(inspirational theme music)
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>>Welcome to "Sabbath School,"
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brought to you by It Is Written.
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We're delighted to have
you with us again this week
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as we take a journey
through the subject of "Death,
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Dying, and the Future
Hope," and we're gonna spend
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a lot of time as we
continue through this quarter
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focusing on that future hope.
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But we're just getting started
now. This is week number 2,
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and we are looking at
"Death in a Sinful World."
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We're grateful to be
able to have the author
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of this quarter's
Sabbath school lesson with us;
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that's Dr. Alberto Timm;
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he's an associate director
of the Ellen G. White Estate.
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Alberto, welcome. We're
glad that you're with us today.
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>>I'm very pleased
to be with you as well.
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>>So we're starting now. We're
kind of getting up to speed,
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and already
we're dealing with sin.
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In fact, last week we
talked about how God created
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a perfect world,
a perfect universe,
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and then sin came.
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You know, the
adversary--well, Lucifer--
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chose to rebel against God,
and sin came into existence.
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God didn't create it,
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but Lucifer made a
choice and became Satan.
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Now we come down to earth,
and it gets a little bit more,
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I guess you might call, personal
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when Satan deceives Eve.
What, how did this all work?
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How was he
successful in deceiving Eve?
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What was kind of the psychology
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that he used in
order to get her to depart
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from the perfect path and
to head the wrong direction?
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>>Genesis, chapter 3
is a very fascinating
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chapter, fascinating in
the sense of the content,
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but tragic in
regard to the consequences.
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And it's interesting
that we have a contrast
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between the word
of God in chapter 2,
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where God said that in
the day that you will eat
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from the fruit of the tree
of knowledge of good and evil,
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"You will die."
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And then comes later
on the serpent and says,
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"No, you will not die."
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So there was a
tension between these two,
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and it's clear from chapter 3
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that Eve understood very well
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God's command or
God's prohibition
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not to eat from the tree.
But then comes the serpent.
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And, of course, you have in mind
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that a serpent
actually is a medium, just,
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because in Revelation
12, it speaks of the serpent,
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the old serpent as
being the devil, Satan,
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and so on and so forth, in
regard to identify the serpent.
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But then comes the serpent,
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and it's very
interesting from my perspective,
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at least the
psychology behind it,
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how the serpent was able
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to mislead, misguide Eve,
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and first the
serpent used generalization.
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"You [should] not eat [from
any fruit] of the garden." Okay.
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And then Eve came and
decided to give a Bible study
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to the serpent, so to
say, no, God stated this:
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We should eat, we can
eat from all the trees,
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except for this
one, this specific one.
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And we know that
the serpent was there
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trying to convince Eve to eat.
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And then the second one,
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the second stage is
that the serpent decided then
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to contradict,
first to generalize,
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then later on to
contradict God's word,
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say, "No, God even knows..."
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And then the third stage,
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and that is a very
significant one, is that serpent
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offered better knowledge
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and accused God
of suppressing truth.
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Gods know that
you will be able--
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"God knows that you will be able
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to understand good and evil,
but He's suppressed truth."
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So in other words,
"He wants you to follow
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just what He has to
teach and nothing else."
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And that was
the disaster really.
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So the serpent knew
exactly the way to go
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within these three steps.
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And this is basically
what is repeating today
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in our history as
well when temptation comes.
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>>So he had a strategy,
he executed that strategy,
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and unfortunately for
all of us, Eve bit. I mean,
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her first mistake was to
engage him in conversation.
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She shouldn't
even have talked to him
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or talked with him or
listened to what he had to say.
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But as you mentioned,
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she engaged him in a
Bible study, as it were.
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And that was a
terrible mistake for her.
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When Eve did enter
into this conversation,
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what criteria
did she use to choose
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whether to believe
God or the serpent?
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What, how did she make a
decision one way or the other?
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What was her thought process?
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>>Well, it's interesting
that we should, first of all,
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not to defend God. I mean,
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when we are
already in temptation--
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we should avoid temptation,
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but unfortunately Eve
really exposed herself.
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And so to say,
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I don't want to paint
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a negative picture of
the scientific method,
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because the scientific
method we use to many thing,
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but when it comes to temptation
and to the word of God,
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it's not always
the best criteria.
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But actually the
serpent tempted Eve.
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And Eve used the
empirical method,
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the scientific
method of observation.
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And so she
realized that first of all,
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the fruit was nutritious,
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and that was
one of the criteria,
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so from a dietary perspective,
why should she avoid it?
