People who have a scriptural point they want to make will say, Just give it the WORD test; and of course that is exactly what we should do when we hear something we are not familiar with. However as you have heard me say so many times, Everyone has his own idea as to what the Bible means by what it says. That is why I said earlier, The Baptists fought the Methodists for years over sanctification. They just simply could not see the teaching, how it applied to the individual’s experience and walk with God. Likewise the Methodists fought the Baptist people because they just simply could not see the reality of once saved, always saved; which is eternal security. They judged the Baptists because of that teaching. It is all in the Bible; but different groups see it different ways; and that is why there is so many different denominations in the ranks of professing Christians today. The early Christians to whom the New Testament was written, had no need to divide up into different denominations; because they all believed the same thing. They were not Catholics, nor Lutherans, nor Baptists, nor Methodists, nor Presbyterians, Church of Christ, Unitarians, Christian Science, nor anything else other than Christians. They were all of one body of people (throughout the old world) that believed what had been taught by those apostles who walked with Jesus; and that apostle Jesus called, while he was out persecuting Christians. Paul did not walk with Jesus during the 3 1/2 years He ministered on earth; but when the Spirit of God took him out into the Arabian Desert, and taught him for 3 years, he came back believing and preaching the same revelation all those other apostles preached; and that is what Christians of that day believed. The New Testament believers continued like that; until Satan managed to inject his presence into their assemblies. He is a spirit also; and he also inspires people to do and say things the same way the Spirit of God does. First he began to cause certain one’s to bring into the different assemblies, things that were not truth. That was not possible in the very beginning of the New Testament Church; because only genuine believers dared to join themselves to that Holy Ghost filled, God fearing group of people; but as time passed, and the first generation of believers began to leave the scene, that left some in places of leadership that did not have a complete revelation of the word of God. That gave Satan an opportunity to get into the Church; and he has been going to church ever since then. That which was untruth began to divide that which was made and put together by truth; so that by the time the 5th century rolled around, the original apostolic Christian Church seemed to have left the scene completely. For the next one thousand years the world groped in spiritual darkness, comparable to no other era of human history. In secular history it was called the Dark Ages; because Romanism had taken out every cardinal teaching of the Bible that the early Christians believed; and substituted their own dogmas, creeds, and ceremonial rituals in place of them. That is why there had to be a Reformation; which started about 1500 A.D. The Reformation has been by bits and pieces though; because each movement that came out of an older system would just go so far with the Spirit of God, and then they would stop and build a fence around what they had; and never go a step beyond what they had fenced in. Naturally that would force the few that did hunger for more, to have to go out from them, in order to follow the leading of the Spirit of God that is always present to fill those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; and for more revelation of His word. One thing is sure though; any time anyone ventures out beyond those old denominational fences, they are sure to be warned against becoming involved with a cult. That is what those Doctors of Divinity call everything that does not originate from within their particular circle of belief. There are all kinds of cults in the world today; and you can know they are cults if you will take the time to examine their activities; but the mere fact that some people in this world choose to worship the Creator in the same atmosphere, and in the same revelation as the first century Christians, does not make them a cult. There are all sorts of things being done in the name of some religious group in this hour of time; things you know for sure are demon inspired activities; and that keeps a lot of hungry souls from even daring to venture out to seek truth, lest they get caught up in something that is a cult. I do not mean to glorify the devil; but we would have to be very foolish not to realize how cunning he is; and how determined he is, to bring reproach upon everyone who endeavors to serve the God of heaven in truth. Why is Satan stirring up so much trouble in the ranks of Christianity, you may say? Simply because he knows his time is short. He knows a lot more about the word of God than a lot of professing Christians in our day; and you can be assured of something else also, he knows what got Adam and Eve off the track; and he knows what will get a lot of people off the track today. That is why he has sin painted up to look so beautiful; and every wrong thing made to look so right. What we are approaching in this 3rd chapter as we continue on our subject, is so important I just have to say things in a way that will cause certain doctors of divinity who think they are smart, to set up and take notice. I do not mean that they should take notice of me; but of something I feel I have to say; because I have read what they have said. What they have said does not even sound like common sense. Many are saying, What does it matter, what took place in the garden, just as long as we are saved? That is one human way to look at things; but with that attitude they could just as easily say, What does it matter what the New Testament says? Modern day religion has just about come to that place already; for their one theme is, It matters not what you believe, just as long as you believe in Jesus. The truth is, If Jesus appeared to us Gentiles tomorrow, like He did to the Jews 2000 years ago, most religions would be ready to crucify Him just like they did. The reason they could not accept Him, was because He did not come down the road 2000 years ago agreeing with religious rituals. The religion they had brought them together every Sabbath day for the reading of the scriptures of the prophets, which told them of a Messiah which was to come. Yet one day when He did come walking down the river bank to be baptized by John, and later offered Himself to them according to the words of the prophets, were they spiritually ready to receive Him? No. Why were they not ready? Because their spiritual minds were already set to a preconceived theory concerning the awaited Messiah, according to what we now call theology; and He just simply did not measure up to their expectations. When He taught them from the scriptures, that religious bunch of Pharisees probably said, That is not what I believe. Did that hinder the Messiah from coming? No. He came anyway; doing exactly what the great Creator led Him to do. He came right down the pathway of life, walked right into religious headquarters at Jerusalem, and began to preach. They all got angry with Him; because He did things, and said things completely contrary to the way they had believed He should; if He truly were their Messiah they had waited for according to their interpretation of their own scriptures. Well after 1900 years of the gospel, our religious world is the same way. Where did it all start? All the way back in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve chose to go against the instructions their Creator had given them. In that beautiful place of paradise, which was the beginning, both of an earthly plant life, and an earthly animal kingdom. Adam and Eve were both naked and not ashamed; because there had been no sin committed that would cause them to be conscious of any wrong doing. They did not know what sin was. That is why, as we come to chapter 3. Chapter 3 is not the beginning of the genealogy of the human race. Chapter 3 tells us how Adam and Eve had been instructed in chapter 2, of what they could eat; which included the fruit from all of the plant life trees; but was forbidden to partake of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Let us read Genesis 2:9,16,17; so we can have the actual wording from the Bible. “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (These two trees were in the MIDST of the garden) And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” We tried to illustrate the fact that these two trees were not plant life trees, by leaving off the lower trunk and root system, when we drew up the little chart we are using. Adam and Eve knew what those two trees symbolized in the spirit world; therefore they needed no one to tell them they were not for their natural food. Naturally our critics, especially the great doctors of divinity, do not agree with this; but they cannot prove otherwise. It matters not how much Hebrew and Greek you know, you will never find anything scripturally indicating that these two trees grew out of the ground. The Bible gives us enough, our own common sense should see the rest. After they had sinned, and God was driving them from this beautiful paradise environment, do you think they dug up the tree of knowledge and carried it with them? You critics give me an answer. If it were a plant life tree, and if they had been driven from a geographical spot of ground, they would have had to do that; for mankind has been living off of that tree every since then. Every human being that has ever been born into this world, except for Jesus Christ, is a product of the tree of knowledge. Man’s knowledge drives him on and on, always reaching for a higher plane. How much higher can he get than going to the moon? How much higher can he get, than wanting to put satellites in space and live out there? All of that is of science. It is all of earthly knowledge from the tree of knowledge. From that tree of knowledge came every grave yard on the face of this earth. From that tree of knowledge came also every heartache, every disease, every crime that has ever been committed; and the very nature to be contrary to the perfect will of God. Do not tell me it was a natural fruit tree; for there is no natural fruit from any tree upon the face of the earth, that makes a person a killer. Common sense will tell you there is no fruit of plant life on this earth, that gives anyone heart trouble, tuberculosis, cancer, nor any of those dreaded diseases. All those are things imputed and many of them become genetically hereditary in the human flow of reproduction, as man reproduces himself on the face of this earth; and it is all because man is living from the tree of knowledge; but Adam and Eve did not transplant either of those trees; so open your eyes and let common sense have a chance to speak to you. You must also realize that the tree of life was not a plant life tree; or we would not have access to it today. I say that from the standpoint of what some of you believe; that these were literal trees, and that Adam and Eve were driven from a beautiful fenced garden. Do any of you know where such a tree is growing today? Let me tell you where the tree of life is today. In heaven. As Jesus Christ spoke to John, on the Isle of Patmos, (you read it in the book of Revelation) actually speaking to the Ephesian church, which was the type of the first Gentile church age, the age when all believers believed the same truth, He said this, (Rev. 2:7) “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” This was spoken in 96 A.D., after the Church had began to drift; and Jesus had issued a warning to her. He closed His warning with those words; which gave them a chance to repent and receive the fullness of God’s blessings, given to those who obey His word. “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life.” Where did He say it is? In the Middle East? No. In the paradise of God. Where is that? It is heaven today; and will remain there throughout the rest of this age. Is it plant life living in a spiritual heaven? You surely realize, that kind of plant life does not exist there. It is a spiritual tree. It is a symbolic tree, a tree of eternal life. It was the basic law that all perfect human life should have come from; and it becomes very clear once you know what the eating of the fruit consisted of. Only in the garden of Eden, was the terminology ‘eating,’ used in connection with those two trees. Outside the garden, (or outside of that paradise presence of the Creator) we have been eating of the tree of knowledge ever since; but we do not refer to it as eating. What do we call it? That depends upon your degree of revelation of God’s word. However the key to understanding, is in realizing that sex for pleasure was not in the original instructions given to Adam and Eve. The original plan was to be for them to have sex only for the purpose of repopulating the planet; like the animal kingdom does even still.

