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When God cursed Satan in Genesis 3:14, “the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:  Dust (or death) would be his food”. According to Isaiah 14:12-15, Satan was formerly a day star who was “…cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven, above the stars of God, I will set my throne on high… But you are brought down to Sheol to the far reaches of the pit.” Ezekiel 28: 12-15,  “…Thus says the Lord God: “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God…On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you.” Jesus stated Luke 10:18, that he saw “Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Satan and his minions have been allowed to test mankind, (as permission was given to Satan to test Job in Job 6:1-22) in order to help them discern between good and evil, obedience and disobedience. In contrast, according to Genesis 6:9, Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time who walked with God, in powerful contrast to the wicked lives of those referred to in Genesis 6:5. God had a plan to start over with righteous Noah of pure Adamic lineage to fulfill His promise that the seed of Eve would “bruise” (crush) Satan, Genesis 3:15. Noah’s family was commanded to multiply and fill the earth in Genesis 9. We are heartened by the promise in Revelation 20, that in the future, “I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. During the thousand-year reign of the returned Lord Jesus, each individual will be subject to the same test that Adam experienced and will learn obedience, this time with experience.  We are promised that all but the unwilling will obey!

The broad way, the narrow way, the highway of holiness When Adam and Eve sinned, they (and all their children) began to walk down the “broad way” to death. Matthew 7:13: (CSB) “…the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it.” Proverbs 14:12 (ESV), “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” All people are born sinners on the broad way leading to death. It is easy to follow the desires of our flesh and develop all kinds of reasoning to justify our behaviors. The way seems right, but it is not. The great majority of mankind prefer self-will instead of God’s will. Matthew 7:13-14 also identifies a second road, the “narrow way.” Matthew 7:13-14: (ESV) “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” What is this gate? It is the gospel. 2 Timothy 1:9-10: (NKJV) “(God) who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” This way is hard because Christians have vowed to deny themselves, carry their crosses and follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24). The present evil world, our fallen flesh, and Satan all oppose us. Consequently, when we obey God’s will, we enter into Jesus’s sufferings. Romans 8:17: (NKJV) “and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.” But the end of the narrow way is life and immortality. Romans 2:7 (ESV), “to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.” Finally, there is the “highway of holiness.” This highway will open during Christ’s 1,000-year kingdom with the resurrection of mankind. It will be a way of restoration to holiness and to everlasting perfect human life on earth. Isaiah 35:8-10: (NKJV) “A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the highway of holiness…Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; But the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed (all mankind) of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads…And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was an ordinary but remarkable Jewish woman. God specifically chose her to give birth to Jesus, the Messiah of the tribe of Judah and of the lineage of David. Luke 1:26-28,31,35: (NIV) “In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” … 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. … 35…”The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” Both Mary and Joseph were direct descendants of Judah from King David’s line (Genesis 49:10; 2 Samuel 7:16; Matthew 1:1).  Luke 1:32 indicates: “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David”… Luke 3:23-37 provides the names of the fathers from his mother Mary’s lineage, but the mother’s names are not listed. There is no biblical mention of the mother of Mary.  However, like every living woman on earth Mary was directly descended from Eve in fulfillment of the promise in Genesis 3:15 that, “the seed of the woman would bruise (crush) the serpent’s head.” However, the Matthew 1:1-19 account of Joseph’s lineage does include four mothers – Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, perhaps in special mention of their historical roles.

