We know what it is like today in the middle east, each day that you and I live we pick up our morning newspaper and are saddened and perhaps heartbroken with what we read. Twenty one Christians beheaded. “Oh well!” Oh well what? Can we even imagine what it is like to be bound and have some beast take a knife, sharp or somewhat dull and cut our head off? A sudden split second guillotine perhaps but a knife cutting the skin, then flesh, squirting blood, excessive pain, the be header struggling a bit when he tries to sever the neck bone. Finally the deed is done. I am not sure what happens next. But I do remember my mother beheading chickens back on the farm preparing the evening meal. A broom stick over the chickens neck and then a hard upward pull on the legs. A flopping chicken, a young boy moving back away from the blood gushing from the body where the neck was severed. For those of this modern age who purchase store meat counter chickens, you will never know. I will just say the beheaded chicken and I assume the beheaded person is not then motionless, at least not at first but finally the end of the death struggle arrives.

And if that is not enough, the nightly news, 300,000 estimated children and young teenage girls in the United States lured and captured into the sex trade business. Girls as young as nine years old, given for as little as a hundred bucks or less, to some 50 year old pervert to take her most precious possession. With brute force he takes her and ravishes her and now she is shaking and crying, lying in a bath tub bleeding, crying for the mother she once knew or maybe hating the mother who sold her for so little to her pimp. Only for this process to be repeated many times each night often seven days a week. Oh so we thought Lincoln ended slavery here in the United States! No Slavery is alive and big business. And this is only the United States, perhaps as many as six million, trapped in child slavery to perform those sex acts or child labor in factories making cheap goods for consumers world wide. And then locally, daily, the articles in this newspaper on sex with minors, babies dropped or thrown against the wall, burnt with cigarette butts, slapped, beaten with hammers, tortured and killed. Paradise has definitely been lost, and it happened in a Garden.

Such happenings is another blow to evolution that is crammed down our children’s throats each day in public education. Creation, or intelligent design are not to be mentioned if a teacher wants to retain his position in many schools of education today. Do not mention God much less Jesus Christ (only acceptable in swearing) or you will be disciplined or expelled in many schools. (Google Ben Stein Expelled – No Intelligence Allowed or view on YouTube) Five days in a public school science classroom or an hour each week in a Sunday School class that one is not compelled to attend, who do you think will win? Wonder why we now live in a Godless world with no morals, no respect for human life, open warfare on our law enforcement, over 50 million children slaughtered in abortion clinics and counting.

We have found a button called delete and if there is something in life that we do not like to obey, Jesus Christ, God of creation and moral laws for living, we simply hit delete and we have deleted God out of just about everything in life. From the Church house, to the school house, to the court house, God has been deleted. They say life began as a result of some big bang, or over billions of years, a small microscopic cell began its trip down the evolutionary road that finally swam upon land, grew legs, became ape like and finally this amazing creature advances to one called man. From the simple to the complex we are supposed to be evolved to new heights. In my 73 years l have never seen monkeys decapitating and brutalizing their young, nor acting as human monkeys do today. No, we are not getting better, we are living in a hopeless world, with a generation of godless people, hopeless with the exception of one final visitation of God to earth in a coming Lord.

There was a relative short time when there was peace on earth that took place in a garden called Eden. Short yes, from a utopia to the near total destruction of mankind, and the separation of nations in just eleven short chapters, Genesis chapters 1 -11 In Genesis 1:26 – 27 God Created mankind and we are told that male (Adam) was created first and then God saw that male was not complete without female and in Genesis 2:18 and 25 He created female (Eve) and in chapter 2:7 God breathed into them the breath of life and man became a living (eternal) soul. In the Garden of Eden Chapter 1:29 – 30 we learn that mankind and animal life were all vegetarian with no carnivorous animals and with no need of Adam to kill for food. What was the Garden of Eden like? At this point it was an utopia, one handsome flawless loving man an a woman that would make the Fox News gals envious, and lions and lambs enjoying and sharing the feast of the herbs together.

So in Eden we had one handsome naked man and one vivacious woman, living in a perfect environment walking and talking with their creator in a world without strife, war, marital disputes, sweat of any labor, child molestings, rapes, murders and living in perfect peace.

Laws were not needed, (we have so many laws today we don’t have a clue to what they all are) there were no crimes, and no need of law enforcement. But then how did we get to where we are today. As evolutionist would tell us, from the simple to the complex but as our daily news tells us, just the opposite, from a utopia to total chaos, a world filled with hate, crime, brutality, pedophiles, slavery, and the pleasures of sin for a season.

