The reality is, as living beings, the one thing that we can be sure of is that we will die. When God created our world, it was perfect. Death was not something God intended for us. Our world was without sin, evil, violence, and death. So how did we get here?

In this new series, we address an age-old concern that we all have: the concern for sin, evil, death and what happens after we die. Is there hope after death? When God created us humans, he intended for us to live forever in a loving relationship with him. But this relationship has been broken by sin.

Here, we address the origin of sin, and we look more closely at death and dying. But, instead of looking at death in a negative way, we look at it in the context of hope, the promised hope based on what Jesus did for us when he died and came back to life again.

From the Sabbath School Adult Bible Study Guide 2022 Quarter 4: Sabbath.School

See also Hope Sabbath School and 3ABN Sabbath School

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Inviting the Holy Spirit’s Presence

Holy Father, we acknowledge that death is a part of living. We live in a world filled with sin, violence, and death. Prepare are hearts and minds that we may have hope for the future that extends beyond death. In Jesus Name Amen.

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12, NKJV).

God the Father gave special honor to Christ and announced that They together would create our world. Hence, life and all living originated in Christ. It was through Him that God brought the entire universe and the world into existence.

The Bible gives us this evidence in the following verses:

John 1:1-3

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 He was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (John 1:1-3)

John 1:10

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. (John 1:10)

Colossians 1:16

16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. (Colossians 1:16)

And Hebrews 1:2

2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; (Hebrews 1:2)

Yet although a created being himself “Lucifer was envious and jealous of Jesus Christ” The Story of Redemption says He was envious of the position God bestowed upon Him. Therefore, he plotted against Him.

When all the angels bowed to Jesus to acknowledge His supremacy and high authority and rightful rule, [Lucifer] bowed with them; but his heart was filled with envy and hatred. While Lucifer was unacquainted God’s plans. God had taken Christ into the special counsel regarding them.  Lucifer did not understand, neither was he permitted to know, the purposes of God. But Christ was acknowledged as ruler of heaven, His power and authority was to be the same as that of God Himself. Lucifer thought that he was himself a favorite in heaven among the angels. He had been highly exalted, but this did not call forth from him gratitude and praise to his Creator. He aspired to the height of God Himself. He gloried in his position. . . . He had been near the great Creator, and the ceaseless beams of glorious light enshrouding the eternal God had shone especially upon him. 

He thought how angels had obeyed his command with pleasurable fervor. Were not his garments light and beautiful? Why should Christ thus be honored before himself?—The Story of Redemption, p. 14. Adapted 

As we saw, in the previous lesson, Lucifer put up such a disturbance in heaven that he was kicked out. Having been cast out of heaven, Satan decided “to destroy the happiness of Adam and Eve” on earth and thereby “cause grief in heaven.” It says: He imagined that “if he could in any way trick them [Adam and Eve] to disobedience, God would make some special provision whereby they might be pardoned, and then himself and all the fallen angels would be in a fair way to share with them of God’s mercy.”—The Story of Redemption, p. 27.

God was fully aware of Satan’s evil plan. Therefore to keep Adam and Eve from exposing themselves to temptation, we find in Gen. 2:16, 17, God warned Adam not to go near the forbidden tree.

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;

17 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 surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) (Split)

The instructions God gave Adam lets us also know that even when the world was created perfect, God still had rules, guidelines, boundaries for Adam and Eve to follow before sin entered our world.

Story of Redemptions points out that in the midst of the garden, near the tree of life, stood the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This tree was especially designed of God to be the pledge of their obedience, faith, and love to Him.

Of this tree the Lord commanded our first parents not to eat, neither to touch it, lest they die. He told them that they might freely eat of all the trees in the garden except one, but if they ate of that tree they should surely die.

When Adam and Eve were placed in the beautiful garden, they had everything for their happiness which they could desire.

But God chose, in His all-wise arrangements, to test their loyalty before they could be eternally secure. They were to have His favor, and He was to speak with them and they with Him. Yet He did not place evil out of their reach. Satan was permitted to tempt them. If they endured the trial they were to be in eternal favor with God and the heavenly angels.—The Story of Redemption, p. 24.

This week we will reflect on the fall of Adam and Eve. We will examine how sin and death took over our world. And we look at what God did to plant a seed of hope for the human race even back in the Garden of Eden.

God gave us humans the power of reasoning. This is something He did not give the other animals. How effective is reasoning power when evaluating spiritual things. Find out in Day 2 God or the Serpent: Who Should Eve Trust

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