PROFILE OF THE SERPENT

Follow me; as we pick up what we want to look at in chapter 3. The time had come that God was going to allow “who” to do “what?” The test had to come. Just as God led Jesus, by the Spirit, (according to Matthew’s account) into the wilderness, where He was tempted and tested by the devil, so the time came that Adam and Eve were going to be confronted with something; on the basis of a test. How was this test going to come about? Let us read it. (Gen. 3:1) “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” At that time, the serpent was not a snake. He was not a crawling reptile. How many times artists have painted a picture of a garden scene, with a snake hanging from a tree loaded with beautiful apples, talking to Eve. That is just plain witchcraft to devise such a picture. HEAR ME! That is witchcraft! Above everything else, you have to realize this, The serpent was not a reptile at that time. Then you should pay attention to the word subtil. Notice what the Bible says about the serpent. (3:1) “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” (Look up the word subtil; and see what it comes from.) What does this tell us? We know that back in chapter 2, God has described how He brought forth every beast of the earth and every creeping thing thereof. As we would look in the animal kingdom, (we do not have space here to show it all) we would see the little fishing worm. He has his place in creation. We can see the various lizards. They have their place. Yes, there are certain snakes out there, crawling around; and they are reptiles. They have their place also; but they are not of the serpent family. They are reptiles; and they always have been; but the serpent was not a reptile in the beginning. There are many species of the reptile family; and not one of them will cross breed with another. God designed them to be like that. From that, we come to the various other creatures of life. We have the lion, the elephant, the giraffe, the zebra, the horse, the cow, and on into the baboons, the monkeys, the gorillas, and all of them; and they are all a separate creation of the Creator. What are our educated scientists exploring today, trying to find the missing link between man and the highest form of the animal kingdom? They are trying to connect you and me with either a chimpanzee or baboon. They know there is a missing link between man and beast; but they have not been able to come to any definite conclusion about what that missing link is; and we know why. They refuse to believe what is so clearly written and vindicated in the pages of what we believe to be the word of God; (the Bible). They are so determined to prove that we evolved from a higher form of the animal kingdom, they cannot accept the truth when they hear it. We did not evolve. We were created by the God of all creation; just like the Bible says. What happened way back in the beginning, is the mystery that is going come to light right here at the end time. Why will it come about? Because there are too many questions in your world of intellectual learning; men trying to disprove God altogether; so there has to come something out of the beginning of the book, that shows right here at the end, what happened; that set this whole creation in such disarray, and plunged the human race into such moral and spiritual decay. Doctors of divinity, critics, you will never be able to prove that anything of plant life brought all the heart aches and sorrows upon the human race; that we see in the world today. You may say, Well even if what you say is true, what does it matter? God is going to prove to some people before it all ends, that it does matter. I have said many times, If you critics have not the answer, why go around telling people who do have the answer, You are wrong? If you do not have anything to challenge the atheists and evolutionists with, then you had better go home and be still. God gave us a book; from which a true revelation can be revealed to those who respect it; but when you misinterpret it, and refuse to be corrected, You are destined to end up like a lost ball in high weeds. There is only one thing that can change that picture; and that is a true revelation given to you by the Holy Ghost. We still need to take a better look at the serpent. He is not here today in his original form; but I wonder how many people realize the Bible says he is still here, and that he will be here even in the Millennium? You find it in Isaiah, 65:25; where the prophet was inspired to speak of the time of the Millennium. Notice what it says about the serpent. “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.” This is that kingdom age; when Jesus Christ will rule and reign in righteousness; and it speaks of the serpent who was cursed, and taken from his position right next to man who was made in the very image of God, as a spirit being. In his fleshly makeup, man has certain fleshly resemblances of the animal kingdom, over which he was put here to rule. The serpent, in his original state, was an intelligent animal creature that stood next to man in appearance and intelligence. He was a servant given to man to assist him. He was to this creation, what the prehistoric man was to that creation in the prehistoric era. Neither of these creatures were sons of God; they just stood at the head of the animal kingdom of their respective era’s. What is referred to as the prehistoric man, was just the highest form of intelligence in that era of life on this planet. Likewise God gave to this animal kingdom a like creature. For what purpose? To carry out orders, instructions given to him by Adam the son of God, who was a God-like creature made to rule and reign over the entire creation. We need to remember; God created all those animals to be help meets to Adam. They all had a place to fill, in God’s plan of refilling the planet with life. The serpent however, described as being more subtil than all the rest, was endowed with the intelligent capability to be influenced by some source. The horse could never have done what the serpent did; and neither could any of the other creatures God had created; for they did not have the intelligent capabilities to communicate with the woman, to convince her that God was keeping something back from them. In other words, she was deceived; just like the apostle Paul said; in 1st Timothy 2:14, “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” There is no way for us know at what point the devil started to work on the serpent; nor how long it took him to convince that servant of Adam’s to seduce his master’s wife; nor how long it took him to break down the woman’s resistance; for I could never believe he was able to deceive her the first time he approached her. I am sure of this, Satan had to have an intelligent creature to work through; and no other animal was intelligent enough to intellectually deceive a daughter of the Creator. The word subtil (subtle in our vocabulary) means, the ability to mislead or deceive. You can say the same thing about a lot of these two legged creatures roaming the streets in our day; They are subtle. The have no other ambition in life, but to deceive someone else; usually for a monetary gain. On the other hand, there are a lot of people in the human family on earth, that would find it hard to put together the right thoughts to deceive someone else. When the devil gets hold of the mind of a smart person, that person is capable of devising never before heard of tactics to deceive someone else. Why is it today, that there is so much corruption in the world? Simply because there are a lot of these human minds that are subtle, and all they do is sit around thinking up some kind of scheme to use on someone else. You never see a rooster trying to deceive anything. You do not see anything in the rest of the animal kingdom deceiving any of the rest of the animal kingdom. They do not have the intelligence for Satan to use in that way. Deception has to come, in the intellect realm. This is not mental telepathy we are talking about. Neither is it a snake hanging from a limb in an apple tree saying, Eve: Come here, I want to talk to you. That is a carnal picture. It is as carnal as anything can possibly be. This serpent was a two legged creature, standing on the ground, walking upright like man; and able to talk like a man. His intelligence stood right next to man; but he was not a son of God. It was him, that came to Eve; not the devil. There are people that accuse us of teaching that Eve was seduced by the devil; but I can assure you of this; No one has ever taught from this pulpit, that Eve had intercourse with the devil. Any person that knows anything at all, knows that the devil is a spirit; and people do not have sexual intercourse with spirits. Spirits need instruments to work through.

THE TIME OF ADAM’S GREAT TEST

The son and daughter of God had been created in innocence; knowing nothing at all about sin and rebellion. God placed them in this beautiful paradise naked; with a commission, and with the commandment; if I may say it like that. Genesis 1:28, says, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Then in chapter 2, verses 16-17, we find the rest of their instructions; “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Time passed; we do not know how much; and then it was time for God to allow His children to be tested; so let us again read verse 1, of chapter 3, and notice what that intelligent, earthly minded creature approached the woman with. Just listen to the conversation. “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” He had vocal chords. He was able to talk. It is not a situation where mental telepathy was used. He did not have Satanic powers to put a thought into Eve’s mind. He was vocally talking and communicating to her a thought; and he put it into the form of a question. “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” This creature knew exactly what they had been told; how they could eat of every tree in the garden. He knew they had been warned about partaking of the certain tree in the MIDST of the garden. Yes the language is eat; that is where the mystery is hidden; in the term eat. Well Eve talked back. It has all been lying here in the Bible for 6000 years; so do not look at this as something we have invented. Make up your mind saints: Do you want truth, or do you want to continue on with denominational tradition, that makes no sense at all? This serpent was something that looked just as much like man as anything could possibly look. He probably did not appear as refined as Adam: but I assure you, He was not some hunchback, bow legged, snaggle toothed creature bobbing up and down, coming through the garden. He was a physical creature made strictly by the Creator to do manual work; and given the ability to communicate with Adam, in order to know what to do. Adam was given the commission; so the serpent was to get his work orders from him. What do we do today? Do thus and so. Satan was ready to use that instrument; as soon as God was ready to allow it. “And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.” (She was truly talking about the plant life trees.) “But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, (That tree did not grow out of the ground.) God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” That word LEST, did not mean MAYBE you will die; it emphatically declared that they would die, if they disobeyed; and Adam was not confused about the terminology; he knew what God meant. We will say more about that later; but for now, let us listen to the conversation between Eve and the serpent. Eve was not teaching a parrot how to talk. I have seen these zoo trainers how they teach certain creatures to bark, and count; but that serpent needed no one to teach him to talk; the Creator created him with that ability; as well as with the intelligence to carry on an intelligent conversation. In answer to his question, Eve replied, “But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” To that the serpent replied, “Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Why would the serpent answer back like that? Was that a thought he had cooked up himself? No sir. That was because Satan, that fallen angel Lucifer, which had already been judged, and cursed, and stripped of his glory, was being allowed by God who created him, to stand there in that beautiful place, doing something to get back at the Creator Himself for judging him. Therefore Satan, that fallen spirit, had influenced the serpent creature; (actually taken over his mind) and was causing him to approach Eve like that. “Ye shall not surely die.” Saints: I want to remind you, Those same words are being repeated in our schools today. How? Why? About 30 some years ago, when our school systems opened up to that liberal spirit, and began to say, The time has come that our young generation of people need to have sex education in the schools; they opened the door for this evil spirit to come in; and he came in with every evil thought imaginable. Teachers everywhere began to say, Our children need to be taught the facts of life. Well they are teaching them the pleasurable facts of life; but they avoid mentioning the consequences of going contrary to God’s moral standards; so you can easily see where their inspiration came from. I am going to tell you for certain, Those teachers and philosophers who came on the scene advocating this, were not inspired by God. Hear me! They were inspired by a spirit of Satan; that has waited a long time to get into the American society, which was previously influenced by religious standards and convictions. Our society lived for years being guided by standards of moral decency set by our God fearing forefathers. It remained so until after WW2.; when a new breed of teachers came upon the scene. Did they come into the class room with a Bible in their hand? No, they did not. Did they come in telling your children and grandchildren, The Bible has said that to live a sexually active life is wrong? Did they? No, they did not! They began to open up the minds of our youth, a little here, and a little there, until they finally penetrated their thoughts. It is almost unbelievable, how quickly they schooled out of our youth the principles of decency they had been raised up to observe. Almost everything they had learned at home and at church, was treated by those educators as if their parents and church leaders had been doing them an injustice by teaching them such things. Does that sound familiar? God did not mean it that way. Your parents are just trying to deprive you of your human rights. You need to be free to express yourselves. Does that sound like what the serpent said to Eve? It should; it came from the same source. Satan inspired the serpent to talk to Eve like that; to get her to doubt that God had their interest at heart, when He said to them, “But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, Ye shall not eat of it, lest ye die.” Before very long, many of those liberal teachers had their students believing their parents were actually against them; and that they just wanted to deprive them of having any pleasure in life. I am not saying every teacher that taught sex education had such a motive; nor am I meaning to say that those who did look at it that way, were totally evil people. Satan used them, just like he used the serpent; by taking control of their thoughts a lot of the time. Why do we have a million and some odd illegal pregnancies every year now, if something has not gotten out of control in these areas? Do not tell me it is God’s fault. I ask you plainly, Who is behind all of this moral breakdown, since we know it is contrary to God’s moral standards of decency? The devil, which modernists say does not exist, is the guilty culprit. They are unable to see the devil at work; because they cannot see God. That just simply goes together; if you cannot believe in a sovereign God, how then could you believe there is any such spirit as a devil? For that reason, a lot of those educators do not realize Satan is using their own thoughts to teach our youth such things. Whether you like it or not, or agree with me or not, the facts of life, along with the consequences of going against the will of God, were taught by the Jewish people to their children. Read it in the Law. Those ten commandments that they were to write over the door posts of their houses were not there just for decoration purposes; they endeavored to live by them. When they went out they read them; and when they came back in they read them; therefore they were always fresh in their minds. The children growing up in those homes would no doubt ask, Daddy: What is that for? At a certain age, Daddy would no doubt begin to teach those little children about the God that gave Moses those two tables of stone, with those commandments written thereupon. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” What does that mean, Daddy? Do you think that daddy would lie to that little son or daughter? No. At about age 12, I believe Dad would say, Son, this is God’s word. This is what God requires those who believe in Him to live by. Then I believe he would explain to them what each commandment pertained to; and why a righteous God would see it that way. That is the way it was supposed to be. Parents were supposed to teach their children to obey the word of God.

