Everything that God made grew according to His plan. Then the serpent began to take a special interest in Eve. He asked her, "Did God say that you shall not eat from all the trees in the Garden?" The serpent was not a literal animal, because animals cannot talk to people or understand God's plan. The serpent symbolized an angel. God had told His children they could eat the fruit of all the trees but one. The angel’s question twisted God’s words.

Eve answered, "We may eat the fruit from the trees of the Garden; but God said if we ate or even touched the fruit from the tree in the middle of the Garden, we would die."

The angel then told Eve a lie: "You will not die. God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil."

God made angels to be servants. They knew about God’s plan, and they were supposed to protect His children as they were growing in the realms of heart. Nothing is of greater value than true love, and nothing causes more pain than when love is betrayed. Nobody, not even God, can force someone to love them. God had poured all His heart and love into Adam and Eve, and He longed for them to grow up and freely love Him in return. Trees multiply by producing seed-bearing fruit, and human beings multiply through a love relationship. To eat a fruit means to have a sexual relationship.

Adam and Eve were supposed to grow in heart one realm at a time. God knew that it was possible for an angel to be attracted to Eve, so while Adam and Eve were in the process of growing, He told them not to engage in sexual relationships. Their faith in what God told them would protect them from being attracted to a love that was outside the realms of heart.

While God was creating the world, the angels were closer to Him than anything else that He had made. When God made Adam and Eve, His children were naturally closer in heart to Him than His servants. Of course God loved the angels just as much as before, but the head angel, an archangel, became jealous of God's special love for His children.

Think about an older child with a new baby brother or sister who seems to get all the parents' love and attention. The older child often feels left out and might become jealous and resentful. If the older children help their parents take care of the baby, their parents will love and appreciate them in a deeper way, and their younger brother or sister will become very fond of them.

As a teenager, Eve had a special beauty, because God loved her so much. The archangel was supposed to protect Eve until she became an adult and was ready to enter the realm of heart as Adam's wife. If Adam and Eve had reached the realm of heart as true parents, God would have given the angels as much love as they could possibly receive, through Adam and Eve. But the archangel began to want all of Eve's love for himself.

Eve spent more time listening to the archangel and less time thinking about Adam and God. When children hear confusing things, they need to check with their parents. But Eve became so fascinated by the archangel that she forgot about God and His warning not to leave the realms of heart.

The archangel knew many things, and Eve wanted to be wise, as he had promised. The attraction between the archangel and Eve became so great that she forgot God's commandment, and they had a sexual relationship. When that happened, Eve lost her connection with God. She became lonely and afraid. She should have called out to God for help.

Instead of turning to her Heavenly Parent, Eve turned to Adam. She realized that Adam was her future husband. Eve felt the fear that comes from a guilty conscience. She thought she could come back to God if she could get Adam to love her, so she persuaded him to have a sexual relationship with her.

What Adam and Eve learned from the archangel was false love, instead of true love. They knew they did something wrong. Their bodies did not die the day they went outside the realms of heart, but they were cut off from God's love and that is spiritual death. Adam and Eve looked at themselves and realized that they were naked, and they covered their private parts.

Parents want to help their children find a way to solve even the most difficult problems. But Adam and Eve became afraid of God. They looked for a hiding place among the trees of the Garden. Because God is invisible, He is everywhere and can be close to each one of His children. Nobody can hide from God.

God went looking for his two frightened and lonely children. Soon they heard a voice calling, "Adam, where are you?" Adam answered, "Lord, I heard your voice and I was afraid, so I hid." "Why are you be afraid to meet me?" God asked. "Did you do what I told you not to do?" Adam blamed someone else for his sin. "The woman made me do it" he answered.

"What have you done?" God asked Eve. She too didn't want to take responsibility for her action. "The archangel tempted me to do it," she told God.

God punished the archangel, who became known as Satan. Ever since, Satan has been God's enemy. Satan makes life difficult for anybody who wants to connect with God. God always gives His children hope. God promised that one day a man would win the victory over Satan. That man is the Messiah. The Messiah comes to lead us through the four realms of heart and back to God.

God wanted Eve to find great happiness in loving her husband and children. But because she turned away from true love, God told her there would be sorrow in her family. God wanted Adam to take loving care of the earth and enjoy seeing things grow well. But because he turned away from true love, God told him that it would be difficult even to get food to eat.

Our Heavenly Father made us to be His children, but when Adam and Eve chose false love, Satan took God’s place and became their false father. Satan invaded the realms of heart. Cut off from God, people think only about themselves. They hurt others and themselves. People grow up, marry, have children, and work to make a living, but it doesn't bring them true joy.

God’s heart was full of sorrow and pain because His children left the way of true love. Anything people do that goes against God’s love and connects them with Satan is sin. Sin enticed God's children away from their loving home. Of all the tears that flowed because of the fall, God cried the most. God showed His children that He still cared deeply for them. He made clothes out of animal skins for Adam and Eve before sending them out of the Garden.

No one can go back to our original home until they show faith in God and cut off all connection with Satan. As the true ancestor of all people on earth, Adam would have been like a tree of life, giving godly life to all his descendants. When he fell, he could not become the tree of life. God placed an angel with a sword of fire blocking the tree of life. In the future a man would come as a new Adam, a new tree of life, and win the victory over the fallen archangel that separates people from God. That man is the Messiah.

