The Garden

In the Garden

At the start, there were two human beings in a garden created by God. The garden was a utopia, meaning a perfect world where there was no strife, war, hunger, or pain. God had even promised them that they would not die as long as they followed one rule. Just don't eat from the fruit of a tree in the center of the garden.
God had planted two trees; one was a tree of life with fruit that would give eternal life. The second was a tree with a fruit that would give knowledge. God had plans for both trees and for these two humans. But we will never know what could have been and can only guess at how humanity would have developed in the garden utopia.
The two humans would decide to choose disobedience. A creature, walking on its legs, and having being possessed by Satan because of its cleverness spoke with these two humans, Adam and Eve. Adam listened intently next to his wife to the story the Snake told them. The snake first asked the woman, "Did God really say that if you ate the fruit, in the middle of the garden, you would die? That if you touch it, it will kill you?"
It was a clever play. The woman hadn't heard the instructions. She had been relying on the statement from Adam. Maybe Adam had lied. Maybe Adam was hiding the truth from her. Maybe Adam didn't want her to gain knowledge.
Adam didn't defend himself or God. He just stood silently listening.
Then the snake, having created doubt and mistrust between those two humans, created doubt about God. "God doesn't want you to eat the fruit because he doesn't want you to become like him."
Such a grand lie. "You can reach out, ignore all the boundaries, and eat the fruit and satisfy your belly and your animal instincts. You can become God; you don't need the sky God who is distant and not here."
Eve then looked at the fruit and saw it was pleasing to her eye. It also was good to eat and not poisonous. "How could something that looked so good and not be poisonous be destined to kill them? She could satisfy her belly and satisfy her desire to become like God."
Adam still said nothing. He wanted what was forbidden too and instead of having the courage to defend God, he let Eve eat the fruit and because he didn't want to be left behind as she became a God, he ate it too. Jealousy and Greed led them both to eat the fruit.
The fruit opened their minds. They realized they could reason, but they also realized they were vulnerable and naked. They also grew afraid. Having broken the only law from God, the knowledge of the fruit made them realize they were doomed to die.
God comes into the Garden. Satan as the snake hasn't fled. He's proud of what he has done and wants to boast to God that he destroyed God's utopia and made man and woman evil. The snake sees himself as a hero in a great rebellion against God.
God speaks to the humans, ignoring Satan.
"Where are you?"
They are hiding from him. Instead of dragging them out of the bushes by the hair on their heads like an angry parent, he gently calls to them.
Adam who had been quiet all this time finally speaks out. "I heard you coming and I was naked and afraid and I hid from you."
How often does this happen again and again. We sin. God calls gently, "Where are you?," and we just hide, ashamed and afraid. Like an animal.
Then God asks another question he has the answer to already. "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat the fruit I told you not to eat?"
Adam, again, speaks out, but not to accept responsibility, but to blame. "The woman you gave me made me do it. She tricked me. It's her fault. She gave me fruit and I ate it."
God again patiently asks the woman, "What have you done?" God knows Adams guilt. He failed to be honest. It was now Eve's turn to be honest. Having all that wisdom from the fruit did not make either of them honest.
She deflects from herself and says, "The snake tricked me. He said it was good to eat, so I ate it."
But God doesn't give Satan a chance to explain himself. He curses Satan through the snake. He punishes immediately. The snake and humanity will always be enemies, but it's not really about the snake. It's about Satan and Humanity. They will never reconcile and Satan's head will eventually be crushed by the heel of Jesus Christ when he defeats death on the cross. After cursing Satan to certain defeat, he speaks to Adam and Eve.
The changes to Adam and Eve through the fruit take Utopia away. Eve will suffer through childbirth now and she will now long for her husband and he will rule over her. The equality of utopia is gone, replacing it with strife between husband and wife.
Adam will suffer to work and toil and nothing will grow easily for him anymore. Adam will sweat and suffer to produce food from the ground and he will not be able to simply walk through a garden and harvest it as he wishes. He is cursed to make his own garden now and it will never match God's garden.
Then Adam and Eve both faced the final curse of death. They were made from dust and they would return to dust. But God did one more thing. He killed animals, a blood sacrifice, and covered them with the skins of animals instead of plants. He protected them even though they didn't earn it and he demonstrated the promise of future salvation and sacrifices that would cleanse them and their children of sin.
Satan became an enemy of women and men and sought to destroy them at every cost. He used slanders, lies, deceit, and flattery. He would tell people the same lies over and over again. Some people are better than others. Those people who cannot see what the elite see will need to be sacrificed. And most importantly, the elite can become like Gods.
This is the theology of Satan. It is the Toxic Faith that was born in the Garden of Eden. It is the Toxic Faith Adam and Eve believed when they ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Satan has never changed his message because it works so well and because he believes he is destined to replace God as the ruler of the universe. Even if he has to destroy the universe to do it.