WHAT WE SEE- WHEN OUR EYES ARE OPENED

I realize I am going slow; but please, this is not a subject we need to rush through. Not only are we endeavoring to prove a truth concerning the shape the world population is in today, we also need to cover the points your scholars like to use their knowledge of Hebrew and Greek to try and disprove. Let them try to disprove what happened in the garden of Eden with their words of education if that is what they want to do; but I believe every true child of God deserves to have some ammunition of his, or her own to face them with when necessary. I am not an educated man; but there is one thing I know for sure; God does not require anyone to be educated; before He reveals truth to them. If you are a child of His, It is the responsibility of the Holy Ghost in you; to lead you into all truth. That is exactly what Jesus Christ Himself taught. You can read it in John 16:13 if you like. Here is what He said, “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.” The age we live in tells us, That whatever took place back there, is the reason the earth is in such a mess today; and I challenge any doctor of divinity, to prove to me it was an apple they ate, that brought all this heartache and ungodliness into the world. I know most of us came out of systems of religion that taught that version of the fall of Adam; but after you come to know the truth, you wonder how anyone in their right mind could believe a lie like that. You talk about deception, that is deception pure and simple; and your great scholars have swallowed it right up. Just listen to that old devil inspired serpent talk; verse 3, “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: (That sounds just like a lot of these scientists and doctors of divinity today. They will read a verse from the Bible, and try every way known to man, to get you to believe God did not mean it the way it sounds. In other words, they try to get you to doubt the word of God. Just listen.) For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Some of these doctors of divinity talk just exactly like that. Now you know that is not true. That is not what God meant; He meant so and so. Well that character just kept on talking until Eve finally broke down. He sounded very convincing; just like some of the philosophers in our colleges. If you care to be sexually active, go ahead; there is nothing wrong with it; they will say. They deny the word of God; and send people down the road toward hell, heartache, and disillusionment. Teen age children are bringing life into the world; knowing nothing at all about how to take care of the little baby; and the responsibility falls to either their parents, or some Government agency; to care for it. Is that the way the Creator ordained it to be? Not at all. “Then your eyes shall be opened.” He was right about that much; but they were better off before their eyes were opened. Innocence is a blessed thing; but we are living in an age when innocence is a rarity. Small children today, know just about everything there is to know about the facts of life. The sad part though, is that they are not taught the proper responsibility of handling that knowledge. Those who rape the conscience of our small children with their careless ways of teaching sex education, should be made to pay the doctor and hospital bills that follow. Well they are not going to do that; but you mark my word, They are going to answer to God for what they are doing. That philosopher (the serpent) said to Eve, “In the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, (What a promise!) knowing good and evil.” I am sure that when everyone exists in an innocent state, some things that come creeping along begin to tug at their mind’s, and they just have to investigate. Man is a strange creature. You have heard it said, that a cat is a curiosity seeker. When they see something they do not understand, they will creep around and watch it from every angle; they want to know what it is. (I am just using that to illustrate one trait of mortal mankind.) You present something before man, that has a little mystery surrounding it, and before long, he will be reaching out to gouge at it. If you put something in his mind, he is going to play with it. That is a natural trait of natural mankind. We are curious creatures; and Satan knows it. That is why he is always placing temptation before us. It is only the Spirit of God, that keeps us from poking our nose’s into his traps. He always has an agent on hand to place temptation before us. That is what the serpent was used for, in the garden of Eden; to get the woman curious enough to investigate. Let me ask you a question. Why did the serpent come to Eve? Yes. Why did he approach the woman? Why did he not approach the man? I will tell you why, if you will sit and listen. Then when you see why, you will see why God cursed her reproductive organs (verse 16) instead of her mouth. We have very few words here, as far as what the writer of the scripture was led to write; but what these few words speak of, could have covered a lengthy period of time when it was taking place. I cannot believe that daughter of God was convinced to go against her Creator’s will, the first time she was approached in this way. This creature, being influenced by Satan to approach her at just the right time, had no doubt used many words of persuasion. It was just not necessary for the writer to say so. God did not have every little detail written in the Bible; so the natural human mind could easily understand everything without the Holy Spirit revealing it. God speaks certain things in few words; but when you catch the picture, and the Holy Spirit anoints you to do so, you can write books and volumes about it. Well my point is, the serpent did not accomplish his work with Eve in a 15 minute conversation. There had to be a little process of time. Then verse 6, gives us a little picture of the woman’s response once she has finally been convinced. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, (Notice it said, to make one wise.) she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” There is not a plant life tree on the face of this earth, that can give you a better mentality, making you wise. If there is, I certainly feel that I ought to have eaten some of that kind of fruit when I went to school. No, saints: this is a different kind of wisdom; the kind Satan likes for you to get; so it will pervert your thinking. “She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat.” At this time, for the sake of making the message completely clear, let me just be plain. Eve, the help mate, or wife of Adam, who had been designed to be the mother of all living, was seduced by the serpent to partake of a relationship contrary to the will of God. She was convinced that it was alright to have an affair. With who? That serpent creature, of course. Some of you may say, Bro. Jackson, I never heard anything like that before. I never had either, until about 30 some years ago. Then I later learned that this generation was not the first ever to see the truth about that. My grandfather on my mother’s side, knew it. In 1957, in the month of November, when we were going to Cuba, we were staying with my grandparents; and one night he said to me, when we were talking about the Bible, Junior, I don’t know if you have heard this or not; but Eve did not eat an apple. I said, I know that. Then he said, She had an affair with the serpent. I thought to myself, Grandpa: where did you hear that? Anyhow why would Hollywood make a film, and title it, The Sins of Eve? Why did they not just say, Come watch Eve eat an apple? I think most of you can see what really happened there in the garden of Eden. Once she had been convinced that it was alright to do this, she immediately went to work on Adam; to convince him also, that it was alright to have this relationship for pleasure, as well as for the purpose of repopulation. According to the apostle Paul, in 1st Timothy 2:14, Adam was not deceived; yet he did give in and partake of the same act; no doubt just to please her. Notice, “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” What did they do? They partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Can you be more specific? Yes I can. They had sex relations for pleasure; when God had instructed them otherwise; forcing God to impute the death penalty to them, and to all of their offspring. How could they have eaten from the tree of life? By having this intimate relationship only for the purpose of reproduction, just like God had commanded them to. I know what the critics of this revelation say; but nevertheless truth is truth; whether they ever see it or not. I know how they have put certain words together, in an effort to make us look foolish; but God will have the last word, so we cannot allow ourselves to worry about what the critics think and say. The tree of knowledge was not a human being. Neither was that tree, Satan. Nor was it the serpent. The tree was a law; which was the opposite of what the other tree in the MIDST of the garden was. One tree was for life; and the other tree would bring death. The knowledge gained from the forbidden tree, was an earthly knowledge; strictly for the flesh, without one ounce of benefit to the spirit man inside our shell of flesh. That is why the world is like it is. Why is man so intelligent in an earthly sense, but so ignorant when it comes to spiritual understanding of the word of God? The apostle Paul expressed it perfectly; in 1st Corinthians 2:14, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” In fact, man is an enemy to God. He constantly thinks negative toward God. That in itself is proof that it is not a plant life problem between them. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” Our critics can say, Jackson, you are saying things the Bible does not say; but I say, Keep listening. I am not trying to deceive anyone. I am only hacking away at those educated minds who have for so long said it is not like this; and it is not like that; but cannot themselves tell you what Adam and Eve did, that caused God to have to impute the death penalty to them. When you ask them, What was it? You hear,I do not know for sure. It could have been so and so. Furthermore I really do not believe it matters. It is very strange, the way some people are so wise they can tell you for sure what the tree of knowledge was not; but they cannot tell you what it was; and they do not believe it matters. Satan just loves to hear people talk like that. As long as they do not know the truth, they are no threat to his perverted purpose for the true children of God. Anyhow, Eve gave also to her husband Adam; and he did eat. What does it say then? (Gen. 3:7) “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” They realized they were naked; and tried to cover their nakedness.

