No Praise in Paradise
An Apologetic Devotion about the Origin of Sin in man. By Rev. Earl Jackson
(A powerful but neglected argument explaining why God created sin so that man would be able to glorify Him.)
Read: Genesis 2:7- 3:24 and Genesis 5:1-51Cor. 15:22 "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive".
Isa 35:1-2 "The wilderness and the desert shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the crocus. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the honor of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of Jehovah and the majesty of our God".
Isa 51:3 "For Jehovah shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Jehovah. Joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody".
Adam in the Garden of Eden, the perfect paradise of God's own making, never once uttered a word of praise or thankful appreciation. Why Not? If anybody should have been joyously thanking God it should have been Adam. Right?
It seems that Adam in Eve were occupied in Eden, naming animals, looking at and eating fruit, enjoying one another, and even walking with God. But we read of not one word of praise or thanksgiving for all the wonderful blessings which God had bestowed upon them. Adam and Eve never said Thanks, and never praised Him even once as far as we can tell from the Bible. Isn't that strange to you? Living a thankless existence in Paradise? Don't you sense something radically wrong here? No wonder they fell into sin so quickly, they seem to have taken everything for granted. Didn't they?
Taking it even further, we do not read one word about worship of any kind in Eden. It is not until Cain and Abel are adults that we read of any kind of worship toward God (when they each brought offerings to Jehovah). Most people assume that Cain and Abel were taught to worship God by their parents Adam and Eve, but this is purely speculation. Nothing is actually said about Adam and Eve ever worshiping God at all! People just assume this. But the Bible is actually completely silent.
I am not suggesting that we invent doctrines based upon the silence of Scripture. Sometimes, as in this case, silence speaks volumes. But the doctrines of our faith are never based upon the silence of scripture but upon the plain declarations and facts of scripture. What I am insisting on here is that we refrain from falsely inserting doctrines where they do not exist, and where they do not belong. We must not picture Adam and Eve as worshipful saints, praising and thanking God in holiness and righteousness, when the Bible does not say that at all. In fact, that view of the events in Eden, may actually go against the plain facts that the Bible does declare. Let's consider a few important things here, which may correct a lot of erroneous thinking.
Adam was not saved before he fell!
I have heard many theologians falsely teach that Adam was created in righteousness and true holiness. When the Bible teaches that those are results of New Creation and not original creation.
Eph 4:24 "And you should put on the new man, who according to God was created in righteousness and true holiness".
It is the new man which is created in righteousness and true holiness, not the old man. Righteousness and holiness are characteristics of grace, not characteristics of being human.
You need to quit listening to the theologians and start reading the Bible!
Righteousness and true holiness are states of Grace from which you can never fall! Adam did not have that by nature. That's part of the reason why He fell! And that's also the reason why he did not worship God in Eden. Adam was not saved before he fell! Because before he fell, he had nothing to be saved from! Salvation is unnecessary without sin. That is why the theologians are wrong when they teach that Adam was created in righteousness and true holiness.
Sanctification is part of salvation, not part of creation!
Adam was created to Sin and Die.
And the Second Adam Died...
to create us to not sin and to Live unto God!
Adam was created to die. The second Adam re-creates us to live by grace.
God made Adam, so that all men in Him might die.
Rom 5:12 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned"
By The same token, and as part of the same divine and sovereign plan, God made the second Adam (the Lord Jesus Christ) so that all the men in Him, might be made alive.
Rom 5:19 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous".
It is summed up here quite succinctly:
1Cor 15:22 "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive".
1Cor. 15:45-49 Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
None of this is accidental. It is all part of God's omnipotent and unfailing plan. Not one thing happened on its own or by mere permission. It happened all by divine decree. That is the only way it could have been assured of happening, just as God planned. Salvation was too important for God to leave to the whims of mere creatures. Their actions never influence His, and His plans cannot be altered or thwarted in any way, by any being or thing in the universe. That's what gives the certainty to the golden chain in Romans 8.
Rom 8:29-30 "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. :30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified".
The certainty and infallibility of all of God's purposes is also the reason for these precious statements:
Rom 8:38-38 "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord".
We all need to be persuaded of the impossibility of anything or any one ever thwarting the plan of God's infinite Love in Christ. The doctrine of mans "free-will" cannot be reconciled with God's sovereign love and absolute unchanging purposes of Grace. God created sin to show His love and to work out His own unbreakable and non-improvable plan. Men are not saved by free-will they are saved by grace through the perfect sinless Savior. When you choose Christ it is because He first chose you, and your willful decision to believe is woven into Gods Eternal decision to Save all that come to God through Christ. God's decision over-rules all of your decisions. That's why it's so important to not make the wrong decision about Christ. You might decide yourself right into hell if you decide not to believe and trust Jesus.
Beware of Imaginary views of God.
They Always Lead to Idolatry.
People have all kinds of mental problems when I say that Adam was created to die. It seems to throw people into a theological tizzy? God can create anything or anybody for any purpose that He wishes. Can't He? He is God, Isn't He? If God wanted to make Adam so that He would sin and die, isn't that within God's Creator prerogative to do so? So why do these people get up in arms when I say that? It is because their views of God are purely imaginary. Here's how they think. They are fond of saying stuff like..."God made man to live forever in perpetual fellowship with Himself". And "If Adam had not sinned then man would have lived forever in the wonderful Garden of Eden. God made man to be in fellowship with Himself, because He was lonely and needed companionship in that big garden. God created somebody in his image, because that's the only way He could keep from being lonely!"
