"Repent of your sins" shouts the evangelist during a
revival. But you are probably not told WHAT sin IS, nor when it began.
Did sin start at Mount Sinai or with Moses? Sin is found in Rom.5
:12,13, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that ALL
HAVE SINNED - For until the Law (the giving of it to Israel at
Sinai) SIN WAS IN THE WORLD (it did not start at Sinai) but sin
is not imputed WHEN THERE IS NO LAW." Paul goes on to say in
verse 14 that DEATH (the penalty of sin, ch.6:23) did reign from
ADAM'S time.
There must have been a LAW in existence from Adam to Moses,
for sin is not imputed if there is no Law.
WHAT IS SIN?
Are there any verses in the Bible that tell us plainly WHAT sin
IS? Yes indeed! Here they are: "Whosoever commits sin
transgresses also the Law - for sin IS the TRANSGRESSION of the
Law" (l John 3:4). "All UNrighteousness IS SIN..." (l John
5:17). Now what is righteousness? The Bible answers: "All
your COMMANDMENTS are righteousness" (Ps.119:172). Sin then
is doing - practicing UNrighteousness - breaking the Law and
Commandments of God.
Many people today have it all backwards, they think or have been
taught by their church that the Law of God is SIN, that it is
harsh, a yoke or bondage. But what did the Lord inspire Paul to
write? "What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? God FORBID! NO!
I had not known sin, but by the Law (Rom.7:7).
In other words, by the Law is the knowledge of sin. The Law
gives you the direction as to HOW you ought to live.
Paul said, ".... I had not known lust except the Law had said,
You shall not covet" (Rom.7:7). The Law that taught Paul that
coveting was wrong - Sin, was the 10th commandment, found in
Ex.20 and Deut.5. So the Law that teaches that principle is the
TEN Commandment Law!
THE ORIGINAL SIN OF
MANKIND
The original human sin is recorded in Genesis, "And the
Eternal took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to
dress it and keep it. And the Eternal God commanded the man,
saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat." It is
the Eternal God giving the orders. He is teaching.
The man did not know.
The man had to be told - he had to be taught and instructed.
Notice the command, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it
you shall surely die." (Gen.2:15-17). That is, to take to
yourself the authority to produce the knowledge of what is good
and what is evil, to decide what you think is right and what you
think is wrong, will result in death. "The wages of sin is death"
(Rom.6:23).
God designed that you and I choose whether we will obey His law
or not. He wants us to choose the right way to live, according to
the laws which He set in motion to produce happiness and a full
abundant life. But, if we are going to take to ourselves to
decide what is right in our eyes, we shall automatically
transgress God's Law.
Continuing: "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of
the field which the Eternal God had made. And he said unto the
woman, Yea, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the
garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of
the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the
tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall
not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And
the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die"
(Gen.3:l-4).
There was the first lie that we have any record of. It was told
by the devil. Continuing, "For God does know that in the day that
you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open, and you shall be
as gods, knowing good and evil." In other words it is God who
determines what is right and what is wrong. For anyone but God
to decide (what is right or wrong) is to assume and arrogate to
themselves the prerogative of God. Satan tempted the first humans
to produce the knowledge of what is good or what is evil by
their own minds. "And when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and that it was pleasant to the eye, and a tree to be
desired to make one wise - she took of the fruit thereof and did
eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat"
(Gen.3:5,6).
God is the one we obey. Whoever you obey is your god. Whatever
you serve is your god.
Adam and Eve had another god in place of the true God - they
obeyed Satan - they broke the first commandment.
They dishonoured their only parent. How? In Luke 3:38 Adam is
called the "son of God" because God created him. A son by direct
creation. There was lust when the woman saw that it was good for
food and desired to make one wise. Lust causes you to steal, and
they broke the eighth commandment by stealing what was
not theirs.
Four of the Ten Commandments were broken in that original sin!
THE SIN OF MURDER
"And the Eternal said unto Cain, Why are you angry? And why is
countenance fallen? If you do well, shall you not be accepted?
And if you do not well, Sin lies at the door."