COVERING FOR NAKEDNESS

Adam and Eve were experiencing something they had not before then, had to be concerned about. “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” Do you mean to tell me they ate of this forbidden fruit with their eyes closed? Is that what you think? Was their eyes shut, like this? (Bro. Jackson closed his eyes) You know that is not what Moses meant, when he wrote those words. Well what does it mean, their eyes were opened? It means, their mentality was opened up to the feelings of guilt and condemnation. Why? Because they both knew what the Creator had told them; and they knew He was not just joking with them. In His eyes, they were both guilty; and they knew He would keep His word; so they became afraid to face Him. It was their spiritual eyes that were opened up; so that for the first time they realized they were naked. Saints, I have said many times, If eating apples from a plant life fruit tree will cause people to realize they are naked, then please let someone pass the apples. We are living among a naked, perverted, very sick society of people. This is the Laodicean Church Age, the age that literal church in Asia Minor typed, when Jesus gave the apostle John these words of warning for her; almost two thousand years ago. (Revelation 3:14) “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; these things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; (That was Jesus speaking. Rev.1:18, identifies the ONE doing the speaking. Notice, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.) I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. (In this lukewarm condition, spiritual blindness prevails over the mass of the human society.) So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (That is what most people do with a sip of lukewarm coffee; because they either want it cold or hot. Tea is the same way, people either want it cold or hot; not lukewarm.) Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Adam and Eve were naked because the Creator placed them there like that, in total innocence; but this generation of people are like that because sin has blinded their spiritual senses; and everything looks alright to them. Fig leaves were not sufficient to cover Adam and Eve; after they realized they were naked; and neither will anything short of genuine repentance and total surrender to the Spirit of God cover the nakedness of this generation. Notice what Jesus prescribed for the Church at Laodicea. “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, (genuine faith and trust in God) that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, (the revealed word of God is our clothing) and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see.” Our spiritual vision is only activated when we desire to walk in truth. If we search for the truth of God’s word, He will without a doubt see that we find it. He has many ways to make truth accessible to a hungry soul; no matter where that person may be. We have had that confirmed to us through some of the letters we have received from people in foreign countries; telling about how they first got hold of the Contender paper we send out free of charge to all who request it. What some people see only as wrapping paper for their merchandise, turns out to be filled with what another hungry soul will feed off of, when it falls into their hands in some strange way. I am talking about the wrapper itself; not the merchandise it is wrapped around. Modern day religionists try to explain man’s first sin by saying, Bro. Jackson, this is the way I believe it is. It was a fruit and God just chose that particular fruit to be the basis of the test. He had to use something to test them; so the fact they disobeyed God in eating it, caused God to impute the death sentence to them; and drive them from the garden. I will say again, It was His anointing presence they were driven from. The very fact that they realized they were naked, let God know that they had disobeyed His commandment; even if He had not known it already. “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; (What did they do?) and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” Where did they get the leaves? They did not get them off of the tree of knowledge. Neither did they get them from the tree of life. Why? Because those two trees were two laws; not plant life trees. I feel that we cannot stress that too much; seeing that this world of religion is so blind as to what actually happened. When they needed a covering for the organs they sinned with, they chose fig leaves and covered their loin section. That ought to tell anyone something; if they were not too blind to see it. The design of the fig leaves, no doubt made them the most logical material to use for their covering. They had no safety pins. There was no thread yet. Do not ask me what they used to sew them together. It was a crude way they made a covering; but that is what they used; and natural mankind until this very day, still uses crude methods trying to cover what only the blood of Jesus Christ can cover. To you critics, whoever you may be, listen to me; and answer my question. If they had eaten something with their mouth, that brought the knowledge of their nakedness, Why did they not put the fig leaves over their mouth? They made themselves aprons, and applied them over the portion of their body they realized they had used in disobeying God. What does that add up to? It adds up to the fact they have had an a sexual encounter strictly for pleasure; without the motive to bring about life, and carry out God’s commission, which was, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” Satan, knew how to use the serpent creature’s intelligent makeup, to get him to seduce Adams wife; knowing that once the act was consummated He would have things going his way. His ultimate objective has always been to thwart the plan of God; ever since God cast him down from his original state. Once this pleasurable act was introduced to her, she went right to her husband and presented it to him. The act itself was not sinful; it was the fact they partook of it strictly for pleasure, rather than the purpose the Creator instructed them to use it for. If any of you still want to believe the death penalty was imputed to all of mankind because Adam and Eve ate some forbidden fruit with their mouth, then surely you must believe there is a plant life tree somewhere, that is the tree of life. If sin came by eating from plant life, then redemption will have to come by eating from plant life also. That is just common sense; if the tree of knowledge was plant life, the tree of life was too. However sin came to be imputed to the human race, if they are eventually to be redeemed, then there has to be an opposite of that. Just to show you how that plant life theory contradicts the whole setting, they took the leaves of plant life and made aprons to cover themselves; then where were they? Hiding. (Verse 8.) “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.” It was evening time. It was the time God would come on the scene for fellowship with them. The sun was going down. That is why man has always wanted to go to church when the sun goes down. It all comes from that setting. That is the logical time to go. It seems that is when the Spirit of God wants to settle upon your spirit and mind and have fellowship, in the cool of the day. “And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord.” Why? Because they knew they had done wrong. They felt ashamed. That is just like a young girl that has been raised in a respectable home, taught by mother and dad how to keep herself clean in life and wait until that time in life when God would bring some nice young man along, and they become man and wife, before partaking of this act. Then along comes some smooth talking character and deceives her, and she realizes she has sold herself for a cheap moment of pleasure. She will go for days, feeling afraid and condemned. That is how Adam and Eve were in the garden. Both of them were ashamed for God to see them. Where did they hide? Among the trees of plant life. In the land of Eden, there were more trees than what we have in our drawing. This is just a drawing to illustrate a particular scene and make a point. As far as you could see, trees were growing out of the ground. What a beautiful place it must have been. So amidst the trees of plant life they hid, with the aprons of fig leaves covering their loins. No doubt they were trembling, as they heard the voice of God coming through the garden. “The Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” God knew where they were; but He wanted Adam to give an account of himself. Here He came, calling for Adam; and Adam finally answered. Notice, “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? (3:10) And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” What an acknowledgement. I was afraid, because I was naked. How come he was suddenly aware of his nakedness? Was it because he had eaten an apple? I doubt it with all my heart. Nothing of plant life will cause anyone to feel like that. Watch. The Lord said unto him, “Who told thee that thou wast naked?” Brother I tell you, You need not ever think that God will not get these doctors of divinity together and judge them for teaching what they have, to unsuspecting souls. When He comes down the line, Why did you teach this? They will have to give an account to God; of why they sat over people with their theology. It is alright for them to say, Hail Mary, mother of God, blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Why do the Catholics say, fruit of thy womb? They are not talking about an apple from a plant life tree; when they say that. They are talking about a baby that has been conceived in a virgin womb, yet it is referred to as fruit. God says, “Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” Adam said, (Just listen to him pass the buck.) “And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” That is all he could say. What is he doing? He is passing the buck. “And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? (Now watch her pass the buck.) And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” Adam blamed his wife, and his wife blamed the serpent. Now let us see what the serpent said. “And the Lord God said unto the serpent, (He did not even ask him a question. Listen.) Because thou hast done this, (God did not even give him a chance to pass the buck. This serpent could not even say, The devil made me do it. Think of it. I am sure if God would have gave him a chance, he could have said, The devil made me do it. We know the devil did make him do it; but God cut him off before he even attempted to speak in his own defense. While he could still talk and speak for himself, God cut him off.) thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.” What a curse. This is not evolution. God took that creature that had vocal chords, a mental intelligence much like man, two arms, two legs, and so forth, and stripped him down to a crawling reptile, put him out there with that reptile family, never to be redeemed. That added another species to the reptile family. He did not start out in life as a snake; but in our terminology, that is what he is now. He was up here; (upright) standing next to Adam. There were to be a family of serpents upon earth, just as all other species of God’s creation were to be. They were at the head of the animal kingdom; and endowed with the intelligence to communicate with mankind; in order to be servants. He is back there now; he and all the other serpents; never to be restored to their former estate as servants. We have already read the verse in Isaiah; that tells us he will still be eating dust in the Millennium; when everything else is to be restored. God did not make a fishing worm out of him. He did not make a cut worm out of him. He made him a reptile. Since that time, man has looked upon the whole reptile family as serpents. Why? Because they know that creature is out there somewhere; and he has had that title every since creation. To the critics and agnostics who think they know so much, I am going to read you something and ask a question. Before this serpent had lost his complete identity, and while that intelligence capability was still there, as God spoke to him, let us notice what the Creator said to him. “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” I am sure you will not need to go to a dictionary to find out; but I ask you, What is the dictionary definition of enmity? Does it not define it as an ill feeling? A dislike? I will put this feeling of dislike between thee and the woman. That is really what God said to him. Think of it, there he stood still capable of talking, but God did not give him an opportunity to speak. He shut him up. I will put enmity, a difference between thee and the woman. He is speaking exclusively of Eve, at the time. Where were they? They were still inside this beautiful paradise of Eden. “And between thy seed and her seed.” While he was still standing here, God instilled in his intelligence that feeling of dislike toward the woman; and in her toward him. I will put a difference, an ill feeling, I will put a hatred between you and the woman. Do not tell me that ill feeling is there just simply because man does not like snakes. I have no desire to have a snake for a pet. I will shoot him, cut his head off, fight him with a stick, or whatever it takes. I despise the little creatures. However that is not the enmity God was talking about. As that poor little woman stood there trembling, in the presence of her Creator, faced with guilt and condemnation, she knew exactly what that creature had caused her to do; and she knew he was completely at fault. Can you not imagine how she must have hated him? Yes she hated him: and it was a hate she could never get rid of. Remember also, he was going to have a seed. Therefore, critics of this revelation I ask you, What was God talking about? Is God just saying I am going to put a difference between women and how they should look at snakes? He did not say to Adam, I am going to put enmity between you and the serpent. He said nothing at all about Adam himself having that kind of feeling toward the serpent. It is the woman, that bears seed of her kind. That seed is a little offspring, the result of a union like Eve had both with the serpent and with her husband. She is called, The mother of all human life. “It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” That was a prophecy that pointed to the first advent of Christ; because at Calvary this was set in motion. In a natural way of illustration, down through the centuries of time, some reptiles, man has learned to stomp it with his foot. To kill a snake, you have to crush his head. Do not step on him in the middle. Do not step on his tail. The language of the prophecy, “Thou shalt bruise his head and it shall bruise his heel”, means, there has definitely got to be a contact. The seed of the woman that was prophesied, was none other than Jesus Christ in His first advent. The bruising of the head of the serpent is how Jesus will deal with the serpent, the antichrist, in the end time. That is the hour we are coming to, brothers and sisters. It is true, Satan, the spirit behind it, is the cause of Jesus going to Calvary, but we can see His death constituted our salvation. He arose from that tomb where His dead body was placed, never to die again. He is alive forevermore; and He is going to strike that devil one last blow. It is just in front of us.

