The Seed

Chapter 03

The Fall of Man

 

The Fall of Adam and Eve

 

Let us again turn to the book of Genesis to investigate the beginning of all the tragedies of mankind.

We can venture to assume that, in today’s world, a greater portion of mankind are familiar with the story, comparing with that of other times in human history. And more interpretations, being truthful and helpful or not, seek to use it to support their understanding. Sadly, many are doing so without ever believing in its truthfulness. It seems that few ever really exam it with a humble heart and appreciate it in the spiritual dimensions where it belongs. However, to a large degree, interpretation of this story would reflect one’s relationship with God. Without faith in God and a living relationship with Him, spiritual understanding and wisdom can never be attained.

We can also venture to say that, one (even as God’s people) will not be able to go further in his pursuit of truth and life in the Kingdom of God until the depths of this story, with its implications and applications in our lives, are understood in a very personal way. To move on in spiritual understanding, we will have to reconcile our scattered understandings and embrace the spiritual reality. This story of God and man proceeds from such a reality; its spiritual rules also constitute many aspects of the fundamental order and ways in such a reality. In a word, it calls for our serious consideration and careful scrutiny. Surely this has to be done with a rightful fear or reverence of God and a good faith in His word and His ways.

 

Similar Stories But Different Results

 

In this chapter, we will not dwell too much on the story itself. Hope our dear reader will do that at your own time. We will only give some key observations while comparing it with Jesus’ “tests in the wilderness”.

Gen. 2:8-9 [NIV]
⁸Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. ⁹And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Notice that the trees God gave to man to eat from are not bad; they were pleasing to the eye and good for food.

Gen. 2:15-18 [NIV]
¹⁵The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
¹⁸The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

While God withheld nothing good from man, He did withhold what was bad from him. Now, some may wonder why He put there a tree that would cause all the problem and heartache between Him and mankind in the first place. Was it so that man would fall into temptation? Is God also the author of sin and evil? Let’s be plain, this kind of question reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature and the way of God.

God always desires man to have a trustful and obedient heart towards Him. God’s way into eternal life and true fellowship with Him is that man would “hear and obey.” Some claim God’s love is “unconditional”. This might cause confusion to some unless we have offered a proper definition of what “unconditional” means. For God does have a condition for man to be blessed by Him and to love Him, that is what Jesus shared that man should fellow His command out of his love and obedience unto God, which is the essence of faith in God. The author of Hebrews states that, without such a faith, it is impossible to please God. He unconditionally offers all love, provision, benefit and goodness to mankind, but we have to repent from our wicked ways in order to receive the forgiveness of our sins and the eternal life in His Son. God did bless and is blessing every man with the gift of freewill, meaning that man can choose to obey or not rebel against His ways. To be noted, without such a choice out of a freewill there would been no true obedience. However, in granting man this freewill, God also blesses him with the ability, the grace and the way to learn to know what to obey and how to obey. This is why He eagerly desires man to fellowship with Him and to be taught by Him. But this has to be done willingly, not out of compulsion, not without any understanding or a clear knowledge. Do we not know that faith and obedience, by nature, are to be tried and tested?

So is true love. If love is not by choice, esp. in the context of sacrificing one’s own interest or wellbeing for another, such love then at least is shallow and spurious, can’t be called genuine, sincere or faithful. Yet we, as man, are created from the very beginning to be participators and agents of the divine, faithful and pure love of God, recipients and dispensers of His kind of love both to Himself and to mankind. Without this innate ability, there would be no concept of love nor the possibility to practice it. In a way, it would be fair to say that we could not be called as “man” when deprived of this ability of love.

In this light, it becomes imperative for us to know that when God created man, He created us with the intention that we are to be matured into the power and wisdom of His Life, which is the pathway for us to be perfected in His love. In essence, God’s will and good pleasure is that when we are facing the choice of our own freewill vs. His ways, we would, out of our love for Him as our Father and our trust in Him as our God of all holiness (set-apart from lesser names) and power, choose to obey Him in order to please Him, rather than to satisfy our own desires to please ourselves or things other than Him.

In this light, let’s exam closely these two stories. We can easily see, a heart of obedience unto His Heaven Father and His God is vividly exemplified by Jesus’ interaction with the devil in the wilderness (Luke 4). Concerning this, the author of Hebrews explains to this effect:

Heb 2:14-18 [NIV]
¹⁴Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—¹⁵and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. ¹⁶For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. ¹⁷For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Adam and Eve, however, failed this test (temptation) as recorded in Gen. 3, thus sin and death entered the world and the seed of Sonship was snatched away from mankind, with it, the promise and covenant of eternal life. (Matt. 13:18). But, Jesus more than triumphed over the Devil. Out of obedience, He willingly walked flawlessly (without missing anything) into and through the will of His Heavenly Father, thus became the perfect sacrifice or atonement for the sins (missing the mark) of all mankind, even of the whole world (cosmos, this creation or this age). He yielded totally to the will of His Father in order to please Him even to the point of death on the Cross.

