THE FALL OF MAN

All cultures provide some conception of the origin of evil, many of which are remarkably similar. Ancient Egyptian stories tell of a golden age which was lost by the "ancestress of woman" and of a serpent. In ancient Greek literature Pandora's curiosity led her to release evil into the world.

The story of Adam and Eve in the Bible gives us the most information. What happened to Adam and Eve? In Genesis we read that after every time God created He said it was "good," but when He created Adam and Eve it was "very good." This is an understatement. God was delirious with excitement on the sixth day to see his precious children. Then we read that God placed "the tree of life...in the midst of the garden and also the tree of knowledge of good and evil." And then we read, "...the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." Everything was good and pure. Adam and Eve "were both naked, and were not ashamed."

Then tragedy strikes. A "subtle" serpent lies to Eve saying that she will not die if she eats the fruit. She sees "the tree was to be desired" and eats the fruit. She then gives the fruit to Adam who eats. We read that they both then "knew they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons." Then we read they then "hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, 'Where are you?' And he said, 'I heard the sound of thee in the Garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.'"

God then says that the serpent who "beguiled" Eve was "cursed; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life." And Adam and Eve were told their life would be a hard one now. God then drove them out of the garden and we read "at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life" (Gen. 3:24).

Tree of Life -- symbolic

Much of this story is symbolic. The "Garden of Eden" is symbolic for the kingdom of heaven on earth. For a brief time only goodness existed on earth but since the Fall of Adam and Eve the Tree of Life has been barred from mankind. The Israelites in the Old Testament wrote of their desire for the Tree of Life. It is the ultimate hope of mankind. In the Book of Proverbs we read, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life" (Prov. 13:12) And in Revelations we read, "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates" (Rev. 22:14). What is the Tree of Life? What are we missing that makes our "heart sick?" What is this "hope" that is being "deferred?" The Bible shows that attaining the Tree of Life will bring happiness. What is the essence of happiness? What Adam failed to achieve in the Garden of Eden was perfection of character---the fulfillment of the first blessing. The Tree of Life symbolized Adam who was to be the first person to achieve moral perfection.

What Adam and all people since him have sought is to grow out of their immaturity and become true adults. All adults since Adam fell have become adults only physically but remained spiritually, mentally, emotionally children. No one has ever grown up spiritually. Every person's innermost hope is to become a Tree of Life. We all have an original nature within us that desires to become a true man or a true woman.

Next to the Tree of Life stood the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Next to Adam stood Eve. Eve is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The fruit of the tree has often been interpreted as a literal fruit even though the Bible does not specify what kind of fruit. Michelangelo painted a tree depicting the Tree of Knowledge on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He shows Eve eating what many think to be an apple and handing one to Adam.

Not a literal fruit

But the fruit couldn't be a literal fruit such as an apple because God is our parent of love who would never put poisonous fruit in front of His children and simply tell them not to eat it.

Sin does not come from eating food. The Bible says, "Not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man, but that which comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man" (Matt. 15:11).

Fruit trees multiply through the seed contained in the fruit. Likewise, mankind was to multiply through Eve producing children. Eve was the fruit or seed of mankind. The tree of knowledge symbolizes Eve and the fruit is symbolic of Eve's sexual love.

The commandment by God to Adam and Eve was the same commandment that all parents should give their children, saying "My children, you are young and immature. Some day you will marry and have children. If you have children now, you will not be mature enough to be good parents. You must first grow up and become adults before you have sex with another person. Sex now will hurt you, but sex when you are married will be the most holy, loving and meaningful part of your life."

Snake is symbolic

We read that a snake tempted Eve. This too is symbolic. Only a spiritual being can know God. The snake symbolized an angel. Angels exist. It is fashionable in our secular society to doubt the existence of angels. But the literature of mankind is so filled with references to angels that Mortimer J. Adler, Clifton Fadiman and other writers, philosophers and scholars who compiled the Great Books series had to include in their syntopican of great ideas, the idea of angels. They write, "The characteristic skepticism of our age has been directed against the belief in angels generally. It casts doubt by satire or denies by argument the existence of spirits both good and evil....Moralists have thought it possible to explain human depravity without recourse to the seductions of the devil." But when all arguments are considered it makes more sense to believe in a spirit world and angels.