Because Adam and Eve turned away from God, their life changed. Adam had to work long and hard to get food for Eve and himself. His hands and feet were ripped by thorns, and weeds grew faster than the plants that gave them food. Adam and Eve didn’t feel God walking with them. They didn’t hear God talking to them. They missed God. Looking at all the wonderful things that God had made reminded them of their Heavenly Father, and they wanted to do something to make up for their sin.

Adam and Eve had gone outside the realms of heart and had fallen from their position as God’s pure children. Plants and animals, which did not turn away from God, were closer to God than Adam and Eve. The first step back to God was to make offerings from the things of creation.

Adam and Eve were made by God, but they had chosen to follow Satan. God could not accept an offering from them, because they were pulled in two opposite directions, one good and the other evil. Adam and Eve had broken God’s heart when they turned away from Him, and it takes time for broken hearts to heal. God's children had disobeyed Him, and they would have to believe in God and obey Him even in difficult circumstances in order to show God that He could trust them.

Adam and Eve had a baby boy, and Eve named him Cain. They had a second baby; his name was Abel. The birth of a baby is like a new beginning. God planned for these first two sons to begin to untangle the mess that sin had made of their parents’ lives.

When Adam and Eve listened to the archangel and did what he said, they began to be like him. Their children and everybody after them followed the pattern set by Adam and Eve. Satan had a stronger hold on the first son, Cain, because he represented Eve’s connection with the archangel, who seduced her away from the realms of heart. The second son, Abel, represented Eve’s love for Adam, who was supposed to be her husband when the time was right. Because of what he represented, God could connect with Abel better than with Cain.

As Cain and Abel grew, their parents talked to them about God. They hoped their sons would try to please God. Cain began to work in the fields, like his father, and Abel took care of sheep.

The young men built an altar and offered gifts to God to show their faith in him. Cain brought grain from the field for his offering, and Abel brought a fat lamb. Abel brought the best animal he could find. God saw that Abel wanted to please Him, and God accepted Abel’s offering. However, God did not accept Cain's offering.

Adam and Eve had lost faith in what their Heavenly Father told them, so Satan invaded the first realm of heart, which is the children's devotion to their parents. Because Abel showed faith in making an offering, God could connect with him in the first realm of heart.

If Cain and Abel could learn to love each other as brothers, they could experience the second realm of heart. There was only one way that God could receive Cain's offering: something should happen to make Cain feel jealous of Abel, the way the archangel felt jealous of Adam. If Cain could overcome these feelings, God could receive him.

When God accepted Abel's offering and not Cain's, Cain felt left out. Cain should have sensed God's love and appreciation for Abel and asked Abel to help him make an offering. Then God would have welcomed Cain and loved him, through Abel.

However, Cain became resentful and jealous when God did not accept his offering. God said to him, "Why are you angry? Why do you look so upset? If you do well, you will be accepted. If you do not, sin lies at the door. Don’t let sin get a hold on you. You should rule over it instead." Satan was at the door, waiting to use Cain’s angry feelings. But God also was knocking at the door of Cain’s heart. God loved Cain. God would have welcomed Cain and blessed him if he had asked his brother to help him. That is why God told Cain to control his angry feelings and do what was right.

Maybe Abel was so pleased and proud when God accepted his offering that he did not realize how upset Cain was. God wanted Abel to pour all his heart into loving Cain, giving him so much love that Cain would forget his jealousy and open his heart to his brother. God had given Cain and Abel the idea to make offerings, and God taught Cain about controlling his anger. The brothers should have made another offering together, with Abel showing Cain how to do it.

Later, when the brothers were out in a field, Cain argued with Abel. Cain became so angry that he killed Abel. When Cain killed his brother, he followed the example of Satan, who caused Adam and Eve to die spiritually. When Cain killed Abel, Satan came in the door and lived with Cain.

Still God did not give up on Cain. God spoke to Cain again. He asked, "Where is Abel, your brother?" God knew what had happened, but He wanted to give Cain a chance to think about what he did. People who are sorry for doing wrong will admit what they have done and ask others to forgive them. Then they need to do something to try to make amends and regain the trust they had lost.

However, Cain’s heart was closed, and he lied to God. Cain told God, "I do not know. Am I supposed to take care of my brother?" Cain thought he had gotten rid of Abel by killing him, but people's spirits keep living on. God said that Abel’s blood cried out to Him from the ground.

God told Cain, "Because you have done wrong, you will be punished. You will work in the fields, but the crops will be poor. You will wander here and there without any one place to call your home."

Cain said, "O God, this punishment is greater than I can bear! What if people try to kill me when I go around from place to place?" God answered that He would put a mark on Cain so people would know that they should not hurt him.

God had lost His children when they turned away from Him to follow Satan. Now Adam and Eve lost their first two children: one was dead and the other had to leave home. Just as God had said, Eve’s children brought her grief.

Adam and Eve lived to be very old, and they had many other children. God will never change his plan. If one person doesn't carry it out, God will call another person to take his place. God gave Adam and Eve another son, Seth, to take the place of Abel.

God was hoping that Cain and Abel could love each other and make an offering together. If they had done this, God could have sent the Messiah to their family. Anybody who is in a situation like Cain can come back to God if he or she can find somebody like Abel to obey and follow.

Abel had shown his faith in God by making a good offering. But Cain and Abel could not unite. Satan still controlled the realms of heart, and the way of true love was still blocked. Therefore, there was no foundation in Adam’s family for the Messiah to come. From Seth’s family line, God chose another family.

Joy Pople (>pople@servtech.com) wrote this Bible story from the standpoint of the Divine Principle.

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