Now let’s read together these two stories.

Gen. 3:1-13 [NIV]
¹Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
²The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
⁴“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
⁶When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
⁸Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
¹⁰He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
¹¹And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
¹²The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
¹³Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Luk. 4:1-13 [NIV]
¹Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
³The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
⁴Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”
⁵The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”
⁸Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
⁹The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. ¹⁰For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
¹¹they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a
stone.’”
¹²Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
¹³When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

What Cause Man Fall

 

The scriptures tell us that the serpent was crafty and its craftiness was used by the devil to deceive man. Interestingly, take note that God had given man dominion over the serpent before this happened. Adam and Eve should have been able to discern the lies of the serpent, rebuke it, and watch it flee in terror, for man was given power more than being able to discern his schemes but to even judge him. That is what means to subdue things under one’s authority. The authority and power God gave to man would enable him to judge more than the serpent, even all things of this creation. If we relate to what was taught by Jesus in the NT, we would know that Adam and Eve were to learn to judge even the angles. In this light, we, as sons of God, should have no fear of the devil, his demons, or evil angels. However, we do need to have the fear of God within us so that we will not disobey God and let the devil have a foothold in our lives, and as long as we can in the will of God, we would not even allow that to happen in the lives of those He gives to us for care and love.

Now, let’s look closer at the lies the serpent spoke to Eve and compare them with the ones he offered to Jesus:

 

Firstly He twisted God’s command, tried to lure Eve to deny the goodness of God concerning His provision for them.

Ha, It is about food! Now we know Adam and Eve were enjoying the abundance of the Garden of Eden, while, in contrast, Jesus had not been able to eat or drink for 40 days. However, the devil did not even bother to challenge Adam and Eve about whether they were sons of God or not, but with his pervert way of reasoning, he shamelessly tried to undermine Jesus’ knowledge and confidence as God’s Son. In essence, Satan tried to lure Jesus to forfeit His identity as a son of God, with it, the birthright and inheritance from God the Father to His Son. And if we exam the story more closely, the Devil even tempted our Lord to become his own heir rather than the heir of God, His Heavenly Father.

Please take note that in mentioning of being of a son of God here, we make no differentiation between male or female. We will try to expound on this when we talk about the idea of Sonship. In reading Eve’s reply to the devil, notice she knew that God had treated she and her husband as one or one party of a covenant when He gave them the command regarding the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the provision and promise of life, even life eternal.

Now, during the interaction between Eve and the serpent, Adam was present but he did not intervene. He failed to assume his place of authority and responsibility to exercise counsel, wisdom or judgment over a matter that was his duty to safeguard and judge. (Luke 3:37; Gal. 3:26-29) Why? it is easy to detect. Being tempted himself, falling into the weakness of his own flesh, he could not withhold the urge to touch what was unknown and desirous. (The same story repeated itself in the evil royal family of Ahab and Jezebel, another example God used in human history to teach us about spiritual position, divine order and with these, spiritual responsibility and obedience.)

A side note. It is quite sobering when we survey the terrain of Christianity and the secular world today. How many people are being tempted by supernatural power and spiritual mysteries and are lured into false religion, idol worship, spiritual mysticism, witchcraft, fortune-telling or mediums, etc., etc.? All the while, they remain ignorant of the fact that these are the very kinds of spiritual food that God would never want man to partake of.

 

Second, Satan imputed doubt into man’s mind regarding the truthfulness and faithfulness of God and His willingness and intention to protect him. In essence, Satan was communicating that God could not be trusted, so man would have to trust in himself, his own wisdom and own ability.

God’s verdict for those who choose to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, or partake of a wisdom that is not from Him, is this: “You will surely die.” Oh! How subtle are the ways of the Devil! You see, when Satan said to Eve, “You will not surely die”, he challenged the judgment of God concerning His sovereignty as if there are things that God could not control. The devil also challenged God’s goodness, as if He would withhold good things from man. The truth, however, is that God intends for man to fully know Him as he knows him and in this intimate relationship, he would withhold nothing from him in terms of His goodness, His wisdom, His power, even His honor and glory. He will give him all things as His beloved son and blessed heir. Even so, on a son’s part, obedience is required to receive such a rich inheritance.

