The document discusses the effects of the Fall of Man described in Genesis on humanity. It explains that due to Adam and Eve's sin, humanity lost their perfect relationship with God and became ashamed, sinful, and mortal. It also discusses how the Fall introduced suffering, hardships, and evil into the world. The document argues that the Fall impacted all of creation, corrupting human cultures, societies, families, arts, and more. It maintains that the lasting effects of the Fall are seen in marriage difficulties, weakening of families, twisted arts, and academia's exclusion of God.

1. Far As The Curse Is Found
Based on Biblical Worldview: Creation, Fall, Redemption by Dr. Mark L. Ward, et. al

2. The personal effects of the Fall
 You probably have a lot of do’s and don’ts in your life, and the list is a little
different from home to school to church to work to your friends.
 Adam and Eve’s list of do’s was only 4: fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over
it, and start by taking care of the Garden of Eden. (The Creation Mandate we talked
about the last few weeks)
 The don’t list had one item: Genesis 2:17
 There was no sin. Adam and Eve had perfect bodies, perfect minds, and a perfect
love for each other. They were very unlikely to disobey their one don’t.
 Enter Satan. Genesis 3:1-5
 Satan questioned the authority and truthfulness of God’s word, and at the same
time, God’s goodness. The same tactic he uses today, by the way.

3.  Satan twisted God’s words in verse 1. In doing so, he took Eve’s attention away
from the vast gift God had given and got her to focus on the one thing she
couldn’t have. That’s what all covetousness is.
 In v.4-5, Satan directly contradicts God and sneaks in a half-truth. Satan suggests
that God was not good and was withholding some pleasure from Eve.
 He tricks her into seeking a good thing in an evil way. Eve’s sin began, as all sins
do, when good things were bent the wrong way.
 God’s creatures tried to make themselves equal to Him instead of merely like Him.

4. What consequences did the Fall have for
every person?
 Genesis 3;7
 The first consequence was something only humans can experience and only
because of sin: the shame of nakedness.
 To go without clothes around other people takes real trust. The relationship Adam
and Eve had with God must have been deeply rich and trusting if they never even
realized they were without clothes.
 Ephesians 2:1-3 describes all people. This is the sense in which Adam and Eve
“died.” The inner man died immediately when he sinned; He was separated from
God, the only source of spiritual life.
 Adam’s outer man (physical body) didn’t die until he was 930. Genesis 5:5
 Jesus restores both kinds of life, spiritual and physical. John 11:25-26

5. Loving and Thinking
 Adam was supposed to submit to God just as his wife submitted to him (Ephesians
5:22), and as animals submitted to them both (Genesis 1:28)
 Instead, an animal led Eve, who led Adam – who blamed God.
 Genesis 3:10-12 Adam learns amazingly quickly how to twist the truth.
 Adam’s logic an reasoning has been damaged; it is supremely illogical and
irrational to make excuses to a God who sees all and then to blame Him for the
trouble you caused.
 Paul called this “having their understanding darkened” in Ephesians 4:18.
 Sin has twisted mankind’s reasoning powers, but it hasn’t removed them.
 Adam strayed from his purpose of loving God and his neighbor and subsequently
twisted his picture of reality to fit his wayward loves.
 What you love drives what you think.

6. Those in the flesh cannot please God.
 The Fall of man in mind, heart, spirit and body is why people today go so wrong.
 Just as Adam hid from God’s sight, people hide God from their own sight. People
suppress their knowledge of God, knowledge God says He gave them.
 Romans 1:18-19, 25
 Romans 3:10-12
 The Bible teaches that the effects of the Fall are pervasive. They touch every aspect
of every person: your feelings, your will, and your thinking are all damaged.
 Romans 8:8 “In the flesh” means people who do not have spiritual life from God.
 Colossians 1:21

7. The Cosmic Effects of the Fall
 The heart of the creation-evolution debate is a question: is the world the way it’s
supposed to be?
 Are pain and death and terrible evil supposed to exist in this world?
 Alfred, Lord Tennyson described nature as “red in tooth and claw” in 1844, and it is
still used to describe nature by evolution adherents today.
 Christians use this phrase as a criticism, not a description, because death is
abnormal. Romans 5:12
 When Adam sinned, it was like he jumped into a hole with all of creation tied to his
waist by a rope – including animals, rivers, and trees. When its God-appointed
ruler fell into sin, ALL of creation was plunged into the same pit.
 The Fall had “cosmic effects” – it touched the whole cosmos, the whole created
order.

