Eating The Fruit Was Not The First Sin

"The Lord is righteous in all his ways..." Psalm 145:17 Some reading this would say, "then why is there such evil in the world?" We have to start with the Word God has given us before we can even think to proceed. God says that all of his ways are righteous. If one doesn't believe that, he needs to stop here and meditate on it, asking the Lord to shed light on it, because many doubt it. When one is tempted to not believe the Word of God, he needs to deal with that. It's unbelief, an insult to the Creator. Every Word of God is true. Disagreeing with it is unbelief. Would a man dare say to the God of the universe, "You're wrong, and here's why...!" "The Lord is righteous in all his ways..." Psalm 145:17 Can you imagine a world in which everything was perfect? There IS a world like that, and the Word of God calls it "heaven." That's where the believer will abide forever, in a world that has no suffering, no pain, no loss, no sickness, no grief. God could have made this world on earth like heaven, why didn't he? Well ...he DID. The record of the creation is contained in the first chapter of the Bible's first book, the Book of Genesis. It is notable that after each of what God created, he said it was "good." It WAS perfect. Everything in the world was good. What happened? There is an enemy, filled with hatred for God. Satan was created perfect and given a high position among the angels of heaven. After awhile his beauty and his power led to pride. And after pride, came the idea that he would be able to become as God, and he amassed a third of the angels in heaven to a revolt against God thinking to take first place for himself. For this act of rebellion, he was cast out of heaven along with those who followed him. And ever since then he has been filled with rage against the God he could not topple, and fury against the God who banished him from heaven. God created mankind and put him on earth in a place of perfection called "Eden." It was GOOD. It was perfect. But Satan does all he can to pervert it, in his hatred of anything or anyone that God loves. God had told Adam and Eve that they could eat of all the fruits and produce from their surroundings, except for one, the one God called "The tree of knowledge of good and evil." And that's where Satan struck. God had said that if they ate from that one tree, they would die. But Satan told them that the Word of God was NOT TRUE: “You will NOT surely die! For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, AND YOU WILL BE LIKE GOD, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5 That aroused Eve's curiosity. What would it be like to be AS GOD? She believed what Satan said to her and she took the fruit and ate it. Then she brought it to Adam and told him what was said, and Adam ate of it. If you were to ask people what the first sin recorded in the Bible was, most would say it was eating of the fruit that was forbidden. No, the first sin was disbelieving what God said. And that's the sin that will cause many to fall. This is the great sin of mankind, disbelieving what God has said. Satan will always whisper to people that what God said about this, that, or the other - "isn't true." And that's where evil comes into our world. Today, the world is steeped in unimaginable evil and evil always comes from disbelief of what God has said. The sin of disbelief has brought onto this world all the evils you see in it. God did not cause the evil - Satan causes it by telling people ever so gently and with a smile on his face that what God has said simply "isn't true" but that whatever the person is tempted with is actually good and will bring pleasure. He does not tell the person what the result will be. If he did, no one would sin would they? No, he presents something to be desired and tells the person only of the pleasure it will bring. "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust AND ENTICED. Then, when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death." James 1:13-15 The result will be death in many ways, in relationships, in sickness, in tragedy, in deception, and in all that Satan can destroy, and then physical death at the end. Death is always the end result of sin. "For the wages of sin is death..." Romans 6:23 The Word of God says "The Lord is righteous in all his ways." But he allows all to have free will. He doesn't want robots. He wants those who will choose him and believe him and refuse the lies of the enemy, those who will worship him and him alone, in spirit and in TRUTH. "...the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and TRUTH.” John 4:23-24 It's your choice.