The angelic violators who had left their proper domain by mingling with human women are incarcerated in everlasting chains for the appointed judgment Day (Jude 1:6). The rest of the fallen angels still influence the earth. In effect, the earth is still corrupted by evil. But the worst of it has been immobilized by this first divine reset.
            In the aftermath of their watery deliverance, Noah’s family sets forth to repopulate the earth. The dry land is restored and the earth brings forth its bounty once again. All of it is freely given over to Noah’s family, with one interesting exception. “But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man” (Gen. 9:4-5).
            Why is the blood so important? Because it brings life to the body. Life is in the blood. It points to the power of the blood. It foreshadows a future bloody moment on behalf of mankind.
            Noah’s story is both a merciful warning and a shadow of things to come. While Satan is licking his wounds from the reset, he still thinks he can destroy the Seed. He’s out for blood. As for the fallen nature of mankind, it’s still there. It becomes painfully evident quickly, compliments of two of Noah’s sons, Ham and Japheth, who violate their father’s privacy and trust.  As we continue in Genesis, we learn that Shem chose wisely, following his father’s example of walking with God. His other two sons chose their own way, eventually following after other gods. The stage is now set for the next act.
             The Chronos Lesson: God created us to be loved and to love others. We are social beings. When the world rejects the reality of the supernatural world, it distorts the whole community. It fosters injustice. Worse yet, the masses are blind to its source. The consequences of great evil continually in the earth can only lead to great calamity.
            Satan loves it because he knows people will blame God. Why serve a God who wipes out masses of people? They don’t see the big picture. They don’t see Satan’s nature and role in bringing this about. Because they reject absolute truth, they don’t see that this is a merciful reset and a visual warning.
           Case in point, when the Seed is finally planted in the earth and comes forth, Satan responds by sponsoring a Massacre of the Innocents (Matt. 2:16). He puts it in Herod’s heart to slaughter thousands of baby boys in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. In like fashion, Satan still seeks to massacre the innocent offspring of the woman in our times via abortion. Satan never changes.
            Romans 8:18-25 ties the aftermath of the Flood with our own time. Do you see yourself in this?
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God [the rapture when Christ returns]. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.”    

         We’re only a few chapters into Genesis and we already see what happens when the human race chooses evil. Things quickly take a turn for the worse. But we need not despair. Remember, the all-knowing, Almighty God knows this is coming. He already has a reset planned. We get a hint of it in Gen. 6:3. “And the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’ ”
            This is a time-specific prophecy that alerts us that God plans to deal with the violation in 120 years. Why does God wait? He waits to allow mankind to see the error of their ways. Otherwise, they could accuse Him of jumping the gun and moving too quickly with His judgments. He is also bound to the rules of operation in His creation, working through the choices of Adam’s godly line.
            So enters another character in His-tory. In the midst of the great wickedness of the masses, God sees a faithful man. He is the great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson of Adam. [Hmm, 7 greats; coincidence?]
            Noah finds grace in the eyes of the Lord (Gen. 6:8). Noah is a just and perfect man, uncontaminated by the hybrids. He walks with God and has endeavored to plant the ways of God into his three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth. They will play pivotal rolls in the aftermath of what is about to happen. As always, they get to choose the roll they will play.
            You probably know what happens next: the great worldwide Flood. Why is the Flood worldwide? It’s because the Nephilim have used their great knowledge and might to establish strongholds around the world. Hence, the unusual monoliths and very ancient structures around the globe. Of course Satan uses his giant minions to build counterfeits.
            There is one exception, however. It is the Great Pyramid that was built by Shem and his descendants according to God’s design. The intricate details visually highlight His plan.
              God reminds us again of why the Flood has to happen. “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth” (vs. 11-12). Evil has to be contained. It can’t be allowed to proliferate unabated.
            God shares His plan with Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth” (vs. 13). The plan includes a life-saving way to avoid the consequences of mankind’s evil choices—an ark.
            Noah faithfully follows God’s instructions for the ark even though it probably doesn’t make any sense to him because it has never rained on the earth. He also probably doesn’t know that the oversized vessel foreshadows another life-saving Way—Jesus Christ—who would become the spiritual ark as the Savior of the world and deliver people from the flood-like consequences of sin and death.
So in effect, God was forced to flood and destroy the earth in order to cleanse it from the genetic corruptions perpetrated by the fallen angels and the nephilim. By preserving eight souls, together with pairs of the other creatures, God was able to start over and maintain the integrity of the prophecy in Genesis. The lineage of the Seed would be safeguarded. Knowing what the Seed would accomplish for mankind, the watery reset is a merciful solution.