Isn't that nice? Isn't that sweet? Adam and Eve living forever in paradise with butterflies and bunny rabbits. That was God's full intention. God needed companionship so He made a perfect companion for himself, somebody in His own image. Somebody He could talk to and love. In their view, that was what God actually wanted. That sounds cute and nice, but it is anti-God and anti-Biblical. It is false doctrine pure and simple. In fact that idea is actually hateful toward God and is resentful of the actual account of what He said really happened. All the false views of what happened in Eden center on false views about why man was created in the first place. These views almost always involve protecting the cherished notion of mans free will. You do not need false doctrines to protect human volition. God gave men volition, so false doctrines do nothing to establish truth. That has nothing to do with the pre-fall Adamic state and the nature of the Garden of Eden.
Trying to protect mans "free-will" and "free-reign" in Eden, confuses the actual truth about what happened there. If God intended man to live forever in paradise with the butterflies, bunnies and lambies, then He miserably failed! God is not a moron and an utter failure! God's original intentions and plans did not happen at all when you take this approach. God is a complete failure according to the humanistic idealism of the prop up mans "free will" hypothesis. This entire fairy tale view of Adam and Eve in Eden is the invention of false notions about the "free will of man" propaganda. "If Adam hadn't sinned He would have fulfilled Gods plan and lived for ever". So the free will of man becomes the explanation for the failure of God to fulfill His own plans! God's will and Sovereign desires obviously mean nothing. Man therefore is elevated above God. "Man's free-will" when it is exalted falsely, becomes the all important law which governs the Almighty and limits what He can and cannot do. This view makes "free-will" the explanation for sin, the fall, and everything else. God had nothing to do with any of it. Really? In fact the whole affair must have come as some kind of surprise to God, because if God actually knew what was going to happen and He did nothing to prevent it, then He would have been quite unjust. Really? A righteous God could have prevented the catastrophe of the fall had He known about it. But "God had faith in the man" whom He created. But the man sadly let God down. The man had no faith in God. This whole idea is really quite bizarre, yet many people think this is actually the Biblical account of the fall. God had faith in man but man failed God. The heresy here is that God does not have faith. God gives faith. He does not have it, because all His counsel is sure and stands. Man is the one who is supposed to have faith. This view however says man is supposed to have enough free will to upset the plans of God, and God is supposed to put His faith in man. That is simply warped theology and twisted bizarre thinking. There is no other way to describe it. That is certainly not Bible doctrine. It seems quite satanic to me.
This propaganda to protects the "free-will" of man and over-extended it beyond it's legitimate bounds, limits the Almighty in the process. This perverse idea has warped and twisted every aspect of our lives and especially of our theological thinking. It is impossible to think correctly about God and hold to the doctrine of man's free-will when it is exalted above God's will. Nothing is protected by promoting the pernicious, false, God-hating doctrine of mans "autonomous free-will". God established clear boundaries for human volition. Free-choices do not equal free-will. Only God has free-will. If you hold to any part of that doctrine, in any way shape or form, you undermine the entire doctrine of God's absolute Sovereignty. Unchecked Free-will warps and twists God, and His plan of salvation, all out of recognition. The doctrine of
"free will" is not Christian. It is humanistic paganism. And it is a virulent form of idolatry! It worships the creature more than the creator. Man's freedom is never so free as to alter God Himself.
Rom 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
Creature worship in any form (as in the worship of the creatures will), is always idolatry. Any worship that distorts God is always idolatry. Paul actually is saying that creature worship is a mark of reprobation. If it is a mark of the reprobate, then it certainly has no place in Christian theology or thinking! The humanistic free-will doctrine is Satanic, and that is why Satan tried so hard to promote it in Eden, and He has been telling the same lies throughout all of history.
The only alternative to Satanic
fairy tale theology is "truth".
And the truth is found in what the Bible actually says.
Here are some plan things that the Bible teaches,
and which we have discussed in great detail in numerous articles, sermons and writings.
1. God is sovereign and cannot fail in any of his desires, wishes or purposes.
2. Adam actually sinned, and did not live the fairy tale life imagined by the false teachers. It was never even a possibility because God obviously had willed something far different than what these speculators want you to believe.
3. Adam was therefore created just to please God, and do His will as God foreordained for Him to do.
4. God was fully intentional in mans creation and fall. Adam was created to sin, to bring sin into the world, to bring death by sin, and to pass that death along to all men. Why is this point absolutely necessary and true?
4. Because there is no salvation without damnation! Because there is no Savior without sinful beings who need to be saved. Because there is no worship in Eden. There is no Praise in Eden. There is not even any thanksgiving in Eden. There is no appreciation for all that God has done in Eden. Appreciation and praise, thanksgiving and worship come only through salvation. Good and salvation itself is the result of deprivation and darkness. You don't know what you have until it is taken away! You cannot be saved until you are lost. You have to know what you don't have, in order to appreciate what you do have! The darkness is always the backdrop and contrasting display against which the light is made manifest. Salvation is made wonderful, and God is glorified in it, only because of sin which made it so vitally necessary and important. Sin is the backdrop without which salvation would be nonsense, and with which salvation is made tremendously glorious and incredible.
