“Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” (Philippians 4:5) Moderation seems to have been quite lost in our society today. We can see it as we drive down the road at the maximum legal speed of 55mph and watch cars fly past us and down the road. A little while ago, we were traveling on a fairly well-filled four-lane highway, when someone who was parked at the end of a driveway on the other side of the road apparently decided that he had to cross at any cost. He successfully crossed two lanes before colliding with the car directly ahead of us.

The fall of man was a catastrophic event. A peaceful, beautiful world was plunged into despair and misery. A bountiful, helpful earth was turned into a bed of thorns and thistles. Even the animals and humans which populated the earth and heretofore had lived in peaceful coexistence, would soon be turned one against another, creating violence and strife which would not cease for thousands of years. After their sin, Adam and Eve heard God walking in the garden, and, now knowing their sinfulness, vainly strove to conceal themselves.

Genesis 3 presents what may be the most catastrophic event ever to occur on the earth, the Fall. The serpent convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and Eve gave of the fruit to Adam, who also partook of it. Because of this God expelled them from the garden, and sin is widespread in the world today. Perhaps studying this text can help us to avoid sin today. It appears that there are three fundamental, related deceptions which the serpent used to cause Adam and Eve to fall.

Genesis 1 tells the story of how God created the world. This, the first chapter in the Bible, lays a foundation for what will come after. If we take God’s creation out of our doctrine, we have opened ourselves to doubts about the authority of the Bible, because this truth is stated clearly in Scripture, and if it can’t be understood, it’s probably impossible to understand many other important truths which are not stated in clearer language. When we try to build a house without a foundation, we are making an awful mistake.

Christians all around the world have a common danger—apostasy. The devil is always working to keep us from making good on our Christian commitment, and the authors of the Bible warn us over and over not to fall away. “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” (Hebrews 4:11)

Matthew 4 records an interesting element of the devil’s assault on Christ. “Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” (Matthew 4:5-7) This temptation happened on an exalted part of the temple itself, the building that was supposed to be for the worship of God. In this case, however, the devil ended up trying to use it to further his cause.

The author of Hebrews used the Old Testament story of Esau to provide a powerful warning for our day when he said, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” (Hebrews 12:14-17) The story of Esau’s birthright gives us a dramatic word of caution, showing us the awful results of failure to esteem spiritual treasures at their true value.

When this passage describes Esau as profane, the word doesn’t necessarily have the connotation of cursing and swearing that it has today. But the passage seems to make it clear that the word refers to the lack of respect Esau gave to the value of his birthright.

This article is part of a series.

In the last article I briefly addressed the impossibility of a “Christian nation.” In this article I would like to do a more in-depth study on this possibility. As I mentioned in the last article, the most important problem with “Christian” nations is that Christianity has no commands for nations, no guidance for government. The Old Testament certainly has commands for the nation of Israel; however, these rules are specific to this nation and do not transfer to other nations. One example of this is found in the issue of divorce. We find another in the commands regarding the cities of refuge. Numbers 35:14 says, “Ye shall give three cities on this side Jordan, and three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan, which shall be cities of refuge.” Certainly not every nation can have three cities on either side of the Jordan River, and it probably wouldn’t fulfill the purpose of the cities of refuge even for some of the nations that could—the cities would be too close together or too far apart.

Job said, “Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.” (Job 19:29) It’s among the most simple truths of the Bible, yet it is probably ignored by more people than any other—there is a judgment. God will judge the earth!

When Moses was going to make the tabernacle, God warned him, “And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.” (Exodus 25:40) He was telling Moses to be sure that he didn’t change things around, making them different than the pattern God gave him. This pattern was somewhat complicated, and God wanted Moses to make sure that no one changed it.