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The second one would be
from the aesthetical viewpoint.
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It was really very beautiful,
attractive, the fruit.
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Entered from a
nutritional perspective,
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it was good for health.
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So let's suppose that
we were there at that time
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or that the tree of
knowledge would be in our days.
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Let's suppose that we
would take one of the fruits
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and take to the best lab
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of chemical analysis,
whether here in Chattanooga
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or in another place
where you are living,
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and you would ask
the fruit to be analyzed.
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Definitely, the
results would be,
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"This is extremely
nutritious food or fruit.
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"There is no poison.
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We recommend that you
should eat in a daily basis."
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But what was Eve's mistake?
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Actually, she did not
realize the symbols of religion.
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There are things
that are not intrinsic
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or in themselves bad,
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but God put them aside
as a test of obedience.
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And this was precisely the case.
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The fruit of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil
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was not poisoned;
it was nutritious.
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But it was placed
over there by God as a test
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to see if Eve would really trust
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His word or the word of God
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or would follow the
word of the serpent.
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And let me just add
another point, Eric.
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And this is from a
scientific perspective,
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from a empirical stand of view;
you would see that the word
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of the serpent
was much more logical
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than the word of God. First
of all, there was no death.
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People did not know of that.
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So why would they die?
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Secondly, I think that
we have some evidences,
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and at least
Ellen White says that
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the serpent was even eating
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from the fruit and
saying, "Well, I am not dying."
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So all evidence
is backed up the word
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of the serpent and
not the word of God.
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So remember, not everything
that is logical is truth,
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and not everything
that's true is logical
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from a spiritual perspective.
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>>You bring up an
interesting point.
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God said, when He
spoke of the fruit,
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He said, "In the
day that you eat of it,
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you will surely die."
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And the adversary says,
"You will not surely die."
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And Eve and Adam
both ate the fruit,
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and they didn't die that day.
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So someone might, from a
third person perspective,
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look at this and say, "Well,
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"it sounds to me
like the devil knew
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what he was talking
about, and God didn't,"
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but I have a sneaking suspicion
that's not exactly the case.
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>>Yah, this is a
very interesting question
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because some people ask
and have doubts, saying,
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well, in this case, they
would even justify the word of
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the serpent, saying, "Well,
God actually lied to Eve."
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But we have to
keep in mind something.
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Although they did
not cease to exist
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that very same day,
but that very same day,
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that very same moment, they
received the death sentence.
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But from my perspective, I
understand that God's mercy
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intervened and extended the life
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of Adam and Eve,
although being already guilty,
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having the death
sentence there upon them
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and the dying process already
started, not only for them,
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but for the whole creation.
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But I think that was
an act of the mercy of,
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act of mercy from God's
part to extend their existence.
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>>So I think you've
already kind of touched on this,
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but I want to draw it
out just a little bit more.
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Eve made the decision to engage
the serpent in conversation.
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She used logical reasoning
to go through this process,
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and unfortunately it
led her to a poor decision.
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Talk a little bit more
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about the
consequences of that decision.
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What ultimately
did that lead to?
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>>Well, the Bible is very
clear that that was the origin
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of death here,
for our, at least...
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life as we know here on
this earth. And this is really
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the place where the scenario
of the great controversy--
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but at the same time,
you will see several points.
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And this is the richness,
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I think, of Genesis, chapter 3.
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We will not be able
to read the passages,
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but you can read it later on
for yourself. First of all...
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they hided themselves.
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So there was
something that probably
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we could call
theophobia or whatever you want,
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the fear of God;
they were afraid of God.
00:12:01.32\00:12:04.75
And that generated all
the other fears that we have.
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Then later on, from a
psychosocial perspective,
00:12:08.82\00:12:12.33
they began to accuse
each other. And you remember
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finally the guilt
was even put on God.
00:12:16.80\00:12:20.67
And it started in this way:
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"Well, yes, it
was not I, myself,
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Adam; it was Eve."
00:12:27.88\00:12:29.41
And Eve said, "Well,
but the serpent misled me."
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And so it went, and later
on you will see that pain,
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suffering from a
physical perspective,
00:12:36.22\00:12:38.49
also took over the human body,
00:12:38.49\00:12:42.19
and even the ecosystem,
00:12:42.19\00:12:45.19
nature from a
ecological perspective,
00:12:45.19\00:12:47.76
even Adam and Eve,
who were the rulers
00:12:47.76\00:12:51.80
of the garden; the
garden was deteriorated also
00:12:51.80\00:12:56.07
through the sin of Adam and Eve.
