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抬首仰望是一个诺大的宇宙，我们在其中并不孤单。这位“爱的上帝” 创造了我们，出于爱，祂也创造了其他生灵，比如天使们。

在一段未知的时期，宇宙处于一个完美的道德和谐状态，如同一个和弦。然后，众多天使中一位最接近上帝的天使，开始怀疑上帝的爱。他的名字叫路锡甫。他曾是完美的，比宇宙中其他存在更真切地看见了圣父、圣灵、圣子（以西结书28:14,15）。然而路锡甫对他在天堂中众天使之首的位置感到不满。他开始觊觎上帝的宝座想取而代之。

《圣经》如此描述他的堕落：“你从受造之日所行的都完全，后来在你中间又察出不义。”(以西结书28:15)怎么会这样？完美的上帝在完美的天堂创造出一个完美的生灵！然而，在这个生灵身上却察出了不义，怎么会这样？

我们都知道，爱与被爱，应当能自由取舍，否则就不是爱了。因此路锡甫尽管处在天堂的完美之中，却利用随爱而生的自由意志背叛了上帝的爱和权威。这就是邪恶、痛苦与死亡产生的根源——因为路锡甫将他的叛逆带到了地球。

亚当和夏娃为爱而生，因此也生而自由。上帝给了他们一个忠诚度的考验，这个考验很简单，是测试他们拥有了选择的自由之后，能否被信任。上帝已经警告他们不要吃分辨善恶树上的果实，如果吃了，他们就会死。（创世记2：16，17）他们被创造时只知道善、爱、生命。而邪恶、仇恨与死亡并不在最初的创造计划之内。

然而某天夏娃在禁忌树下受惑于一只会说话的蛇。夏娃不知道那蛇是路锡甫。它骗她说：“吃了这树的果实你并不会死。上帝害怕你吃了这果实会得到知识。祂害怕你变得和祂一样，成为了神，能明晰善与恶。”（创世记3：4，5意述）于是夏娃看了看果实，便想得到她所缺乏的知识。

受骗之后，她吃了；她丈夫也跟着吃了。这对夫妻不知道全宇宙都在注视着他们，他们的决定会给遍地带来疾病与死亡的恶性循环。他们本可以信任上帝，但他们没有。借着爱的自由本质，他们选择去了解邪恶。这便是人类善恶争战的起源，一场我们从自己骨子里就能感受到的争战。

显然，亚当和夏娃没有遵从上帝。但上帝是不公的吗？为什么祂不让他们吃那树上的果实？是上帝爱的统治有缺陷吗？人类会仅仅因为一个不顺从的行为就被毁灭吗？

亚当和夏娃立刻明白了邪恶。他们对视后发现一个赤裸的人站在自己面前。他们的思想不再纯粹圣洁，取而代之的是不洁的思想。他们感到了害羞而想穿衣服，免得看见双方的赤身（创世记3：7）。这样人性中关于善与恶的争战就开始了。

那时他们还不知道，但他们已经使自己脱离了掌权的位置而使撒旦变成了他们的王（约翰福音12：31）；（马太福音4：8，9）撒旦从此成为地球的代理人，可以受限访问天庭（约伯记1：6）.因此，一个问题浮现在了所有宇宙生灵的脑海：“路锡甫，那个控告者，关于上帝的看法是正确的吗（启示录12：10）？路锡甫的自私之道是否比上帝的无私之道更好呢？”

显然，亚当和夏娃背叛了上帝。但上帝是不公的吗？是否应当由其他人——比如路锡甫，来主宰宇宙？路锡甫统治的地球会怎样呢？人类有可能从它的统治下回归吗？他们能否再次成为圣洁？能否重新顺从上帝？生命中的善恶之争已被激发，全宇宙都想知道结果将会如何。

在创世之前，上帝召开了会议（以弗所书1：4，5）。大家本着爱的原则，一起出谋划策，制定了一个计划，以防将自由给予人类后，他们会反叛。上帝会怎么做？是的，上帝可以毁灭他们。但那会导致宇宙中其他生灵惧怕上帝。他们会觉得要是不想被灭绝的话就永远不能质疑上帝。这种恐惧会摧毁上帝希望智慧生物享有的爱与信任。祂的爱之统治会变成恐怖的主宰。这样的话，上帝又该如何拯救行将死亡的人类呢（创世记2：7；3：19）？

上帝选择了祂唯一能做的去给予人类希望。祂依然要去爱他们。这计划并非空口白话，也不是心中的一种感觉或上帝脸上的一个表情。这将向全宇宙展示什么是爱，是定义爱的时刻。上帝将亲自降世为人，在地球上受到生活的摧残，承受了比古往今来的所有人都要多的艰辛，并且背负着所有祂要拯救之人的罪孽和羞辱而亡。上帝要替人类而死，才能让人类出死如生（腓立比书2：5-11）。