God's purpose for Adam and for all of creation is no mystery.
God's actual and ultimate purpose is plainly stated here:
Prov 16:4 "The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked also for the evil day".
Question: How many things did God make?
Answer: "all things."
Question: Are the wicked included in what God made?
Answer: Yes, "even the wicked" were made by God.
Question: Why did God make the wicked?
Answer: God made the wicked "for Himself", and "for the day of evil."
Question: If men are saved, what are they saved from?
Answer: They are saved from wickedness. Wickedness therefore is necessary for salvation. Both are part of God's plan.
Question: What does this truth do?
Answer: It substantiates this verse.
Rev 4:11 "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created".
What is so difficult about any of this? Why do we need to fabricate myths to cover up the origin of sin in order to pretend to protect God from His own purposes and acts? If God says that He made "everything" for Himself, then that includes the thankless man in Eden who would sin against Him and thus fulfill His sovereign purposes. It includes the slithering serpent speaking lies to the thankless man in Eden. It includes a tree with tempting and seductive fruit. But it certainly does not include any accidents! There are no accidents because God is God, and He holds all things together (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:17) . Why on earth would anybody have difficulty understanding this? This is actually what God has said! There is no hidden mystery here, no unknowable secret counsels. It has all been clearly revealed in the most simple and straightforward language. Confusion comes when we try to change it up to align with fairy tale inspired doctrines.
God created Adam for His own Pleasure, not so that God Himself would be limited by Adams "free-will"! That doctrine is nothing but blasphemy. No matter what anybody thinks about Eden and the fall of man and the universe into the black night of sin, it was God's will which was done in Eden not mans. God's perfect will was done in Eden. Just as God's perfect will is done in all things.God did not fail when Adam sinned and consequently died. God's will was being performed by Adam. God's will was being performed by the seducing serpent. And in that God was and is glorified.
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
What is the Chief End of Man?
Shorter catechism question 1: What is the chief end of man?
Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.
Question? Was that achieved in Eden? Did man glorify God and enjoy Him forever when He turned His back on the commands of the Lord and followed the teachings of a snake?
Question? Was that that even achievable at all in Eden? If so, then man can achieve his created purpose without the need for a Savior and without the need for salvation?
Question? Is it possible for man to glorify God without the Savior?
Question? Did God create man to never need a Savior?
Question? Was Salvation planned before the world began?
If so, then why? If God wanted Adam to live forever in butterfly land, then why would he have planned Salvation?
These extra questions show that the chief end of man question is teaching false doctrine when theologians use it to teach fairy tales. Mans Chief end is not in Eden it is in an Old Rugged Cross! God knew this right along, that's why the Lamb was slain "from before the foundation of the world" (1Pet. 1:20; Rev. 13:8)
God created the man and ordained that he should sin through the seducer whom He created and placed right there in the heart of paradise! Imagine that? God created and ordained sin, exactly so that His ultimate plan of sending the Savior to save men from sin, from thankless-ness, from praiseless-ness, and from worshipless-ness would be fulfilled. Imagine that? God invented sin, because He also invented salvation from sin! The two go together. You can't have one without the other! There is no mystery in that. What would be really mysterious and odd however, would be if God predestined salvation without sin? What would we be saved from? Such thinking is illogical and nonsensical. From start to finish God planned it all, so that He would be glorified and enjoyed by the men and women whom He created. There is no worship in Eden. Don't miss that important detail. There is no Praise in Eden, because God planned it that way, so that through salvation, men would really have something to be thankful for and to be praising God for! God planned sin so that in saving men from it, He would be glorified in a way that could have happened no other way. God is glorified when men are worshiping Him and praising Him for doing what they could never do themselves. That's why God invented Satan, invented sin, invented the fall and invented redemption through the Savior. All those things are God's ideas. All those things were God's plan. God knew about everything because He planned it all! Do you think that the all-knowing One did not know every detail about what would happen? It's not a mystery. It's all quite simple. What's a mystery is that theologians and intellectuals will refuse to believe it! That is absolutely astounding! It shows just how stupid they really are, all wrapped up in their philosophizing instead of simply believing. They have in their head their false doctrine that God could never be the author of sin, and not one verse in the Bible actually says such a thing. They invent nonsense because they already believe nonsense. God is the author of sin, but He is not a sinner! God created temptation and the tempter, but He is neither of those things (James 1:13). Of course God created sin. It did not just create itself. It did not come into being on its own. It was created with the rest of the plan of salvation. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to ever say otherwise.
No praise in Eden means
that Adam was Not Achieving His "chief end".
Was He not created to worship and glorify God? Yes He was! And that's precisely why God wanted him to sin, to die and to be driven out from paradise! God knew that there is no worship, no praise, no thanksgiving, and no glorification of Him, without salvation! God knew that for man to worship and glorify Him, he needed to experience sin and the loss of paradise. God never intended for man to live in bliss without salvation. That is a disgusting and disgraceful doctrine, because it ignores every fact that God tells us about what actually happened. God ought to know? He was There! God made man in order to drive Him out from Eden and thus drive Him to Christ! God made Him for this purpose, just like He made Judas for the purpose of betraying Christ. It is only when God's purposes and plans are fulfilled that man can actually Glorify God, Praise Him and enjoy him as God intended. Man does not glorify God unless He embraces the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth. There is salvation in no other way! There is no glorifying God without Christ!
