The Lord God created the evil as well as the good in the Garden of Eden.
Gen. 2:9.— Out of the ground made the Lord to grow the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden.
Gen. 2:19.—And the Lord God formed every beast of the field (Gen. 3:1), of whom the serpent was more subtle than any which the Lord God had made.
The Lord God gave him powers of speech, by which the serpent was enabled to give expression to his cunning, craftiness, sagacity or subtlety: and this power he has never exercised since.
The serpent heard the commandment given to our first parents; for he said to the woman,
Gen. 3:1.—“Yea, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.” In other words, “I heard it: is it so?”
He also knew of the existence of gods or angels; for, being created before the man, he saw the “us” in whose image Adam was made: “Let us make man in our image.”—(Job. 38:4, 7; Psalm 82:6.)
He knew likewise that the eating of the tree of knowledge would impart the experience of evil; for he persuaded the woman to eat, that she might know evil as well as good; and thus be like the gods in whose image and likeness man was formed.
Gen. 2:9.— Out of the ground made the Lord to grow the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden.
Gen. 2:19.—And the Lord God formed every beast of the field (Gen. 3:1), of whom the serpent was more subtle than any which the Lord God had made.
The Lord God gave him powers of speech, by which the serpent was enabled to give expression to his cunning, craftiness, sagacity or subtlety: and this power he has never exercised since.
The serpent heard the commandment given to our first parents; for he said to the woman,
Gen. 3:1.—“Yea, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.” In other words, “I heard it: is it so?”
He also knew of the existence of gods or angels; for, being created before the man, he saw the “us” in whose image Adam was made: “Let us make man in our image.”—(Job. 38:4, 7; Psalm 82:6.)
He knew likewise that the eating of the tree of knowledge would impart the experience of evil; for he persuaded the woman to eat, that she might know evil as well as good; and thus be like the gods in whose image and likeness man was formed.