil’s contra
diction of God in the fourth verse. ‘‘ The ser
pent said unto the woman, “Ye shall not sure
ly die.” You will observe, he did not com
ment upon her misquotation; he knew better.
He knew what God said, and he goes back to
speak of what God said. He said, “Ye shall
surely die.”
< Then I want you to notice his argument.
“For God doth know that in the day that ye
eat therefor, then your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as God, knowing good and
evil.” 1 want here to take time to call your
attention to the danger of knowledge. We see
it here in the first part of the verse. The devil
appeals to an element in Eve which is common
to the race of men: a desire to know—to know.
I am not talking now about the knowledge of
science, or mathematics, or Greek. lam simp
ly talking about about knowledge; a desire
to know what lies back of the unknown. There
is a something in the human heart that just
longs to get behind every curtain, and to know
what is going on.,
And that something furnishes the devil with
the greatest opportunity. He began with Eve
and worked on various sides of her nature, but
he made very little headway until he struck
that; and when he struck that side, he was
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