Was what is commonly called “the fall of man” really a fall, or was it a divine set-up? When the Lord God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to keep it and dress it, and commanded them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was it not known to the Lord God beforehand what they would do? If the Lord God did not know what they would do, then He was not the all knowing God which we have been taught. If He knew and allowed them to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and then did nothing to stop them isn’t He responsible for what they did. If it was a test to see what they would do, not knowing that they just might partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was it a mistake on the Lord God’s part? Or, was all that took place there in the Garden of Eden foreknown by the Lord God, and divinely organized beginning a process in which all of mankind would be involved in working a work in them in such a way which could never come about in any other way? I personally do not believe that our Lord God made any mistake. And I do not believe that He did not know what Adam and Eve would do when He placed them in the Garden of Eden. Nor do I believe that Adam and Eve launched themselves onto a journey all by themselves. I am persuaded that all that transpired there in the Garden of Eden was preplanned by an all knowing God, and for a purpose in which may, at present, mostly remain hidden in the counsels His own wisdom.
It has been said by some that when Adam and Eve began their journey into death, that they entered into a world of their own making, which was just an illusionary and an imaginary world which had no reality or validity to it at all. However, God tells us that He has been our dwelling place in ALL generations. Psalms 90:1. So, wherever their journey would take them, He has always been their dwelling place, and they were still His dwelling place. The dwelling place of their own newly gained knowledge inspirited to them by the serpent actually sent them spiraling downwards into an abyss of the serpent’s hell. But, even in that hellish place of carnal darkness and torment where they made their bed, God was there. For He fills all things, for all things are His creation, and there is no place where He is not. Adam and Eve squandered away their inheritance in God for a taste from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which was pleasant to the eyes, and a wisdom which appealed to the appetite of the carnal mind that Eve received from the inspiration of the serpent.
Had there never been a sleep put on Adam, and the Woman taken out of him (or, literally his soul becoming a separate part outside of him), then the serpent would never been able to seduce them. But, here again, I am persuaded that this was also divinely orchestrated, knowing that Adam (spirit) and Eve (soul), as long as they were united in one could never have been seduced by the serpent. So, there was a deliberate dividing, or disruption, even a divine subjecting of Adam (spirit) and Eve (soul) in order for the lowering process to take place. What I am saying here is, that the Lord God knew what He was doing, and with deliberate intent and action performed this division of Eve from Adam. Why? Was all this not predetermined in the counsel of God long before He stood there in the beginning and created the heaven and the earth?
“In the beginning God created The Heaven and The Earth.” Genesis 1:1.
It was God Who actually did create the heaven and the earth, and everything which would follow. All the lowering and the divisions which were made were done by Him. He takes full and absolute responsibility for all that He did.
Are we responsible for our actions? Are we absolved of our responsibility for doing certain things just because we may have not known what the results of our action would be? In all justice, we are responsible for our actions, whether or not we were aware of what the consequences of our actions would be when we committed ourselves to that act. Likewise, I do believe that God takes full and complete responsibility for His actions. And I am sure that we at the present time do not fully understand all the reasons why God has done certain things. I do believe that He foreknew exactly everything that would transpire because of His actions, and that He did deliberately and with purpose all that He did in creation. Because it was God Who created the heaven and the earth in the beginning, He and He alone is in full charge of all the outcome. There is absolutely no room for mistakes, no slip-ups, for everything that came forth did so from His hands with divine plan and purpose in mind. And when all things have run their full course and all those things which was sent forth to fulfill His plan and purpose are fulfilled, those things shall return to Him again FULL and FILLED according to all He purposed for them to bring back to Him! Glory to God!