THE WOMAN’S PENALTY A KEY TO THE REVELATION

I want to bring another important thing to your attention. The Creator turned His attention back to the woman. Where were they then? They were still in the paradise of God. God’s wonderful presence and glory overshadowed this beautiful environment; making it paradise. It was a little bit of heaven on earth. That is how God related Himself to earth in the beginning; to start His plan. However man had come to the time when the scene was going to change. Something had happened to mar God’s beautiful plan; so the whole order of things had to be changed. To the woman, the Creator addressed His next word. Notice. “Unto the woman He (God) said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” The word sorrow used here, has to be understood properly. It had to pertain to something she would suffer mentally and emotionally, (a physical affect) as she entered into that time of life when she could conceive seed to bear children. I will greatly multiply. To multiply something, you have to have something to begin with. To multiply something, IS TO INCREASE IT; by adding to, doubling, tripling, and so forth. He not only multiplied her pain and suffering; He also multiplied her number of periods when conception could take place. When you look at all the other living creatures upon the face of the earth, the woman is the only female among them that has that period, or cycle every 28 days. The animal kingdom did not have their conception periods increased. They remained in that way, as the Creator had originally designed them. Conception is a word used often in medical terminology; but it was first used by the Creator Himself; to speak of the time when female species received seed to bring forth life of another creature after her own kind; whether animal or human. (Saints: I am trying my best to say these things as plain as possible; without sounding vulgar; so I ask you, Please bear with me.) This act of conception is a sacred thing, designed by the Creator Himself; as the only way for the redeemed planet to be repopulated. Every female creature has a responsibility delegated by the Creator; to do her part in helping to repopulate this planet. Every woman’s body was designed, that at a certain time of life, when they reach a certain age, there is a certain law which begins to take affect in her body; which is now referred to as that monthly cycle. If she never had that monthly cycle, no woman would ever be able to have a child. You know what I am talking about. That is the divine Creator’s way; and that is a law in every female animal that walks on God’s green earth. I am not talking in a derogatory way; I am only speaking this in a simple way; so it can be easily understood; and no one will have to speculate on what I meant, when I am finished dealing with the subject. God has said to the woman, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. What was God actually saying to her? She knew what He was saying; because all of this was put in their intellect while they were only spirit beings, without physical bodies. They had this knowledge; before they were ever put here in the earth, in physical bodies; where they would fulfill the purpose of God. They knew what it was all about; before they were ever put to the test; yet they failed the test. After they failed the test, God was setting in motion the next phase of His plan; so notice, as we continue. Now that they had the knowledge of this relationship strictly for pleasure, what was God going to do, in order to attain His ultimate goal? Which is, to have this planet populated with sons and daughters that love Him and desire to please Him. Instead of the woman being able to come to a certain time in the year, that she would come into that cycle when she would know that she could receive seed, (however often the Creator had designed it) that all had to be changed. The earth would still be repopulated by the same physical act; but it would be by the law of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, instead of by the law of the tree of life; which in reality is eternal life. The great difference, is the death sentence that reigns in every human being born into this world since the day God judged that first couple; which necessitates redemption in order for us to be able to have fellowship with our Heavenly Father. Under the law of the tree of life, when she would have come into that cycle that conception could take place she would have been fully aware of it; and in a godly, sacred way, would say to her husband, Now it is time that we should make love; to bring forth a little offspring for the Creator. I am glad I was raised on a farm, and allowed to study the animal life. It helps me greatly; as I study the Bible concerning this subject we are on. The woman, as a female creature, is the only female creature on earth that when she reaches a certain age in life, from a young child, she will start in that cycle, and it comes every month, every month, every month. It does so until she goes on into older womanhood. That is what God multiplied. What have they become to woman in a major sense? A lot of physical, nervous, psychological sufferings, many times bringing on ill effects. Look at women having to go to doctors today, to be doctored for all the nervous complexities of life. It all stems from that added burden placed upon womanhood as a result of Eve’s disobedience of the Creator’s instructions, or commandments. When God did that to Eve, it was a penalty added, because they, going against His word, had attained the knowledge that the sex act could be used for pleasure; any time a man and woman chose to do so. He did not forbid them to use the act for pleasure, once they attained this knowledge; He just added a penalty for their disobedience. To the serpent, God said, “BECAUSE THOU HAST DONE THIS,” thus and so; and He went right ahead pronouncing the woman’s penalty; when He finished with the serpent. He did not say to the woman, “BECAUSE THOU HAST DONE THIS;” but she knew her penalty was because of her part in that forbidden act. However when He turned His attention back to Adam, God left no question as to why he was being punished; for He said to him, (Genesis 3:17-19) “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten (or partaken) of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” That penalty imputed to Eve was not just to her; but to every female she and her descendants would ever give birth to. Every woman from then on, would bear that curse. I have raised horses, cows, sheep, hogs, and all such animals as you see on a farm; and I can assure you of this, They do not have a monthly cycle; like women do. Some time within the year, according to the way God established the reproductive law in their particular species, she comes into that cycle. Of course, because of the fact that we have domesticated the animal kingdom, we can control the coming together of the male and female of these; but go out into the wild; and watch the deer. The females stay together until a certain time of the year. The Creator designed it that way. When that certain time of the year comes, those female deer begin to feel this period coming into their body; and it is then, and then alone, that they begin to seek out a male. Up until that time, a male deer could walk through their midst, and they would virtually ignore him. That is why you do not see prostitutes in the deer family. Neither do you see prostitute cows. They do not have X-rated theaters; where they perform that sacred act to entertain each other; like degenerate mankind does. I am not saying those things to sound angry; nor to be a smart; I am merely making a point. Educated doctors of divinity have thrived for 2000 years, on their education. Yet they have not proved a thing with all their Hebrew and Greek; except that they can translate words. As far as explaining what God meant by those words, they have only displayed their total ignorance of spiritual truth.