             The Chronos Lesson: Let’s take a moment to recall the conditions in the world at that time. EVERY intent of their hearts was evil CONTINUALLY. We think that what humanity has witnessed throughout history and what we are witnessing now is bad. Can you imagine every intent being evil continually?
            I believe it is also helpful to take a moment to see God’s heart in this reset. Because God is perfectly just, it was necessary to contain evil and to keep at least one lineage of the human race set apart to God. Because God loves perfectly, verse 6 says He was grieved. Yes, God has feelings, too.     Some translations say God repented or was sorry that He had made mankind. But the actual Hebrew word literally means to sigh heavily. I know the feeling, Lord. I’ve sighed quite a bit lately—usually when I watch the news.
            If you think the Flood was an over-reaction on God’s part, Romans 6:19 warns that these evil tendencies still linger in the human race. It is a weakness of our flesh that we know or are capable of evil. And it continues to multiply after its own kind: the more we yield to this uncleanness and this lawlessness, the more lawlessness proliferates and worsens. At some point, God knows mankind will reach the point of no return. That breaking point of creation cannot be allowed.
            Let’s fast forward to Rev. 11:18 to glimpse a climatic moment [emphasis added]. “The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth.” Is there any wonder why Jesus compared the times of Noah with our own times? There’s more to this timely scene than many believers have seen. Stay tuned.

            Hearing the first prophecy recorded in Genesis 3, Satan seethes with anger and devises his own contrary plan to keep the Seed from being born into the now contaminated world. Genesis 6 reveals the sinister plan. It is a deliberate disregard for God’s principle that all the creatures would produce “according to its own kind.”
            At first read, the vindictive violation seems harmless enough. “Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. ” (vs. 1-2, 4 KJV). The expression “sons of God” here refers to the angels of God as recorded in Job 1:6 and 38:4-7. The phrase merely expresses the truth that God created them. They came forth from Him, but joined the rebellion. The Hebrew word for “giants” here is nephilim, from the root word, naphal, meaning “to fall.” Therefore, their offspring were called the fallen ones. Jude 1:6 sheds more light on who these fallen ones are and what happened to them. “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great Day.”
            The passage seems to convey the idea that these fallen angels merely became enamored with the beauty of the human women and could not restrain themselves. The Hebrew word for fair can have a variety of meanings, such as a good thing or a fit extension. In other words, the fallen angels realized that the childbearing capacity of women could be used as a means to sow their own seed into the earth—to expand their presence and increase “their kind” upon the earth.
             So they conspire to mingle—to put it politely—with human women (the daughters of men). The result was a race of hybrids, often referred to as giants (think Goliath). These fallen angels, together with the offspring they fostered, became the heroes of old, men of renown upon which much of what we consider to be the ancient myths of gods and demigods were founded. These fallen angels not only corrupted the human race genetically, but spiritually as well, for they introduced mankind to various forms of sorcery, occult practices, the art of warfare, human sacrifice, and sexual perversions of every kind. Ultimately, they deceived mankind into worshiping them as gods, and thus, invented paganism.
            The records of ancient civilizations from all around the world speak of a time when the “gods from above” came down and mingled themselves with the human race. Unfortunately, most people are not aware of this aspect of human history, even though it is an indisputable part of the Biblical record.
            Satan’s intent is to directly contaminate the human genetic lineage so that the pure and perfect Seed could not come forth. It appears that his plan is working because verse 5 records, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  Verses 11-12 sum up the sorry state of the earth.  “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” We tend to think of corruption as something tarnished or less than perfect. But the Hebrew word means ruined. The thought goes beyond just being immoral; it describes being genetically altered beyond repair.
            Verse 13 brings the inevitable and justifiable intervention. “And God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.’ ”  Stay tuned.
            The Chronos Lesson: It is not what Satan says or what the world says that matters. It is what God has said. Psalm 2 records, “Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure: ‘Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.’ ”
            There’s a set time for God’s wrath to come upon evil. It happens right after the rapture. It is called the wrath of that Day. Then we shall see evil’s just reward. We shall also see what happens to the fallen angels who rebelled with Satan and what becomes of our Enemy. In fact, we play a part in it! Our first heavenly ruling is to release the Archangel Michael and his heavenly army to go to battle against Satan—aka: the Dragon. More on that later.