00:12:56.07\00:12:58.44
>>So really everything
that is surrounding us
00:12:58.44\00:13:01.71
today was tainted
because of this decision.
00:13:01.71\00:13:05.25
So we wanna make sure that
we don't echo that decision
00:13:05.25\00:13:08.15
that Eve made
in our lives today.
00:13:08.15\00:13:11.32
We're gonna take a short break,
00:13:11.32\00:13:12.45
but before we do, I
wanna encourage you,
00:13:12.45\00:13:14.29
if you haven't stopped
by the It Is Written shop
00:13:14.29\00:13:17.19
and picked up the companion book
00:13:17.19\00:13:19.13
to this quarter's
lesson, you'll want to do that.
00:13:19.13\00:13:21.40
It's called "On Death,
Dying, and the Future Hope."
00:13:21.40\00:13:24.23
The author, of
course, is Dr. Alberto Timm;
00:13:24.23\00:13:26.33
he's our guest here
on Sabbath School today.
00:13:26.33\00:13:28.70
But if you want to pick that up,
00:13:28.70\00:13:30.27
you can go to itiswritten.shop,
00:13:30.27\00:13:33.38
again, that's itiswritten.shop,
00:13:33.38\00:13:35.11
pick up the companion book
00:13:35.11\00:13:36.71
to this study, "On Death,
Dying, and the Future Hope,"
00:13:36.71\00:13:40.22
and you will gain even
more through this quarter.
00:13:40.22\00:13:43.72
We'll be back in
just a couple of minutes
00:13:43.72\00:13:45.95
as we continue
looking at the subject
00:13:45.95\00:13:48.19
of "Death in a Sinful
World." We'll be right back.
00:13:48.19\00:13:51.39
(inspirational theme music)
00:13:51.39\00:13:53.46
>>[John Bradshaw] You
know that at It Is Written,
00:13:55.73\00:13:57.30
we are serious about
studying the Word of God,
00:13:57.30\00:13:59.70
and we encourage you
to be serious as well.
00:13:59.70\00:14:02.34
Well, here's what you do
00:14:02.34\00:14:03.37
if you want to dig
deeper into God's Word.
00:14:03.37\00:14:05.47
Go to itiswritten.study
for the It Is Written Bible
00:14:05.47\00:14:09.21
Study Guides online,
00:14:09.21\00:14:10.68
25 in-depth Bible
studies that will take you
00:14:10.68\00:14:13.18
through the major
teachings of the Bible.
00:14:13.18\00:14:15.55
You'll be blessed.
00:14:15.55\00:14:16.95
And it's something you'll want
to tell others about as well:
00:14:16.95\00:14:19.42
itiswritten.study. Go further:
00:14:19.42\00:14:21.56
itiswritten.study.
00:14:21.56\00:14:23.49
>>[John] Welcome
to "Line Upon Line,"
00:14:25.46\00:14:27.40
brought to you by It Is Written.
00:14:27.40\00:14:29.50
(upbeat music)
00:14:29.50\00:14:32.27
Was it God's plan for
sin to enter the world?
00:14:32.27\00:14:35.57
>>[Wes Peppers] Is
the building of a temple
00:14:35.57\00:14:37.47
necessary before Jesus returns?
00:14:37.47\00:14:39.61
>>That's a good question.
00:14:39.61\00:14:40.94
And I think we've got a
pretty good answer for you here.
00:14:40.94\00:14:43.65
(music continues)
00:14:43.65\00:14:45.71
>>Temptation is not sin.
00:14:45.71\00:14:47.85
>>God says,
"Put me to the test."
00:14:47.85\00:14:50.55
(upbeat music swells and ends)
00:14:50.55\00:14:52.92
(inspirational theme music)
00:14:55.86\00:14:59.53
>>Welcome back
to "Sabbath School,"
00:15:00.73\00:15:01.66
brought to you by It Is Written.
00:15:01.66\00:15:03.50
We're looking now at
"Death in a Sinful World,"
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and we've seen how Eve
made some poor choices.
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Adam certainly did as well.
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And we are seeing the
results of that right now.
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But, Alberto, I wanna go back
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to something that
happened in this story.
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Adam and Eve made poor choices.
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They listened to the serpent.
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They listened
to their own minds,
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their own thought processes.