Now notice what sin was in those days. "Cain talked with Abel his
brother, and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that
Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him." And the
Eternal God said unto Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he
replied "I do not know." He lied and so broke another one of the
commandments. He was a murderer. Sin did indeed lie at the door.
Cain broke the sixth and ninth commandments.
Every one of the Ten Commandments was known from the creation,
because God had revealed them to Adam and Eve.
IDOLATRY BEFORE ABRAHAM
Notice Joshua 24:2. "Arid Joshua said unto the people, Thus says
the Eternal God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side!
of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham,
and the father of Nachor, and they served other gods."
Idolatry was a sin in the days before Abraham, and that was 430
years before the Law was given at Sinai. Now return to
Gen.35:l-4, "And God said Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and
dwell there: and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto
you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.
Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with
him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean,
and change your garments and let us arise and go to Bethel, and I
will make there an altar unto God who answered me in the day of
my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. And they
gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hands.:
It is a sin to worship idols, so says the Ten commandments of the
Lord. God's instruction was for them to put idols made from the
hands of men, away.
THE COMMAND AGAINST PROFANITY
Notice the third commandment in Lev.18:3,21,27. "After the doings
of the land of Egypt, wherein you dwelt, shall you not do. And
after the doings of the land of Canaan, where I bring you, shall
you not do - neither shall you walk in their ordinances...neither
shall you profane the name of your God - I am the Eternal."
There's profanity! Now verse 27, "For all these abominations
have the men of the land done, which were before you"
Before this generation during which the law of Moses came at
Mount Sinai.
In previous generations prior to God giving the Law to the people
of Israel, "All these abominations have the men of the land done,
which were before you and the land is defiled."
One of those sins and abominations done BEFORE was the sin to
profane the name of God. There are different ways to profane the
name of God, nevertheless......profanity - taking the name of
God in vain, in some form, was a sin before Sinai.
THE SABBATH COMMAND
Exodus 16:4, "Then the Eternal said unto Moses," this was before
Sinai, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the
people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I
may prove them, whether they will walk in my Law or not." Here is
God's Law - He was going to see whether the people would obey it
- weeks before they arrived at Mount Sinai.
Verse 5, "And it came to pass that on the sixth day they shall
prepare that which they bring in - and it shall be twice as much
as they gather daily". Now, notice verse 22, "And it came to
pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much." Verse
23, "This is that which the Eternal has said, tomorrow is the
rest of the holy sabbath unto the Eternal." Then on the following
day, Moses said, "Eat that today; for today is a sabbath unto the
Lord, today you shall not find it in the field. Six days you
shall gather it; but on the seventh day, in it there shall be
none. And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people
on the sabbath for to gather, and they found none" (v.25-27).
God was showing them by miracles from heaven which day was the
seventh day. Some of them thought that it did not make any
difference - they would wait to go out on the following day - on
the Sabbath. Did it make any difference? "And the Lord said unto
Moses, How long refuse you to keep my commandments and my Laws?
See, for that the Eternal has given you the sabbath,
therefore He gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days -
abide you every man in his place, let no man go out of his place
on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day"
(v.28-30). That was weeks before they came to Mount Sinai.
The Law of God was in existence.
Jesus said in Mark 2:27 that the Sabbath was MADE for man, and
not man for the Sabbath. Genesis plainly tells us God made the
Sabbath on the 7th day, the day after He made the first man and
woman. It was at that time that the 7th day was BLESSED and
SANCTIFIED - that is SET APART!
It is the 4th of the Ten commandments that the Bible says is the
Law of God, and which as we have seen above DEFINES for us the
BASIC issue of what constitutes SIN.
Letting ALL the Bible interpret itself, sin was in the world from
Adam (Paul was inspired to state), hence logical Bible
interpretive teaching concludes that ALL the Ten commandments,
including the 4th one concerning the Sabbath, was to be obeyed by
those following the way of the true Eternal God.
Those who through either deliberate rebellion or ignorance of
God's way and Law were still sinning, for as Paul says ALL have
sinned, AND he knew that sin was defined by the Ten commandment
Law (see again the first paragraphs of this article).
