Expulsion from Eden

The Word of God must stand, whether it be the word promising Eternal Life or the sentence of Death. There is no variableness with Him, neither shadow of turning. The curse, the Death Sentence, foretold by the Lord, was executed, but not instantly. Adam was not stricken lifeless with a thunderbolt. From the very beginning God foreknew all, and had planned the redemption of Adam, Eve and their children. To this end Jesus came and "died, the Just for the unjust." As a result ultimately the curse of death will be removed. "There shall be no more curse"--no more dying, sighing, or crying, nor any more pain.--Revelation 22:3; 21:4,5.

All of us were told, and many of us believed fully, that the penalty of Father Adam's disobedience was eternal torture, in which all of his posterity must share, except a few--the saintly, the Elect. Told that this was the teaching of the Bible, we accepted without proof.--1 Thessalonians 5:21.

Now Christian people examine their Bibles more carefully. They find that the curse, or penalty for sin, is a totally different one. "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23.) "The soul that sinneth it shall die." This penalty of death has rested against Adam and his family for six thousand years. It has brought sorrow, sighing, pain and trouble; it has blighted our lives mentally, morally and physically.--Romans 5:12.

It is this curse of death that was pronounced against Father Adam, according to the Genesis account, and also according to the New Testament. "Accursed is the earth for thy sake; thorns and thistles shall it bring fourth unto thee. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread until thou return unto the ground from whence thou wast taken, for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return." It is from this curse that Jesus redeemed us by dying, the Just for the unjust. It is from this death-curse that Messiah rescues all by a resurrection from the dead. "By man came death, by man also the resurrection of the dead."--1 Corinthians 15:21.