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But then before God
makes any pronouncement
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about what's going to happen,
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He does a little bit
of investigation into it.
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Talk about that a little bit.
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>>This is a exciting point.
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And especially God
takes the initiative.
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You remember that Adam and Eve
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just went around;
they hided themselves.
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They would not like to face God.
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They were
ashamed of what they did.
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But God went after them,
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took the
initiative of talking to them,
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and there was what I
understand to be the first
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investigative
judgment of human beings,
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where God comes, dialogues,
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and even asks,
"What have you done?
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Why did you do in
this way?" And so on.
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And then later on
you have the outcome.
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God pronounces a promise.
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You remember, first a promise,
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and then later on
the sentence to them.
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>>So He shares this
promise in this sentence.
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And I wanna focus in
here on part of that promise.
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It's a significant one
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in Genesis,
chapter 3 and verse 15;
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there are some interesting
words and implications here.
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So I wanna kind of pull
this out. Genesis 3, verse 15.
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God says that "I will
put enmity between you
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and the woman, and
between your seed and her Seed;
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He shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise His heel."
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What is the
significance of this verse?
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What do you see
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in this verse that can give
us some hope and encouragement?
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>>This is a key passage,
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not only in the book of Genesis,
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but I think for the whole
Bible, within the whole Bible.
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Actually here you
have several elements.
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First of all, you have
enmity that is being promised.
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And you might say,
"Well, but this is just
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something simple." No,
this word is very significant.
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Actually the fall of Adam
and Eve was not a partial fall;
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it was a complete fall.
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But if they were
completely alienated
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from God and
from the Holy Spirit,
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how could they ever
accept the call of salvation?
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And here we have
evidences that God
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put in the human
nature really this enmity;
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that means that kind
of natural, not natural,
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but supernatural
placed in the human mind,
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the human being, of
something that allows them
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to accept the call of salvation.
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And then you have
here the messianic promise.
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You have the
conflict between the Seed,
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or, so to say, the
Messiah, Christ that would come.
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And then you have also
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the serpent itself
standing for Satan.
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So here you have the
first promise of the gospel,
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the protoevangelium or
whatever you want to call it,
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but the first
promise of the gospel,
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and this promise
is very significant
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because it
speaks about a struggle
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between good and
evil throughout history,
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and finally the
Seed, or the Messiah,
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would triumph over the serpent.
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So God's plan of
salvation will triumph.
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And this is a word of hope.
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And just keep in
mind that this promise
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of salvation, of the gospel,
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the first promise of the
gospel in the Old Testament
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antecedes the
curses that followed,
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or the punishment that
God had to do to the sin
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of, or the fall
of, Adam and Eve.
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>>So even though
there was bad news,
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there was certainly a lot
of good news there as well,
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fantastic news,
really, for all humanity.
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There's also one
other element here
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in Genesis, chapter 3,
that I find interesting.
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In Revelation,
chapter--pardon me,
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in Genesis, chapter 3, verse 21,
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it says, "Also for Adam
and his wife the Lord God made
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tunics of skin,
and clothed them."
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There's some implications,
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some assumptions here that
I think we can safely make.
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One of them is that God did not
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speak these
tunics into existence.
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They didn't just miraculously
appear on Adam and Eve.
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They came from somewhere, and
there's significance to that.
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What is that?
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Where'd they come from,
and why is that significant?
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>>Some scholars have recognized
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that this is the first reference
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to a sacrifice,
animal sacrifice,
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because they
are not just tunics.
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They are made of skin,
and to make out of skin,
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you have to kill the
animal to take off the skin
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and then to use
it the way you want.
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So, then you have
another element over there...
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is that they clothed them.
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This word in Hebrew, at
least some scholars say that
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this word is usually used
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just for kings,
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the clothing of
kings and priests.
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In this case,
the idea of a priest,
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or the priesthood,
here is very significant.
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And this was the beginning
of the sacrificial system.
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I don't think that
it started there with...
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Abel, but you have
evidence here of it.
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So God not only promised,
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or made the speech
promising the gospel,
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in verse 15, but
here in verse 21,
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He actually illustrated it
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through this idea
of a substitution.
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They had to die.
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The death sentence was
given them at the very same day,
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although their life was spared;
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they continue to live because
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of the merciful
intervention of God,
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and sacrifices were
a way to illustrate it.
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You have to die, but in reality,
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a substitute was provided.
