The Angelic Conflict - Part 39 -
The battle of the garden of Eden, though on the surface a victory for Satan, was in reality the beginning of his ultimate defeat.

Gen 3 - In the angelic conflict or the invisible war, the drama begins here on the stage of human history.

It would have been impossible to reach man apart from the destruction of his confidence in the Creator and trust in His word.

MAT 14:31 “O you of little faith [doctrine], why did you doubt?”

MAR 11:23 Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain [major obstacle], “Be taken up and cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him.

ROM 14:23 whatever is not from faith is sin.

Beginning with Eve, Satan has been successful to the extent that the majority of believers have been detached from the only source of spiritual life, the Word of God.

The divine explanation of the present fallen state of man and the ruined condition of our race.

He was making the blunt suggestion that man had rights and should declare his independence from God.

The subtle devices of our enemy, the devil, who possessed the serpent and deceived the woman as he outrightly denied the word of God, Gen 3:4!

The universal tendency of human nature to cover its own moral shame by a device of man’s own handiwork, Gen 3:7.

The spiritual effects of sin - man seeking to flee from God, Gen 3:8.

God searching for fallen man while fallen man hides from God, Gen 3:9-10.

The utter powerlessness of man to walk in the path of righteousness when divine grace is withheld from him, Gen 3:11-12.

The gracious provision which God has made to meet our great need through His seed, TLJC! Gen 3:15

The attitude of God toward the guilty sinner, Gen 3:21.

Scripture indicates the great interest of the angelic hosts in all of the events which concern the earth, mankind, and the whole plan of God.

Satan tries to deceive the new creature called man into following him and rejecting God.

The invisible war, which had remained quiet for an unknown period when the earth had been in ruin, was now renewed in great intensity.

He began to move through seductive temptation to get man away from God; he was seeking to get man to give allegiance to himself.

Everything that has ever come out of mankind for good since the origin of the human race was contained in Adam and his bride.

They were perfect in beauty, perfect in wisdom, perfect genius, but still no match for Satan!

Psa 104:15 Ecc 9:7 Deu 14:26

The fruit = tangible symbol God placed in the garden to remind man of his dependence upon God.

He had detached the woman from the Word of God, and by deception, from belief in the goodness of God.

It was man’s will that made it possible for him to depart from the plan of God, and it was against this will that Satan launched his attack.

Satan’s primary strategy was dictated by his hatred of God, not by hatred of the creature whom he saw in the garden.

He would seek to detach man from the will of God, and to increase the number of his own worshipers by attaching man to himself.

The original sin in the garden of Eden resulted in the spiritual death of Adam which was passed down to the entire human race, Rom 5:12-21.

Joh 12:31 - “the ruler of this world” 2Co 4:4 - “The god of this world” Eph 2:2 - “the prince of the power of the air”

Once Satan convinced Adam and the woman to rebel against God’s command and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he thought he had defeated God!

At this time, there were still only two wills in the universe, God’s will and the devil’s will.

He wished to detach man from God, but he also wished to attach man to himself.

Man is dependent upon God and if that dependence is destroyed something must take its place; the devil hoped that it would be a dependence upon himself.

The last thing that Satan anticipated is that man would not only desire independence of God, but he would aspire to be self-sufficient like Satan.

Robert R. McLaughlin Bible Ministries

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Robert R. McLaughlin 2001