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Adam and Eve were created to be
free moral agents - that they were
able to make their own decisions in–
dependent of the will ofGod, as can
all men today. Adam and Eve could
choose to disobey God, although
neither had done so previously.
Satan decided to persuade Eve to
disobey God by eating the forbid–
den fruit. And through Eve, he
would get at the roan.
They Biew lt
You continue to take rapid notes,
ignoring the writer's cramp already
beginning to set in. You ask further
questions only when you feel it is
absolutely necessary.
Once they had sinned, God ex–
plains to you, Adam and Eve tried
to escape from Him by hiding be–
hind sorne trees in the garden (Gen–
esis 3:8), a pathetic gesture at best ,
but typical of what mankind has
been doíng ever since.
You learn that when God later
talked to Adam, Adam blamed Eve,
and Eve blamed the serpent -
Satan - for their sin. But it didn't
matter so much, by tben, who was to
blame because tbe mistake had al–
ready been made.
"Notice," inteijects God at this
point of the interview, "that it
wasn't 1 who bid from Adam and
Eve - as sorne would tell the story
- but they tried to hide from me,
because they felt guilty about dis–
obeying!"
(Most of tbe words in the quota–
tion marks of this interview are
not
direct quotes from the Bible, but
they are a modem conversational
form of the scriptures, most of
which are cited.) ·
God then tells you how He sent
Adam and Eve out of Eden to till
the ground. Time passed and chil–
dren were bom, among them one
named Caín, who has the dubious
distinction of being the first re–
corded murderer. Cain killed his
brother Abe! out of jealousy be–
cause Abel had obtained favor with
30
God (Genesis 4: l-8). Unfortunately,
Caín was somewhat of a trend set–
ter. As generations passed and cities
were founded, the earth experienced
an init ial population explosion -
and most of those people followed
the lawless way ofCain.
"Because those people ignored
what 1 told their first parents," ex–
plains God, "conditions became
worse and worse, rather than im–
proving. Frankly, 1 didn't really ex–
pect humanity to turn out quite tbat
bad. As 1said in my book, 'the wick–
edness of man was great in the
earth ... every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually' [Genesis 6:5).
" I might have scratched Project
Earth altogether at that point
if
it
had not been for a man named
Noah. He wasn't disobedient to my
laws, and consequently, he had not
cut hirnself off from me (Genesis
6:8-9). I decided to spare him, his
family (II Pet. 2:5], and anyone else
who would listen to the warning I
gave through him. But. as you may
have read, no one else at that time
paid any atlention. 1 gave them
many years to make a decision one
way or the other, but no one indi–
vidual bothered to acknowledge me.
Consequently, everyone on earth
except for Noah and his immediate
family died in a devastating fiood."
By this time, your hand is grow–
ing desperately tired from taking
such copious notes, but you're not
about to miss this chance. You ig–
nore the problem and continue.
They Build a Tower
"It didn't take long for tbe de–
scendants of Noah to forget about
me, even though they themselves
were living testimony to my power
and merey. For example, there was
the incident of the tower of Babel.
It
is absolutely clear in my
memory," God remarks.
"Tbose people at Babel were go–
ing the very same way that people
had before the Flood. If 1 hadn't
confused their language and given
them
different
languages,
it
wouldn' t have been long before
meo would bave progressed to the
point where they would have de–
stroyed themselves ... and that
wasn't in my plan.
"In spite ofthe fact that the Flood
was recent history to them, men
once again chose to ignore me - not
vice versa!" (Genesis 11: 1-9.)
God tells you that bumanity, scat–
tered, took longer to progress. Even–
tually, nations formed from tribes.
grew great, and conquered or en–
slaved others. One case in point ,
God brings to your attention, was
tbe presence of the children oflsrael
in Egypt.
"Why was Israel so important?"
you wonder inwardly, but before
you can verbalize the question, God
answers - which unnerves you
more than a little, so that you al–
most miss His explanation. You
quickly note: God chose the descen–
dants of the patriarch Israel with a
PlAIN TRUTH
Moren
1973