Life was blissful in this utopia Garden. The God of Creation, Jesus the Christ (John1:1-2) (Colossians 1:12 – 17) having not created robots, but mankind with body ( world consciousness) soul, (self consciousness) and spirit (God consciousness) with a freewill to be able to choose on his/her own. Thank God for freewill, we can make choices. No person could ever attain happiness as a robot. But we must make wise choices, too many MC Donald Jalapeño hamburgers eaten today will burn your butt tomorrow. Lives are destroyed because of poor choices, and millions of unwanted lives have been created in the back seat of a car via bad choices. That choice results in the creation of a new person that will now find him/her self growing up in a world of chaos. Life is hard, difficult, tough, often filled with poverty for some and they are now a living body, soul and spirit who did not ask to be here, but a very poor choice has brought a person into a world where they will live and experience strife, heartache, troubles, aches and pains, death and without God in Christ a second death far worse. It is a separation from God and His blessings forever.

So God the creator, the potter, having the right to test his creation, gave his new creation only one rule (law) to obey in this utopia. “And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Genesis 3:2-3 So for a period of unknown time, all went well in the utopia Garden of Eden.

Now if I might spiritualize a little. (reading between the lines) One day when this handsome man and vivacious woman, were walking along hand in hand, a gleam in their eye toward each other, Adam said, “you know, this afternoon I would just like to chill out in the hammock and take a nap.” And Eve said, “sounds good to me, there are some places in the garden that I have not explored, I think I will take a little walk and view this marvelous garden and magnificent flowers.” “I can hardly wait to see the beauty of what our Father has prepared for us, and off she skipped to see the garden with thoughts of anticipated bliss in her mind.

In Genesis chapter 3 we read the great fall of mankind and the loss of that utopia. As Eve was taking her walk, she suddenly came upon and was startled, when she met one of the most beautiful creatures that she had ever seen. “Wow, I thought Adam was handsome, but what have we here, what a living handsome brute he is.” He spoke to her, flattered her, and for the first time she had met another person other than God and Adam that could converse with her. “Hey beautiful (the oldest line of man to a woman) what brings you down this gorgeous path in the Garden.” Oh said Eve, “I have just come to explore the amazing garden that God has given to us, that is to my husband and I” Well said the beautiful creature, (known as Satan) “have you considered this beautiful tree of the knowledge of good and evil?” And Eve said, “Oh no I would never do that, for God has said that we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the Garden, but of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the Garden, Ye Shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it lest ye die.” (Genesis 3:2 -3) And the beautiful flattering serpent (not one at this time that crawled on the ground) said, “Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing both good and evil.

Eve’s confrontation with another option now demands a response, good choice, bad choice, freewill. “if I only knew good, why in the world would I ever want to know (do) evil?” “Do I believe my creator God, after all He is loving and forgiving, or should I consider, perhaps to do as this very charming person has offered me. Hum, what shall I do, this fellow is so neat, I can’t wait to tell Adam that we have a new friend in the Garden” Meanwhile back at the Hammock, Adam has awaken from his sleep, calling for his wonderful, beautiful, vivacious wife. Eve, where art thou? With Eve no where in sight, Adam takes his cell phone and calls Eve, as usual, about 80% of the time, she does not answer, must be in the bottom of her purse he surmises. So off he goes, hurrying down the trail that Eve had taken. After some time he sights his beautiful wife, conversing with a stranger, no stranger had been known to Adam before this time in the Garden. When Eve sees Adam, she rushes over to him, “Oh honey, look what I have discovered, the sweetest fruit of the garden, here take and eat, you will not believe it.” Adam takes a bite of the fruit and his eyes were opened. He now knew evil whereas he had only known good. “Eve, Eve what have you done, is this the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? “ “Yes Adam I have eaten and isn’t it wonderful, have you ever tasted anything like this before?” (Yes Eve you are correct, Sin is definitely pleasurable for a season until it traps and enslaves. Hebrews 11:25) “Eve, we once only knew good things, but we now know evil and our life is going to change, we will now experience a life of sin, with heartaches, pain, suffering, a first death and then possibly a second death.” “No Adam, you are wrong, don’t you understand, here meet my new friend, he will explain, err where is he, he was just here, he has gone, you saw him from a distance, Adam he was almost as beautiful as you are and I must say, much more understanding. He assured me and reminded me that God is a God of Love, that God loves us and would never withhold from us any good thing, and you tasted, you know that is the best fruit that we have tasted here in the garden.” “No Eve you have sinned, you have doubted God, and now I have sinned we are in trouble with God, we have made a choice and we have made a wrong choice.” “No Adam we have not, don’t speak to me that way, you have never spoken to me that way before” Eve rushes away from Adam with tears streaming down her face. The first marital dispute has now taken place, and it undoubtedly will not be the last. A few weeks later Eve discovers she is pregnant, as a son will soon be born. The day of the child’s birth has come, a very nervous first time father try’s to assist and comfort Eve having to experience natural child birth. She experiences her first nearly undescrible struggle with pain. Pain and suffering is now introduced into Paradise Lost. Cain was born and then another son, Abel was born. A few years later anger was in the heart of Cain and he slew his brother Abel. So now in Paradise Lost, murder has entered into the garden, a broken hearted mother stands by as a father digs the grave, sweat pouring from his brow, as they now bury their beloved son. “Oh Adam, what have we done, our beautiful garden now grows weeds, we work by the sweat of our brow to make ends meet, the animals fight and kill each other, and we fear our lives from some of them, our beloved son is dead, Oh Lord forgive us of our awful sin that we might just be in fellowship with you once again, like it was in the beginning.” And God did forgive them through an animal blood sacrifice, which eventually would lead to the blood sacrifice and crucifixion of the perfect Lamb of God on the Cross on Calvary’s Hill, the ultimate payment for man’s sins. “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them” Genesis 3:21 However sin does have consequences, scarred lives, broken homes, and loss of Paradise, “Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.” Genesis 3:23