The only possible way for God be glorified at all was through the creation of sin, the fall of man and the consequent salvation through His Son.
Theologians want to remove God from the creation of sin, because in their warped minds. They think that a God who creates evil must Himself be evil. This is rubbish and nonsense. God is pure and holy, all the time, even when He is creating devils and demons, even when He is fashioning special vessels fitted for destruction. Nothing that God does is capable of defiling His purity and Holy essence. He is The One who defines right and wrong and what is sinful. What is wrong for you, is wrong simply because He said so. But He can do no wrong, simply because He says that everything He does is right! He says that even His own creation of evil is right, simply because He says so. Look:
Isa 45:7 "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things".
Don't worry or fret about it. God made evil, and He is still good! In fact it's presence proves just how good He really is! If He had not created evil, then we would all have reason to question His goodness, because He would also have not created salvation. John 3:16 would not be in your Bible if God did not create sin. There would have been no way for Him to "so love the world" if it did not involve the Divine necessity of sending Christ into it's darkness to rescue those who were sinners! God's nature is not determined by his acts. Creating sin does not make God a sinner, It make Him the Savior of Sinners! All His acts are good, simply because He says so! He is not a man, so we need to quit thinking as though He were. He is the almighty and He works all things after the counsel of His perfect and immutable will (Eph 1:11).
The Bible clearly shows that had God not created sin, and done everything that He did to bring about salvation through Christ, no man would ever glorify Him or enjoy Him forever! No sin = No Salvation! We would all be thankless in Eden had Adam not performed God's will in ushering sin into the world. Sin and Salvation go hand in hand in the eternal plan of God. Neither is a mistake or an afterthought with God. Neither is an accident or a self created reality. God is in charge of everything. Don't worry. He knows what He is doing!
Without the fall God would not be glorified. And Here are just a few examples showing why!
When Man Falls into trouble, then He can glorify God.
Psa 50:15 "And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."
Trouble is the way to salvation from trouble. And sin is the way to salvation from sin. You can't have the blessedness without the bad.
Thanksgiving Glorifies God.
Psa 50:23 "The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me!"
Adam, as we have shown, did not do this. And nobody would have ever done it, had Adam not sinned, because we would not have really had anything to be thankful for. If we only knew paradise, then how could we ever Praise God for saving us?
God is glorified when all of His plans of old unfold exactly as He planned them.
Isa 25:1 "O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth."
Not as we imagine them to be, but as they actually were and are! that's what causes men to glorify Him.
God is glorified in the execution of His grace upon men Through Jesus Christ.
Matt 15:31 "Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel."
2Thess 1:12 "That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ".
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. God is not glorified without these, that's why He created the way for them to come.
God is glorified because of repentance.
This wonderful doctrine would have been unnecessary according to the humanistic free-will fairy tales.
Acts 11:18 "When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life".
God is glorified when men submit to the Gospel.
2Cor 9:13 "By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others". (ESV)
God is glorified because of Faithful Gospel Preachers.
We would have no preachers had God not ordained the sin of Adam! Preachers are unnecessary without a salvation to preach and a God whose oracles must be declared!
Gal 1:24 "And they glorified God because of me" (Paul speaking of himself).
1Pe 4:11 "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen".
God is glorified in the suffering of the Saved!
But there would never have been any suffering if Adam and Eve lived forever in free-will butterfly land!
1Pe 4:16 "Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf".
God is glorified when you bear fruit as Christians.
John 15:8 "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples".
Php 1:10-11 "So that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God".
The only reason that you can now bear fruit, is because Adam ate forbidden fruit! He brought death so Christ could bring life!
1Cor 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
God Is Glorified through your Blood Bought Salvation.
Don't you ever forget this! God created sin as surely as He created Salvation so that this can happen.
1Cor 6:20 "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's".
None of these things would be possible had God not created sin! or Had God allowed man to stay in Paradise.
Anybody who says that God did not create sin, cheapens the true doctrine of salvation, because they eliminate one of God's wise steps to bring redemption about. Calvary is not located in Eden, man had to be driven out, before he could ever kneel at the Old Rugged cross! Sin assured that it would happen!
No Praise in Eden Means Lots of Praise After Eden!
Paradise Lost means wilderness gained. Paradise lost means salvation gained!
Wilderness gained means lots of praise because of the salvation FROM IT!
God ordained that man pass through the wilderness of sin, so that He could make that desert to blossom as the rose with His own worship, praise and glory. How thankful and happy are we who do not live in Eden, but who live in Grace! God knew exactly what He was doing each step of the way in the plan of salvation. He was making it possible for you to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. In securing salvation, He was securing a people who would actually achieve the "chief end" of their creation and existence. Praise His Holy Name.
Isa 35:1-2 "The wilderness and the desert shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the crocus. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the honor of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of Jehovah and the majesty of our God".
