BY VICTOR ANIUKWU
Adam was a being created by God, and placed in the garden of Eden with a magnificent mandate “Go ye, eat all fruits of the garden but that in the centre be forbidden”. Adam lived a wholesome and contented life of bliss. He enjoyed every bit of his stay in the garden. He had no one else in the garden but the animals — lions, tigers, leopards, elephants, pythons, snakes, etc as his immediate companion. Adam remained loyal and focused to the commandments of God and was happy. Funny to say that Adam was a vegetarian which many fail to see. And why was Adam a vegetarian — Genesis 1:29. And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, and everything that has the breath of life. I have given every plant for food.” And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good. Genesis 9: 4
— 5. “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood. For your lifeblood, I will surely require a reckoning, of every beast, I will require it and of man”. Isaiah 1:11 -15 God said, “to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me. I am full of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, of lambs, or of he goats. When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you even though you make many prayers, I will not listen, your hands are full of blood.” Isaiah 66:3 saith the Lord, “He that killeth an ox (cow) is as if he slew a man.” Leviticus 3:17. The good Lord said,
“It shall be a perpetual statute for generations throughout all your dwellings that ye eat neither fat nor blood “. Romans 14:20 21. “Do not for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make others fall by what he eats, it is right not to eat meat or drink wine or anything that makes your brother stumble”. Acts 15:25 – 29 says, “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than necessary things, yet ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication. From which if ye keep yourself, ye shall do well.” Isaiah 7:4 – 15 says, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and call his name Immanuel. Butter and Honey shall be eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good”. Factually, a child of God who has conscience must be prepared to be disciplined which is the beginning of knowledge. Knowledge leading to the culture of God. The culture to imbibe the regulated precepts of God unadulterated. Adam, in the Garden knows about these above named regulations, kept them and was in perfect peace. He was obedient, respectful, sincere, shameful, contended, fearless amongst dangerous animals because he does not strangle nor kill any of them. He understood the language of the animals and could communicate easily. One of the factual and spiritual reasons for constant warfare in the North, South, East and Western parts of the world, is as a result of unending bloodshed from animal killing which has led to incessant human killings that has led to hatred and hardheartedness of man that is now culminating to wars unchecked. From the creation of earth, vegetarianism had been the culture of man by God. The good books stated that the expresswayleads to hell and that’s where many thread today but the narrow way leads to eternity. And that’s where few belong today. These few are those who take all the pains and disciplines to adhere to the norms made available by God from time immemorial. Adam understood all of these norms from God and maintained them within the garden alongside dangerous animals. He was a spiritual achiever and a true child of God due to his obedience to God. Note that Adam at this point was alone and a vegetarian per excellence. He killeth not the animals nor taketh any form of drink that will make him stumble. Adam was very close to God because then he was holy and spiritual which is required of all of us who assume to be sons of God. Of course there are sons of God who are not sure of their true position with God. They are still gambling with the Lord. They are the majority and claim to be God conscious. They are like hypocrites. Their position is always unsteady. They blow their trumpet Loudest in the community. On the other hand, the real sons of God try always to penetrate that narrow way despite its incredible challenges. Every true son of God must be in true knowledge to be prepared to thread that narrow path. Remember, anything that comes easy also goes that way. All true sons have the knowledge, that the narrow way to God is not a bed of roses; these facts are confirmed in the life of Jesus Christ and moreso saints of the past. On the other side of Adam in the garden, God saw how he had enjoyed alone in the garden and realized how Adam felt. And instead of giving Adam a male, God gave Adam a female partner called Eve to be a helper to Adam. Eve initially followed all the rules and regulations of the garden and they lived happily amongst the wild animals and maintained non-violence to the animals.