So Satan did as he is doing today to our society, our children in schools where God is banned and in our world where Satan uses all the weapons of his warfare to destroy families. He has convinced the broad road of our culture to doubt God, doubt God’s existence through evolution, doubt the Word of God as but ancient stories and myths, doubt God that there is an afterlife, a resurrection, doubt God that there is a heaven (much less a hell) (where else will these who are described in the first two paragraphs of this discourse go?) If there is ever justice to be served, there is a Hell, surely justice will one day be served on all those who doubt God, have forsaken God, and have committed the larger sin, greater than the sins of the first two paragraphs. What sin are you talking about. The sin of doubt, refusing to believe that Jesus Christ is whom He claimed to be, the crucified Lamb of God slain on the cross of Calvary for the sins of all mankind who have ever lived. Refusing to come to God through His son Jesus Christ and calling upon His name, taking Him alone for ones salvation, and then trusting Him alone, for the remission of our sins.

Yes Paradise has been lost. We now live in an awful world of sin and degradation. Government cannot help us, it’s often the problem! But amid the degradation we can find the peace that passes all understanding when we turn our life over to the Lord and Savior who walked with His creation in the garden of Eden. The same God, creator of Heaven and Earth is here for us today. He offers to all a free gift. The gift of Eternal Life for all who will come to Him for forgiveness. Yes it is by faith, “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 How is faith received? 1. There must be Knowledge. The greatest sin on earth is not child molesting, murder, adultery etc. The greatest sin on earth is for a person to reject the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered the greatest suffering ever suffered by mankind to pay for our sins. He died for all mankind! Rejection is a great sin, it is a slap in the face to the King of Kings who died for us. (Just ask a husband or wife who faces rejection, it is one of the deepest hurts) Jesus Christ is God incarnate and only asks us to come to Him to receive the free gift of salvation to all who will believe. 2. There must Be Assent. We must take God at His Word and believe what He has promised in His Word to those who will believe that Jesus Christ is God Incarnate who came to this world for one reason, to Die on the Cross of Calvary for the sins of the world. 3. There must then be Trust. Example: We look about a room and we see a chair (Knowledge) We acknowledge that what we are looking at is a chair that we can sit in and come to rest. (Assent) At this point we acknowledge and give assent, but our belief will not become trust until we sit in the chair. We approach the chair and cast our weight upon it. We now have put our trust in the chair. The Lord has offered to everyone a free gift, forgiveness of ones sins and adoption back into the family of God, future Paradise Regained, when we understand (knowledge) that because of our sin we have offended a Holy God, That God loves us and came to earth and died for our sin. He offers us forgiveness for all our sins, past, present and future, and the promise of Life Eternal, a Bodily Resurrection, a home with Him in Heaven for all who will humble them self, admit their sin and that they need forgiveness, call upon His name and believe (Trust) in Him, “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His Mercy hath He saved us….” Titus 3:5 When that decision has been made, (Knowledge, Assent, Trust) then and only then can we know that we have peace with God in a world that is falling apart before our eyes, as we await His promised second coming. Romans 10:13 “Whosoever shall call upon (trust) the name of the Lord (Jesus Christ) shall be saved.” That marvelous invitation is God’s Promise to all who come to Him. No Exceptions!