THE LIE OF SATAN

THE LIE OF SATAN

"This is the book of the generations of Adam" Gen. 5:1

Only twice in the Bible do we find this exact formula here, and in the first verse of the New Testament in the one case the reference is to the first man, the first Adam; in the other it is to the second Man, the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). This in itself is a suggestive fact. Here in Genesis the words constitute the title of the scroll which immediately follows, on which the posterity of Adam, through Seth, is given, up to Noah and his three sons. It covers the history of the first period, or age of human history after the fall; that is the period from the fall to the Flood. In the previous chapter the history of the posterity of Adam through Cain is given, up to Lamech, who was contemporary with Enoch. The period covered lasted for fifteen hundred years; and this chapter is of importance because it is the only Biblical history of those centuries. That history is arresting in its brevity and boldness. In the main it is the account of the continuity of the race under the penalty of death resulting from the fall. Man had distrusted God, and rebelled against His government, because he had believed the word of the enemy, who had said, "Ye shall not surely die." Through these centuries the tolling of the bell of death is persistent; we read it again and again, eight times: "and he died." Thus history was proving the word of the ENEMY to be a LIE, and that of God to be the TRUTH. This is what history always does. Yet the principle of triumph over sin and death is illustrated in the account, once the death toll is not heard. Of one man's passing from the earth, the description is different. Of Enoch it is written: "He was not, for God took him." And the explanation is found in the fact that in life he found his way into FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.