There was peace all over the garden and plenty to eat. If modern man could maintain non-violence among the creations of God -that only can lead to un-imaginable, unprecedented breakthrough to achieve the true concept of God consciousness. Man erred in the past, but has man learnt his lessons to avoid disobedience, insincerity and the common habit to always lord things over nature as made by God. This is going on time to time and the time has come when man should know thyself materially and more of spiritual because God is more of spiritual in nature. In truth; Adam and Eve lived in the garden of Eden as long as possible. And as women are compared to the mind, and as the mind is called chancala (unsteady), so is Eve in the garden of Eden and the present day Eves. Eve did not hesitate in the interim to display the unsteadiness of her nature. At a point in time, Eve could not tolerate the norms of the garden and erred. Eve deceived Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit at the centre of the Garden. What is the significance of that garden and the centre in question? In a way, God was not happy with Eve who committed this offensive act. God knows Adam and Eve will go out of the garden to suffer untold hardship and beget children because their eyes are now open to the world which was alien to them. In that Garden there was no room for sex nor the need for children. It was one hundred percent concentration of Adam and Eve to serve God. This point was clearly stated in the Bible by Saint Paul who said, “It is good to marry, than to lust in pretence. And it is better not to marry. Why? If you get married, your attention to serve God will be divided and if you don’t, your attention and concentration will be more focused to serve the Lord better. Here the choice is ours. God in his infinite mercy drew the ears of Eve by declaring that Eve will go out of the Garden to suffer the hard labour of child-bearing which Eve had never experienced in all her days in the garden. Adam the master of the garden, who failed in his ascribed duty to have control over Eve, compromised in a degrading manner whereby he erred along with Eve. God in his infinite mercy after sending Adam and Eve out of the garden, punished Adam who had never known any hardship in his life to go out there into the jungle and labour through his own sweat to earn his living, all through life. Adam and Eve left the garden to live an opposite horrible life. Both of them left this wonderful garden disgracefully and naked, with leaves as their covering. This analogy is to man a warning that man should know thyself — know the responsibility of a man in relation to women. A man goes to ask for the hand of woman in matrimony. That’s is not all. And when the woman enters the house, it is your duty to restrain her for better understanding, otherwise the reverse is the case and will attract some negative reactions within the home. It is the prime duty of the man to live up to this responsibility. Marriage remains a two-edged sword and a daisy game in which the ball is always in the court of the man who should dominate but fails most of the time due to unnecessary compromise or fear not to displease the woman, which was the case with Adam. Adam did not go scot-free and so with every other man, on earth. This misdemeanor committed by Adam is still on the increase in the entire world. Adam who should have glory to the garden, lost it. And in his bid to satisfy his propensity begot a son — Cain, who killed his brother Abel due to greed. Cain was cursed by God and he died a horrible death in the hands of wild beasts that devoured his body. Infact there is no small sin, for sin is sin. I keep repeating this one point — that man hath not known thyself. Man know thyself is not a material term. It sounds material but not. I tell you that it’s spiritual. And that’s why man does not see that phrase as a challenge to man. Eighty-five percent of men don’t know thyself. It is not a conflicting statement but a
spiritual food for thought. Many see material life to be for majority, while Spiritual life is meant for few. But I tell you here that material life should be meant for few, while spiritual life should be meant for the majority of the human race. Why? We are all spiritual beings, part and parcel of the Supreme Spirit -God. Why should the majority be afraid of the unknown. God is not an unknown Personality because His spirit is within everyone. That spirit of God is what sustains your life. Every other involvement or struggle is subordinate. Many of the human beings out of fear feel that someone will carry their cross. The cross is a heavy object symbolizing huge sins committed by the living entities in the world. Generally, the entire world is made under sex desire and this has ruined the entire world. Ninety-percent of the world see sex as inevitable and it becomes a must syndrome to man — A can’t do without. See Matthew 5:32 states, (Jesus) say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in the heart. And Matthew 9:19 states, (Jesus) say, unto you, whoever shall put away (divorce) his wife except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committed adultery and whoever marrieth her which is put away, both commit adultery.. We can see from current day occurrences that in majority of cases people at all levels including church goers and non- church goers are generally involved in this inferno. The world is going up-side down, downtrodden and derailing. When will that understanding come, when the masses all over the world will think of unity of oneness and oneness of Unity”. In contemporary world, “contemporary marriage is a wretched institution wrote a leading American sociologist. It spells
the end of voluntary affection, of love freely given and jealously received. Beautiful romances are transmitted into dull marriages, eventually the relationship becomes constrictive, corrosive, grinding and destructive. The beautiful love affair becomes a bitter contract.”
In the above analysis, the current divorces, pre-marriages ratio in the world is escalating. Moreso, the uncounted separations, desertions, divorces, some others held by religious, financial, legal, or social aspects plus all other unhappy marriages. The task remains with sociologists who are frantically searching for a better marriage pattern. Man is no longer considered to be “naturally monogamous.” Loveless sex is killing the marriage institution. In truth, sin is not fun, which must be repented just to please a harsh, stern old-fashioned God. Sex sin rob mankind of fun, joy and material bliss and plenty that nature provides. God’s laws were set in motion to give us happiness, peace, security, thrilling, radiant joy. God’s laws are the gift of his love to us. God wants us to enjoy the blessings they make possible, not the cursings they make inevitable when we break them. Finally, pornography floods the newsstands and clearly lost its way in sexual fantasies. Society has clearly lost its way in a sexual wilderness. Permissiveness dominates much of modern society and has plunged the entire world into a miniature of “SODOM and GOMORA.”
