The woman was the first to sin here upon this earth. 

Sin had its beginning in heaven among the angels. But the angels are neither male nor female. 

God created male and female among the world of mankind. And He made them male and female in a definite order and in a very unique way. Of this we will have more to say presently. 

Now we wish to follow that line of thought that it was indeed the woman who first practiced sin here upon this earth. 

We will not enter the argument as to whether the woman is or at that time was spiritually stronger than the man. This would lead us too far away from our subject. The point we wish to make at this time is that Eve sinned before Adam sinned, and we would call, your attention to the nature of that sin.” 

It was, of course, sin against the Living God. It was His commandment that she disobeyed and against Him that she rebelled. This is an undeniable fact. And few there are who would even care to dispute that fact. He had forbidden man to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and of evil. It was not as Eve, already in the meshes of the net of sin, declared it, that God had forbidden them even to touch that fruit. But very definitely He had let man know that he must not eat of that fruit. To tempt himself by fondling this fruit would certainly have been sin. But the mere act of touching it was not forbidden. 

Likewise, would we point out, Eve’s first sin was not that of eating of the forbidden fruit. To take that position is to deny what Paul wrote in I Timothy 2:11-14, “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” Sin always begins in the heart. And sin is also a matter of the heart. It is not always an external deed. It does not always bring injury or shame to a fellow man. All sins are not performed outside of the heart. But all sin is sin in the heart and because of what the heart declares. And so it is also that before Eve performed the physical act f eating, the spiritual act of sin against both God and her husband, Adam, had already been perpetrated. The crafty and devilishly cunning snare which Satan laid had exactly that sin in her heart in mind. Her heart must be conquered before her hand and mouth will commit the external deed of eating of the forbidden fruit

Eve did not know the devil. Eve did not even know of the existence of the devil. How could she? He is a spiritual beingwho she could not see. His sin occurred in heaven and of this history she knew absolutely nothing. With her pure mind—for no sin had even been set before her eyes yet, and her heart was created pure—she did not even know that sin had entered the world anywhere. But she did know the serpent. She also knew of Adam’s kingship over the serpent. Indeed she was his help who was made meet or fit for serving him. Let us not twist that into help mate. Physically, psychically and spiritually she was made to be an help who was meet for him and not an help-meet for him.

There are several matters to which we must give close attention. First of all is the fact that man was created first. This did not happen with any of the other creatures created on the fifth and sixth days. Fish and fowl, animals of every kind were created male and female, both at the same time. God did not take a rib out of the male lion to make a lioness. Deliberately and significantly He created man first and all alone. (Surely we are not going to follow the way of unbelief that speaks of evolution. Adam was the first man and Eve was the first woman. No need for a compromise with godless evolution by speaking of periods of thousands upon thousands of years either. If we are to listen to godless scientists and believe their Carbon-14 theory, we have to refuse to listen to God, Who presents Adam to us as the first man. The Carbon-14 theory insists that man was on this earth many thousands of years longer than the four thousand years of history recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures. We must then insist on a man upon this earth before Adam.) No, we believe that God created man first and that he stood there upon .this earth alone for a time. And the woman was created therefore for the man and not the man for the woman. There, too, it is very plain that the married woman may not determine the type of government her husband shall have over him, and woman suffrage is clearly contrary to the teaching of the Word of God. For that same reason the unmarried may not vote along with the men to determine what these men, who are not their husbands, shall have as their form of government. The woman was created after the man and for man’s sake, and therefore she must leave the whole matter of authority in the State, in the Church and in the home to the man whom she must serve in order to serve God. Lest we contradict this as so much philosophy of man, turn to I Corinthians 11:7-9, “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of man. For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.” 