Now, when tempted by the devil to throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, Jesus was facing a test of a similar nature. That is God’s judgment and power concerning death and life. Notice, in this test, it is less of a matter whether the help of angels would be available to Jesus or not-that is would God His Father fail to fulfill His word or promise concerning His son or not. It was more of a matter of His faith in His Father’s judgment-that is would a son distrust God His Father and venture into something outside of His counsel and instruction. An obedient son of God will put to test or tempt of the Heaven Father, because that can only happen when his heart is not in the right place. But he will, with trust, learn to obey Him. How foolish then, as we often witness, are those who will throw away all restraint and put God to the test, often not about His goodness, but about His judgment, not knowing His judgment embodies His justice, righteousness and truthfulness. They dare to provoke God to anger, even to a point of having to demonstrate His power in judgment or wrath.

Disobedience is, by nature, divination, as Samuel rightfully put it said, for it is to test God. (1 Samuel 15) John shared with us that sin is lawlessness, which is the doorway for the Lawless One or the anti-Christ to work through the disobedience of man. (1 John 3:4) Why? because sin in such a context is to distrust God in His character, which is His goodness and love issued from His divine nature, and in His ways, which is His righteousness and justice upheld by His authority and power. Such a sinful or unbelieving heart naturally makes God’s love and grace “powerless”. Repentance is the only way out of it.

 

The third temptation is about our glory or perfection in God, or the true purpose of human existence.

The devil challenged Eve with two things: one is whether God has in His mind the best for man; second is whether He knows how to accomplish it. Eve fell into the second trap. She acknowledged the goodness of God when stating that man were not forbidden to eat from all the fruits for life, both natural and spiritual (Tree of Life), except one, which would induce the judgment of death. However, she was tempted to believe, at the persuasion of the Devil, that somehow she could find her own way to gain wisdom and become like God, even by distrusting His Goodness and disobeying His strict command. Adam did the same when he became partner in Eve’s sin. In contrast, Jesus, however, did not fall into this falsity. Never had he asked for any false glory, nor ever attempted to attain unto God’s promise through His own means. even when He was conveniently offered such by the Devil seemingly without any “real cost”, Jesus refused to bow and worship the Devil. (John. 5:41-44, John. 8:27-29, John 8:31-59) Later He would gladly shared with His disciples this truth:”What good for a man to gain the whole world when he have forfeited his own soul.” Surely, He knew what was at stake.

Today, cultural relevantism, social pragmatism and secular humanism, mostly serving Man’s interests rather than God’s, have permeated the diverse streams of wisdom, religion or philosophy of the world. And in the guise of God’s goodness and the brotherhood of man, they have even infiltrated the ranks of Christianity with all kinds of doctrines and practices. It is sad to witness that, the yeast of modern Pharisees and Sadducees subtly finds its way to occupy the forums and pulpits in the midst of God’s people. With such an environment, it becomes hard to stand firm, remain untainted and uncompromising in God’s pure truth and His holiness, and commit ourselves totally to Him for our wellbeing and the values of life. A thick veil is covering over the minds of many to trust and to hear and obey God. Many invisible chains and york forged by the deceptive ways of the evil one are enslaving and oppressing the very people who are eagerly seeking God and willingly serving Him with a genuine heart. How sad!

But, glory to God, a holy remnant is now rising up from the rubble and ruin of man’s false ways and futile establishments. A people, with pure heart and holy passion, is eagerly and diligently seeking to truly know and represent their Father in Heaven, and to go about His business on earth with His divine wisdom and empowerment. We are witnessing, in this unique “day” of mankind, light shining forth brilliantly from the thick of darkness. Even now, more darkness is being unleashed and is ever intensified to begin to “cover” this dying and hopeless world. But, God is forging a strong and faithful people to make a difference. Indeed, when evil comes like a flood, God will raise up a holy standard, so that His knowledge and glory will break out from all darkness and cover the earth like water covers the sea. Has not He promised us this Day in His word? Now, His Day is coming.

 

Consequences of the Fall

 

The consequences of Man’s fall are severe and grievous. Here are a few:

 

