Page 5 - Michael 2024 March

God or Satan

God created man through love, as he did the an-
gels. He also created angels in His likeness, not as
spirits to be united to a body, but immaterial spirits
created in the image of God. But some angels fell be-
cause of their pride.
The original sin
Adam and Eve also fell because of pride, wanting
to become like gods. They believed Satan who told
them: “Why not eat of that fruit?” They answered:
“Because God forbade us, and He told us that if we
ate of it, we would die!”
This means that if Adam had not committed that
sin, he would not have died, and none of us would
die. We are all related to Adam, and we came from
Adam after his fall, with his debased nature, broken
because of his sin. Without this we would not have
died, nor would have He. We would have spent a
number of years upon earth, according to God’s will, Adam and Eve are cast out of the Garden
and we would have risen to Heaven, body and soul, of Eden after having disobeyed God
as did Our Lord and Redeemer. Adam lost this privil-
ege, the privilege of immortality. creation glorifies God and follows God’s order. The
He also lost the privilege of integrity. This privilege elements of nature are not disordered.
consists of the perfect submission of our body to our But man was created with a mind and a soul cre-
soul; the perfect submission of our senses to our rea- ated in the likeness of God. A soul has both freedom
son; the perfect submission of our natural animal in- and responsibility since it has intelligence and vol-
stinct to human reason. This represents perfect order. ition. Man can say either yes or no. He can say yes to
Adam was in a state of innocence and in a state one thing and say no to another. He has the power to
of grace. His sin upset God’s plan, in the same way choose between matters set before him. I understand
Satan and the fallen angels contradicted God’s plan. that at times, this freedom is taken away from him by
Those who remained faithful were later confirmed in other men. But, in his nature, he has the freedom to
grace. Satan was confirmed in sin. It is not God who choose.
confirmed Satan in his sin. It is Satan who sinned, and Adam was free to choose to eat or not to eat the
was not able to repent. apple, and he knew he must not eat it. Whatever the
Angels are not made like us. They are spirits not nature of the apple, this is how the Bible presents the
united to bodies. But they are more perfect than us in situation. In any case, the Lord’s command was clear.
their nature. When they decide something, they can- He disobeyed the Lord and knew he was disobeying.
not change their mind. Satan disobeyed God, and now He could have chosen to obey, but he chose to dis-
he is unable to humble himself before God to ask His obey. He was tempted. Eve was tempted by the de-
pardon. Satan has no regret; he hates God. He wants mon who said to her: “You will not die! This is an in-
to do God all the harm he can. This is why he visited vention of the Lord who is jealous of you! He does not
the Garden of Eden to smear God’s work at the dawn want you to become gods like He! If you eat this apple,
of man’s creation. you will become gods! You will know good from evil!”
This is what sin is. We are born with this original From that moment on, Adam knew evil. He only
sin. We did not commit this sin personally; Adam did. knew good before that moment. Satan said that know-
For Adam, this was a personal sin. Since he was the ing good and evil was to be “like God”. This is hor-
first man, and all of mankind rests upon him, all of rible, and Adam and Eve fell. Instead of listening to the
mankind was, in fact, broken by Adam’s sin. Lord’s command, they took Satan’s suggestion, the
attraction offered by Satan. And we are the victims of
We are born with an inclination to sin. This is that decision.
called concupiscence. It is concupiscence of the flesh
that leads us to sins of impurity. There is also the A woman will crush your head
concupiscence of the mind that leads to pride and But God did not abandon Adam. Adam is not an
selfishness. There is concupiscence of the eyes: curi- angel. God knew that Adam could change his mind.
osity that wants to see and know everything without God took pity on Adam. He could have left him under
submitting to the order willed by God. the influence of the devil forever, and all of Adam’s
Everything was created for God’s glory: animals, children would have been born with the original sin
plants, minerals, mountains, rivers and forests. All of as we all were. This sin might not have had a remedy,
but God had pity on man. And from the first day, God u

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