God created angels before He created Adam and Eve. He created them to be His helpers. He made angels to be in a position of objects and admirers. At every stage of the creation angels gave God stimulation, praise, comfort and joy as God poured out all His energy in the process of creating the universe and His children.

Genesis 1:26 states, "Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness." God is speaking to the angels here. God had three archangels: Lucifer, Gabriel and Michael. Lucifer was the leader and assigned to directly be Adam and Eve's teacher. Artists have portrayed angels with wings, and throughout history we have thought angels to be greater than man. This interpretation comes from Psalm 8. The King James Version of the Bible says man is a little lower than the angels. This is not true, and the Revised Standard Version is correct in translating the Hebrew to mean God, not angels. Angels do not have wings, and they are not greater than mankind. The hierarchy is:

First Corinthians 6:3 says, "Do you not know that we are to judge the angels?" Another incorrect view held about angels is that they are sexless, neuter beings.

The angel closest to God was Lucifer. He knew that God was preparing this universe for His children. For millions of years Lucifer had been the center of love and now Adam and Eve were. Although God loved Lucifer as He always did, He obviously loved His children too. Lucifer was assigned to take care of Adam and Eve. By comparison, Lucifer felt he was loved less. This feeling would have disappeared when he would have received love from Adam and Eve when they reached perfection. Their love combined with God's would have been a complete love. To compensate, he turned to Adam and Eve. Since Lucifer was male, he was more attracted to Eve. Lucifer began to spend time alone with Eve. She was young and naive. Lucifer was older, a teacher, and she was excited as Lucifer told her of how God and the angels led by him created this world. Eve admired and trusted him.

As Eve grew she became more beautiful. Lucifer became confused and in his hurt for feeling less love from God, began to hate God. Lucifer's feelings are also written in the book of Islam, the Koran, in which he says, "Why should I serve them? They are but of dust while I'm of fire."

Lucifer was older and knew better but he seduced Eve. They had sexual intercourse. Eve, at first, rebuffed Lucifer's advances. She reminded him of God's warning but her resistance crumbled. She was confused by Lucifer's words. God had placed Lucifer, the "angel of light" to guide her. He was so wise and she was flattered by his attention. And then he changed and was telling her something that was opposite of God's direction. Lucifer was, in effect, a father figure. She was a young teenager, and she trusted him. She loved as any young girl loves and obeys her teacher. She submitted to Lucifer's order that she have sexual intercourse with him. This union brought about the spiritual fall of man. The initial sin, the original sin, that destroyed God's ideal was sex outside of marriage. The original sin was sex outside of God's order.

Eve felt great fear and confusion when she realized she had disobeyed God. She felt cut off from God. Knowing that Adam was eventually to be her husband she thought she could get to God by being with him. She immediately went to Adam and seduced him. She hoped that in sex with Adam she could get rid of her fear and confusion. This sexual union between Adam and Eve was the physical fall of mankind. The first union between Lucifer and Eve was the spiritual fall. Eve could have been restored through Adam if Adam had not fallen with Eve. If he had not fallen he could have restored Eve and connected her with God. After Adam's fall no one could intercede with God on their behalf, and they were completely cut off from God.

After the fall they covered their lower parts. We hide what is wrong. If we say something wrong, we cover our mouth. If there is a scar on our body, we cover it with makeup or clothing. Adam and Eve sinned with their lower parts and covered them. And we read in the Bible how arrogant Lucifer then became: "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of Dawn! You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; ... I will make myself like the Most High!" (Isaiah 14:12).

Lucifer is then called Satan, meaning in ancient Hebrew "the adversary." He is compared in the Bible to a serpent because he is lowly and speaks with a forked tongue. A serpent's tongue is split in two. This symbolizes a being which utters two different things with one tongue--a being who leads a double life. He appears good but is evil--a liar and a deceiver. The serpent is also a sexual symbol.

And a serpent, like Satan, quietly strikes with surprise, speed and strength. Lucifer was cursed in Genesis to crawl upon his belly. This means he is cursed to be a miserable being not able to function properly and the curse that he had to "eat dust" means that he can not receive elements of life from God but is condemned to receive evil vitality elements from the sinful world.