Isa 51:3 "For Jehovah shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Jehovah. Joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody".
Isa 35:1-2 "The wilderness and the desert shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the crocus. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the honor of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of Jehovah and the majesty of our God".
Isa 51:3 "For Jehovah shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Jehovah. Joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody".
Adam in the Garden of Eden, the perfect paradise of God's own making, never once uttered a word of praise or thankful appreciation. Why Not? If anybody should have been joyously thanking God it should have been Adam. Right?
It seems that Adam in Eve were occupied in Eden, naming animals, looking at and eating fruit, enjoying one another, and even walking with God. But we read of not one word of praise or thanksgiving for all the wonderful blessings which God had bestowed upon them. Adam and Eve never said Thanks, and never praised Him even once as far as we can tell from the Bible. Isn't that strange to you? Living a thankless existence in Paradise? Don't you sense something radically wrong here? No wonder they fell into sin so quickly, they seem to have taken everything for granted. Didn't they?
Taking it even further, we do not read one word about worship of any kind in Eden. It is not until Cain and Abel are adults that we read of any kind of worship toward God (when they each brought offerings to Jehovah). Most people assume that Cain and Abel were taught to worship God by their parents Adam and Eve, but this is purely speculation. Nothing is actually said about Adam and Eve ever worshiping God at all! People just assume this. But the Bible is actually completely silent.
I am not suggesting that we invent doctrines based upon the silence of Scripture. Sometimes, as in this case, silence speaks volumes. But the doctrines of our faith are never based upon the silence of scripture but upon the plain declarations and facts of scripture. What I am insisting on here is that we refrain from falsely inserting doctrines where they do not exist, and where they do not belong. We must not picture Adam and Eve as worshipful saints, praising and thanking God in holiness and righteousness, when the Bible does not say that at all. In fact, that view of the events in Eden, may actually go against the plain facts that the Bible does declare. Let's consider a few important things here, which may correct a lot of erroneous thinking.
Adam was not saved before he fell!
I have heard many theologians falsely teach that Adam was created in righteousness and true holiness. When the Bible teaches that those are results of New Creation and not original creation.
Eph 4:24 "And you should put on the new man, who according to God was created in righteousness and true holiness".
It is the new man which is created in righteousness and true holiness, not the old man. Righteousness and holiness are characteristics of grace, not characteristics of being human.
You need to quit listening to the theologians and start reading the Bible!
Righteousness and true holiness are states of Grace from which you can never fall! Adam did not have that by nature. That's part of the reason why He fell! And that's also the reason why he did not worship God in Eden. Adam was not saved before he fell! Because before he fell, he had nothing to be saved from! Salvation is unnecessary without sin. That is why the theologians are wrong when they teach that Adam was created in righteousness and true holiness.
Sanctification is part of salvation, not part of creation!
Adam was created to Sin and Die.
And the Second Adam Died...
to create us to not sin and to Live unto God!
Adam was created to die. The second Adam re-creates us to live by grace.
God made Adam, so that all men in Him might die.
Rom 5:12 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned"
By The same token, and as part of the same divine and sovereign plan, God made the second Adam (the Lord Jesus Christ) so that all the men in Him, might be made alive.
Rom 5:19 "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous".
It is summed up here quite succinctly:
1Cor 15:22 "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive".
1Cor. 15:45-49 Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
None of this is accidental. It is all part of God's omnipotent and unfailing plan. Not one thing happened on its own or by mere permission. It happened all by divine decree. That is the only way it could have been assured of happening, just as God planned. Salvation was too important for God to leave to the whims of mere creatures. Their actions never influence His, and His plans cannot be altered or thwarted in any way, by any being or thing in the universe. That's what gives the certainty to the golden chain in Romans 8.
Rom 8:29-30 "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. :30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified".
The certainty and infallibility of all of God's purposes is also the reason for these precious statements:
Rom 8:38-38 "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord".
We all need to be persuaded of the impossibility of anything or any one ever thwarting the plan of God's infinite Love in Christ. The doctrine of mans "free-will" cannot be reconciled with God's sovereign love and absolute unchanging purposes of Grace. God created sin to show His love and to work out His own unbreakable and non-improvable plan. Men are not saved by free-will they are saved by grace through the perfect sinless Savior. When you choose Christ it is because He first chose you, and your willful decision to believe is woven into Gods Eternal decision to Save all that come to God through Christ. God's decision over-rules all of your decisions. That's why it's so important to not make the wrong decision about Christ. You might decide yourself right into hell if you decide not to believe and trust Jesus.
Beware of Imaginary views of God.
They Always Lead to Idolatry.
People have all kinds of mental problems when I say that Adam was created to die. It seems to throw people into a theological tizzy? God can create anything or anybody for any purpose that He wishes. Can't He? He is God, Isn't He? If God wanted to make Adam so that He would sin and die, isn't that within God's Creator prerogative to do so? So why do these people get up in arms when I say that? It is because their views of God are purely imaginary. Here's how they think. They are fond of saying stuff like..."God made man to live forever in perpetual fellowship with Himself". And "If Adam had not sinned then man would have lived forever in the wonderful Garden of Eden. God made man to be in fellowship with Himself, because He was lonely and needed companionship in that big garden. God created somebody in his image, because that's the only way He could keep from being lonely!"
