Ever since the fall of our first parents, there has been a trickle-down effect of sin, which has both spiritual, and physical dimensions. For every sin committed, whether deliberately, or inadvertently, there are consequences which occur, the physical being more obvious than the spiritual. For example, when Adam and Eve sinned, they died immediately, spiritually speaking, because their relationship with God had been broken. This spiritual death was not apparent at the first, however, the physical effects soon began to be observed, and as time went by, the baleful, and ultimate effect of physical death took its toll. Let’s read:
Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, 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.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Genesis 5:5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
[Spirit Of Prophecy vol. 1 pp. 39>41] Eve reasoned that the serpent said they should not surely die, and she felt no signs of God's displeasure, but a pleasant influence, as she imagined the angels felt. Adam regretted that Eve had left his side; but now the deed was done. And in utter discouragement he resolved to share her fate. Eve was before him, just as lovely and beautiful, and apparently as innocent, as before this act of disobedience. He saw in her no signs of death. He seized the fruit and quickly ate it, and, like Eve, felt not immediately its ill effects.
The covering of light about them soon disappeared, and under a sense of guilt, and loss of their divine covering, a shivering seized them, and they tried to cover their exposed forms. The air that had been of a mild and even temperature, seemed to chill them. The guilty pair had a sense of sin. They felt a dread of the future, a sense of want, a nakedness of soul. The sweet love, and peace, and happy, contented bliss, seemed removed from them, and in its place a want of something came over them that they never experienced before. They then for the first turned their attention to the external. They had not been clothed, but were draped in light as were the heavenly angels. This light which had enshrouded them departed.
[The Story Of Redemption. pp. 55] As Adam witnessed the first signs of decaying nature in the falling leaf and in the drooping flowers, he mourned more deeply than men now mourn over their dead. The drooping flowers were not so deep a cause of grief, because more tender and delicate; but for the tall, noble, sturdy trees to cast off their leaves, to decay, presented before him the general dissolution of beautiful nature, which God had created for the special benefit of man.
Thus, we will study several cases in which the trickle down effect of sin can be clearly seen, and then we will apply the same principle to our day, first, to see why we are, where we are, and then to apply the God-ordained remedies for our restoration.
[1] We will begin with Eli and his sons, to whom were given the office of the priesthood, and who were the highest earthly authorities in the land of the Hebrews. Eli as a father had a problem in the discipline of his sons, because doing so involved unpleasant duties, such as crossing the will of his children when they chose to do wrong, Thus, as a result of his lack of decisive action in the training of his children, a dire trickle-down effect was observed across the entire nation, in both the spiritual, and physical realms. Let’s read:
1st Samuel 2:12 Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord.
16 And if any man said unto him, Let them not fail to burn the fat presently, and then take as much as thy soul desireth; then he would answer him, Nay; but thou shalt give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force.
17 Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord: for men abhorred the
offering of the Lord.
22 Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
23 And he said unto them, why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people.
24 Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the Lord's people to transgress.
1st Samuel 3:11 And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle.
12 In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end.
13 For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.
14 And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever.
[Patriarchs and Prophets. pp. 577>] Many of the people, filled with indignation at the corrupt course of Hophni and Phinehas, ceased to come up to the appointed place of worship. Thus the service which God had ordained was despised and neglected because associated with the sins of wicked men, while those whose hearts were inclined to evil were emboldened in sin. Ungodliness, profligacy, and even idolatry prevailed to a fearful extent.
Those who have too little courage to reprove wrong, or who through indolence or lack of interest make no earnest effort to purify the family or the church of God, are held accountable for the evil that may result from their neglect of duty. We are just as responsible for evils that we might have checked in others by exercise of parental or pastoral authority
as if the acts had been our own. Because of Eli's position, his influence was more extended than if he had been an ordinary man. His family life was imitated throughout Israel. The baleful results of his negligent, ease-loving ways were seen in thousands of homes that were molded by his example.
The adverse effects in the temporal realm:
1st Samuel 4:2 And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines: and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men.
10 And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen.
[Patriarchs & Prophets pp. 583] As the shattered and disheartened force returned to their encampment, “the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines?” The nation was ripe for the judgments of God, yet they did not see that their own sins had been the cause of this terrible disaster. The Philistines made a fierce assault, which resulted in the defeat of Israel, with great slaughter. Thirty thousand men lay dead upon the field, and the ark of God was taken, the two sons of Eli having fallen while fighting to defend it.
[2] The Elders of Israel in the sexual sins committed with the Moabites, and the adverse effects in the spiritual realm:
Numbers 25:1 And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.
2 And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.
3 And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
4 And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.
[Patriarchs & Prophets pp. 454] At Balaam's suggestion, a grand festival in honor of their gods was appointed by the king of Moab, and it was secretly arranged that Balaam should induce the Israelites to attend. Great numbers of the people joined him in witnessing the festivities. They ventured upon the forbidden ground, and were entangled in the snare of Satan. Beguiled with music and dancing, and allured by the beauty of heathen vestals, they cast off their fealty to Jehovah. As they united in mirth and feasting, indulgence in wine beclouded their senses and broke down the barriers of self-control.