To argue, as some do, that after Gen.2 and up to the time of
Moses, the Sabbath is not mentioned, so it did not have to be
obeyed by anyone, is reading the Bible with horse blinkers on
(reading with tunnel vision), and not letting the whole Bible
interpret itself.
The Bible teaches that SIN REIGNED from Adam to Moses. Then we
must ask: WHAT IS SIN? We then find the answer as given by the
Bible itself, and that answer will include all the Ten
commandments, the Sabbath one as the 4th point of that Law which
James says, you break anyone one and you are guilty of all. Hence
from Adam to today, all (but one - Christ Jesus) have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. All need redemption through the
blood of Christ.
How simple to understand when you read the whole Bible as a
child, letting it interpret itself.
The Sabbath command has always been in existence from Adam,
anyone breaking it has sinned, and has so needed the Savior and
His sacrifice to forgive that sin.
THE 5TH COMMANDMENT
Turn to Gen.9:21. "And he (Noah) drank of the wine, and was drunk
- and he was uncovered in the tent. And Ham the father of Canaan,
saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers
outside. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it
upon their shoulders, and went abroad, and covered the nakedness
of their father - and their faces were backward, and they
saw not their father's nakedness."
Continuing, "Noah wake from his wine, and knew that his (Ham's)
younger son (Canaan) had done to him. And he said, Cursed be
Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brothers. And
he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his
servant" (Gen.9:21-26). It is not the purpose of this study to
argue about what may have taken place here and by whom. The
point is very clear that a parent was somehow dis-honored.
Dishonouring a parent was a sin, and a curse was given as a
penalty in the days of Noah.
ADULTERY
Genesis 39:7-9, "And it came to pass after these things, that his
(Joseph's) master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph." Now all this
took place long before the Law was given at Sinai. "And she
said, lie with me. But he refused and said unto his master's
wife, Behold, my master does not even know what all he has given
me in the house, and has committed all that he has to my care,
there is no greater in his house than I. He has kept back
nothing from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can
I do this great wickedness, and SIN against God?"
Adultery was sin - hundred of years before the time of Moses and
the giving of the Ten Commandments to Israel.
STEALING AND LYING
Let us look at the eighth commandment, against stealing. In
Gen.30, verse 33; "Every one that is not speckled and spotted
among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted
stolen with me." This was Jacob and his experience with Laban.
Stealing was known before Moses.
What about the ninth commandment,
Turn to Gen.20:l-9. "And Abraham journeyed from there toward the
south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and lived in
Gorar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, she is my sister - and
Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah." He was going
to take her as his wife. Adultery would then have been committed,
but God sent an angel in a dream to warn him. "Yes, I know that
you did this in the integrity of your heart."
Remember that the king had heard Abraham say that Sarah was his
sister. And also God said, " I withheld you from sinning against
me, therefore I did not allow you to touch her."
Abraham was lying. Of course, Sarah was Abraham's half sister,
but nevertheless, the intent was wrong. It was a lie, it was
meant to deceive the king.
Notice Gen.6: l-3, 5-6. "And it came to pass, when men began to
multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto
them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they
were fair - and they took them wives of all that they chose......
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
that the imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. And it repented the Eternal that He had made man on
the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart." Coveting was a sin
in those days! Again, whatever type of coveting was going on
here in the lifestyle of these individuals, it was to
God.....wickedness! A Bible definition for the wicked is anyone
who disregards the Law of God (see Ps.119:53).
We have seen that all the Ten commandments of the Eternal existed
from the creation of mankind. There is also a verse in Genesis,
way before Moses and Sinai, that clearly shows God had many more
commandments in effect other than the famous Ten found in Ex.20.
Mark this verse well in your Bible, never forget it.
God is speaking: "Because that ABRAHAM obeyed my voice, and KEPT
my CHARGE, my COMMANDMENTS, my STATUTES, and my LAWS" (Gen.26:5).
Everyone of the Ten Commandments was in existence from creation.
It was a sin to break any of them between the time of
Adam and Mount Sinai.
.......................................
CREDITS
This article was inspired by and written(in 1982) largely
from(with additional information added) an old booklet by Herbert
W. Armstrong, a minister in the Church of God from the early
1930's to 1986.
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