Lucifer, now Satan, took many angels with him. We read, "And that great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him" (Rev. 12:9).

Adam and Eve were 16 years old when this tragedy took place. They were older children abused by their guardian. Every person in human history has been abused by Lucifer. We are all terrified, confused, hurt, angry, ashamed, bitter and resentful as Adam and Eve were. In one sense Adam and Eve have to take responsibility for not obeying God, but we should all be sympathetic to them as we should all be sympathetic to every person because we are all brothers and sisters being abused and driven to abuse others in one form or another by Satan. We all abuse others to different degrees. People over the age of 18 are not real adults in God's eyes. Fathers who commit incest are children also.

We have to judge and sometimes physically punish those according to laws and enforced through courts and police and the military. But we must be careful as we point our fingers at others, no matter how heinous a crime that person commits. It is easy to accuse others, but we all far short of God's standard. None of us has perfect mind/body unity. Some people have to be jailed, but we are all rebellious children who can be criticized. We must learn to judge more correctly. Instead of focusing on accusing our peers, parents, elders, and leaders for physically or psychologically hurting us, we should all see that the focus of judgement should be on an angel instead of people who have hurt us because they are hurt by Satan.

In one sense we all have to take responsibility for hurting others and not being everything we are supposed to be, but in another sense we are not responsible because we are all immature children up against terrible forces of darkness. Therefore we must all forgive those who hurt us because they are just human children dominated by an evil older and selfish nonhuman angel.

There is an element of rape and incest in the fall. Lucifer was not Eve's father, but he was a father figure, like an uncle or respected elder who is given custody of a minor. Eve was not an adult. In a real sense she and all of us are not responsible. Satan is. God wants us to fight Satan. But we can't do it alone. Later we will see how God sends us help to fight evil.

God's plan was for Adam and Eve to grow up with Lucifer's help. Then God would have blessed them in marriage. They would have had children and soon the whole world would have been filled with perfect people each talking to God directly and no angel's love, which is weaker and lesser than man's and God's love, could ever upset God's ideal.

How could Eve have a sexual relationship with the archangel Lucifer? We have five spiritual senses. Before the fall, Eve's spiritual senses were completely open. Lucifer was as real as Adam. The Bible even tells of instances where angels have relationships with men. Angels came to Abraham's house and ate a meal with him (Gen. 18:7). An angel wrestled with Jacob (Gen. 32:25). The Second Letter of Peter says, "God did not spare the angels when they sinned..." (II Peter 2:4). And we read in Jude 6 through 7 that angels acted immorally. Human beings have a physical body and a spirit body. Angels have only a spirit body.

There is ample evidence today that the root of evil, the Fall, was an immoral sexual relationship. God created the sexual act of love as the most precious, holy and exciting expression of love in our lives. Yet throughout history the act of love has often been regarded as lowly and made a joke of.

The Israelites practiced circumcision which represents a kind of payment or indemnity--a symbolic restitution for the original sin of Adam and Eve. And sexual crimes have caused the downfall of great men and nations.

The Bible teaches us that although it is necessary for man to multiply, for those who can it is best to be celibate. This was to be an indemnity payment for the Fall and implies that marriage has not had the complete sanction of God. The Bible emphasizes not getting married. In First Corinthians 7:38 we read, "So that he who marries his betrothed does well; but he who refrains from marriage will do better." Celibacy is encouraged because God's ideal was lost due to the misuse of love.

God created the universe. He is almighty. He created Lucifer, Adam and Eve. How could this tragedy have happened? God created a world of love, not regulations. God made the power of love the supreme force in the universe. Love, even non-principled love, is a powerful force. Adam, Eve and Lucifer fell because of unprincipled love. God said they would die if they fell. Only love can drive man to give his life. God had created the world so that love would be greater than laws or commandments. God created the desire in each of us to preserve our life. Suicide is anti-God. Yet the force of love is greater than the fear of death. We have all heard of men who jumped to their death on grenades to save their fellow soldiers, and we have heard of parents giving their lives in trying to save their children from a burning home. The only force that could induce Eve to do as she did was love. Her emotions and intellect were immature, and she failed to guide them properly.