            So what do we do in the meantime? “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Col. 1:1-4).

           As soon as Adam and Eve felt the consequences of their disobedience, Genesis 3:8 tells us how they reacted. When they heard the sound of God on His usual stroll through the Garden to fellowship with them, they hid. Like that was going to work! It doesn’t work any better for us today when we know we’ve blown it and we think we have to hide from God.
            Of course, God calls them out on it and they have to fess up. Instead of owning their actions, Adam and Eve start playing the victims, and they invent the blame game. That, too, is a typical human reaction. It’s part of the contaminated human nature.
            What happens next may surprise you. God responds with the first prophecy in the Bible. He first directs it at the key player in the Fall—Satan. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
            The Seed, of course, is God’s Son, Jesus Christ.  Those who are born of God through Jesus Christ—believers—are also His seed. Those who choose to reject God the Father and follow Satan instead are his seed. We’ve seen this hatred and division between Satan’s offspring and the Seed’s offspring throughout history. But now that Satan knows his time is short, he is ramping up the division, hatred, and persecution against Christians.
            Back then, however, Adam and Eve had no idea what or who was the Seed. With their spirit now contaminated through sin, they couldn’t possibly know or understand that the Seed would come through the supernatural process of a human woman (the virgin Mary) being supernaturally overshadowed by the Spirit of God. They didn’t know that a one-of-a-kind Man would be born into the world. Born of the flesh, Jesus would be 100% human. Born of the Spirit, He would also be 100% divine. In effect, the divine nature would also take on the human nature—the incarnate Christ becoming God in the flesh and entering our world.
            Since the bloodline of a child is determined through the father—or in this case, the Father God—Jesus would be the Perfect Man. As the Son of Man, He would be subject to temptation and the same struggles we have. Yet as the Son of God, He would choose to only do the Father’s will (John 5:19). Because He never disobeyed, He was sinless. This is why Jesus is the only Way—He is the only way to be restored to God.
            Remember, God gave the authority over the earth to the human race in the Creation mandate. But because of the Fall, that authority was forfeited to Satan. Satan became the god of this age—the age of mankind (2 Cor. 4:4). That is why this first prophecy is so important. It releases God’s will into the earth. At the appointed time, the Seed would come forth as part of another divine reset.
           Because God is just, He could not override the Fall and take back the authority over the earth. Choices have consequences. The wages of sin is death. So His plan involved sending Jesus into this world, for only a Perfect Man could justly pay the price for sin, dying on behalf of the human race.
            The Chronos Lesson: As humans, we can’t run and hide from God. Hebrews 4:13-16 says, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
            As mere humans, we can’t run and hide from Satan, either. He is a spiritual being. But because he is also a created being, he isn’t all-knowing, all-powerful, or everywhere-present like God. For the time being, however, he does have power and influence over this earth. Therefore, every human being automatically becomes an enemy of Satan. It doesn’t matter whether or not a person believes in the supernatural realm. It doesn’t matter whether or not a person chooses to follow Satan or God. Satan still hates all mankind and seeks to destroy us because we are destined in Christ to be what he wanted to be.
            The solution is found in James 4:7. “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” To submit means to recognize that you are subordinate to God as part of His creation. It means to follow the principles of operation for this earth from the Manufacturer’s Manual—the Bible. We always have a choice. We don’t have to be under Satan’s influence in this world.
            When Jesus died and was resurrected, Satan’s authority over the earth was impacted. Satan no longer has authority over those who are in Christ—unless we allow it. That is why we need to renew our minds as to the power we have in the name of Jesus for our own lives. We do not have power over others. But we can learn to walk more and more like Jesus in order to bring light to those around us. It is the goodness of God that draws people to repentance (Rom. 2:4).
            This is a process, our journey with Christ, if you will. The Bible calls it sanctification. Your spirit was sanctified immediately and fully when you accepted Jesus as your Savior. It was also sealed from contamination for that future Day of Redemption—the 7th Day (Eph. 4:30).
            Your mind, however, needs to be renewed by the Word, and your body needs to be trained to align with God’s truths. Theologians call this progressive sanctification. At the wonderful moment of the rapture, when we are changed in a twinkling of an eye, our mind will be fully conformed to the mind of Christ and our body will be transformed into an immortal, glorified body like Jesus’ body! Our whole being will be sanctified completely—spirit, soul, and body (1 Thess. 5:23).

