Genesis 3: Where Humanity Failed

Genesis3:19b "You are dust, and to dust you shall return."

My X feed has become riddled with atheists trying their hardest to discredit the Christian faith (of which I am part of). One of such posts is this recent one.

Our world is incredibly broken and continues to break. Many are searching for way to fix it without relying on external means (such as religion). As we get closer to Easter Sunday, during the recorded time of Lent, I figured I'd take a few minutes to take a hard look at our origin story and find out where we went wrong.

If you are reading this and you are religious, you likely have a good understanding of this account. If not, then I will let the Book of Genesis speak for itself.

Genesis 3 (ESV) 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" 2And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" 4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" 10 And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." 11 He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" 12 The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate." 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." 16 To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for you husband, but she shall rule over you." 17 And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to durst you shall return." 20 The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. 22 Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever---" 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Atheists will read Genesis 3 and then blame God for Man's rebellion. Blaming God for making knowledge a bad thing. Here's the issue though. It's a false representation of the text. The tree didn't simply contain knowledge; it contained knowledge of morality.

Morality: The difference between Right and Wrong. Good and Evil (as is the trees name).

Everyone is out to make the Lord God the bad guy. But What did God do?

To rewind a little bit, Genesis 1, we see God take 5 different days to create our known universe. And after each day he declared his creation good. On the 6th day God creates Mankand. Genesis says the creation of Man and Woman in His image was very good (Genesis 1:31).

Genesis 2 records Man being placed in the garden of Eden where every tree sprouts up that is good for food. 2 of these trees are the Tree of Life and the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Genesis 2:16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you will surely die."

The Lord God creates Life and Death and places them in the garden. Death is the only tree off limits. And if you noted what God commanded man, he could touch the tree.

It's interesting that when the serpent temps Eve with knowledge of good and evil to be like God, with Adam being with her, the tree of Life was also there.

The argument of God being the "bad guy" comes from man's rebellion in his perfect nature. If man was made perfect, why did we need knowledge of good and evil? Concepts of morality that would be foreign in a world where evil didn't exist.

Death didn't even corrupt Adam until God cursed him with death for his disobedience. His sin. Then God kicked them out of the garden so they wouldn't eat of the tree of Life and live forever in their sin.

Life with God was always an option. Adam and Eve had both from the start. So why is it God's fault that we chose disobedience? It's not. And to address the Hosea 4:6 claim, it's referring to the state of depravity that is mentioned in Romans 1. Where we love our sin so much, we push God out altogether. Ironically, the challenge from atheists is reflected in the passage they tried to use to discredit the Christian faith.

Satan was a fallen angel who was already going to die. And just like the third of heavens angels who fell with him, Satan decided to manipulate woman into sin, into death. With Adam being too willing to join her. What does that say about us? History shows in our wickedness we enjoy wars, taking lives, pursing the pleasures of our desires, we know right from wrong now but we'd rather live in that death.

The tree of life is gone now and won't return until the New Heaven is established. And by then, sin will have been abolished (Revelation 21:6).

So where is our source of life now that the tree is gone? How do we cure ourselves of the curse God put on us? How can we have a celebration of life after death?

Look to the cross... "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."- Jesus. Mark 1:15