And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Genesis 3:13.
It was God's purpose to repopulate heaven with the human family if they would show themselves obedient to His every word. Adam was to be tested, to see whether he would be obedient, as the loyal angels, or disobedient. If he stood the test, his instruction to his children would have been only of loyalty. His mind and thoughts would have been as the mind and thoughts of God....
Satan, the fallen prince, was jealous of God. He determined through subtlety, cunning, and deceit to defeat God's purpose. He approached Eve, not in the form of an angel, but as a serpent, subtle, cunning, and deceitful. With a voice that appeared to proceed from the serpent, he spoke to her.... As Eve listened, the warnings God had given faded from her mind. She yielded to the temptation, and as she tempted Adam, he also forgot God's warnings. He believed the words of the enemy of God....
The lie that Satan told Eve, “Ye shall not surely die,” has been sounding through the centuries from generation to generation. Thus Satan tempted our first parents, and thus he tempts us today....
Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden, and an angel with a flaming sword guarded the way to the tree of life, that the disloyal, disobedient pair might not gain access to it and thus immortalize transgression. Mark this point. The Lord did not place in Adam fallen and disobedient the confidence He placed in Adam loyal and true, living by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God....
The eyes of Adam and Eve were indeed opened, but to what? To see their own shame and ruin, to realize that the garments of heavenly light that had been their protection were no longer around them as their safeguard. Their eyes were opened to see that nakedness was the fruit of transgression....
All who today allow themselves to be used as Satan's instruments to lead others to disregard the commandments of God are under the curse of God. Our safety lies in a wholehearted belief in a “Thus saith the Lord.” This is the declaration of truth. Those who are led away from the truth from any motive, however great may have been their supposed wisdom and exaltation, and venture in a path of their own choosing, are following a false leader and will be led by him into false paths.—Letter 91, 1900.
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