尽管现在人类还是会死亡，但那不是永恒的死亡，不是与生命赐予者永恒地隔绝，而那些对上帝所付出的巨大代价视若无睹，并选择不接受祂的恩典之人，才会在最终面临永恒的灭亡。

这被称作救赎计划。

在人类犯罪之后，他们立即被告知救赎计划。他们被告知他们的后裔会碾碎撒旦所化身的毒蛇之头（创世记3：15）。而后他们被赶出上帝为他们所造的美好家园。地球至今依然充斥着罪恶、苦难与死亡。

但希望仍存。

从最初开始，上帝就不断提醒亚当和夏娃，祂要来为人类的罪恶而死。祂为他们示范如何献祭一只完美的羊羔。这将是祂为那些想得到救赎之人所制定的赎罪计划的根基。上帝有一个周密详尽的救赎蓝图，但那时人类还很懵懂，不能理解这个计划。至少在那时，祭坛和祭祀的羊羔是不可或缺的。终有一天救主会来临，如祭祀的羊羔一般，献出祂的生命来拯救人类。每一只被献祭的羊羔，每一个降生的婴孩，都点燃着人们对救世主的盼望。

不久，很多孩子来到世上，但没有一个是救主。他们的孩子结婚并生育更多的后代。那些从未见过上帝、也从未见证过他们父母所经历之事的人开始质疑前人的故事是否属实。凶杀已经随着亚当和夏娃的孩子该隐来到这世界上。其他的邪恶与杀戮迅速地增长（创世记4：8，19，23）。人类的邪恶泛滥，以至于他们终日思想的尽都是恶，并代代相传（创世记6：5）。上帝觉察到邪恶如此之大，使祂的计划没有充分时间准备成熟。因此，上帝要为祂对人类的救赎计划做出另一个启示。祂会降下世界性的洪水来毁灭地球上几乎所有的生命（创世记6：13）。

但在洪水之前，慈爱的上帝提供了一条逃生之路。任何人只要愿意都能够从这世界的毁灭中得救。上帝派出一艘生命之船，方舟。

挪亚将建造方舟并保住所有人的性命。尽管之前从未下过雨，他们所需要做的只是走进方舟（创世记6：17，18；7：2；彼得前书3：19，20）。上帝在此又进行了一次忠诚与信任的考验，同样也是一个简单的考验。人们面临着严峻的抉择，如同亚当和夏娃所经受的那样。他们要么选择相信上帝而登船得救，要么选择不信（而灭亡）。爱的自由属性再一次地被彰显。最终，只有八个人选择了生命。（创世记7：7）

如要详知关于洪水的故事，请阅读创世记第6至9章。

弟兄姐妹们，我们想通过本平台分享更多国外本会优质影像资料。因为人手有限，希望招募一些志同道合的主内同工，做英文视频字幕翻译，视频字幕合成制作，视频中文配音，配音对轨制作。有意者请在TruthTV微信公众号后台输入“义工申请”。以马内利！

WAR

It’s a big universe out there, and we are not alone in it, either.  The same God of love who created us had created other beings as well.  And out of love, too. They are known as angels.

For an unknown period of time, the universe was in perfect moral harmony, like a single chord. Then, one of these angels, the one closest angel to God, began to doubt God’s love. His name was Lucifer. He was perfect, and he saw the Father, the Son, and the Spirit more vividly than any other being in the universe (Ezekiel 28:14, 15). Yet Lucifer became discontented with his position as the leading angel of heaven. He began to desire the throne of God for himself.

The Bible depicted his fall like this “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you.” (Ezekiel 28:15).  How could that be? A perfect being created by a perfect God in a perfect heaven? And, yet, iniquity was found in him? How?

As we saw, love, to be love, must be freely given or it is not love. And so Lucifer, even in the perfection of heaven, using the moral freedom that love demands, rebelled against the love and authority of God.  Here is how evil, suffering, and death arose, because Lucifer brought his rebellion to earth.

Adam and Eve were created to love, and thus created free, too. God had given them a test of loyalty, a simple test actually, one which would show whether or not they could be trusted with the freedom given to them. He had warned them against eating of a tree that, God said, would lead to knowledge of good and evil, and that they would die if they ate the fruit of that tree. (Genesis 2:16, 17).  They had been created to know only good, only love, only life.  Evil, hate, death were never part of the original plan.

Eve, however, was one day engaged by a talking serpent in the forbidden tree. Eve did not know that the serpent was Lucifer. He lied to her, saying, “You will not die if you eat this fruit. God is afraid that you will gain knowledge by eating this fruit. He is afraid that you will be like Him, gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4, 5 author’s paraphrase). Eve saw the fruit and wanted the knowledge that she was lacking.

