This Is Not A Test

Chapter 2: In the Beginning...

 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." - Genesis 1:1. We are all (speaking to Christians) familiar with the beginning of the Bible. It displays a brief, vague depiction of God creating everything we see around us today. For a non-believer reading this, I encourage you to Google search the passages I mention, it will be well worth the time. Now, there is nothing strange about God creating everything, if you think about him as he describes himself: an all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful deity. Keep those terms in mind, because those will become vital later. Even if you find the Bible and God silly, I want you to look at it objectively for a moment. If such a deity existed who was truly all-powerful, all-present, and all-knowing, then creating the universe would not be an issue, right?

So Genesis begins with the beginning of the universe, a universe which God is outside of. Several times in the Bible, it is written that God lives outside of time and space. He is a deity. So we have established that this obviously incredibly powerful deity has created the world we live in today. In human terms, it would be considered impossible. Well, taking God at his word, he has always been and always will be, so this is not all-that surprising for one with so much power. But before we continue, I would like you to ponder this: if God has always been and always will be... what was he been doing before creation?

Let's continue. The second chapter of Genesis describes in more detail how God created man and woman. In case you have forgotten or do not have a Bible handy, I will show you the direct quotes of the Bible:

"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

"And the rib, which the Lord had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
"And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of man.

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

"And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed."

There you have it, the creation of the first two people on Earth: Adam and Eve. Most people, even those who are not familiar with the Bible, know vaguely who Adam and Eve are, whether they believe it or not.

So God, in all his power, created the entire universe, finishing it with a man. But the Bible says that he left Adam alone for a little while (it's unclear how long). It's as though he wanted to see if Adam would become lonely on this fresh, new Earth, surrounded by animals. Sure enough, Adam did become lonely. That's when God causes a sleep to fall on him and creates a woman for him. The woman is said to be his 'helpmeet'. This chapter ends by making you sure you understand that Adam and Eve were naked and completely unashamed of it. You may think this detail is silly to point out, but it will become one of the biggest questions in all of Christianity. Nonetheless, the Bible deliberately makes it clear that Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed.

So, during this account of Adam and Eve, the Bible tells us that they were put into the Garden of Eden. I assume this garden was thriving and beautiful. There was fruit and vegetables, and animals all around. But even the predators we fear today were harmless in the Garden of Eden, because there was no death or pain. Again, you can reference these chapters yourself to verify these things. However, the Bible never actually calls the Garden of Eden perfect. The church leaders do; pastors and Sunday school teachers do, but the word is never put in the creation account. God calls his creation good, but there is nothing to define what makes them good in his eyes. The only thing that is certain about this fresh earth is that there was no death. Nothing died.

God told Adam and Eve that they could eat anything they wanted from the garden. Anything except one: the tree in the middle of the whole garden. This tree is referred to as the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Wait. Knowledge of good and evil? Yes, this tree was placed in the very center of the garden, and God commanded that they do not eat or even touch the fruit on it. I would like to stop and remind you, that the very tree he forbids them to eat from, is a tree which God himself not only created, but set in the middle of the garden. Remember that he's all knowing, all-powerful, and all-present. This tree was not an accident, and it was not from the devil. This tree was God's tree. His tree of the knowledge of good and evil.