THE FALL OF OUR FIRST PARENTS—

WHY?
By Mario A Olcese

The Reason of the Wickedness

One of the most common questions that many people are made is: Why if God
is love, allows evil? This is, without a doubt, an interesting question that
requires to be responded by God Himself through His Word, the Bible. In first
place, God is not the creator of sin (James 1:13), because He is a good God and
Holy (1 Timothy 4:4; Luke 18:19; Psalm 100:5). Now then, according to Genesis
1:31, all what God created was good, especially His supreme creation: Man.
Good things can only proceed from a good God. To say that God created a
corrupt and perverse man by nature, is difficult to believe.

Now here is another crucial question, if God created a good and perfect
man ¿Why did he become rebellious and bad by nature? (Roman 3:9-18). Here
we have to proceed with more care to understand how man's fall began.
According to the Scriptures, God created man free. He gave to the first human
couple freedom so that they could chose, for themselves, between the obedience
and the disobedience. That has always been the "politics" of God towards all
His angelic and human creatures (Deuteronomy 30:15-20).

According to Genesis (and 1 John 3:8), Satan (the Devil), the biggest angel
that fell in misfortune for his rebellion against God, possessed or became a
snake, and through this subtle animal he spoke Eve. What was told to her
reveals his Machiavellian, liar, and turbulent character. He told to the first
couple that if they ate of the forbidden fruit they would not die but rather they
would be as God, knowing good and bad.

The Devil always looks for men’s rebellion against God. He seeks men to
believe that they can be gods, and for such purpose he has devised religions
and philosophies that deify the human being. Mormonism, "The New Era",
Satanism, and other similar cults, all seek to make us believe that we are gods
or that we can be as God. He is the tempter par excellence and the supreme liar.

The Demonstration of God’ love for Mankind

Let us turn to Adam and Eve. When falling in sin, God condemned them to
the capital punishment, but not without first to suffer of pains and physical
fatigues during their existence in the earth. Nevertheless, so big it was the love
of God that in the same day of the human fall, He was preparing man's
redemption by means of His unique Son Jesus Christ. Let us read what says
Revelation 13:8 "... of the Lamb that was immolated from the beginning of the

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world." In fact Christ would be immolated almost 4 millennia later, although
his immolation took place in the same moment of the creation of the world, in
the plan of God. The prophecy of Genesis 3:15 point out a continuous and
lingering fight among good and evil. And although the wrong seemingly comes
out victorious at the beginning, at the end the true winner is good represented
by Christ, his church, and his "eternal reign". Finally Satan and his demons will
be defeated by Christ and thrown to his place of perdition for the eternity.

The permission of evil clearly serves to the purposes of God, not only to
test men, but also to teach them something still more important: THE LOVING
AND MERCIFUL CHARACTER OF GOD TOWARDS SINNERS. And it‘s
that Adam and Eve lacked to know God. They didn't know that God is
infinitely merciful. Man's creation, of the planet earth, and of the entire
universe, DEMONSTRATED that God is Almighty and Wise, ¿but does it
show His great LOVE and MERCY for the unfortunate sinners? I don't believe
so! In any moment the first parents appeal to the mercy of God to obtain the
pardon.

According to Paul, God is known by the things that He made (Roman

1:19,20), but he is not saying that the moral and spiritual attributes of God can be
known by the things that He created, but rather His "ETERNAL POWER AND
DEITY". Definitively with the creation it cannot be known THE FEELINGS
AND MORE SECRET PURPOSES OF GOD. ¡There is no way! It’s as seeking
to know the character of an engineer for the house that he built, or that of a
potter for the ceramic that he made with his hands. The maximum thing that
we could know is their intelligence and good taste, but, ¿will we know if they
are good parents, faithful husbands, docile, sober, meek, humble, comprising,
wise, respectful, tolerant, temperate, etc? ¡It’s impossible to know all these
manifestations of the personality! In a same way, the children can’t know their
parents if they don't DEMONSTRATE TO THEIR CHILDREN THEIR
CHARACTER OR PERSONALITY WITH SPECIFIC ATTITUDES, as for
example: The affection that they offer them, the attention, the permanent
maintenance, the instruction that they inculcate them, the good example that
they give them, etc. A family father cannot hope his children love and obey him
if he before didn’t SACRIFICED for them with good actions. Parents should be
entirely dedicated to their family so that they can “harvest” good children,
useful to the society.

Jesus Christ’s Sacrifice

The same thing happens with God, the FATHER. He had intended to
DEMONSTRATE, in a clear and overwhelming way, His loving and merciful
character towards all men through an extraordinary and ONLY ACT. God
would give in SACRIFICE to its own Only-begotten Son for the humanity's
salvation. The key text is Roman 5:10 that says: "But God SHOWS (or
"DEMONSTRATES", according to other versions) His LOVE WITH US in that
being sinful, CHRIST DIED FOR US". For his side, the same Lord Jesus Christ

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said: "Because in such a way God loved the world that He has given to His
Only-begotten Son, so that all that believes in him doesn't get lost but has
eternal life" (John 3:16). Do you understand now that the only way of being
able to know that God has a "heart of gold" is by means of the delivery that He
made of His dear Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, for his immolation in the
cross of the Calvary in favor of the sinners? God DEMONSTRATED or
SHOWED that He really loved men and that He wanted to redeem them. Now
nobody could allege that God was severe, tough and inflexible. Let’s imagine
for a moment how God will have felt when seeing His own Son dying in the
Cross as a sinner. But He gave us His Son to save us from perdition and in this
way to snatch us of the Devil's claws. How extraordinary act of love and
detachment for all us on behalf of God and His Son!¡ Both loved us deeply! (See
Ephesians 5:2). If the first human couple had not fallen in misfortune, then it
had not been necessary for God to send His Son to the world, and in
consequence WE HAD NEVER KNOWN GOD’S LOVE AND OF CHRIST
FOR ALL MEN. ¿Do you imagine if Christ had not died for us? ¿Would you
really love God and His Son? ¡Think on it for a while! Perhaps you would only
have him a reverent respect as the Creator, but not necessarily love. God
allowed the human fall to DEMOSTRATE HIS LOVE to all men. God also did
allow the satanic REBELLION, because without this wicked spirit, ¿who would
have tempted the first human couple? The devil, without knowing it, served to
the purposes of God!

Summary

The God of the Bible has demonstrated His love for his human creatures
by making a great sacrifice never before seen to redeem or save them from their
fallen condition. No other God of any other world religion has been able to
make similar supreme act of giving the most important thing that they can
possible have to DEMONSTRATE their character of love and mercy for their
worshipers. There is an uppercase test of the superiority of the Christian
religion here on the other religions of the world. Christians have the whole
reason of the world to love their God, because Their God loved them first, and
as an answer, God "won" the reciprocal love of His worshipers. Can they really
love their gods when in fact those gods had not demonstrated any simple or
extraordinary act of love for them? The maximum thing that they will be able to
feel it is a reverent fear to their gods, but not necessarily a true love toward
them.

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