8. Genesis 3 on the Cosmic Effects of the fall.
 God’s questions to Adam and Eve are not requests for information, but
opportunities for them to repent.
 Note that the serpent received no such opportunity because Satan is beyond
redemption.
 Genesis 3:15 the seed that bruises the serpent’s head is Jesus Christ. God is
promising that a Redeemer will come and beat Satan.
 Genesis 3:16 Child-birth will involve increased pain. Her relationship with Adam
will change, too, from helping and complementing to ruling over her.
 Genesis 3:17-19
 Adam’s work would now be more frustrating, and he will return to the dust from
which he was made.

9. Romans 8 on the Cosmic Effects of the Fall
 Romans 8:18-22
 The ground (Earth) is still cursed today. Work, including your school work, is still
hard. Childbearing is still painful. You and I are not the only ones hoping for the
restoration of all things.
 V.18 tells us when it happens: when we get our glorified bodies after the events in
Revelation.
 V.19 tells us what happens: the glory that God intends to bring to His children. All
of creation is waiting for this to escape the curse!
 V.20-21 tell us why: God subjected all of creation to “vanity” – a frustrating inability
to achieve its intended purposes.
 V.22 tells us Creation is stuck in the same hole Adam got us all into.

10. The cultural effects of the Fall.
 We watch TV shows and movies about Utopian (perfect) societies, but these fantasy
cultures don’t exist.
 We have no and never will achieve utopia because the Fall touched everything God
created. For example:
 Marriage:
 Out of wedlock births among low income whites is 50%, 7% among upper class whites.
 The numbers are higher for other ethnicities. Marriage as an institution is dying in low income
groups, regardless of ethnicity.
 Society has always had to balance individual freedom to leave a difficult marriage with the
responsibility parents ow to their children. But now that divorce is so easy legally, there is little
legal pressure to stay married.
 The family:
 The institutions and structures of society which used to support and protect families – the
church, schools, even divorce laws – have been weakened.
 Deuteronomy 6:6-9 is the important role parents play in their kids’ spiritual formation has been
endangered by many cultural pressures.

11.  The arts:
 An occasional blasphemous piece of art makes the news. Pornography and blasphemy
are obvious twistings of art.
 “Some music is evil, but some is just dumb – the musical equivalent of chocolate cheese
in a can.”
 Education:
 The more educated you are, the more humble you (should) become about what you
don’t know.
 Most of Western academia ignores God completely. “God” is only an object of historical
study, if that.
 Culture is what we make of the good creation. When we are twisted, we create a
twisted culture.
 Stable marriages, loving families, well-cared for environments, beautiful art, and
insightful academic study are still visible, but the Fall has weakened and even
obscured them from public view.

12. Genesis 4:1-16
 The effects of the Fall show up right away. Cain kills Abel.
 Immediately after that, marriage changed when Lamech married two wives
(Genesis 4:19)
 Lamech writes the first post-Fall poem in which he brags about murderous revenge
Genesis 4:23-24.
 Lamech’s sons took dominion over their portion of Creation in Genesis 4:20-22.
 Jabal developed the techniques associated with herding cattle.
 Jubal developed music and musical instruments.
 Tubal-cain developed metallurgy
 These are complex skills, so we’re not dealing with intellectually deficient cavemen.

13.  There are no safe spaces where you can get away from the effects of the Fall.
 The effect of the Fall on cultures is why the Bible warns about the sinful power of
the world, and not just the individuals in it. (Romans 12:1-2; I John 2:15-17)
 God is determined no to let the world crumble, and He uses His children – you? –
as lights shining in the darkness, as salt giving people a taste of the age to come.
 Next week, we will look at God’s grace.