Adam and Eve, Fall of

Have you ever wondered why all men die? Adam and Eve signed their own death warrants and ours when they disobeyed God to get some forbidden knowledge. God tells them in Genesis 2:17 not to eat any fruit off the "tree of knowledge of good and evil," or else you'll "die the death." The devil said otherwise and so they ate the forbidden fruit. At first bite, they both died spiritually by immediately losing sanctifying grace. They also lost the gift of immortality and began growing old, eventually dying.

Adam is the physical head of mankind, so all inherit his punishment of death both spiritually and physically. Saint Paul spells this out in Romans 5:12: "Wherefore as by one man, sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned." Paul gives the remedy for eternal death in 1 Corinthians 15:22: "And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive."

The devil tempts our first parents in Genesis 3:5 with the promise that "you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil." His twisted truth sort of comes to pass as Genesis 3.7 reveals, "the eyes of them both were open and ... they perceived themselves to be naked." This new knowledge, however, shamed them into hiding their nakedness with fig leaves. Their rebellion further cost them the grace needed to keep their passions in check. Absent this inner harmony, their once harmonious relationship with each other would now be frayed by manipulation and domination as told in Genesis 3:16.

Peace with God was also lost. Genesis 3:8 recounts how the two "hid themselves from the face of the Lord." Even nature rebels against Adam as Genesis 3:17-19 attests: "[C]ursed is the earth in your work; with labor and toil shall you eat thereof … till you return to the earth."

Learn how great was the fall of our first parents in season one of Church Militant's Premium show Armor of God—The Creation and Fall of Man.