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Today, Humanity is Divided but was it Always like That?

The short answer is no, initially there was one family with one father and one mother; we are all descended from that one family!

Adam, the father, and Eve, the mother, enjoyed a close relationship with their creator and would meet with him in a beautiful garden which had been given to them as their home.

Very sadly, the father made a catastrophic mistake and disobeyed the one command he had been given by his creator; this story is provided to us in the first chapters of the Book of Genesis and is familiar to most of us. I have written more on this in a series that starts with, “The Creation Story”, a multi-part series that focuses on the first six chapters of Genesis.

The first six chapters of Genesis establish the foundation for the balance of the Bible and are of the greatest importance to understanding God’s plan for mankind! Due to the father’s disobedience, God’s plan for the first family was revised from ruler, to tenant-farmer.

East of Eden, art by Adele Bower

A Unity in Death

Genesis 5 has been referred to as the death chapter as the descendants of Adam, through Noah and his sons, are listed and each reference, excepting Noah and his sons, ends with, “and he died.”

The Bible points out, the penalty of sin is death, but the only divine prohibition, to that point, had concerned the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and eating of that tree was no longer possible.

Why then, was everyone still dying, after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, as no one could eat the fruit of that tree?

In Romans 5:12-14, the Apostle Paul provides God’s perspective on sin;

“¹² Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— ¹³ (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. ¹⁴ Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”

Every subsequent human, born of a human father, had died spiritually in Adam, and was born spiritually dead.

Fortunately, Paul does not stop the narrative in verse 14; in Romans 5:15-17 it is written:

“¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. ¹⁶ And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. ¹⁷ For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)”

God’s Gift of a Kinsman/Redeemer

There would never be anything mankind could do on their own to restore what had been lost by Adam; in Adam, the human race had sold out to Satan and was hopelessly enslaved to sin. Nothing anyone could do would change the basic fact of their spiritual death and their bondage to sin!

What was needed was a human, who was not spiritually dead, that could pay the price required for the redemption of all. Since the wages of sin is death, only one who was sinless, alive and could die, would meet the needed requirements.

God had already formulated a very precise plan which set the exact date this would all take place. Significant details of the plan would be revealed to the Prophet Daniel at a time determined by God. In the Book of Daniel, a prophecy is given to Daniel which specifies the date the redemption of mankind shall be accomplished.

Let us now take a look at that prophecy.

Image by Adele Bower, copyrighted