SOME RESULTS OF WOMAN’S PENALTY

When God placed that curse upon Eve’s reproductive organs saying, “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children,” Oh what a tragic result that has had upon womanhood down through the ages. Did you know, When Jacob went back to Mesopotamia, and had to work 14 years for his two wives, Rachel and Leah, when finally in later years they came back into the land of promise, Rachel was giving birth to his last child; and died in the process; near Bethlehem. Rachel, the wife he dearly loved, died in childbirth. Outside of Bethlehem is a tomb, Rachel’s tomb. It is a landmark today. She did not die of heart trouble. She died giving birth. You can see the results of that curse placed upon Eve, everywhere you go today. In sorrow, pain, agony, and many times right at death’s door, womanhood brings forth offspring. Under the law of the tree of life, there would have been none of those complications women face in childbearing today. Yes, the curse is still upon womanhood today; and will be, until the Millennial rule of Jesus Christ and His redeemed bride; when restoration is completed. It is also still written in the Bible; that a woman’s desire is to be to her husband. God has changed none of that yet. (Gen.3:16) “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” What is God saying? Regardless of how you may want to look at it, and regardless of how you think it sounds, I still have to say it this way, Since they have attained the knowledge of this relationship strictly for pleasure, from that time on, the duty of every wife is to please her husband in that pleasure relationship. That is God’s divine law. I challenge any critics; to bring his or her bible, and prove me wrong. Where did that tree of knowledge go? It is in their minds. They were driven from that paradise realm; never again to know exactly when to partake of the act for the purpose of childbearing. If God had not driven them from that paradise realm of His presence, they would have still been able to bring forth children from the tree of life; even after they sinned. In other words, One tree (law) was for life; and the other was unto death. Eating from one tree would have kept them in the realm of divine knowledge; and eating from the other tree caused them to have to live the rest of their lives with only the knowledge of the natural. Instead of having divine wisdom and authority in the realm of the spirit, and access to the spirit world, they had to depend upon their five senses; and remain earthbound creatures. If you can follow my thought, my point is, As long as God allowed them to remain in paradise, they could have still brought forth children from the law of the tree of life; and those children would have had eternal life. God could not allow them to live in sin; and at the same time begat children with eternal life. No. He kept His word; “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” That is why every man and woman from that day until now, has been born into this world, grown up in life, and as they reach adulthood, come together for marriage. That physical affair they live in, is strictly pleasure. No woman knows exactly when she can conceive; to bring a child into the world. I ask you, Why is medical science trying to make all kinds of modern means so that young women of our day can live like this and never have to worry about getting pregnant? It is because they do not know when they can; and they have not yet found any fool proof way of making sure. Again I ask you, Is the deer ignorant of when that law of life is present in her? No. She knows when she can. Is the cow ignorant of it? No. Is the horse ignorant of it? No. Woman, the handmaid of God, is the only female creature that does not know exactly when she can get pregnant. Because of that, man and woman in legal married relationship, are now living under that knowledge of the relationship for pleasure. Now the question many people ask is, Bro. Jackson: Is it wrong, out of the garden, to have sex for pleasure? No, that is the way life has to come forth. What has been done, cannot be undone. There is no way to blot out this knowledge of the pleasure of it; and return to God’s original plan. I have been asked the question, Well what would the tree of life have been? If Eve would have said to the serpent, Look, I know what God said; and I know what He meant; and what He meant is right. You are wasting your time talking like that to me; so just get away from me, and forget about what you are trying to persuade me to do; that law of life would have functioned just as God had designed her for it to; and she could have gone to Adam for the sole purpose conceiving seed in that relationship; and they would have brought forth a little son or daughter that would have had eternal life; and they would all have continued to have access into the spirit realm. They would not have become earthbound creatures; depending completely upon their five senses. If some of these young girls in our day, that have gotten themselves into such a bad shape, would have stopped these sweet talking, handsome little characters from seducing them, they could have avoided a lot of heartache and trouble. Even if they had to take a club and knock them in the head to prevent it, they might not be so sorry today.

WHY WE HAVE TO BATTLE WEEDS AND JOHNSON GRASS

After cursing the serpent, and after cursing Eve’s reproductive organs, God then turned to Adam. He did not curse Adam’s physical body; but nevertheless he did not let him go without punishment. What did He do? He cursed the ground to make it burdensome to grow crops; and put Adam in the serpent’s place, doing the manual labor. Here is what He said to him; found in verses 17-19. “And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” According to Isaiah 65:25, which says, “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, (that has to be in the Millennium) and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord,” the serpent will remain a crawling reptile; even after everything else is restored. I am aware that we are repeating some of the details of this revelation concerning the two trees in the midst of the garden of Eden; but there are just certain places where certain things have to go; to make the whole picture come out right; even if you have already covered them in a prior illustration. Our main concern in presenting this message, is that people who really want to, can have an opportunity to get the whole picture put together properly. Concerning Adam’s disobedience though, God did not curse his reproductive organs; He added sorrow to him in another way. Not only did he have to assume the serpent’s farming duties, everything he tried to grow, was made harder for him than it was for the serpent; because the serpent did not have all those thorns and thistles to contend with. There was sorrow added to Adam in that curse; even though physically he remained unchanged. Like I have said, I am a farmer. I have had my dealings with cuckle burrs, smartweed, Johnson grass, and all the rest. All of that is pesky plant life stuff. You can plow a field a foot deep. You can work it down into a bed of dust. You can buy the best corn seed, oat seed, wheat seed, and plant it in beautiful straight rows; but before very long, here comes those pesky things God cursed the ground with. To do what? To choke out what you put there. A lot of you who are hearing my voice, know exactly what I am talking about. All of that has been here ever since God cursed the ground because of Adam’s sin. For 6000 years man has had to toil and till the earth. Why? Because he does not have the serpent here to till it for him. You cannot send the horse out to the field, to plow the corn; you have to go with him. He will pull the plow; but he does not have the intelligence to know when to make the turn. If we still had that serpent creature up here at the head of the animal kingdom, it would be a different story. I hope what I am saying makes sense to all of you. Adam, who was the son of God, never would have had a callous on his hands; had sin never entered the picture. Adam would never have had to pull up a weed; nor move that first bit of soil himself; if he had just obeyed the voice of His Creator. The serpent would still be doing all of the manual labor. That is what God designed him for. Not only did Adam have to do all of the manual labor, God also said to him, You are going to sweat doing it. “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” In their original state, there never would have been such a thing as lust among the human race. Neither would there have been any sickness, disease, crime nor sorrow. All of that is in the world today; because God’s first son and daughter failed their free moral agency test; so do not ever get the idea that you stand above vulnerability when it comes to a question about whether a true child of God can be tempted or not. We will all be tempted; but we do not have to yield to the temptation. The Holy Ghost in us, gives us resources to resist every temptation; if we will just call upon those resources.

CONTENDING FOR A TRUE REVELATION

I have already read certain portions from an article published by Bold Truth Press Inc. in Denver Colorado; and I may read some more of it in a little while; because I want you to see just what ends spiritual ignorance can drive educated people to; when they try to combat a true revelation from the Spirit of God, with mere educated reasoning. As I stated earlier in the message, This article is dealing with opinions formed; concerning the ministry of Bro. William Branham, and another minister by the name of Sam Fife. I also have another article I may read some of; written by a Canadian, apostolic, Jesus Name, one God preacher. If the two of them were here together, while we are dealing with this subject, they would not be able to agree with each other; but they would both disagree with what we are teaching. Why? Because the other person is a Trinitarian, woman preacher. They each one have attacked the man whose ministry I was privileged to sit under. The only man I have ever heard, that could take you from Genesis 1:1, through Revelation 22:21, and make the whole Bible come alive to me. He made the Lord Jesus Christ stand head and shoulders above every other man mentioned in the Bible; because he had a genuine revelation of the Godhead; and total respect for the word of God. The trinity people did not like him; because he condemned their so-called revelation that God is three distinct person’s, yet one in unity of purpose; and the one God people did not like him; because he spoke of the Father and the Son; when they believe Jesus is all there is of God. The man, H. Post, got my attention a few years back; when they published an article entitled “Branhamism, Fact or Fiction.” I yet have a copy of it. He attacked three things taught by Bro. William Branham; the doctrine of predestination, serpent seed, and the fact that he believed there should be a prophet to the Gentiles in these last days. Naturally based upon what they understand, they believe prophets only come to Jews. We compiled an open letter at that time; and sent it to this Mr. Post by a Brother who lives in Canada. He delivered it to him personally; so I know the man had an opportunity to respond; if he still felt that he had a point to make; but we never heard a word. I want to say to these two people, It is true, William Marrion Branham was not an educated man. I presume by looking at the work of these two writers, that they are educated people. Bro. William Branham was not a man that had to rely upon education; nor intellectual speech. He constantly confessed that he did not rely upon these things; but delivered to this generation what was given to him by the Spirit of God. Therefore I say to you, Mr. Post: You belittle his language, and his usage of things pertaining to the revelation given to him; and you definitely attacked his teaching on the serpent seed, in the way he associated the two trees in the garden. Well Mr. Post, I am not going to say, as you did at the end of your tract, The conclusion of the whole matter is, any person who would believe this serpent seed doctrine would have to be under a strong delusion; to believe such a lie. I will just say, Mr. Post: I believe both of you are strictly, scripturally blind; just like the Pharisees were in the time of Christ. You jumped on Bro. William Branham‘s usage of how the word trees occurs in Genesis 3. I am not an educated man either: but you will get an article somewhere, if we have to run you down and see that you get it; that I believe you ought to pay attention to. I have read yours thoroughly; and I am not going to throw it away. Therefore when we send ours to you, I ask you to read what I have to say, just as thoroughly; and if you have anything in you that can respond to truth, I trust that I will hear from you. I am not saying these things to be smart; just because you are not sitting in my church; but when you jumped on Bro. William Branham‘s teaching like you did, it could return to you just like it did to well-known public minister of our day; when he did the same thing, about three and a half years ago. He jumped on the revelation of predestination; and said it was out of the pit. He also jumped on the one God and water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ revelation; and said William Branham went off on the deep end. He said the man started out right; but run off of the deep end; leaving it that in his last days he was just a man all washed up. Well, I ask you, Where is this man’s ministry today? He is still walking under the condemnation of what the whole world read about him; and what they presented on T.V. about his “goings-on” in a hotel with certain types of women; and he will never live it down. It is a dangerous thing, to condemn a true revelation of God’s word. Such a person’s folly will surely return unto him in a measure only God Himself can meet out. You can attack Bro. William Branham, because he is not here to defend himself; but when you attack the true revelation he taught, I will do my best as a human being and a Christian man; to defend that. I do not have to use his literal words; for I also see the picture he saw; and have my own words to express it. That is exactly what the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ did. They did not just quote the words of Jesus, when they went out to minister. That is one benefit of having your own revelation of what you are talking about; you do not have to use the other person’s exact words to express the same thing.

