Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

Everything we see is called a visible world. But there’s another world that we can’t see, the invisible world. It’s where God’s Angels live.

Who are the Angels?

They’re spirits that aren’t visible. But sometimes God reveals His will through them and Angels take the image of man. The Lord has created all the Angels to be kind and obedient. But one of them became proud, ceased to obey God and some other angels taught the same. For this God drove them out of Himself and they began to be called evil angels, or demons, and the first angel, who rebelled against God, began to be called Satan, or the devil.

Since then, the good angels have separated themselves from the evil ones. Evil angels sow evil everywhere; they quarrel, people, make enmity and war, try not to love the Lord, and live among themselves as enemies. The good angels, on the contrary, teach us all the good and the good.

Every man has his good Guardian Angel. Such guardian angels protect people from all trouble and, in case of danger, close them with their wings. Good Guardian Angels are sad and weep if children do not obey their father and mother, because the Lord cannot take impudent and wicked children to heaven. For they remember how the Lord removed the impudent and disobedient angels from heaven.

When Adam and Eve lived in paradise, the evil angels were jealous of their happiness and wanted to deprive them of the life of paradise. To do this, the devil turned into a snake, climbed up a tree, and told Eve:

– Is it true that God forbade you to eat the fruit from all the trees?

– No, – answered Eve, – God has forbidden us to eat fruits from only one tree which grows in the middle of a garden, and has told that if we eat them, we shall die.

Then the cunning snake said:

– Do not believe God, you will not die, but on the contrary, you will become like gods, and you will know everything.

Here Eve looked at forbidden fruits, and she wanted to try them. And then she took one fruit and ate it, and the other gave it to Adam, and he ate it too. As soon as it happened, they suddenly noticed their nudity. And after that, they felt terrible shame, just like everyone else who does bad things.

Before the Lord came to heaven, Adam and Eve fled to meet Him and talked to Him as children with their parents. But now that God had called them, they were ashamed to appear to Him and hid from Him. And the Lord told them:

– Where are you, Adam?

– I am here,” he replied, “but I am ashamed to appear to you, Lord, because I have no clothes!

Expulsion from Paradise

– Who says you should be ashamed of yourself without your clothes on? Didn’t you eat the fruit of the tree I forbade you from?

Adam answered:

– The wife You gave me, she gave me fruit, and I ate.

And God said to my wife:

– What have you done?

Eve answered:

– The snake seduced me, and I ate.

Adam and Eve have not repented and have not asked God for forgiveness, and began to accuse each other, and for this God has punished them. He said:

– So, you did not obey me, ate the forbidden fruit, go away from heaven, work hard, and sweat your face for food. Until now you have known neither disease nor death, but now you will be sick and die!

An angel appeared with a sword of fire and drove Adam and Eve out of heaven. That’s what disobedience is all about!

But when he punished people, the Lord, in His mercy, promised to send His Son Jesus Christ to earth, who will save them, suffer for them, and make them worthy to live in paradise with God after death.

“The Bible in Stories for Children” by P. N. Vozdvizhensky