Deceived, she ate; her husband did, too. The couple did not know that the universe was watching them, and that their decision would send all the earth into a spiraling evil cycle of disease and death. They could have trusted in God, but they didn’t. Using the freedom inherent in love, they chose to know evil instead. This is how the war between good and evil began in humanity, a war that we all feel in our own bones as well.

Clearly, Adam and Eve had disobeyed God. But was God unfair?  Why didn’t He make them not eat from the tree? Was God’s government of love faulty? Was humanity going to have to be destroyed because of their single act of disobedience?

Immediately Adam and Eve understood evil. They looked at each other and saw a naked person standing in front of them. Instead of pure and holy thoughts, their thoughts turned to impure thoughts. They became ashamed and wanted to be clothed so that eyes wouldn’t be able to see their nakedness (Genesis 3:7). Thus began a war within humanity between good and evil.

They didn’t know it in that moment, but they had taken themselves out of their positions of authority and made Satan their prince (John 12:31); (Matthew 4:8, 9) Satan would now have restricted access to heaven as earth’s representative (Job 1:6). And so, a question was left in the minds of all the beings in the universe, “Was Lucifer, the accuser, correct about God (Revelation 12:10)? Was Lucifer’s law of selfishness better than God’s law of selflessness?”

Clearly Adam and Eve had disobeyed God. Was God unfair? Should someone else rule the universe—namely, Lucifer? What would Lucifer’s rule over earth look like? Would it ever be possible for humanity to come back from this? Could they ever be holy again? Could they ever obey God? The struggle of good and evil in life had been sparked, and the universe wondered where it would end.

At some point before the world was created, the Godhead convened (Ephesians 1:4, 5). Love counseled together and formulated a plan just in case, in the freedom given to humanity, they were to rebel.  What would God do?  God could destroy them, yes. But that would cause all the other beings in the universe to fear God. They would know that they could never question God without being wiped out. That fear would destroy the love and trust God wants to have with the intelligent creatures. His domain of love would turn into one of fear, instead. How, then, could God save humans, who were now on a trajectory toward death (Genesis 2:7; 3:19)?

God chose to do the only thing that He could do to provide hope to the humans. He would love them still. This plan was not just a word that would be said. It wasn’t just a feeling to be felt or a look on God’s face. It would be a display to all the universe of what Love is. It would be the defining moment for Love. God himself would be born as a human, live a life of suffering on the earth, suffer more than any other human has ever suffered before, and die with all the guilt and shame of those whom He would save. God would die in the place of the humans so that they could be raised to life (Philippians 2:5-11).

Even though, yes, humans die now, that’s not the eternal death, the eternal separation from the Life-Giver that comes at the very end of all things for those who chose not to accept what God has so graciously, and at great cost to Himself, provided.

This is known as the plan of salvation.

After mankind sinned, they were immediately told of the plan of salvation. They were told that one of their offspring would crush the head of the serpent, which was Satan in disguise (Genesis 3:15). Then they were sent from the beautiful that God had created as their home. The earth was now filled with sin, suffering and death.

But there was also hope.

Right from the start, God gave Adam and Eve a continual reminder of His plan to come and die for humankind’s evil. He showed them how to sacrifice a perfect lamb. This would be the foundation of His plan for the redemption for all who wanted to be redeemed. God had a detailed and intricate blueprint designed for salvation, but mankind was too immature then to understand it. The altar and the sacrifice of a lamb would have to do, at least for now. One day the Savior would come, and, like a sacrificial lamb, He would sacrifice His life to save humanity. With every lamb that was sacrificed, and every child that was born, the hope of a Savior was kindled.

Soon, many children came, but none was the Savior. Their children married and had more children. Those who had never seen God and never witnessed the events of their parents began to question if their stories were even true. Already, murder had entered the world through the first child of Adam and Eve—Cain. Other evils and murders swiftly increased (Genesis 4:8, 19, 23). Mankind became so evil that people had only evil thoughts, and they had them continually, too (Genesis 6:5). God determined that evil was too great, and that His plan hadn’t had time to mature yet. So, God would provide another illustration of His plan for salvation of humanity. He would send a worldwide flood to destroy nearly all the life on earth (Genesis 6:13).

But before this flood, God in His love provided a way of escape. Anyone who wanted could be saved from the destruction of the world. God was sending a lifeboat, the Ark.

Noah would build the Ark and offer everyone life. All they needed to do was walk into the boat (Genesis 6:17, 18; 7:2; 1 Peter 3:19, 20), even though no rain had ever fallen before. God was again offering a test of loyalty and trust. It was another simple test, too. The people were faced with a stark choice, just as Adam and Eve had been given. They could either to believe God and be saved by getting on the boat, or to not believe.  Again, the reality of freedom, the freedom inherent in love. In the end, only eight people chose life. (Genesis 7:7)

To read the flood story, read all of Genesis chapters 6-9