AFTER THE CURSE WHAT NEXT?

After God cursed the serpent, cursed the woman’s reproductive organs, and then cursed the ground for Adam’s punishment, what next? He made coats of skin to cover their nakedness; and then He drove them out of the paradise environment they had become accustomed to; and placed Cherubims with flaming swords between Him and them. Never again would they be able to enter into His divine presence at their own will. Let us read the scriptures dealing with this phase of their punishment now. (Gen. 3:21) “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. (I wonder what these animal rights people think about that. He did not just skin those animals and then turn them loose.) And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: (Who did He say that to? It had to be His angelic helpers.) and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” These few words, let us know that even after Adam and Eve sinned, they could have still repopulated the earth under the law of the tree of life; if God had not removed them from HIS divine presence. The Cherubims with flaming swords, were positioned between God and man; they were not guarding an entrance gate into a beautiful garden of flowers and trees. Was Adam and Eve still in Eden? They most certainly were. They were still looking at the same natural trees and plant life they were very familiar with; it was just not paradise anymore. Bible terminology does not spell everything out in full detailed pictures. You have to allow the Holy Spirit to help you read between the lines; if you are ever going to see a complete picture of some things.

A CLOSE LOOK AT THE SERPENT

Mr. Post jumped on what Bro. William Branham said about the original sin, “The serpent beguiled Eve, and had a sex relation with her.” To him, that sounded ridiculous. He used the words Bro. William Branham used, that the serpent was just an animal, and endeavored by the use his intelligence, to prove to modern, 20th century, educated mankind, that this is a ridiculous way of twisting the scriptures. I will just say to him, Do not forget, certain things in the Bible are written in symbolic, pictorial language; that veils them from those who look at everything from the standpoint of natural reasoning. I will give you one instance you will not have to go back before the flood to verify. In Isaiah 40:3-5, you find that prophet speaking words of prophecy that literally, have not come to pass; but we know that from the spiritual standpoint, they were all pointing to the ministry of John the Baptist, as he preached preparing the heart’s of people for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the language here; as we read these three verses. “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Notice how it speaks; that every valley shall be exalted. It said, Every valley. It also said, Every hill shall be brought low; and the crooked made straight. Brothers and sisters, if you take that literally, and look for the application of it in a natural, literal way, I would have to say to you, That is a prophecy that has never yet been fulfilled. I have been in the holy land. I have been to the place where John the Baptist preached. I want you to know, All those hills are still there. Every valley is still there. There may be a few changes in the terrain; because 2000 years of rain is naturally going to wash a few gullies deeper; and so forth; but none of those hills were touched by this prophecy. None of those valleys were touched by this prophecy. The crooked trails and paths of camels and horses are still there also. Not a one of them were touched. What is the language referring to then? It is talking about people, in a pictorial language. Why did the prophet not just come right out and explain it in plain words, by just saying, A man will stand in the wilderness preaching; and what he will say will cut down those who are exalted; and exalt many who have been lowly? God made sure certain things in His Word were written in a way that only a spiritual mind could understand. That is why certain things are written in pictorial language; so He can hide it from some, and reveal it to others. Mr. Post also attacked Bro. William Branham‘s reference to the seed of the woman. He says in his tract, “Seed is never reckoned through the woman but always through the man.” That is not what the Bible says. Let us go back and read Genesis 3:15. I am sure the Lord did not just make a mistake, when He worded it this way. God was in the process of cursing this serpent creature; and this is what He said to him. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” God Himself referred to the woman’s seed; so I am one that will not question that; and neither should anyone else who has proper respect for God’s word. This serpent creature, as we have already brought out, was not a son of God. Adam was; but the serpent was no. However the fact that we have said he was not a son of God, does not mean that we believe he was just a dumb beast of the animal kingdom. He was just the opposite of that. He was a creature that physically stood so close to Adam in all of his makeup, he probably looked more human than a lot of what we see walking the streets today. He had a body that looked much like Adam’s body. That is the creature the scientists of our day have been looking for. They know there is a missing link between man and the now present highest form of any creature in the animal kingdom; but they refuse to look for him in the Bible. Parrots have to be taught to talk; and that is usually in a very limited way; but I want to say, While that serpent was still an upright creature he could vocally communicate with Adam and Eve. He did not have to be taught to talk; God created him with that ability; so he could be a proper servant for Adam. He had the intelligence and necessary ability to vocally communicate. He could ask Adam what he wanted him to do; and he could understand and fully carry out his assignment. Therefore it is no strange thing that the Creator talked to him; and neither is it unthinkable that he (the serpent) had a sexual encounter with Eve. We naturally realize that other animals will not cross with human beings for reproduction; but God ordained it to be different in this case. Neither is dual conception such a remote possibility; for we have documented proof on record, of other women conceiving seed from two different individuals in a short period of time; and giving birth to what seemed to be twins. Therefore knowing of these other cases where dual conception took place, scriptural evidence is too obvious, for us to deny the fact that Cain and Abel could have been the offspring of just such a conception. That would mean that Cain was the seed of the serpent; and Abel was the son of Adam; and Eve was the mother of both of them. When God stripped the serpent of his arms and legs, and made him a crawling reptile, there was still an upright creature which was half animal and half human; and those attributes of his father, caused Cain to like to work with the soil. The bible says he became a tiller of the ground. On the other hand, Abel manifesting the attributes of his father Adam, became a keeper of sheep. Before the curse, Adam never had to perform manual labor. That was the serpent’s responsibility. We will deal with this line of thought a little more thoroughly; after we finish with God’s words to the serpent; and what He surely meant.

THE SERPENT’S SEED – THE WOMAN’S SEED

Again, I want to read what God said to the serpent. “I will put enmity between thee and the woman. (Those words were applicable at the moment of time the cursing and penalty was being dealt out. The woman Eve, would always hate that creature; no matter where she saw him. Eve, from his upright position, to his cursed state, always knew exactly which one he was, among the other reptiles. Wherever she would overtake that thing, that feeling of enmity toward it was always there. The next words though, are the words in question; but the eternal God is the One that spoke them.) and between thy seed and her seed.” I wonder if Mr. Post has ever asked himself what this serpent’s seed could be; and what God meant? Furthermore it does not say, Adam’s seed; it says, her seed. What would her seed be? This we know for sure, Whatever the seed of this woman is, it shall bruise the head of the serpent. I do not believe there should be any doubt that this is talking about Christ, and His atonement work at Calvary. It will be finished at the second coming of Christ; when He brings an end to the antichrist, which is Satan’s serpent seed in its final hour; if I may express it like that. I want you to know though, the antichrist will not be a snake; sitting on a throne somewhere. He is going to be a two legged, religious man. The world religions have been crying for the last 40 years, that Communism is the antichrist. Communism is caving in. All it is now, is a political ideology. It is anti-God; not antichrist. It is anti-God; but it could never be rightly called, antichrist. Scripturally, the word antichrist speaks of that which is contrary to the true teaching of Jesus Christ; and contrary to the true teaching about Jesus Christ. This seed of the woman, was to eventually bruise the serpent’s head; and it bruise His heel. We have already brought that out; so let us look at another scripture that also speaks of the woman having a seed. Her seed, was the seed brought about by her own husband. You can try to prove that the seed always comes by the male, if you want to; but let us see what the Bible says about it. This was quite some time after Abel’s death. Cain had already left, going eastward into the land of Nod; getting away from his past. Adam and Eve were left without a son; and here is what was written concerning this matter. In Genesis 4:25, we find these words, “And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.” Cain, which was not the true, God recognized seed of Eve, slew her true seed Abel, leaving her without a seed that God would honor. It is very strange, how this preacher insists that Cain himself was just as much the son of Adam as Abel was; when we have scriptures that make it so clear, that he was not acknowledged to be such. It was not Adam; but Eve that said, God hath appointed me (Eve) another seed instead of Abel. If what I see is not the way it was, then let someone please explain it to me. Cain was still alive. He was in the land of Nod. He was starting his own seed line; and once he left, Eve never did call him her seed. The closest she ever came to it, was in verse 1, of chapter 4, when she said “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” That was not a strange statement; when you consider that all life comes from God; because He is the only source of life. Furthermore Eve did not know when she made that statement; what she learned later. After Abel appeared on the scene, and especially after she had an opportunity to watch them grow up, she certainly knew Cain was not a son of Adam. Saints we need to recognize and realize one important thing here. Cain had the attributes in him to become angry; and to commit murder. Adam’s seed line never had any of those attributes; before they started intermarrying there in chapter 6. After they began to intermarry, those later generations could have been capable of anything; as was evidenced by the overall moral conditions that existed before the great flood of chapter 7. The book of Genesis is named after chapters 4 and chapter 5; because the word Genesis itself, means, history of the genes. The genes that flow through the reproductive organs of mankind, carry the law of God’s creative, reproduction process. That is why everything brings forth of its own kind; if man will let nature take its ordained course.

