God - The Book Part I.
Creation To Eternity
God's Creation:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth had no form. It was empty, covered with darkness and water. Then the Spirit of God hovered over the water, and God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good.
Then He divided the light from the darkness. God called the light "day", and the darkness he called "night." And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Then God said, "Let there be a great expanse of air to divide the waters below from the waters above."
And God called the expanse "heaven." And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Then God said, "Let the water under the heaven be gathered together in one place, and let the dry land appear," and it happened.
And God called the dry land "earth"; and the gathering together of the waters He called "seas": and God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the earth produce grass, and herbs, and fruit trees, all yielding after their own kind," and it happened; And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Then God said, "Let there be lights in the heavens; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days, and years." God made two great lights; the sun to rule by day and the moon to rule by night. He also made the
stars.
And He set them all in the heavens to give light upon the earth; And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Then God said, "Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth." So God created great whales and everything that moves in the water, and winged animals - all these producing after their kinds; and God saw that it was good. And He blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful, and multiply." And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Then God said, "Let the earth be filled with living creatures." So He made the animals on the earth, the cattle, and every thing that crawls upon the
earth--all producing after their kinds; and God saw that it was good.
God's Creation Part II.
Then God said, "Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
So God created man in His own image; and He created them male and female. God named the first man Adam; then later Adam called the woman, Eve.
And God said, "A man shall leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed."
And God saw everything that He had made, and it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
The heavens and the earth were finished, so on the seventh day God ended his work. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. The Lord God also
planted a garden in Eden. And out of the ground He made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
God's Creation: Part III.
In the middle of the garden stood two trees: The Tree of Life and The Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil.
And the Lord put man in the garden of Eden to care for everything in it.
Then the Lord God commanded, "You may eat freely from every tree of the garden except for The Tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil.
You must never eat from that tree. In the day that you do, you will surely die." God showed his love for Adam and Eve, by giving them all they needed and more to enjoy life to its fullest.
He also gave them the ability to make choices, and He gave these ancestors of all humankind an opportunity to use this ability wisely. God wanted Adam and Eve to show their respect by obeying His one command, to not
eat from just that one tree. Everything else was theirs to enjoy.
To live in peace and happiness in their beautiful garden, Adam and Eve needed only to trust God's wisdom, and respect His authority over them. They should have been grateful for life and happy in their freedom, but freedom to choose does not bring happiness when bad choices are made.
Long before God created humans, He also gave freedom of choice to the angels He had created. God desired honor from these angels, who inhabit the spirit realm, just as He desired honor from people.
Most angels did choose to follow God, and even today these angels worship the Lord and carry out his bidding, helping people in many ways. But other angels made a bad choice. They rejected God's love, selecting instead Lucifer, the most beautiful angel as their leader. Lucifer's arrogance and pride caused him to lose the honored position above God's throne.
Lucifer fell from heaven for his rebellion, because he had challenged God by saying in his heart, "I will elevate my throne above the stars of God: I will be like the most High God."
Lucifer, known also in the Bible as the Devil or Satan, desires worship which belongs only to God. Satan deceives people in order to obtain that worship, even masquerading as a beautiful angel of light, but his lies and his false religions cause pain - and suffering - and destruction.
So God pronounced doom to Lucifer saying, "You will be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."
The Fall of Humankind
In the beautiful new garden inhabited by Adam and Eve, Satan appeared to Eve in the form of a serpent.
Now this serpent was more crafty than any animal which the Lord God had made. And the serpent said unto the woman, "Are you sure God said, 'You should not eat from every tree of the garden?'"
The woman answered, "We may eat fruit from all of the trees in the garden, except for the fruit on one tree in the middle of the garden. About it God said, "You must not eat from that tree. If you do, you will die."
Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die: God knows that in the day you eat this fruit, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil."
Eve took the fruit and ate it, and gave it to her husband, Adam, who was with her, and he ate it also.
The Bible says Satan is The Father of Lies, so of course - he tried to deceive the woman, and he lied to her about God.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to look at, and that it could make her wise, she took the fruit, and ate it, and gave it to her husband who was with her; and he ate it
also.
The Fall of Humankind - Part 2
Instantly, their eyes were opened and their spirits became dead. They saw that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
Then, when they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day, Adam and his wife hid themselves from God's presence among the trees of the garden. Because they trusted their own reasoning
instead of the words of God, they died spiritually and lost communion with the Lord.
Adam and Eve saw that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. Then the Lord God called to Adam, saying, "Where are
you?"
Adam answered, "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself."
Then God asked, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the one tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" Adam answered, "The woman that you gave to me, she gave me the fruit, and I ate it."
And the Lord said to the woman, "What have you done?" The woman answered, "The serpent deceived me, so I ate the fruit."
Then the Lord said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you are cursed above every animal; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life: And I will put hatred between you
and the woman, and her descendant will crush your head."
This curse against Satan is the first mention in God's book that one day He would send a Savior, born of a woman, to defeat Satan.
To the woman God said, "I will greatly increase your grief. Having children will bring you sorrow; and your husband will rule over you.
The Land will produce thorns and weeds, and by the sweat of your brow you will eat bread until you return to the ground.
And to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to your wife and have eaten from the forbidden tree, the ground is cursed. Now every day of your life, only through difficulty, will you eat from the ground.
It will produce thorns and weeds, and by the sweat of your brow you will eat bread until you return to the ground; I made you from dust and you will return to dust."
The Fall of Humankind - Part 3
God made clothes from animal skins to cover Adam and Eve. The fig leaves which Adam and Eve sewed together did not cover their nakedness, so the Lord God made clothes from animal skins to cover Adam and his wife. God had to kill an animal to provide covering for them, so through Adam, sin and death entered the world.
This method - of covering people's disobedience by the death of an innocent one, was God's plan, even before He made the world. He knew that people would foolishly reject His leadership and instead try to be the God of their own lives and fail. God calls this rejection "sin."
Yet, because of God's love for everyone, He planned to send a Savior who would die, to provide the offer of forgiveness for the sins of all people.
Then the Lord banished Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden, and he placed angels, called Cherubim, at the east of the garden, and a flaming sword which turned every direction, guarding access to The Tree of Life.
From the moment of Adam's sin, all people were destined to die. Yet, in God's story, there is still hope.