The prophecies of Isaiah (11:15), Jeremiah (14, 46:10; 51:3), and Daniel 5 had limited fulfillment in the downfall of the ancient, literal city of Babylon built upon the river Euphrates which had great impact on its resources. The overthrow of historic Babylon by Cyrus was accomplished by the turning aside or drying up of those waters. This is an illustration of Messiah who will overthrow symbolic Babylon and establish the kingdom for which we pray, “thy kingdom come…”. It is notable that Cyrus’ name signifies “the sun,” and reminds us of the prophecy of Christ  – “The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his beams” (Malachi 4:2). Revelation 16:12 foretells that the river shall be “dried up—that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared.” We understand the kings of the East to represent the body of Christ, the Royal Priesthood. Revelation 5:10, “Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.” In Isaiah 44:28, the Lord speaks of Cyrus as His shepherd who would lead back Israel. In I aiah 45:1-14, He calls him His “anointed,” (the same Hebrew word for “Messiah”) saying, “Thus saith the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations before him…” In this prophecy, Cyrus is a further illustration of Jesus, “the good shepherd,” the Prince in Revelation who is shown as drying up the symbolic Euphrates and destroying symbolic Babylon. The prophesied time for the fulfillment of the symbol is indicated by the drying up of the river under the sixth vial of the “Day of Wrath.” The book of Revelation should not be taken literally here. In the fall of Babylon, under the seventh vial as shown in the symbolic language of Revelation, waters symbolize people. The turning aside of the “waters” would represent the alienation of the people. This alienation of the people would be indicated by their withholding of financial and other support systems. Babylon literally fell because when “tried in the balances,” it was found wanting (Daniel 5:25). Symbolic Babylon falls for a similar reason. When the Lord Jesus Christ takes his power as earth’s new king, like Cyrus, he will initiate a new kingdom.

Shem’s son was Peleg. The name Peleg means “to divide or to split”. See Strong’s Concordance Hebrew word H6389. The division of the earth here refers to the division and dispersion of humanity that happened after the Tower of Babel was under construction. Genesis 10:25 (NIV), “Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his time the earth was divided…”  Genesis 11:1, 4, 6-9 (NIV), 1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. … 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” … 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel–because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” As the Bible records, during the building of Babylon, God dispersed mankind around the earth and confused their languages. The people were divided into different languages.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1. Faith is built and grows in our minds and hearts as we obey the scriptures. When we read the Bible, we read wonderful promises. Some promises have already been fulfilled. For example, Hebrews 11:7 (NIV), “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.”  What a blessing to see and believe a Bible prophecy through faith! We see Noah’s faith; how Noah built the ark because of his faith; and we can even predict the effects of faith. As we walk in the Christian way, our faith increases. For example, if we pray for patience, we will notice experiences along this line. Yes, there is little faith. Jesus said in many instances, “you of little faith”. In Matthew 8:26, “And he (Jesus) saith unto them, why are you fearful, you of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.” There are many examples of great faith in the Bible. Some of those individuals trusted God, even though they did not understand. An example of a future prophecy that will certainly be fulfilled is in Matthew 6:10 (NKJV), “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” By faith we know that at Christ’s second advent, Christ will demolish all the unjust, unloving, unrighteous systems and establish God’s perfect will to be done on Earth. (See also Daniel 2:44, Isaiah 35, Jeremiah 31:33-34.) Jesus also used the phrase “great is thy faith” in Matthew 15.28. “…Then Jesus answered and said unto her, ‘O woman great is thy faith’…and her daughter was made whole…” Great faith is trusting God, no matter what experiences we have. If we are afraid, we have little faith. But we can pray that our faith will become great. Luke 17:5 (NIV), “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’”

This is a very important question. God never revealed the outcome of His secret plan to Satan nor to any other unbelieving, disobedient beings. Satan did not know the crucifixion would lead to mankind’s salvation. (See Revelation 5:1-7.) God only shares His plans with His believing and faithful children. Proverbs 3:32 (NIV), “For the LORD detests the perverse (Satan is the most detestable) but takes the upright into his confidence.”  Psalm 25:14 (NIV), “The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.”  Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV), “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” Perhaps Satan viewed the crucifixion as a total victory. Therefore when Jesus died, God’s plan to provide salvation to all mankind was a failure. He may have questioned, “Why Jesus did not save himself and proclaim himself a king as the crowds expected?” While the Old Testament is full of prophecies of Jesus’ suffering and the events leading up to his death, even the learned Pharisees missed the import of what Jesus was doing. For example, while Jesus was on the cross, priests and Pharisees taunted him in Matthew 27:43 by quoting Psalm 22:8. Matthew 41:41-43 (NASB1995), 41“In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him and saying, 42 “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. 43 “HE TRUSTS IN GOD; LET GOD RESCUE Him now, IF HE DELIGHTS IN HIM; for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” Not realizing its context, the priests and scribes themselves were ignorantly fulfilling prophecy by ridiculing their own Savior. Psalm 22:6-8 (NASB1995), 6 “But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. 7 “All who see me sneer at me; they separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, 8 “Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.” Perhaps even today, in his arrogance, Satan thinks he can somehow still thwart God’s divine plan. He may think he can degrade enough humans and lead them away from God so that they will be unable to walk up the highway of holiness in God’s future kingdom. He might consider this a sick kind of victory, wanting to bring as many away from God as possible.