The power of love is testified to throughout literature and seen in all of history. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet's love drove them to suicide. Hamlet's uncle killed his brother in order to marry his sister-in-law. And in modern history King Edward VII abdicated the throne for the love of a woman. Even Freud correctly saw that the sexual drive is strong enough to push people to disregard moral behavior and that the basic cause of all problems derives from unprincipled sex.

Until man reaches perfection, it is possible to misdirect his love. God gave the commandment as protection to Adam and Eve. It was special guidance until they matured and fulfilled the first blessing of being fruitful--of reaching individual perfection.

A fundamental question mankind has asked is--why does God allow for evil to exist? Why didn't He stop Eve from falling? If God cared for us why doesn't He, in His omnipotence, destroy Satan and end all the suffering in the world?

Walter Lippman wrote, "The greatest of all perplexities in theology has been to reconcile the infinite goodness of God with His omnipotence. Nothing puts a greater strain upon the faith of the common man than the existence of utterly irrational suffering in the universe."

The critic Roy Basler, in analyzing William Blake's poem, "The Tyger" says, "Blake is speaking of good and evil. The orthodox Christian mythology does not encompass both extremes in deity, but does in man. The relegation of Satan to a secondary power, permitted to pursue evil by an absolute God who is thus responsible for the continuation of what He could at any moment terminate, is an anomaly which theology has rationalized but has never made wholly acceptable to human intelligence."

God is omniscient but not omnipotent. He saw what was happening between Lucifer, Eve and Adam. He didn't stop the Fall because He was powerless to stop them.

God's blueprint is an ideal world on earth and spirit world through the fulfillment of the three blessings of being fruitful, multiplying and having dominion. God's ideal can only be realized by man accomplishing these three blessings. God cannot achieve His goal alone, and man cannot achieve it alone. God's ideal world can only happen if God and man work together. We can call God's work "God's portion of responsibility," and man's work "Man's portion of responsibility."

God's P.O.R. + Man's P.O.R. = God's ideal world

God always fulfills His portion of responsibility. He always gives 100% pure effort. Each of us have the responsibility to give 100% of our effort too. The proportion of work to build the ideal world is heavily on God's side compared to ours. He does the most--let's say 95% and we do 5%. But even though God creates us and the universe and we have only to create ourselves and use the natural resources around us to build a beautiful ideal world, it still requires 100% of our effort.

God's will is the building of the ideal world. God cannot accomplish His will without man's voluntary cooperation. Adam and Eve were created in God's image. This position has equal value to God. Adam and Eve had great responsibility. God did not intervene in the Fall because that would interfere with their portion of responsibility.

God created Adam and Eve and every person to grow through the growth period. While growing through the growth period, man is immature, and God cannot relate to him directly. When we have perfected our spirit and are one with God, then we move into the direct dominion and relate to God directly. Until man reaches perfection he is in the indirect dominion.

Adam and Eve were to directly relate to the angels -- especially Lucifer as they grew up. During this time God communicated to them in simple terms.. When they reached perfection then God would communicate to them fully. God is perfect and can only have a full and complete relationship with other perfect beings. Creation and man's body automatically grow to perfection. Our spirit does not. We each have special uniqueness and personality. We are given the mission to grow our unique spirit. If God didn't give us this responsibility we would simply be robots. God's position is like our position to our children. We cannot live their life for them. We cannot and have no desire to force them to be good and mature. We want them to voluntarily take responsibility for their own lives. We want them to grow up and be mature, independent responsible people. God therefore doesn't have total control over man. He gave us individuality. His ideal world can only happen when we voluntarily work with Him as partners.

FREEDOM

To be able to fulfill their responsibility God gave Adam and Eve the precious gift of freedom. Mankind was given freedom, but freedom comes with the responsibility to act within God's laws. We are free to violate the law of gravity by walking off a five story building, but we immediately lose our freedom. And if we violate spiritual laws we lose our freedom and suffer also. Adam and Eve didn't fall because they had freedom, but because they submitted to the power of non-principled love that drove them to violate God's spiritual laws. Second Corinthians 3:17 says, "...where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." There is no freedom in chaos. God created normal boundaries of morality, and Adam and Eve were to show self-discipline and live within the laws of the universe.

