The first five chapters of the Book of Genesis lay bare a fact that no one can honestly deny–mankind is rotten to the core.  It only took two chapters worth of time for man to become the vile creature he is today.  But let it be known that he was not created in that spiritual condition.  In Genesis 2:7,22 we learn of the creation of Adam and Eve whom the Lord God made perfect in every way.

In 1:2 we are told that at the time of its REcreation the earth was without form and void (Heb.-tohu and bohu–Jer. 4:23).  In Isaiah 45:18 we are told that God did not create the world tohu and bohu.  When He created the earth the angels shouted for joy because of its beauty (Job 38:1-7).  God did not create “the world that then was” (2 Pet. 3:5-8) tohu and bohu.  Revelation 12 tells us that a war once took place in heaven.  The result of that war was the tohu and bohu of Genesis 1:2 that destroyed the beautiful earth that God had created.  We do not know how many years elapsed between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2–perhaps millions.  When God (Elohim–Gods, plural) decided to REcreate the world had to repair the damage done during the war between Themselves and Their angels and Satan and his angels as noted in Revelation 7:12.

When the Gods (Jehovah and the Word) REcreated the world They made it perfect in every way.  This perfect creation included Adam and Eve (Gen. 1:27).  We know that there was no sin in either Adam or Eve, for “God saw EVERYTHING that He had created and (all of) IT WAS VERY GOOD (Gen. 1:31).  But the goodness of Adam and Eve did not last long.  And they were not alone in their sinning ways.  Three of the first four human beings God created chose to be sinners.  The fourth human–Abel–was killed by the third human–Cain, his brother.  And things went down hill from there.  In Genesis 6:5 we find Moses writing: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every thought of his heart (mind) was evil.”  By that time the whole of mankind had become so corrupt that God drowned the entire human race except Noah and his family.

Centuries later we find the Prophet Jeremiah lamenting the fact that “The heart (of man) is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (17:9).  Even after God gave mankind a fresh start with Noah, “a preacher of righteousness”(2 Pet. 2:5), man quickly forgot the Great Flood and the near total annihilation of the human race and returned to a former way of life–the way of sin.  The question asked and answered by this series, in fact, by this website, is WHY?  Why does man learn sin and not holiness?  Why does he choose sin and reject holiness?  What prompts man to do the most moronic thing a human being can do–to sin?  The answer lies in a statement made by Jesus during a conversation He was having with the disciple named Peter as recorded in Matthew 16:21-23.

Here we find Jesus preparing His disciples for His death, telling them that He would go into Jerusalem where He would be killed by the religious hierarchy and would be raised from dead on the third day.  “Then Peter took him (aside) and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘Don’t say things like that, Lord.  That can’t happen to You.'”  Then Jesus spoke words that would reveal exactly how Satan has gained control over the hearts of men from Eden until this very moment.  He said: “Get away from Me, SATAN, for you are not interested in the things of God.  YOU ARE INTERESTED ONLY IN THE THINGS OF MAN.”  SATAN IS INTENT ON GIVING MAN WHAT HE (MAN) WANTS AND NOT WHAT GOD WANTS.  God wants man to bow down to, worship and serve Him by obeying His Words.  However, man prefers to bow down to, worship and obey Satan who gives man what he wants–the “things of man.”  God requires man to submit his (man’s) will to His (God’s) will.  Satan knows that man’s will, being totally self-centered, is contrary to God’s will, which is God-centered.  Satan knows that as long as man caters to his own will, man will worship and serve him–Satan–the one who allows him (man) to please himself.  Satan, the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4), offers man the world and the glory of it if he (man) will obey him.  This is the same world and glory he offered Jesus if He would bow down and worship him (Lk. 4:6,7).  Jesus refused; man does not.  Satan is so persuasive that he has convinced salvation seeking man that he can worship and serve him (Satan) and still receive eternal life.  This is the same ruse he pulled on Adam and Eve when he told them that they could sin and “… not surely die.”  God had promised them death for rebellion against Him.  Satan promised them eternal life for rebelling against Him.  Adam and Eve chose to believe Satan who offered them what they wanted–to sin and get away with it.  They walked to the forbidden tree and partook of its fruit “knowing” beyond a doubt that God would overlook their sin because of who they were.  They were His first church, His first human creations for whom He had created a garden paradise.  They were the apples of His eye–His most cherished creation.  They met and talked with Him each evening face-to-face.  They spoke the same language.  He loved them dearly.  He had far too much invested in them to kill them because of one sin.  Satan had drawn them in totally.  Nothing has changed.

Jesus had the same choices as every other human being: He could bow down to, worship and serve God, or bow down to, worship and serve Satan.  He chose the former and qualified to be the Savior of those who would follow His example.  The bulk of humanity has chosen to do the opposite, having been convinced by their god that they can bow down to him, worship and serve him and “… not surely die.”  As a result of his persuasive powers, history’s greatest liar controls history’s largest and oldest religious body.  This religious body consists of 99.99% of all humans who have ever lived on the earth.  The “prince of the power of the air,” the “god of the earth,” the “angel of light”–by whatever name one calls him, the name by which he is most commonly known is “god.”  This spiritual being is the head of a world-wide religious system consisting of such organizations as Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism, Mohammadism, along with numerous other religious “isms” covering the globe.  COVID–19 is just the latest indication of the Biblical God’s attitude toward religious man’s choice of gods.  False religion, war, famine, drought, flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, pandemics, depressions, crime, sex perversions,  ….  The God of wrath has been “speaking” to rebellious man for thousands of years.  As deadly as these “teaching sessions” have been, they are, as Jesus warned, merely “… the beginning of sorrows” (Mat. 24:3-8) that man will suffer for having bowed down to, worshiped and served the wrong god.  Man continues to embrace him to this day.  L.J.