The Fall of Mankind

The history of the fall of man and the correct timing for when death and corruption came into the world is essential. It is essential for a few reasons. One of them being because many mock God claiming that He stood by for some supposed 100 000 years and did nothing regarding man’s plight upon the earth.

Now, the Bible never teaches these ideas of pre-historic man that are put forward in the theory of evolution (see comparison). It teaches that mankind was created some 6000 years ago (if you trace back the genealogies), and that there was no death and suffering until Adam and Eve rebelled against God. If you Google "how long has civilisation existed" you will find that some people who study history come up with the same figure of around 5000 to 6000 years. But then, as you will always find there will be disagreements about everything, as if nobody seems to know. Finding out what happened in the past is not so easy when you have no recorded documentation at your disposal. Digging up bones and other things in the earth and then trying to figure out what happened is based completely on ones pre-conceived world-view about the past.

We have been told for so many years in the church that insisting on the literal historical reading of the early chapters of Genesis is a stumbling block to the modern scientific mind. All this sentiment has done is to cut the anchor chain and leave the world to be tossed about on the oceans, as they go about blaming and blaspheming God for their own misery, or for the misery they see around them. Christian people have been tied up in theological contradictions while trying to pretend it doesn’t matter and that all is well. It is no wonder that many are trying to say that the Old Testament Scriptures are not needed any more. (See article).

The timing of when death entered the world is essential to understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ and why it was necessary for Him to suffer death to atone for sin and defeat the power of death (Matt 16:21; Gal 3:13; Heb 2:14). The resurrection of Jesus from the dead was a physical visible sign to many hundreds of people in the first century, that the Christ had overcome death and paid in full for the sins of many (1 Cor 15:1-8). This had all been foretold centuries before in the Old Testament Scriptures (Luke 24:25-27). If you place death before the sin of Adam you are essentially nullifying the whole Gospel message (Rom 5:12-21).

We also see that God acted immediately after mankind fell, on the very same day, giving the promise of the Saviour who would come into the world to destroy the Devils work (Gen 3:15). People before the coming of Christ put their faith in God’s promise of the future Redeemer. Salvation has always been by faith and never by the practice of religion and works. You would not be wrong in saying that the Christian faith dates all the way back to the garden of Eden.

The correct knowledge of history matters, and we are now witnessing disastrous consequences as mankind has thrown off all restraints of Biblical authority, and has plunged itself into the abyss of fables and fallacies. Human beings long for that perfect "garden of Eden". They long to get back to that tree of life and be lifted out of their ruin and misery (Gen 3:22-24). They just don't want to pass through the gate that God has provided to get there. Being creatures of lust and pride they want it all on their own terms, striving with their own effort, but seem to keep running themselves into a brick wall and leaving a trail of destruction behind them. Mankind keeps trying to assert himself. He keeps trying to build his "tower of Babel" reaching up into the heavens (Gen 11:1-9). We can see this from Hitler's rise to power on the back of his super-race evolutionary ideas, to obsessive fantasies about making contact with "aliens", or modern ideas of us evolving to become a interplanetary species. Mankind thinks he is wonderful and evolving into some super-being. He keeps loosing sight of the fact that God created this world and that God determines what succeeds or does not succeed.

In all this there remains only one Book with one central message that holds out hope for mankind. The Bible brings people from dreaming and sticking their head in the sand to facing facts about his own condition, his relationship to God and what he needs to do about it. It will lead you to find the Tree of Life, and after you have found it you will live forever. (See article).