         Romans 5:12 confirms that sin entered the world through one man—Adam, as the head of the household. That sin brought death into this world and it brought death to all mankind. So how do we reconcile this with God’s intended purpose in the creation of mankind?
            Psalm 8 reads like a review of the creation mandate. “For You have made him [man] a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet” (vs. 5-6).
            Even though we were made a little lower than the angels, God intended for all things to be under our feet. While this obviously did not include God, it did include the angels, particularly those that had fallen. The fact that we failed to fulfill our mandate is the great tragedy of the human race. It allowed Satan to set up shop over this planet, functioning as the god of this world system (2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 6:12).
            From that point forward the evidence of death would be seen in the bones and fossils of the geological record. Since death was not in the world prior to Adam, this means that these fossils cannot be dated to be older than 6,000 years. Those who subscribe to the theory of evolution contend that these fossils are millions of years old, in direct contradiction to God’s Word.  
            We can only conclude that the radioactive dating methods for determining the correct age of these rocks are completely unreliable. For one thing, the methods assume that death and decay have been constant over time. They do not acknowledge the disruptions of cataclysmic events, including the Flood.
            For another, the dating process begins by making assumptions about the age of the rocks and then marking the radioactive half-life process from there. That’s called circular reasoning. It’s similar to using a word to define the word. If you ever did that in school, chances are your teacher corrected you for your faulty reasoning. This is why when Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, the ashes from the eruption were dated as being much older, even though it just happened. [See The Case of the Missing Mountain by Master Books.]
            In reality, Genesis 3:17-19 reveals that the whole of creation changed dramatically at that point in time, when sin and death entered the world. Hence, the drastic changes in the life spans of mankind in subsequent generations.
            The Chronos Lesson: Hebrews 3:14 explains that Christ took on a flesh and blood body so that “through death, He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the Devil.” That’s why the earth was not subject to death until Adam and Eve’s fateful fall. Thanks to Satan’s lies and our ancestors’ choice, the earth was then exposed to his destructive intents.
            “For the creation (nature) was subjected to frailty (to futility, condemned to frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it—[yet] with the hope that nature (creation) itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption [and gain an entrance] into the glorious freedom of God’s children” (Rom. 8:20-21, Amplified Version).
            Now is probably a good place to explain that overcoming death and abolishing it once and forever is a crucial element of God’s plan. “For He [Christ] must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death” (2 Cor. 15:25-26).
            In the meantime, Romans 8:22 explains “that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.” We see the groaning in the natural catastrophes, destructive weather, sickness and disease, and super-viruses. The labor pains are the convulsions we see in society.
            Romans 8:19 hints at the remedy, “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.” This manifestation began with the Seed who overcame death through resurrection. It’s also called being birthed from death.
            It will be fully manifested when Jesus comes again at the rapture, when the Head of the Church and the Body of Christ are joined together as One New Man. That is when believers will be fully perfected and conformed to His image. Then and only then can we deal with the consequences of both falls as joint-heirs with Christ.     

            Let’s take a moment to put ourselves in Satan’s shoes. If man was created to subdue you, would you want him to know it? Wouldn’t you do everything in your power to convince him that he has no special purpose? Of course!
            Now we can see why the theory of evolution is presented as fact by the world. Now we can see why so-called enlightened philosophers declared that God is dead.  Now we can see why egocentric theologians in the last century worked so hard to push their “higher criticism” agenda in an effort to undermine how we view the Bible. And now we can see why woke educators are working overtime to disconnect us from our true history.
            Now we can understand how Satan will be able to offer the Antichrist all authority over the earth. Unlike Jesus Christ, the Antichrist will accept the offer. In doing so, he seals his fate. It’s the same fate that awaits his benefactor, Satan.
            It’s important to realize that mankind’s original mandate was not changed after the Fall. We are still held accountable for the assigned task to take dominion. But since our spiritual DNA has been corrupted, how can we possibly complete it? We can’t.
            There was only one solution. God would provide Himself to be that Man. Hence, the Seed planted into this world as prophesied in Genesis 3.  The Apostle Paul explains, “And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.’ The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven” (1 Cor. 15:45, 47).
            This would require keeping certain aspects of the plan a secret until the trap could be sprung. This is why various elements of the mystery are hidden in the Old Testament and not revealed until it is the appointed time. “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:7-8).
