Book 1: Creation/Adam and Eve

"In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth."

That is how everything all began folks. Before that, nothing. Picture that for a second, what is nothing? Before everything was created, was it all black empty space? No, because even that's something. We cannot comprehend what nothing is. With that said, the big guy is beyond the word genius, he made water, land, day, and night. I like the wording "He looked at what he had created and called it good." Simply put, and to the point, it was good.

"Let the land produce living creatures according to their kind: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind."

I've always read these dinosaur books, where it says "60,000 million years ago, so and so roamed the earth." Of course, we know that the earth is 6,000 years old. I'm going to say that at that moment, animals like lions, tigers, and bears were roaming alongside our favorite dinos. (I'll cover how they got extinct in my article on Noah.) Basically, this is when all animals lived in harmony, when no one tried to eat each other. O_O

"And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that he had done."

And that is why Sunday is the main day we go to church. I have a feeling you already knew that though, so I won't waste anymore time on that.

Now that that's done, we can get on to what I think to be the most interesting part.

God had planted a garden in Eden and put the man (we'll refer to him as Adam now) there. Seemed like a pretty good garden, you got the great fruits, (and you didn't even have to worry about washing them!) nice scenery, complete with four headwaters. Of course, we all know this garden because of the two infamous trees. We have the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. (Yes, Norse myth stole that name.) "But you must not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die." Of course, we all know He didn't mean "die" literally in that sense. In a sense, they die inside and lose their "innocence," as we'll see later.

So Adam hung out in the garden, naming the animals around him. (Who knows where he got the name ostridge from.) Of course, it can get pretty lonely being the only kind of your species. God, being the caring God that He is, saw this and decided to make a companion for our Adam. This is when the interesting begins. The big G grabbed one of Adam's ribs and made the woman. Being the intelligent guy that he is, Adam named the woman "Eve." (Actually, he named her that after the Fall, but we'll refer to her as Eve for the rest of this editorial/review.) Now we can get into the most vital part of this story: The Fall.

Thus begins why we're all crazy. The Serpent, (you know, I've actually read that some people think the Serpent was NOT the Devil, but just a crafty snake. Of course, all you have to do is read Revelation 12:9, which clearly states that he was that "ancient serpent") was the one we can all thank for our misery. (Technically anyway.) I will go ahead and say how I think it happened. After the Devil lost the battle in Heaven, he was hurled to earth. Of course, it's tough to say when exactly that happened. If he was hurled to earth, then it must have been soon after Adam was created. Of course, he must have been pretty angry for having lost the battle. We all know he can go into things and control them. Once he realized what wonders God had created, his first mission was to corrupt them. So he entered the snake, or serpent, to tempt good ol' Eve. It was a smart plan. I love the dialogue between the two, the Serpent explaining that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will make you be like God, knowing good and evil. (More proof that was the Devil.) Now this was the part where everyone yelled "What the heck are you doing Eve???!!!!!" But Eve is not to blame....okay, she is to blame. But you have to understand something, before she ate from the tree, she didn't know right from wrong. I'm sure God gave her a thinking brain, but it was probably super primitive, simple. Adam and Eve were like newborns, they didn't know right from wrong. So they were easily tempted.....but God was still their father and should have listened. Once Eve ate the fruit, she quickly passed it on to Adam.......who wasn't with her during all that strangely. (If he was, he didn't say anything, so he couldn't have been standing next to her.) When Eve gave it to him, he didn't say anything, he just ate it. No questions, just ate it. Did Eve explain that it was the fruit of the forbidden tree? Nope, and I guess Adam didn't bother asking. So when both ate it, "their eyes were opened." Now they are like us, they know good and evil, no longer "very good," their minds were then corrupted, for they had committed the first sin. The first thing they had realized was that they needed some cloths, for they were ashamed.

I really like the next part, when God himself was heard walking in the "cool of the day." Of course, now that they could comprehend more, Adam and Eve fled from Him among the trees. I love the dialogue here, where God is pretending not to know where they are. (That proves that He has a slight sense of humor.) When God asks the tough question, instead of taking the blame for your wife, Adam points figures at Eve. So Eve then explains that the Serpent "deceived" her. I like this part too, where God commands the Serpent to crawl on his belly. An interesting thing worth mentioning is that when God said for the Serpent to crawl on its belly for the rest of its life, that means that the snakes we know today are different than the ones from old. Serpents back then were  probably much larger, had legs, and walked like a bipedal. Then God commanded that all snakes lose that ability. Fascinating stuff.

Thus begins why we feel pain today. God cursed Eve that giving birth to a child will be painful, while Adam was now forced to work to get food. His years were now limited, and he will turn back to dust. (I'm guessing God's original plan was for Adam and Eve to live in harmony in the garden forever.) Of course, despite all of this, God still cared for them, for he made cloths for them.

"He must not be allowed to to reach out his hand and take also from the Tree of Life and eat, and live forever." So this tree grants everlasting life. That's what all those explorers  searching for everlasting life are looking for. Too bad they'll never find it. God banned the two humans from the garden, and no one ever returned there.

In closing, this story is one of my favorites. It is the beginning of everything, and the Serpent's dialogue with Eve is one of the most interesting scenes in all of the Bible. Of course, you have to wonder why God placed those trees in in the first place. Maybe the garden was meant to be a slice of Heaven? We don't know, for our minds are too inferior to understand.