Someone has said, if God knew what would happen there in the Garden of Eden, why didn’t He restrain it from happening? Why would God want to restrain something from happening, if He fully intended for it to happen? Was God capable of restraining those things from happening? Of course He was, the Psalmist declares (Psa. 76:10), “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain.” ALL of what takes place will redound to the praise and glory of God, even man’s wrath, otherwise it would never be allowed to happen, He would have restrained it from ever taking place
The downward spiral and journey which Adam and Eve has taken mankind was God’s doing, and actually not His undoing. The same Lord God Who tells us that He has been our dwelling place in ALL generations, also tells us that it is HE Who “turnest man (Adam and Eve and their generations) to destruction (ruin and emptiness); and sayest, Return ye children of men.” Psa. 90:1-3. This is addressed to the “children of men.” As long as we remain in these bodies of humiliation given to us from Adam and Eve, we are an extension those “children of men” of whom God is speaking. This tells me that it was God Who done the turning to destruction, and it is also Him Who commands our return. Praise God! And what God wills, shall be done.
In Luke 12:51 our Lord Jesus Christ says something which sounds very strange and adverse to His nature, but it is said with God’s wisdom knowing that certain things cannot be accomplished otherwise. “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.” Luke 12:51.
He Who is The Prince of Peace, not coming to give peace on earth? but rather division? His Peace will cause division on earth, for His peace is not as the world giveth. His peace is not of the world and will cause a separation from the ways of the world. How often we have seen this happen in our lives as the Lord draws to Himself one of a family and transforms their lives and the way they think and act. Immediately, a separation and division is set between that one and the other family members, because of the change that God had made in that one, which is diverse from the world. That separated one unto the Lord knows His peace, but the others distain and disowns that one. So, the division that is initiated once again comes directly from the hand of the Lord, but it is to wise ends as the one who is separated unto the Lord is brought back and has begun their return journey home in Christ in God.
I wonder, is man the free-moral agent that so many Christians believe themselves to be, or has their decision making capacity been altered for a while, having been subjected to the emptiness and vanity of the carnal mind. That through the process and contact with the serpent’s hell, man could learn by experience something that he could never have learned any other way. I do not believe that man is like a puppet on a string, but God has so allowed him to dance on the end of the string being manipulated by the serpent until such time that God says it is enough and looses him from that string and connects him back in the channel of His Spirit. It is God Who holds all these things in His omnipotent hands, as The Potter Who is molding the vessel of His desire. When man has been subjected to the serpent’s hell, it is still the hands of the Master Potter, God our loving Creator Who is in charge and shall use whatever means that He deems necessary to accomplish His desired results in us. I am sure that one day we shall look back at all these experiences and shout Glory to God! Knowing that all the while we have been in His loving hands, and He has never left us for one moment, we only thought He had.
It has been said that man created the hell that he finds himself in. The things that we see around us in the world, the awful things that mankind can inflict upon each other, is truly hell on earth. And, did all this come out of the hideous serpents mind which was inspirited into man? Was this one of the ways of God to show to man his awesome ability, and responsibility? That he being made in the image and likeness of God has that divine ability to create, and that he will be responsible for what he creates?! The scripture tells us that we have within us the power of life and death. That power lies in the tongue and the words which take their final form through the mouth of man. Proverbs 18:24.
I remember reading something in brother Ray Prinzings writings. He said something to this effect. That the words which we speak are going to catch up with us, or we are going to catch up with the words we speak. He said it is like a jet airplane which breaks the sound barrier and has to experience the shock waves of breaking that barrier. We too will experience the fruit of what we speak. So, if we do not want hell in our life, or have to experience hell, then we better take serious notice of what we speak. If we speak and communicate death, death is what we will experience. If on the other hand, we love life then we will speak and communicate life to ourselves and others around us. But, before we are able to do either of these things we have to know what death is all about, and believe me we all have had our bitter experience of walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Now, God help us to learn to eat from the Tree of Life in our midst and to speak and to communicate His Life. Thank God death is not an eternal thing, nor is hell an eternal thing, for they both have their end. Thank God that there is eternal Life found IN Jesus Christ, the Tree of Life Who is living in us and causing a great transformation and metamorphose as we are returned back into Him.
Yes, God is in control, He is in control of all things no matter how negative they may appear, for they are all a part of those “light afflictions” of this “seen” realm which are working in us a “far more exceeding weight of glory” which is eternal. Thank God for those things which are temporal and will eventually pass away, as our outer man is dissolved and our inner man is renewed day by day.
Dale & Barbara Luttrell
P.O. Box 3074
Roswell, N.M. 88202