How and when was the earth divided? This occurred during Peleg’s life. Peleg was Shem’s son, and his name means “to divide or to split”. (See Strong’s Concordance Hebrew word H6389.) The division of the earth here refers to the division and dispersion of humanity that happened during the construction of the Tower of Babel. Genesis 11:1, 4, 6-9 (NIV), “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. … 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” … 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel–because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” As the Bible records, during the building of Babylon, God dispersed mankind around the earth and confused their languages. The people were divided into different languages.

The Bible does not contradict with science that the earth is millions of years old. But how long have people been on the earth from the time of the first man Adam? We believe based on Bible chronology that it is around 6,000 years. Neanderthals and other non-human animals with human-like traits could have been in existence prior to Adam and Eve, as animals were created by God first.  They could have continued to live simultaneously with humans as well. Human DNA is passed down from both mother and father. Mitochondrial DNA, however, is only from the mother. The current scientific presumption is that all human mitochondria descended from a single mother. Ironically, this one female ancestor has been dubbed “Eve” or “Mitochondrial Eve.” Neanderthals had mitochondria like every other living creature who is not bacteria, but their mitochondria clearly were not from “Eve.” Therefore, they are not human but are animals, created at some point according to the book of Genesis. They may have lived at the same time as humans, which would not disagree with the biblical record. We refer you to an article called Eve, the Mother of Us All, for more explanation. In trying to make them sound human, much is reported that Neanderthals acted in similar ways as humans, such as evidence of flower remains found at a Neanderthal burial site. However, grave practices are not just human, so Neanderthal practices would not automatically put them in the human family. Elephants revisit the bones of their dead and scatter them around. Dolphins and chimps handle their dead with respect and mourning. The records of dogs mourning for their owners are replete with touching examples. The Australian Bower Bird males arrange the nests with an eye to design, color and introducing shiny objects from civilization. These are not signs of being human. The oldest ACTUAL human is debatable. Of course, creationists are looking for a number around 6,000 years to correspond with the biblical record. As one can imagine, this is a complicated subject. Historically scientists have said humans lived hundreds of thousands of years ago, but there are admitted problems with the dating and recent hypotheses are getting closer and closer to that 6,000 figure.

What is the meaning of Isaiah 9:6? “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” In Isaiah 7:14, Israel was told, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign; behold the Virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (God is with us). In chapter 9, verse 2, Jesus is described as a great light to the people that walked in darkness. The prophecy of Isaiah 9:6 was partially fulfilled at the first advent of our Lord Jesus when he was indeed a “wonderful Counsellor,” for “never man spoke like this man” (John 7:46). He was also a “mighty God,” in the sense of being a powerful prophet doing wonderful works. He was a teacher—called “Rabbi” and “Master” by followers who thought of him as a “Father,” as he counseled and taught them. At his crucifixion, he was acknowledged as “King of the Jews.” When Jesus returns in full glory at his second advent, he will assume all of those Isaiah 9:6 titles. Isaiah 22:22 declared “I will give him the key to the house of David—the highest position in the royal court. When he opens doors, no one will be able to close them; when he closes doors, no one will be able to open them.” Isaiah 9, Verse 7 completes the picture: “Of the increase of His [Jesus’] government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.…”