The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 533

wiles. It is thus that many are still overcome. They doubt and argue
concerning the requirements of God; and instead of obeying the divine
commands, they accept human theories, which but disguise the devices
of Satan.
“The woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the
trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of
the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,
lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall
be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Verses
2-5. He declared that they would become like God, possessing greater
wisdom than before and being capable of a higher state of existence. Eve
yielded to temptation; and through her influence, Adam was led into sin.
They accepted the words of the serpent, that God did not mean what He
said; they distrusted their Creator and imagined that He was restricting
their liberty and that they might obtain great wisdom and exaltation by
transgressing His law.
But what did Adam, after his sin, find to be the meaning of the words,
“In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”? Did he find
them to mean, as Satan had led him to believe, that he was to be ushered
into a more exalted state of existence? Then indeed there was great good
to be gained by transgression, and Satan was proved to be a benefactor
of the race. But Adam did not find this to be the meaning of the divine
sentence. God declared that as a penalty for his sin, man should return
to the ground whence he was taken: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt
thou return.” Verse 19. The words of Satan, “Your eyes shall be opened,”
proved to be true in this sense only: After Adam and Eve had disobeyed
God, their eyes were opened to discern their folly; they did know evil,
and they tasted the bitter fruit of transgression.
In the midst of Eden grew the tree of life, whose fruit had the power
of perpetuating life. Had Adam remained

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