Isn't that nice? Isn't that sweet? Adam and Eve living forever in paradise with butterflies and bunny rabbits. That was God's full intention. God needed companionship so He made a perfect companion for himself, somebody in His own image. Somebody He could talk to and love. In their view, that was what God actually wanted. That sounds cute and nice, but it is anti-God and anti-Biblical. It is false doctrine pure and simple. In fact that idea is actually hateful toward God and is resentful of the actual account of what He said really happened. All the false views of what happened in Eden center on false views about why man was created in the first place. These views almost always involve protecting the cherished notion of mans free will. You do not need false doctrines to protect human volition. God gave men volition, so false doctrines do nothing to establish truth. That has nothing to do with the pre-fall Adamic state and the nature of the Garden of Eden.
Trying to protect mans "free-will" and "free-reign" in Eden, confuses the actual truth about what happened there. If God intended man to live forever in paradise with the butterflies, bunnies and lambies, then He miserably failed! God is not a moron and an utter failure! God's original intentions and plans did not happen at all when you take this approach. God is a complete failure according to the humanistic idealism of the prop up mans "free will" hypothesis. This entire fairy tale view of Adam and Eve in Eden is the invention of false notions about the "free will of man" propaganda. "If Adam hadn't sinned He would have fulfilled Gods plan and lived for ever". So the free will of man becomes the explanation for the failure of God to fulfill His own plans! God's will and Sovereign desires obviously mean nothing. Man therefore is elevated above God. "Man's free-will" when it is exalted falsely, becomes the all important law which governs the Almighty and limits what He can and cannot do. This view makes "free-will" the explanation for sin, the fall, and everything else. God had nothing to do with any of it. Really? In fact the whole affair must have come as some kind of surprise to God, because if God actually knew what was going to happen and He did nothing to prevent it, then He would have been quite unjust. Really? A righteous God could have prevented the catastrophe of the fall had He known about it. But "God had faith in the man" whom He created. But the man sadly let God down. The man had no faith in God. This whole idea is really quite bizarre, yet many people think this is actually the Biblical account of the fall. God had faith in man but man failed God. The heresy here is that God does not have faith. God gives faith. He does not have it, because all His counsel is sure and stands. Man is the one who is supposed to have faith. This view however says man is supposed to have enough free will to upset the plans of God, and God is supposed to put His faith in man. That is simply warped theology and twisted bizarre thinking. There is no other way to describe it. That is certainly not Bible doctrine. It seems quite satanic to me.
This propaganda to protects the "free-will" of man and over-extended it beyond it's legitimate bounds, limits the Almighty in the process. This perverse idea has warped and twisted every aspect of our lives and especially of our theological thinking. It is impossible to think correctly about God and hold to the doctrine of man's free-will when it is exalted above God's will. Nothing is protected by promoting the pernicious, false, God-hating doctrine of mans "autonomous free-will". God established clear boundaries for human volition. Free-choices do not equal free-will. Only God has free-will. If you hold to any part of that doctrine, in any way shape or form, you undermine the entire doctrine of God's absolute Sovereignty. Unchecked Free-will warps and twists God, and His plan of salvation, all out of recognition. The doctrine of
"free will" is not Christian. It is humanistic paganism. And it is a virulent form of idolatry! It worships the creature more than the creator. Man's freedom is never so free as to alter God Himself.
Rom 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
Creature worship in any form (as in the worship of the creatures will), is always idolatry. Any worship that distorts God is always idolatry. Paul actually is saying that creature worship is a mark of reprobation. If it is a mark of the reprobate, then it certainly has no place in Christian theology or thinking! The humanistic free-will doctrine is Satanic, and that is why Satan tried so hard to promote it in Eden, and He has been telling the same lies throughout all of history.
The only alternative to Satanic
fairy tale theology is "truth".
And the truth is found in what the Bible actually says.
Here are some plan things that the Bible teaches,
and which we have discussed in great detail in numerous articles, sermons and writings.
1. God is sovereign and cannot fail in any of his desires, wishes or purposes.
2. Adam actually sinned, and did not live the fairy tale life imagined by the false teachers. It was never even a possibility because God obviously had willed something far different than what these speculators want you to believe.
3. Adam was therefore created just to please God, and do His will as God foreordained for Him to do.
4. God was fully intentional in mans creation and fall. Adam was created to sin, to bring sin into the world, to bring death by sin, and to pass that death along to all men. Why is this point absolutely necessary and true?
4. Because there is no salvation without damnation! Because there is no Savior without sinful beings who need to be saved. Because there is no worship in Eden. There is no Praise in Eden. There is not even any thanksgiving in Eden. There is no appreciation for all that God has done in Eden. Appreciation and praise, thanksgiving and worship come only through salvation. Good and salvation itself is the result of deprivation and darkness. You don't know what you have until it is taken away! You cannot be saved until you are lost. You have to know what you don't have, in order to appreciate what you do have! The darkness is always the backdrop and contrasting display against which the light is made manifest. Salvation is made wonderful, and God is glorified in it, only because of sin which made it so vitally necessary and important. Sin is the backdrop without which salvation would be nonsense, and with which salvation is made tremendously glorious and incredible.
