MK Gantt Ministries

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

At the dawn of time, the Creator God formed out of the dust of the earth a man; crafted after His own nature, conceived for His own pleasure, designed to walk in communion with a Holy God. He placed that man in an idyllic garden that would become his home; his to tend and keep. 

His name is Adam from the Hebrew adamah, because he was taken out of the earth. From Adam’s own body God fashioned a partner, complementary to the him in every way. She was Eve, the life-giver. From her, the human race would be born. God gave them both the capacity and a commandment to bear children and populate the earth. 

Adam was given unfettered access to the garden. It was his domain. It was his home to cultivate and protect. He could eat from every fruit and herb. He was the master of the beasts that walked upon the earth, swam in the seas, or took wing to the skies. He had no prohibitions, no limits, no constraints, nothing to prevent him from fulfilling that one grand command given by the Creator: Be fruitful, multiply, exercise dominion over what God had created. Adam was forbidden nothing ––  save one thing. 

There was a single tree in the midst of the garden from which Adam was forbidden to eat; one. 

Not one species, not one variety, just one tree. God was very specific. “Eat everything, enjoy everything, exert authority over everything, exercise absolute dominion over all that I have made; everything . . . except that one tree.” God was also very specific about the consequences of eating from the fruit of that one tree. “If you partake of this one fruit . . . you will die.”

Then came another voice into the garden; a contrary voice. Another word was given; a contrary word. “You can have more. You can be more. You have been robbed because this one thing has been withheld from you.”

Convinced that they had been somehow diminished, somehow cheated, somehow prevented from achieving their full potential, the woman plucked a piece of fruit from that tree. She gazed upon it, she picked it, she brought it to her lips to taste its luscious meat, and drank in its sweet nectar. Nothing happened. That is, nothing happened until she handed it to the one God had left in charge. The woman had been deceived. The man was disobedient. The cultivator and protector of their home had failed to keep faith with the creator. In his loins were the seed of all humanity that would come upon the earth; and now, that seed has been corrupted.

In that instant Adam listened to a different voice. He chose a different authority. Adam aligned himself and his progeny with a different kingdom and the destiny of that kingdom and its ruler. 

Jesus said to the Pharisees of his day who were trumpeting their spiritual pedigree as descendants of Abraham, “Your father is not Abraham. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.” And, by aligning themselves with the god of this world they had aligned themselves with his destiny. 

Hell was not made for man. Hell was made for the devil and his angels. (Matthew 25:41) That was their destiny.  Sadly, in disobeying God in the garden Adam, as the federal head of the human race has aligned us all with the kingdom of darkness and with the destiny that awaits those who follow that voice.  Contrary to what many false preachers and would-be theologians declare, we are not all God’s children. The seed of Adam is not a holy seed, but a seed corrupted by the sad choice of the progenitor of the race. We are not God’s children by birth. We can only become the children of God through rebirth into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ. 

Jesus, the Last Adam, through His sacrifice redeems that which the first Adam corrupted. He heals what the first Adam had wounded, and restores a pathway whereby you and I can become children of God and escape the wrath to come.  “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” (Romans 5:18)

So, when a man says, “A loving god would never condemn his children to Hell,” he is in fact correct. The fact is we were already condemned and it is God who has provided a way of escape. “For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes would not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him, might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)

The key is this: Whose voice are you listening to? What command are you obeying? With what kingdom have you aligned yourself? As with Adam, you have an opportunity to choose the voice you will heed, whose commands you will obey. If you choose to reject Christ in favor of the god of this world, then you will receive the inheritance of the god of this world. That sad reward is not the destiny for which you were created, but the one you, in your own autonomy, have chosen to receive. And you, and you alone, will condemn yourself to an eternity without God.