            Yes, Satan bruised Jesus’ heel as prophesied, but he had no idea what it meant that Jesus would bruise his head. Interestingly, while Jesus hung on the cross, His bruised heel stood over the place where the head of Goliath had been buried (1 Samuel 7-54). This is where Golgotha got its name—the place of the skull. By the way, Jesus is a descendant of David, the giant slayer.
            By going to the cross, Jesus paid the price for sin on behalf of mankind. By being resurrected on the third day, He overcame death. This is why Jesus is the only Way. He is the only One who could remedy mankind’s disobedience by living a perfect life in obedience to God and paying the price of sin on our behalf 
            He made a way for those who accept Him as their Savior to be released from the bondage of sin through forgiveness, and to eventually overcome death through resurrection on the 3rd Day, at the rapture. No wonder Satan is working overtime to keep this part of the plan hidden within the context of man-made views of the end-times that don’t match the scriptural record.
            The Chronos Lesson: Jesus’ 3rd day resurrection must have shaken Satan to his core. A portion of God’s chronos plan was no longer hidden. In Ephesians 3, the Apostle Paul makes sure we: (1) see when a significant portion of the mystery of God’s will was no longer hidden; (2) see the purpose of the mystery; and (3) appreciate our part in the mystery. The New Covenant Church has been commissioned to reveal the “manifold wisdom” of His plan.
            It’s also important to understand that even though Satan’s power and authority has been defeated, he still operates in this world until the end of this age (the end of the 6th great Day). In effect, he has been sentenced, but not yet incarcerated. He can still influence those in the earth who reject God. Of course, we know there is coming an appointed time for his incarceration, and we have a part to play in it!
            For now, new rules of engagement are in effect. Those who are in Christ now have authority over Satan in their lives. But since our faith is personal, we don’t have this same level of authority over others.
            Furthermore, since so many of our race have chosen to reject God’s authority, we cannot pull down the wicked authorities in the heavenlies or the rulers of darkness over the nations. Even if we could somehow pull them down, unbelievers could simply choose to let those spiritual beings back into their place of influence and authority.
            We have to use wisdom from above in such matters. As born-again believers, our spirit has been reborn, but our soul and body has not been made new. At least not yet. That is what the Bible calls our blessed hope. That transformation is slated to be accomplished at the rapture.
            So for now we operate on this earth seeing in part, as if through a glass darkly. We are not pure reflections of Jesus yet. We are not fully conformed to His image yet. So why do we think that imperfect people—though forgiven and righteous in God’s sight—can pull down the evil angelic hierarchy before its time?
           Daniel 10:20 teaches that the removal of an empire here on earth first requires a confrontation between the spiritual forces in the unseen realm above. So, yes, there is an appointed time. It comes after the rapture. In fact, it is the first ruling judgment we make as the perfected, immortal government of Heaven. Only when the evil spiritual hierarchy is permanently cast down out of the heavenlies can the evil influences over the nations be addressed.

             Genesis 2:15 echoes the intentional creation of mankind. “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” The Hebrew words mean to tend to all the affaris of the Garden and guard it. The instructions were not limited to gardening. After all, how much manual labor would be required when there were no weeds, thorns, or decay? Watering wasn’t even an issue, for a river “went out of Eden to water the Garden” (Gen. 2:10). Plus, God had already planted the Garden in the first place!
            In short, Adam’s task was not purely agricultural; he was stationed there to be a guardian. His assignment was to ensure that the state of affairs on earth continued to mirror Heaven above. It was Adam and Eve’s responsibility to discern the declared will of God and command it to be done on the earth. The powers of Heaven would make it so, provided God’s human representatives were properly submitted to Heaven.
            The fact that our human ancestors were commissioned to guard means there must have been something or someone to guard against. We know from Genesis that everything God created was good. This can only mean that the angelic fall happened prior to the creation of this world.
            When Adam and Eve chose to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the fruit itself was not harmful. Their act of partaking of the fruit was harmful because it required a deliberate act of disobedience. Adam and Eve’s acceptance of Satan’s proposal effectively relinguished their authority over the earth to the renegade angelic spirit.
            The spiritual disconnect that resulted from the Fall of mankind is why “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). It is why God’s plan is called a mystery in His Word.
            The Chronos Lesson: Some 4,000 years later, Satan would refer to this fateful transaction when he tempted Jesus to also join the angelic rebellious conspiracy. “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, ‘All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours’ ” (Luke 4:5-7).