They misused their freedom. It is our responsibility to forgive them and do better than our original parents did. They didn't center their lives on God but on themselves. God is hoping that we will live within his spiritual laws. Each of us has the freedom to sin or not to.

Due to the Fall this world became a world of relative social and political freedom. Throughout human history mankind has lived in societies with different levels of freedom. Until there is an ideal world, people are going to fight for freedom. Many times in battles for freedom, both violent and nonviolent, God is behind one side and Satan is on the other. Later chapters of the Divine Principle will give examples in human history.

Freedom was God's highest gift to man. God desired Adam and Eve to love him voluntarily and would not use force to make them serve him. A flower has no alternative but to turn towards the sun. God gave man alternatives. Man chose to live outside of God's laws and the illicit love of Lucifer shattered the true freedom of man. Ever since then mankind has lived under Satan's bondage. God did not intervene in the Fall because that would cancel human dignity, responsibility and freedom.

St. Paul lamented being influenced by Satan and being unable to live a true life. He says, "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (Rom. 7:14-15). Mankind has been fighting for true freedom.

The consequence of the Fall were catastrophic. Satan took God's position in the Four Positions of the family unit.

The world is ruled by false "love." Satan is the "god of this world" (II Cor. 4:4). The existence of Satan and the belief in negative spiritual forces influencing our lives has been unpopular to modern educated Western people. This is a recent belief in human history. Western man is naive today and focuses on the temporal, the material, the human rather than the eternal, the spiritual, the divine.

SATAN

Satan is not the folklore being who has horns and a tail. He looks like a human being. And many who have walked a spiritual path will testify to the immense special temptations, obstructions and satanic forces they have to encounter as they seek to live God's way of life.

God and our heart tell us we cannot say seriously or humorously "the devil made me do it." Ultimately we each have the responsibility to not make a connection with Satan.

Lucifer was a spiritual being, and the act of sex between himself and Eve couldn't produce children. Adam and Eve, however, had children. They became parents before they were ready. In the midst of the confusion and fear introduced by Lucifer, they had to raise their children.

Adam and Eve couldn't pass down God's standard of living but passed down confusion and fear to all their descendants. This terrible misuse of love in the Garden of Eden blossomed into many types of unordered "love" such as fornication (pre-marital sex), adultery (extra-marital sex), prostitution, incest, pornography and homosexuality.

These acts of impure, unprincipled love has caused such agony as divorce, separation, VD, AIDS, mental illness and destroyed homes and careers. We reap what we sow. Immoral sexual behavior has broken countless hearts and countless bodies.

Because the motivation of Adam and Eve was a mixture of good and evil we can see the mixture of good and evil "love" in society. All parents have a good side and yet every parent is ultimately incompetent to teach by word and example absolute moral values to their children. Parents have different levels of relative standards and all are ignorant of God's principle of absolute love.

Because of the Fall, mankind lost its original nature and gained a fallen nature which has four major aspects. First, Lucifer didn't see Adam and Eve from God's point of view so fallen people generally do not see from God's point of view. Saints and heros are often misunderstood and persecuted.

Second, Lucifer left the position God gave him, consequently people in this world frequently don't live up to their positions and disregard their obligations and responsibilities. An example would be a parent who leaves his small child to go to a bar to drink.

Third, we desire to dominate others. Lucifer reversed the order of dominion. He was to be ruled by Eve. But he dominated her. Eve's role was to be under Adam's dominion, but she dominated him. The Fall is the origin for all the oppression we see in the fallen world.

The fourth aspect of fallen nature is multiplication of sin. Eve multiplied her crime by seducing Adam. Adam multiplied sin by uniting with Eve. In the Fallen world people often seduce others to sin. Fallen nature always seeks to share guilt and multiply bad actions.

Adam and Eve's original mind of goodness, i.e., conscience, was not destroyed. Everyone is born basically good with a deep desire to return to God. But we have a fallen, sinful nature that wars with our original nature. Every person suffers from this conflict of good and evil. Every human being is a sinner.

