We are a Sinful and Cursed Race

The hatred of Satan for humanity is most clearly seen in Genesis 3. God created all things and ended his creation work with two human beings made in His image. Everything in the garden was given to Adam and Even for their managing, but from the fruit of one tree they were prohibited from eating. When we come to Genesis 3, we find Eve with Adam before the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil talking to a serpent. “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” the serpent asked. The very first thing he got Adam and Eve to do was doubt the goodness of God by getting them to focus on the one thing God kept from them as opposed to the rest of the garden he gave for their enjoyment.

After a brief conversation about what God did and did not say: Satan deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruit while her husband watched. After she ate, Adam ate what his wife gave to him. Donald Grey Barnhouse had a way of putting the Bible into perspective; in one of his sermons on what happened in the Garden of Eden, he said:

Adam’s choice was an act of rebellion, the equivalent of a declaration of independence…. Adam, in effect, said, “I am tired of having everything north, south, east, and west of this tree. I will be independent. I will run my own affairs.” It was not a request that God share the throne of government with man; it was an ultimatum to Him to abdicate and leave full control to man. (Donald Grey Barnhouse, “God’s River,” Romans vol. 2; p. 17)

Now you may say, “How can you know for certain Adam actually thought these things?” I would say to you that he knew full well what God had commanded him concerning the tree; and not only did he stay silent while she was being tempted, but took some of the fruit and ate also… after Satan commented that if they ate of the fruit they too could be like God. Doesn’t that sound a bit similar to what we read in Isaiah 14 earlier? It is almost as if Adam said in his heart: “I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”

In Romans 5 we learn that it was through Adam’s sin that we inherited our sin nature. Every single one of us was born into the world with sin, with a natural disposition to rebel with the same type of rebellion Adam was guilty of. Somehow the curse of sin was spread from Adam’s sperm cell to Eve’s fertile egg transmitting sin from one generation to the next. I guess you can say sin is a sexually transmitted disease that affects the entire human race. We run from God like vampires run from the sun light. This is our nature and that is why the Bible states very plainly: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God” (Romans 3:10).

Satan is not the cause of most of the world’s evil and suffering, his demons are not the cause for most of the evil and suffering in the world… we are the cause of most of the evil and suffering in the world. Sure, we may not cause the Tsunami nor are we able to prevent the Tsunami, but how much more evil and suffering come by way of our sinful pride, arrogance, selfishness, lust, and greed. It is mostly human wickedness that results in the amplification of preventable diseases, world hunger, poverty, trafficking of children and women as slaves, and so much more. Think of all the wars and genocides governments invited into the world that resulted in the murder of not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of people.

All Satan and his demons need to do is entice us to carry out the desires of our heart. Think about it, how do marriages break up? Why do children run away? What causes a nation to go to war with another? What motivates a corporate executive or CEO to pocket what belongs to another? Why does one take a life? I am convinced that Satan has to do very little when it comes to evil and suffering in the world.

The older I get and the longer I follow Jesus, the more I realized that I am my worst enemy when it comes to evil and suffering. I am lazy when it comes to taking care of my body, so I have had certain health problems – it’s my fault! I know if I do not guard what I look at and think about, my heart could be tempted to betray my wife, son, and the church I pastor because I have to battle the lust of my own flesh. I have a temper problem at times; when left unchecked I have said or done things that I regret. There is a war that wages in my own soul and mind that wages in you that can bring all kinds of sorrow and pain. Is this not why Jesus said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away…. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell” (Matt. 5:29-30).

This still doesn’t completely answer the question regarding evil and suffering in the world. Sure our own wickedness is to blame for many of our planet’s woes, but what about natural disasters? What about the 2004 Tsunami? What about the Earthquake that hit China that killed nearly 70,000 people or Cyclone Nargis that snuffed out an estimated 146,000 lives in Myanmar? This leads me to a third and final reason for the evil and suffering of our world that I will attempt to give in the next post.

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