FALL-THE

In effect, by accepting Satan's statement, Eve was calling God a liar, even though she might not have recognized those implications of her action. She accepted Satan as the truth-teller and God as the prevaricator. By partaking of the fruit she was implicitly stating her belief that Satan was more interested in her welfare than God was. Yielding to the temptation implied that she accepted Satan's analysis of the situation instead of God's.

Henry Virkler

Hermeneutics, Baker Books, 1981, p. 219.

[In reference to the temptation in the garden:] "God is a liar," (Satan) says. "He has deceived you, taken your freedom, and restricted your joy." Satan's lie is still the same today: "You can be free. Do whatever you want. It is your life. There are no divine laws; no absolute authority; and above all, no judgment. You will surely not die."

John MacArthur

The Battle for the Beginning, 2001, p. 206.

Few preachers of religion do believe thoroughly the doctrine of the Fall, or else they think that when Adam fell down he broke his little finger, and did not break his neck and ruin his race.

C.H. Spurgeon

Christ is much more powerful to save, than Adam was to destroy.

John Calvin

In God’s sight there are two men – Adam and Jesus Christ – and these two men have all other men hanging at their girdle strings.

Thomas Goodwin

Let us, then, have it fixed down in our minds that the sinfulness of man does not begin from without, but from within. It is not the result of bad training in early years. It is not picked up from bad companions and bad examples, as some weak Christians are too fond of saying. No! It is a family disease, which we all inherit from our first parents, Adam and Eve, and with which we are born.

J.C. Ryle

I have argued that there is a pattern of love in marriage ordained by God. The roles of husband and wife are not the same. The husband is to takes his special cues from Christ as the head of the church. The wife is to take her special cues from the church as submissive to Christ. In doing this the sinful and damaging results of the Fall begin to be reversed. The Fall twisted man’s loving headship into hostile domination in some men and lazy indifference in others. The Fall twisted woman’s intelligent, willing submission into manipulative obsequiousness in some women and brazen insubordination in others.

John Piper

Desiring God, 1996, p. 186, Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.

Adam was made as the image and likeness of God and was given dominion over the earth. He was called to live by faith and obey God’s commands. He was created to be the divinely appointed gardener who would turn the whole earth into a garden, and thus, as it were, extend the glory of God. But Adam failed. Instead of exercising the privilege of reflecting God as his image and experiencing in his miniature what it meant for God to be Lord of all – Adam forfeited it.

Sinclair Ferguson

The Author of Faith, Tabletalk, Oct. 2004, p. 29, Used by Permission.

All the trouble in the world began with one lie.

Author Unknown

Man was originally created in the image of God and was furnished in his mind with a true and salutary knowledge of his Creator and things spiritual, in his will and heart with righteousness, and in all his emotions with purity; indeed, the whole man was holy. However, rebelling against God at the devil’s instigation and by his own free will, he deprived himself of these outstanding gifts. Rather, in their place he brought upon himself blindness, terrible darkness, futility, and distortion of judgment in his mind; perversity, defiance, and hardness in his heart and will; and finally impurity in all his emotions.

The Canons of Dort

The Third and Forth Main Points of Doctrine: Human Corruption, Conversion to God, and the Way It Occurs. Article 1- The Effect of the Fall on Human Nature.

If you ask why God ordained the fall of man and the sinful state into which he would go, the answer is that God ordained sin so that we would know Him in the fullness of His revelation of Himself. If God had not ordained sin, we would know Him only as the Creator; because God has ordained sin we can know Him as the Redeemer.

Don Kistler

Redemption Planned, Tabletalk, Feb. 2004, p. 9, Used by Permission.

The fall into sin took place before Eve actually ate from the tree, since she had already fallen to Satan’s temptation in her heart.

Scott Hafemann
Why Do God's People Obey Him? by Scott Hafemann taken from The God of Promise and the Life of Faith by Scott Hafemann, copyright 2001, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, page 170.

The devil’s attack against God begins with the greatest of God’s creatures, the one who has dominion over all else, the one who bears God’s image and holds the dearest place in God’s heart. It says quite a lot that what the devil hated most in God’s perfect world was the man and the woman in their relationship with God.