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And this is the
idea of atoning sacrifice
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in place of somebody else.
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So not only theory,
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but a practical
illustration that would continue
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throughout human
history until the cross
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when Christ as the Lamb of God
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would offer
Himself as a sacrifice.
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>>So we're looking right
here in Genesis, chapter 3,
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at the first
indication of, really, death.
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But I wanna step
back from this story
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for just a moment and look
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at another subject that
does in fact interact with it.
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And that's the
theory of evolution.
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How does--what
challenges do we face
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if we accept the
ideas that are shared
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through the theory of evolution?
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Why does that cause a problem
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with us in this
story of death here?
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>>Actually you have two models.
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You have two
ways of understanding
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to read Genesis 1-11.
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One of those is to take it
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as a historical account.
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And we have Bible evidences
because all the later prophets
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in the Old Testament,
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and also the writers
of the New Testament,
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always refers to
elements of Genesis 1-11,
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including the Creation story,
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the fall of Adam
and Eve, the Flood also,
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as historical literal accounts
and not just symbolical ones.
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But another
reading is to consider them
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just as allegory or
whatever you want to call it.
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And then some
people reread Genesis,
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especially Genesis 1, that
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the days of Creation
are not actual literal days,
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but they are
evolutionary process.
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And one of the
common ideas on this matter
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is that within Christianity,
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I mean, that there is
a Creator, there is God,
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but He used the
evolutionary process
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to create the
world. If this is the case,
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then we have to admit
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that there was that prior
to the fall of Adam and Eve.
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And so the biblical
concept as expressed here
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and also by Paul
and other Bible authors,
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you will see that falls into,
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becomes nonsense
for one simple reason.
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Then the primitive forms of life
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already died before
the fall of Adam and Eve.
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And even in this
case, even the commandment
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of the Sabbath
really does not make sense
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because evolutionary eras
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would not stand for the
week ending with the Sabbath.
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So in this case, I think that
the Bible really is very clear
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that there was no death prior
to the fall of Adam and Eve.
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And now we have
the consequences of it.
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>>Alberto, in the few
minutes that we have left here,
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what are some
significant lessons
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that we can
learn from this story
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about the temptation
that Adam and Eve fell into?
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How can we prevent ourselves,
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or at least make it more
challenging for ourselves,
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to follow in
those same footsteps?
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>>Well, I believe that the form
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can change, but the substance,
or the essence, remains.
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Temptation is
always attractive--
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and is, to a certain
extent, also convincing.
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Otherwise nobody
would fall into temptation,
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and it sometimes
appeals to our own pleasure.
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I feel good about
this. What is the problem?
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And I think that one
of those main lessons
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is looking from
a perspective here
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of what Eve did.
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It seems to be
a very simple act.
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What is the matter of just
eating or not eating a fruit?
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But had tragical consequences
throughout human history.
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So our actions, our decisions,
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if we are rereading
God's Word, of trying
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to make the Bible
say what I want to say
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and not what it actually says
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can have tragical consequences,
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not only for the present life,
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but even for the
future and the life to come.
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So I think that we have
to take into consideration:
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God's Word might not always
be as logical as I expect,
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but it's always reliable
and the best way for us to go.
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>>So the safe thing for us
to do is to simply take God
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at His word, trust Him. And
it doesn't hurt to look back
00:27:10.66\00:27:14.23
at some examples of
people who didn't do that
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and the consequences
that they had to to pay
00:27:17.00\00:27:19.47
and ultimately the consequences
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that we have to
pay as a result of it.
00:27:21.20\00:27:23.47
We are continuing our
study next week through
00:27:23.47\00:27:26.71
the story of "Death,
Dying, and the Future Hope,"
00:27:26.71\00:27:30.91
looking at the
significance of this subject,
00:27:30.91\00:27:33.55
the importance of it,
00:27:33.55\00:27:34.95
and the hope that comes
from understanding it correctly.
00:27:34.95\00:27:38.52
So we trust that
you've been blessed this week.
00:27:38.52\00:27:40.16
We'll be back again
next week for lesson number 3
00:27:40.16\00:27:43.79
as we continue
looking at this subject
00:27:43.79\00:27:46.39
that really impacts
every last one of us.
00:27:46.39\00:27:50.77
We look forward to
seeing you again next time
00:27:50.77\00:27:53.20
on "Sabbath School,"
brought to you by It Is Written.
00:27:53.20\00:27:56.60
(inspirational theme music)
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(music ends)
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