Little Red Book Ministry

III. Fallen Man
God told Adam while he was yet in the Garden of Eden that in the day that he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would surely die. This promise came true for two parts of the trinity of Adam, and indeed for all mankind. Adam ate of the fruit of the tree and his spirit was immediately cut off from its close relationship with the Spirit of God. The Bible indicates that lost men still possess a spirit (Job 34:14–15; 2 Chronicles 24:20; 36:22; Ezra 1:1), so it was in the sense that death is separation from God, his spirit “died.”

In addition to the fact that his spirit “died” immediately, Adam determined the maximum lifespan for any human body. The Bible establishes a special meaning for the word day in a number of places. According to Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8, God considers a day to be the same as a thousand years for certain prophetic purposes. In light of these verses, it is interesting to look at the pre-flood life spans of the men listed in Genesis 5. Seven of the first nine men listed in this chapter lived 895 years or longer, but none of them exceeded 1000 years. Adam died at 930 years old. Thus Adam, who had been created to live forever, succumbed to the curse that God placed on the creation within the “day” in which he sinned.

After the fall of man in the garden, God immediately instituted a plan to redeem back to Himself anyone who was willing. God had already set the payment for sin as eternal damnation, separation from God forever (Romans 6:23; Ezekiel 18:4). This would start immediately following the natural death of each person and be finalized after the Great White Throne judgment. The price for remission of sins is the shedding of the blood of each person (Hebrews 9:22). The problem created by this was that once a person had shed his blood, he was dead and had no further opportunity to establish a right relationship with God. He was already separated from God in hell. It was for this reason that God took on Himself the form of a man. He lived a sinless life on Earth, and then shed His own blood on the cross to make atonement in the place of anyone who would establish a right relationship with Him through His Son. Following this, He descended into hell in our place. But hell could not hold Him. He defeated death and hell and rose from the dead, assuring that He could defeat death for us (Ephesians 4:9–10; Revelation 1:18).

Since that first sin, man has always been divided into two camps. One camp desires a proper relationship with God, while the other seeks only self serving interests. This has been true throughout the various ages of history called dispensations. (These are ages in which God has dealt with man in