God's purpose for Adam and for all of creation is no mystery.
God's actual and ultimate purpose is plainly stated here:
Prov 16:4 "The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked also for the evil day".
Question: How many things did God make?
Answer: "all things."
Question: Are the wicked included in what God made?
Answer: Yes, "even the wicked" were made by God.
Question: Why did God make the wicked?
Answer: God made the wicked "for Himself", and "for the day of evil."
Question: If men are saved, what are they saved from?
Answer: They are saved from wickedness. Wickedness therefore is necessary for salvation. Both are part of God's plan.
Question: What does this truth do?
Answer: It substantiates this verse.
Rev 4:11 "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created".
What is so difficult about any of this? Why do we need to fabricate myths to cover up the origin of sin in order to pretend to protect God from His own purposes and acts? If God says that He made "everything" for Himself, then that includes the thankless man in Eden who would sin against Him and thus fulfill His sovereign purposes. It includes the slithering serpent speaking lies to the thankless man in Eden. It includes a tree with tempting and seductive fruit. But it certainly does not include any accidents! There are no accidents because God is God, and He holds all things together (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:17) . Why on earth would anybody have difficulty understanding this? This is actually what God has said! There is no hidden mystery here, no unknowable secret counsels. It has all been clearly revealed in the most simple and straightforward language. Confusion comes when we try to change it up to align with fairy tale inspired doctrines.
God created Adam for His own Pleasure, not so that God Himself would be limited by Adams "free-will"! That doctrine is nothing but blasphemy. No matter what anybody thinks about Eden and the fall of man and the universe into the black night of sin, it was God's will which was done in Eden not mans. God's perfect will was done in Eden. Just as God's perfect will is done in all things.God did not fail when Adam sinned and consequently died. God's will was being performed by Adam. God's will was being performed by the seducing serpent. And in that God was and is glorified.
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
What is the Chief End of Man?
Shorter catechism question 1: What is the chief end of man?
Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.
Question? Was that achieved in Eden? Did man glorify God and enjoy Him forever when He turned His back on the commands of the Lord and followed the teachings of a snake?
Question? Was that that even achievable at all in Eden? If so, then man can achieve his created purpose without the need for a Savior and without the need for salvation?
Question? Is it possible for man to glorify God without the Savior?
Question? Did God create man to never need a Savior?
Question? Was Salvation planned before the world began?
If so, then why? If God wanted Adam to live forever in butterfly land, then why would he have planned Salvation?
These extra questions show that the chief end of man question is teaching false doctrine when theologians use it to teach fairy tales. Mans Chief end is not in Eden it is in an Old Rugged Cross! God knew this right along, that's why the Lamb was slain "from before the foundation of the world" (1Pet. 1:20; Rev. 13:8)
God created the man and ordained that he should sin through the seducer whom He created and placed right there in the heart of paradise! Imagine that? God created and ordained sin, exactly so that His ultimate plan of sending the Savior to save men from sin, from thankless-ness, from praiseless-ness, and from worshipless-ness would be fulfilled. Imagine that? God invented sin, because He also invented salvation from sin! The two go together. You can't have one without the other! There is no mystery in that. What would be really mysterious and odd however, would be if God predestined salvation without sin? What would we be saved from? Such thinking is illogical and nonsensical. From start to finish God planned it all, so that He would be glorified and enjoyed by the men and women whom He created. There is no worship in Eden. Don't miss that important detail. There is no Praise in Eden, because God planned it that way, so that through salvation, men would really have something to be thankful for and to be praising God for! God planned sin so that in saving men from it, He would be glorified in a way that could have happened no other way. God is glorified when men are worshiping Him and praising Him for doing what they could never do themselves. That's why God invented Satan, invented sin, invented the fall and invented redemption through the Savior. All those things are God's ideas. All those things were God's plan. God knew about everything because He planned it all! Do you think that the all-knowing One did not know every detail about what would happen? It's not a mystery. It's all quite simple. What's a mystery is that theologians and intellectuals will refuse to believe it! That is absolutely astounding! It shows just how stupid they really are, all wrapped up in their philosophizing instead of simply believing. They have in their head their false doctrine that God could never be the author of sin, and not one verse in the Bible actually says such a thing. They invent nonsense because they already believe nonsense. God is the author of sin, but He is not a sinner! God created temptation and the tempter, but He is neither of those things (James 1:13). Of course God created sin. It did not just create itself. It did not come into being on its own. It was created with the rest of the plan of salvation. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to ever say otherwise.
No praise in Eden means
that Adam was Not Achieving His "chief end".
Was He not created to worship and glorify God? Yes He was! And that's precisely why God wanted him to sin, to die and to be driven out from paradise! God knew that there is no worship, no praise, no thanksgiving, and no glorification of Him, without salvation! God knew that for man to worship and glorify Him, he needed to experience sin and the loss of paradise. God never intended for man to live in bliss without salvation. That is a disgusting and disgraceful doctrine, because it ignores every fact that God tells us about what actually happened. God ought to know? He was There! God made man in order to drive Him out from Eden and thus drive Him to Christ! God made Him for this purpose, just like He made Judas for the purpose of betraying Christ. It is only when God's purposes and plans are fulfilled that man can actually Glorify God, Praise Him and enjoy him as God intended. Man does not glorify God unless He embraces the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth. There is salvation in no other way! There is no glorifying God without Christ!