1. Man lost the privilege to fellowship with God, who is the Spirit, and with it he lost the opportunity to learn wisdom and love from Him. Much of man’s initial capacity for spiritual life and understanding was shut down when the spirit of Sonship was taken away. This meant that man would no longer be able to communicate with God in the way He had originally intended for man, which was to fellowship with him as a father would with his son, and through this relationship, He would teach His sons all things and have His sons grow up to be just like Him. In this sense, the process of producing sons of God through man of flesh and blood into being His spiritual offspring was cut off.
2. Man lost the authority and privilege to represent God to all creation, to rule over it, which is to impart His wisdom, glory and love. We lost our position of kings and priests in His Kingdom and Household. By His original design, in kingship, we would rule with righteousness on God’s behalf as His sons. He Himself would be the Judge of all judgments and the King of all Kingdoms. In priesthood, we would act as ministers or servants of a covenant of eternal life between God and others who are to learn of Him, even the whole of creation, in order to impute His wisdom, order, peace and love, to them and to teach them His goodness, holiness, richness, and faithfulness.
3. Man lost power over the Devil, thus the angelic realm and the earthly realm . He was weakened, and for the most part, became powerless to withstand the evil one’s schemes and assaults. The devil usurped our dominion over God’s creation, both in the angelic realm as well as in the earthly realm. The world (this creation or this age) was thus caught up in a war between the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of God and His Christ. Only in Christ Jesus are we freed from the terror of the evil one and the fear of death. In this sense, we also lost our protection in God as sons of Adam. We, as sons of Adam, became slaves of sin and death, victims of evil and falsity.
4. Man lost the blessing of God for provision, physical as well as spiritual. He had no access to the substance of the Spiritual life in God anymore. More so, as a punishment for sin and disbelief, a reminder of his miserable state and powerless position and an everlasting call for him to return his spiritual home, God made Man to labor in the cursed world, a creature of sweat and blood just to sustain his lowly earthly life. This then is given to man from the moment he is born into this world corruption. Woman is to suffer pain in child-birth, it marked man’s fate of suffering till death. That is he is to be born in suffering and pain, and then he is to return into dust without a trace. How sad is man’s fall and how miserable his end! In sin and unto death he toils in a cursed world and groans inside, never be able to be truly free.
5. We lost eternal life in God. Man was doomed, with all creation, to decay and would perish in the end. The tree of life was out of man’s reach after they were cast out of the Garden. It was guarded by water and fire, by cherubim with fiery swords to execute the judgment of death. Can you imagine it? How sad would it be for us to be cast away from our earthly father and mother, and our home where our family gathers together? Yet man, as a race, was cast away from His family in heaven and the purest form of life and love, which had promised to be abundant and most fulfilling, even a life with the very glory and blessedness of God.
6. Man lost peace, love and righteousness in life. As we can see, because of sin and shame, Adam began to blame Eve, Eve turned to blame the serpent. The tragedy went on. Their first born, Cain, killed his brother Abel out of jealousy. Blood began to be shed between brothers and within a family. For the first time, innocent blood and death was tasted by the very soil that should be the seedbed of life, peace and happiness. Sin quickly brought about the degradation of man’s heart towards his fellow beings. War and death would never withdraw itself from the fate of mankind until his flesh is taken away and the creation is wrapped up, if Christ had not come.
7. Man lost many abilities to create, to gain wisdom and understanding, not mention to love as God would love. Even the natural faculties of our being were locked up. Man’s span of life was shortened. Disease and pain began to inflict mankind. Man was now to witness and to be afflicted by all forms of sickness, wickedness, sorrow and suffering. In a sense, we became a creation of misery, burning with a sense of loss and dissatisfaction as our faculties of love and understanding were locked up by our lowly form of life, marred by our selfish desires and sinful cravings.

 

Without God, we are doomed. Without God, we are lost. Without God, we are living beings of lack. Without God, we are creatures of misery. From dust we come, and to dust we return, we perish like grass, wither like a flower, carried off as in a flood, gone as with a wind.

Home, where is our home?

 

 

Scriptures

 

 

The Fall

 

Rom. 5:12-14 [NIV]
12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

1 Cor. 15:45-49 [NIV]
45So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

1 Cor. 11:3 [NIV]
3Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

1 Cor. 11:7-10 [NIV]
7A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. 8For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; 9neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10For this reason, and because of the angels, the woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head.

On Temptation

 

1 Cor 10:13 [NIV]
13No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

James 1:13-15 [NIV]
13When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

2 Cor 2:9 [NIV]
9The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything.

Heb 4:15-16 [NIV]
15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Gal. 6:1-2 [NIV]
1Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

On Overcoming

 

Luk. 10:19 [NIV]
19I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

1 John 5:3-5 [NIV]
3This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

Rev 2:7 [NIV]
7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Rev 2:11 [NIV]
11He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.

Rev 2:17 [NIV]
17He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.

Rev 2:26-28 [NIV]
26To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—
27‘He will rule them with an iron scepter;
he will dash them to pieces like pottery’—
just as I have received authority from my Father. 28I will also give him the morning star.

Rev 3:5 [NIV]
5He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.

Rev 3:12 [NIV]
12Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name.

Rev 3:21 [NIV]
21To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.

Re 21:3-8 [NIV]
3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”