And let us take note further that all this is spoken concerning Eve in regard to her social standing. True, Paul declares in I Corinthians 14:34, “Let the women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.” But he says, this exactly because her social standing in the State is such by the very ordinance of God implied in her creation after and for the man. All this was done and said concerning Eve before the Son of God even began to gather His Church. She was made to be a help meet for Adam in the social sphere, in the home and in the state as well as in the Church. She was made of man as king over the earthly creation—and he had just named all the animals—as well as of man as the earthly head and representative of the Church, the elder of God’s Church in Paradise. The woman simply does not have the right to rule man and to decide who shall rule man. She must always be in subjection in order to be pleasing in God’s sight. And if she asserts herself above the man and tries to determine his life, socially, politically or ecclesiastically, she continues in the sin of Eve which she perpetrated before she ate of the forbidden fruit. We want to come back to, that now. For we wish to show, that come what may be ruled by a president whose church will deny all other beliefs their freedom of religion or not, the saintly woman will not try to cast her vote to try to stem the tide. She will abide in God’s will and rest quietly in the confidence that all these things are in His hands to do what is good for His Church. To walk in His fear, she will refuse to usurp authority over the man in the voting booth or try to exercise authority on his level. She will fear God rather than a Roman Catholic president. She will fear His punishment rather than man’s persecution.

It will be plain now that the moment that Eve took it upon herself to assume Adam’s position and to answer the serpent—over whom Adam had the kingship—she had inwardly departed from the right way and usurped authority over the man. Indeed she might speak to that serpent, but she might not answer as she did. It was a matter of the command which God had given to her husband as the king of all the earthly creation, including these two special trees. It was a matter of which she had received knowledge only from her husband. God did not speak directly to her but to Adam even before she was created. Her husband had taught her the command of God. Her first action therefore, when another view than that which she received from God through her husband was presented, should have been to consult him and to refer the serpent to him. But no, she set aside her husband’s kingship and even after the devil through the serpent presented the very opposite of what God said and inferred that He was a liar, she refused to call her, husband to rebuke this slanderer. Her failure to refer the matter to the earthly king of God’s creation placed her in the position where she was open to the next barb in the devil’s attack. And he knew it. Paul makes a strong point of it that she was utterly deceived. For this there was no need at all. Had she continued to recognize Adam as her head and referred all the matters of what God had given her command to do through the mouth of her husband, she would not have put herself in the position where Satan could have tempted her with the fruit of that tree. 

Eve very definitely usurped Adam’s position in society and not simply in the Church. And let it be said that Adam sinned also in that he let himself be led by the woman. This is a principle matter and preceded the actual physical eating of the fruit that was forbidden. And every time a woman sets herself. Above man to usurp his position of authority she eats of forbidden fruit. Need we repeat now that we were not writing a piece of political propaganda and are simply interested in that which is in His fear? This stand will cost many thousands of votes that could serve to try to defeat that position of great danger to the Church, to have a Roman Catholic president. But that makes no difference. Principle is principle, and we cannot serve God by breaking His laws. 

That argument that the end justifies the means is nothing less than the lie. He who finds it necessary to resort to dishonest and forbidden means cannot have a good end in mind. Rahab lied concerning the spies. She is not commended for that in Holy Writ. She is commended for having hidden the spies but not for having lied concerning their whereabouts. Her motive and end was good, but she is not justified in telling a lie to reach her goal. If our goal in life, and the end we have in view with our works is the glory of God, we will not resort to means which He forbids. If we do, it is simply because we have a carnal goal in mind, even though we may deceive ourselves into thinking that our cause is a just one and our goal an honorable one. We glorify God when we submit to His will. It is utter nonsense to say, “Lord, I am going to sin in order to glorify Thy name. I am going to go contrary to Thy will in order to do Thy will.” Jesus teaches us that we must pray for the hallowing of God’s name, that this is possible only in the way of His kingdom coming in our hearts so that WE do His will on earth as perfectly as the holy angels do it in heaven. 

And so in conclusion, let men taunt us and ridicule us for our “narrow-minded” views. Let them accuse us of bigotry and of being old fashioned. But let us be sure we walk in the way of God’s commandments. Let us walk in His fear, for then we will have no fear of what man may do to us. 

—J.A.H.