The Bible says "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23) and "If we say we have not sinned, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (I John 1:8).

The original sin in the Garden of Eden corrupted the entire human race. There are different analogies to illustrate how a single event could cause so much damage. The obvious one is one single incestuous or adulterous act. It devastates a family and a marriage. A single puncture of the eye can cause blindness. One severe psychic shock can influence a person's entire life. Contamination of one water supply source can affect an entire city.

SIN

Sin is a transgression of divine law. God is lawful and principled. When we sin we have give and take with Satan. Because of the Fall each of us has four sins we must eventually liquidate.

Four Sins

The first is (1) "Original sin" We must discipline our sexual drive and do the opposite of Adam and Eve. (2) "Inherited sin" is the sins which were committed by our immediate ancestors and it is up to us to pay restitution. The Ten Commandments say that the sin of parents are conveyed through several generations. We read in Exodus 20:15 that God visits "the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation." This is the reason why some people and families may have to suffer more than others. They may have to make up for the sins of their ancestors.

(3) "Collective sin" is the sin for which a particular group or even a whole nation must take responsibility for. An example of this is when the nation of America paid for its sin of bringing slavery into America by having a civil war. (4) "Individual sin" is the sins we commit ourselves.

If we were not sinners, but one with God, there would be no need (as so many do today) to be artificially intoxicated with alcohol, drugs and promiscuity. Give and take with God brings strength of character and exhilarating happiness.

A world of perfection would be an incredibly pure and sensitive society. It would be like one human body. If we hurt our finger or pull one hair out of our head our whole body feels it. So in the ideal world if anyone would feel harm everyone would feel it. Therefore, the whole body of mankind would be alert to keep every individual member from destruction or harm.

In an ideal world people and creation would be in harmony. Nature, which is perfect, suffers because it has been ruled by imperfect people. Romans 8;19 says, "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the Sons of God."

We are faced with incredible ecological problems such as the burning of the Brazilian rain forests, water pollution, acid rain and the depletion of the earth's protective ozone layer. The only solution to solving these problems as well as all other problems is to focus on teaching an understanding of God and Satan to people. Satan is the root cause of our problems and it is crucial that we focus on exposing and eliminating Satan from this earth.

DEATH

God told Adam and Eve that if they ate of the fruit they would die. They ate the fruit, but they lived for many years afterwards. God did not mean they would physically die if they disobeyed Him or that physical death would be introduced into the world, but they would lose contact with God. God is the source of truth and love and life. We have lost God and mankind has been living in darkness. Our conscience gropes for truth and true love.

First John 3:4 says, "...He who does not love remains in death." Love here means God's love. We do not love as God does so we are dead, no matter how active we may be on this earth. In Romans 6:23 we read, "The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life," and Romans 8:6: "To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace."

First Corinthians 15:22 says, "... in Adam all die...." Psalms 43 speaks of this search for God and life. The word "hart" in the first verse is the word for a young deer: "As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night" (Psalms 42:1-3).

God was devastated to see his children spiritually die. In Genesis 6:6 we read with great understatement: "And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to his heart." It is agony beyond words for God to see us blinded. God is calling to us, but our spiritual senses are paralyzed, and we can't hear Him. When God called for Adam in the Garden of Eden saying, "Where are you?", God knew where Adam was physically. It was really a cry, "Where are you, my son, spiritually?" God is like a parent who has a son who lost his memory. We have become paralyzed to God, and there is no joy in God's heart.

Mankind has become orphans ruled by a terrible foster parent. We read in the Bible, "Satan is the ruler of this world" (John 12:31). "Satan is the God of this world" (II Cor. 4:4). John 8:44 says, "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires."

Satan has abused mankind with wars, hunger, suicide, insanity, rape and murder. You see him behind alcoholism, drug abuse, VD, prostitution, incest, disease, crime and pollution. When someone young dies of cancer or some accident, we say "God, how could you do such a thing?" But it wasn't God who killed the child. It isn't God who breaks our hearts.

It is Satan who tortures us.

We are living in the Kingdom of Hell.