The only possible way for God be glorified at all was through the creation of sin, the fall of man and the consequent salvation through His Son.
Theologians want to remove God from the creation of sin, because in their warped minds. They think that a God who creates evil must Himself be evil. This is rubbish and nonsense. God is pure and holy, all the time, even when He is creating devils and demons, even when He is fashioning special vessels fitted for destruction. Nothing that God does is capable of defiling His purity and Holy essence. He is The One who defines right and wrong and what is sinful. What is wrong for you, is wrong simply because He said so. But He can do no wrong, simply because He says that everything He does is right! He says that even His own creation of evil is right, simply because He says so. Look:
Isa 45:7 "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things".
Don't worry or fret about it. God made evil, and He is still good! In fact it's presence proves just how good He really is! If He had not created evil, then we would all have reason to question His goodness, because He would also have not created salvation. John 3:16 would not be in your Bible if God did not create sin. There would have been no way for Him to "so love the world" if it did not involve the Divine necessity of sending Christ into it's darkness to rescue those who were sinners! God's nature is not determined by his acts. Creating sin does not make God a sinner, It make Him the Savior of Sinners! All His acts are good, simply because He says so! He is not a man, so we need to quit thinking as though He were. He is the almighty and He works all things after the counsel of His perfect and immutable will (Eph 1:11).
The Bible clearly shows that had God not created sin, and done everything that He did to bring about salvation through Christ, no man would ever glorify Him or enjoy Him forever! No sin = No Salvation! We would all be thankless in Eden had Adam not performed God's will in ushering sin into the world. Sin and Salvation go hand in hand in the eternal plan of God. Neither is a mistake or an afterthought with God. Neither is an accident or a self created reality. God is in charge of everything. Don't worry. He knows what He is doing!
Without the fall God would not be glorified. And Here are just a few examples showing why!
When Man Falls into trouble, then He can glorify God.
Psa 50:15 "And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."
Trouble is the way to salvation from trouble. And sin is the way to salvation from sin. You can't have the blessedness without the bad.
Thanksgiving Glorifies God.
Psa 50:23 "The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me!"
Adam, as we have shown, did not do this. And nobody would have ever done it, had Adam not sinned, because we would not have really had anything to be thankful for. If we only knew paradise, then how could we ever Praise God for saving us?
God is glorified when all of His plans of old unfold exactly as He planned them.
Isa 25:1 "O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth."
Not as we imagine them to be, but as they actually were and are! that's what causes men to glorify Him.
God is glorified in the execution of His grace upon men Through Jesus Christ.
Matt 15:31 "Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel."
2Thess 1:12 "That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ".
Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. God is not glorified without these, that's why He created the way for them to come.
God is glorified because of repentance.
This wonderful doctrine would have been unnecessary according to the humanistic free-will fairy tales.
Acts 11:18 "When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life".
God is glorified when men submit to the Gospel.
2Cor 9:13 "By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others". (ESV)
God is glorified because of Faithful Gospel Preachers.
We would have no preachers had God not ordained the sin of Adam! Preachers are unnecessary without a salvation to preach and a God whose oracles must be declared!
Gal 1:24 "And they glorified God because of me" (Paul speaking of himself).
1Pe 4:11 "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen".
God is glorified in the suffering of the Saved!
But there would never have been any suffering if Adam and Eve lived forever in free-will butterfly land!
1Pe 4:16 "Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf".
God is glorified when you bear fruit as Christians.
John 15:8 "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples".
Php 1:10-11 "So that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God".
The only reason that you can now bear fruit, is because Adam ate forbidden fruit! He brought death so Christ could bring life!
1Cor 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
God Is Glorified through your Blood Bought Salvation.
Don't you ever forget this! God created sin as surely as He created Salvation so that this can happen.
1Cor 6:20 "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's".
None of these things would be possible had God not created sin! or Had God allowed man to stay in Paradise.
Anybody who says that God did not create sin, cheapens the true doctrine of salvation, because they eliminate one of God's wise steps to bring redemption about. Calvary is not located in Eden, man had to be driven out, before he could ever kneel at the Old Rugged cross! Sin assured that it would happen!
No Praise in Eden Means Lots of Praise After Eden!
Paradise Lost means wilderness gained. Paradise lost means salvation gained!
Wilderness gained means lots of praise because of the salvation FROM IT!
God ordained that man pass through the wilderness of sin, so that He could make that desert to blossom as the rose with His own worship, praise and glory. How thankful and happy are we who do not live in Eden, but who live in Grace! God knew exactly what He was doing each step of the way in the plan of salvation. He was making it possible for you to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. In securing salvation, He was securing a people who would actually achieve the "chief end" of their creation and existence. Praise His Holy Name.
Isa 35:1-2 "The wilderness and the desert shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the crocus. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the honor of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of Jehovah and the majesty of our God".
Isa 51:3 "For Jehovah shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Jehovah. Joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody".
©2012 E H Jackson This article may be reproduced on Websites and blogs with a direct link from the article back to this website. It may not be republished in any other form without written permission. This copyright notice must appear in full anywhere this article is used.
