John 12:31
31)Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.
(Jesus, referring to his eminent crucifixion and resurrection, which would defeat death and Satan) see next entry.
Heb 2:14
14)Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death— that is, the devil—
1John 3:7-8
7)Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
8)He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
1Pet 5:8-9
8)Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
9)Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
Jam 4:7
7)Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
*Note: italics added to relate to topic title; researcher comments in parentheses to clarify
Innocence lost - fall of Mankind
Gen 1:1
1)In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Gen 1:26-27
26)Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27)So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Gen 2:7
7)the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Gen 2:15-17
15)The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
16)And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;
17)but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
(“free to eat from any tree in the garden” included the tree of life; originally they would not have died physically had they obeyed God)
Gen 2:22-25
22)Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23)The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”
24)For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
25)The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
(They were innocent and pure when first created)
Gen 3:1-5
1)Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2)The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3)but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4)“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman.
5)“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
(since there were no other human beings on earth, the unseen spirit of Satan spoke through the serpent, which Eve could see, with an appeal to ego/pride—their downfall)
Gen 3:6-8
6)When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
7)Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8).....and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
(they failed the test of obedience God had allowed through Satan’s temptation. God’s spirit of innocence then left them, replaced instead by Satan’s spirit of shame and guilt when “their eyes were opened, and they hid from the LORD”. Thus, the first-ever sin, or disobedience of God.
As a result their relationship with the Lord was separated; they became dead to God’s inner spirit, and their physical bodies would also eventually die. Worst of all, their “infection” by Satan’s self-centered spirit would be passed on to all human offspring, as each generation to come would find its own ways of disobeying God)
Gen 3:13-19
13)Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14)So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
15)And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
16)To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
17)To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
18)It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19)By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
(it is obvious God regards our disobedience of Him more seriously than we human beings do...the consequences were enormous for every single person who would follow.
Death, weeds, difficulty supplying enough food, storms/ bad weather, hail, drought, and disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, etc. can all likely be attributed to the random forces of nature God set into motion as a result, not only of Adam and Eve’s curse, but Mankind’s continuing errant ways ever since that first failure to obey) see entries below.
Gen 3:22-24
22)And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
23)So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
24)After he