THE GARDENS OF EDEN

In this tract, Mr. Post took issue with what Bro. William Branham said about the Eden of Ezekiel; evidently trying to prove how ignorant Bro. William Branham must have been, by bringing it out that this Eden was an Eden of stones. I will not argue with you on that. You brought out, how Adam’s Eden was a garden; and that God planted those trees. We talk of the garden of Eden as though Eden itself was the garden; when actually, Eden is the geographical area of the world, known to mankind as the cradle of civilization. Eden itself was not the garden. Eden is the name given the area where God put the garden. When you read in the third chapter, the description of that territory, the river areas and everything, they are all still there today; even after the flood. That is the geographical area where the garden was; when it all started. However when God drove Adam and Eve from this beautiful place, we have to realize that there are two things to consider. There was a natural garden; a geographical place upon earth, where God’s plan had its beginning; but the other side of this garden picture was a spiritual setting; because it was God’s presence there, that made it paradise. That is why, as long as it remained like that, it was just as easy for Adam to see angels, as it was for him to see a horse; or a deer. God’s presence is what made the difference. Those two trees, life and knowledge, did not grow out of the ground; yet they were in the garden. Nevertheless When Adam and Eve were driven from that beautiful paradise, God lifted that. For almost 6000 years, mankind has been eating from, or partaking of the tree of knowledge; but the other tree, the tree of life, according to the words of Jesus in Revelation 2:7, is in the midst of the paradise of God; which is in heaven. How did it get there? It is there, because it is a figurative tree, a basic law which God retains unto Himself. It is a part of the spirit realm, the realm of God’s presence. Saints: You cannot depend upon your intellect; to open up this symbolic language to your understanding; it takes a revelation of certain other things of the word of God to understand some of these things that cause great controversy among people. Many people endeavor to use their intellect to disprove things they think someone else cannot possibly be right about. We are not trying with our intellect; to prove anything to anyone; for we realize it is the Spirit of God that gives us a revelation. A revelation, is an understanding of how a picture goes together. When their eyes were opened, and they knew they were naked, instead of going to a fig tree, why did Adam and Eve not go to the tree of life to get leaves to cover their nakedness? I will say it once again, Because the tree of life was not a plant life tree. Those two trees were the basis for the test Adam and Eve had to face. No son of God will ever glide through life without facing a test of loyalty and obedience. First God makes known His perfect will; and then those who are to be tested, either pass the test, or fail the test by the way they respond to the known will of God. For Adam and Eve, it was a question of how they would go about the task of fulfilling the great commission given to them. They were told to be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. That is what they were commanded to do. Then God told them what not to do; and left them to exercise their own will; as to whether they would obey Him or not. It was James that wrote, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” That is where our test always comes, in the areas where we know the will of God. Satan either attempts to get us to doubt that God meant what He said; or just to deliberately disobey Him and face the consequences. If he cannot get us to doubt the word of God, his next effort is to get us to be careless. Careless living, is what brings so much shame upon a lot of Christians. Well did Adam and Eve fulfill the commission God gave to them? Yes they did. The earth has been refilled with living creatures; and man has learned to exercise dominion over all the rest of the living creatures. The thing that brought their trouble, was exercising their own will to go contrary to what God told them; concerning the two laws (trees) He had placed in the midst of their garden of paradise. They replenished the earth; but their sin caused God to have to impute the death penalty to them; and the result of Eve’s seduction eventually got the whole human race in such a bad shape, God had to wipe the slate clean and start over. No He did not have to recreate anything; He loaded a boat with what He wanted to save; and drowned everything that was left. After the flood waters abated, and the ark had come to rest upon Mt. Ararat, the day came for Noah to open the ark and come forth from it. Here is what God said to them at that time, (Gen. 8:16) “Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.” After Noah built an altar and worshipped God, he was given the same commission Adam was given, (Gen. 9:1) “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” Did Noah fulfill his commission? He sure did; but every little baby that has ever been born into this world, except for Jesus who was begotten of the Spirit of God, was conceived under the law of the tree of knowledge.

HOW – AND WHEN JESUS WAS TESTED

As we said, Adam and Eve were to fill the earth with that of their kind. Not only was it to be filled with cows and horses and sheep and dogs, and so forth. The earth was to be filled with the offspring of Adam and Eve themselves. Therefore the test God confronted them with, was not how many horses they would bring forth. No. The test had to come against them on the basis of how they were going to reproduce themselves. If Mr. Post, or anyone else, wants to challenge this, that is fine with me. I am set, for the defense of this revelation; whenever it needs to be defended. Let us go to the 4th chapter of Matthew; for a look at another test. The baptism of Jesus, was recorded in the last part of the 3rd chapter. We know what took place then. He came there, being (according to the scriptures) about 30 years of age; and was baptized by John. He walked out into the water as the only begotten Son of God; speaking from the standpoint of the natural man that He was. Spiritually speaking, John called Him the Lamb of God. Why? Because he had a revelation. When He came up out of the water, the heavens were opened unto Him; and the Eternal, Jehovah Spirit, descended from heaven and filled Him. This is where the God of heaven came and dwelled in His begotten Son, in the fullness of all His divine qualities, or attributes. From that moment on, God became invested in a man. Yes He was more than a man; but to show the world that He was a man that had all the feelings, physically, psychologically, and every wise as you and I, He was led by the same Spirit that had filled Him, into the wilderness; where He fasted for 40 days and nights. At the end of His fast, He was tested; just the same as Adam and Eve were tested in their garden of paradise. Therefore what I want you to see, is that just as the first Adam who was a son of God, was tested, Jesus the second Adam, had to be tested also. Was He tested on how He was going to walk? Was it on the way He was going to comb His hair, or what time He should eat breakfast? Was any of that the basis on which Jesus was tested? No. He was tested on the basis of the three distinct things He was destined to be; in due process of time, on behalf of lost Mankind. First He was to be the means by how God brings about an atonement and a reconciliation, and eradication of sin on the face of this earth. That is why the first thing was, He hungered. How was that going to be a test? Was he tested, to see if He would walk 40 miles to get something to eat? No. Listen to what the devil said to Him; and you will see what the first test was. (Matthew 4:2-4) “And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” Could He have done it? Yes He could have; but yet I can say this, What a contrast! In Genesis 3, where the first Adam was tested, this Mr. Post attacked Bro. William Branham‘s revelation concerning Eve and the serpent, by saying it was genetically impossible for the serpent (which he thinks was just a mere beastly animal) to be genetically capable of planting a seed in the womb of Adam’s wife; that would be compatible for the purpose of conception. To you Mr. Post, and all others like you, I say this, It looks impossible; because you look at it completely from the standpoint of natural reasoning. You refuse to look at the fact that God has permitted this to be possible; that these two may be tested in relationship to how they are going to bring forth of themselves, offspring of their own kind, to fulfill the commission He had given to them. As I said earlier, in other words, Their test had to be in relation to what they were commissioned to do. Therefore their test was in how they were to bring forth that of their kind, to repopulate the earth. All other creatures were going to bring forth of their kind. The horse would bring forth the horse, the cow, another of its kind, and so on. Man was to bring forth another man; but on what basis would he do it? That was the test. One was the wrong way; and the other was the right way. Why was Jesus tempted by the devil to turn stones to bread? Because He was destined to be a miracle worker; when the Spirit of the Father in Him led Him to perform some supernatural deed. What the devil wanted, was to get Him to exercise His own will in performing a miracle; instead of the will of the Father. He later fed a multitude, with five small loaves of bread and two small fish; so we know He could have turned the stones to bread. That would have been no more difficult than expanding that small lunch, to feed a multitude. My point is this, When you try to discredit something based only upon the mere word structure of what is written in chapter 3, you are going at it in a fruitless way. God will laugh at you one of these days. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they covered their loins with leaves from plant life. The question then is, Why will God not accept plant life. What is wrong with it? I ask you what seems like a simple question, What is wrong with fig leaves, as long as their loins are covered? Is that not the excuse a lot of religions use today? Well what does it matter, whether we see everything exactly the same way, as long as we all believe in Jesus? Listen saints, That is not the way the early church believed. The early church did not even look at the word of God in that way. They heard it right the first time; and had no reason to look for an excuse not to live by what they had been taught. It is this 20th century, Gentile, so-called Christendom, that is always looking for a short cut to heaven. Every individual has his, or her own mind made up. The greater percentage of what is called Christians today, want just enough religion to try to stay out of hell; but they have no desire whatsoever, to live a godly life.That is why I said earlier, Every man has his own briefcase of ideas. It is almost all just traditional formality; so they do not have to worry about offending anyone. The sad part is, when truth does knock on his door, he still wants to hang on to most of it. No you do not cast out everything you have built your spiritual life around, the first day you discover truth; but neither do you hang on to it so tightly it cannot be dislodged. The God ordained pattern is, submit to the Holy Spirit; and let Him purge out error a little at a time, with true revelation.

SPIRITUAL INSIGHT

Realizing that sin was introduced to the family of God by a creature of the animal kingdom, and finding out how it actually came about, opens up our understanding on a lot of what we previously considered mysterious utterances written in the scriptures. Just learning that Eve’s sin was not committed by her partaking of some forbidden plant life fruit, lifts you up out of a great state of spiritual darkness; and gets you ready for a very interesting journey through the Bible. Then you can understand better, why God always demanded a blood sacrifice from those who desired to worship Him, instead of a basket of fruit from their vegetable garden. Adam and Eve covered the parts they sinned with, by making aprons out of plant life tree leaves; but when God found them like that, He made coats out of animal skins, to replace those fig leaves. What kind of animal did He get the skins from? Was it a lion? Was it a camel? No, I do not believe it was anything other than lamb’s skin. In the scriptures, the first thing that stands out as a sacrifice, a substitute, was that of sheep, lambs.