            God certainly was not the one who gave Lucifer all this authority. It was delivered to him when Adam and Eve yielded to the temptation in direct disobedience to the revealed will of Heaven. Consequently, Lucifer became “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:3-4), “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2), and “the ruler of this world” (John 16:11). His rule now extends from the earth below and up into the first and second heavens (the heavenlies).
            The Apostle Paul referred to the organizational hierarchy of Satan’s kingdom of darkness by reminding believers that our struggle is not with mankind, but with “principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).
            Mankind tends to view earthly empires as being purely the efforts of mankind alone. The Bible, however, tells us otherwise. Satan’s offer to give Jesus the “kingdoms of the world” means that they were his to give. These earthly kingdoms are, to one extent or another, influenced by these wicked spirits that reign from the heavenlies above. They are not purely man-made.
            As believers, we are under Christ’s authority, and He has given us the power to use that authority in His name. Therefore, Satan cannot touch us, unless we open the door to him into our lives. The spiritual armor that we are told to put on in Ephesians 6 is personal. We cannot put this armor on for others, anymore than we can accept Jesus as the Savior for another person. Each person must choose, as an act of his or her will.   

          Still convinced he can be like God even though he has fallen from Heaven, Satan plans to spread darkness over God’s creation. When he sees the creation of Adam and Eve, and hears the mandate given to them to be God’s representatives on the earth, Satan fumes with vengeance. How dare mankind take his “rightful” place as ruler of this earth. Needless to say, he plans to do something about it. What he does is recorded in Genesis 3. We know it as the Fall of mankind.
            We get our first glimpse of the contrary plan. Jesus stated it this way: “The thief [Satan] does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
            Being more cunning than any other beast of the field, Satan (appearing as a serpent/snake) plants the seed of doubt in Eve’s mind by accusing God. “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” Satan accuses God of being a liar. Talk about twisting the truth big time!
            Eve’s first response is to repeat God’s words of instruction to not eat of the fruit of the tree. She knew better. Eve’s second response is to take her focus off of God’s words and put it on how the tree looks in the natural. She sees that the tree is good for food. The fruit looks tasty. But as we all know now in hindsight, looks can be deceiving. 
            Satan jumps at the opportunity and pounces on her misplaced focus. He tells a half-truth, and he knows it. “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
            It is true that God knows both good and evil, thanks to Satan’s earlier fall. When it happened, the angels didn’t know what to make of it. They had never seen evil nor death. They had never known anything less than God’s perfect love and justice. Nor had Adam and Eve.
            Mankind was originally made to be immortal. That is, once conceived and born, we would not age or die. But when Adam and Eve did what seemed right at the time, their eyes were immediately opened to the consequences of their choice. They were no longer “clothed” in God’s anointing; they were buck-naked. They were exposed to the earthly elements and they were afraid. So they hid from God. Spoiler alert: not a good move; we can’t hide from God (Mark 4:22).
            Since Adam and Eve were already on the earth, they weren’t cast down as Satan was. They were, however, banned from the Garden and the Tree of Life so that they would not have to live eternally in their sinful, fallen state. With their spirits corrupted, it initiated a process of separation from the unseen heavenly realm.
            The Chronos Lesson: Disobedience is choosing our own way. Disobedience is sin, literally missing the mark of God’s perfect and best way. The consequence of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
            In case you’re wondering, it’s clear from Scripture that Adam and Eve did not immediately die within the 24-hour span of that earthly day.  The ancient Hebrews did not use capitalization or punctuation. The writers assumed that the type of day or Day would be clear from the context.
            This is a good example of how we determine whether a passage is talking about a regular 24-hour day or a great 1,000-year Day. If the passage doesn’t make sense using a regular 24-hour day, then that’s a sure sign that it’s talking about a great Day in God’s sight. Of course, Satan failed to mention (on purpose) that God counts time differently.
            The Bible records that because of Adam and Eve’s choice to eat of the forbidden fruit, no human would live longer than one Day or 1,000 years in God’s sight. The longest any person has lived is 969 years (Methuselah, who was Noah’s grandfather). That comes short of one Day in God’s timetable. In case you’re wondering, it took time for the effects of the Fall to be felt on the earth. It took time for decay to do its thing. That is why the Bible records that people lived for hundreds of years at first.
            So now we have a crucial choice to make: Like Eve, where are we going to put our focus? No matter how things appear on this earth and no matter what the earthly facts seem to be, God’s ways and truths are higher and better. The supernatural, spiritual realm always supersedes the earthly realm. We can trust the plan.
            “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matt. 6:19-20).