Passion had full sway; and having defiled their consciences by lewdness, they were persuaded to bow down to idols. They offered sacrifice upon heathen altars and participated in the most degrading rites. It was not long before the poison had spread, like a deadly infection, through the camp of Israel. Those who would have conquered their enemies in battle were overcome by the wiles of heathen women. The rulers and the leading men were among the first to transgress, and so many of the people were guilty that the apostasy became national. “Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor.”
When Moses was aroused to perceive the evil, the plots of their enemies had been so successful that not only were the Israelites participating in the licentious worship at Mount Peor, but the heathen rites were coming to be observed in the camp of Israel.
And now, the adverse effects in the temporal realm:
Numbers 25:9 And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.
[3] David, and his sin with Bathsheba, the murder of her husband Uriah, and the adverse effects in the spiritual realm:
2nd Samuel 12:6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
11 Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
[Patriarchs & Prophets pp. 723] Heretofore God's providence had preserved David against all the plottings of his enemies, and had been directly exercised to restrain Saul. But David's transgression had changed his relation to God. The Lord could not in any wise sanction iniquity. He could not exercise His power to protect David from the results of his sin as he had protected him from the enmity of Saul. There was a great change in David himself. He was broken in spirit by the consciousness of his sin and its far-reaching results. He felt humbled in the eyes of his subjects. His influence was weakened.
Hitherto his prosperity had been attributed to his conscientious obedience to the commandments of the Lord. But now his subjects, having a knowledge of his sin, would be led to sin more freely. His authority in his own household, his claim to respect and obedience from his sons, was weakened. A sense of his guilt kept him silent when he should have condemned sin; it made his arm feeble to execute justice in his house. His evil example exerted its influence upon his sons, and God would not interpose to prevent the result. He would permit things to take their natural course, and thus David was severely chastised.
[Patriarchs & Prophets pp. 727] “He shall restore fourfold,” had been David's unwitting sentence upon himself, on listening to the prophet Nathan's parable; and according to his own sentence he was to be judged. Four of his sons must fall, and the loss of each would be a result of the father's sin. The shameful crime of Amnon, the first-born, was permitted by David to pass unpunished and unrebuked. The law pronounced death upon the adulterer, and the unnatural crime of Amnon made him doubly guilty. But David, self-condemned for his own sin, failed to bring the offender to justice.
For two full years Absalom, the natural protector of the sister so foully wronged, concealed his purpose of revenge, but only to strike more surely at the last. At a feast of the king's sons the drunken, incestuous Amnon was slain by his brother's command.
2nd Samuel 15:13 And there came a messenger to David, saying, The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom.
14 And David said unto all his servants that were with him at Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee; for we shall not else escape from Absalom: make speed to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly, and bring evil upon us, and smite the city with the edge of the sword.
16 And the king went forth, and all his household after him. And the king left ten women, which were concubines, to keep the house.
17 And the king went forth, and all the people after him, and tarried in a place that was far off.
18 And all his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men which came after him from Gath, passed on before the king.
22 And David said to Ittai, Go and pass over. And Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones that were with him.
23 And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness.
24 And lo Zadok also, and all the Levites were with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God: and they set down the ark of God; and Abiathar went up, until all the people had done passing out of the city.
25 And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and shew me both it, and his habitation:
30 And David went up by the ascent of mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot: and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.
Question: Do the very same trickle-down effects of sin continue to occur in our day, and if so, what are those sins, and what can be done to stop the dire hemorrhaging we’re now experiencing?
Answer: The very same principle of root cause and
effect takes place, just as it did in years gone by, and it is scheduled to soon escalate to a national emergency, as sin is made the law of the land. In each instance we investigated, the cascading effect began with the leaders, and the adverse results of sin was experienced by the multitudes and leaders alike.
Last year in June, we saw the culmination of a trend towards the acceptance of gay marriage, in the final legalization by the supreme court. Ever since that fateful day of June 26 2015, better known as “Black Friday”, the trickle-down effects of all sexual sins has increased to a large degree, both in the spiritual and physical realms, with national and international consequences, which, as we previously observed, will be allowed to run their natural course. The sacred institution of God-ordained marriage was given to the human family as a bulwark to protect society from untold evils, and therefore, by the act of changing the fundamental dimension, we have signally reversed God’s order, which will result in the destabilization of society. Let’s read:
Whenever a nation or the judiciary makes a law, by that very act they are saying that this is the right thing to do. And thus, the logical reasoning along that very same line is that God was wrong when He restricted the institution to one man and his female wife. And therefore, if God was wrong, then mortal man is apparently more intelligent and wiser than The Lord. This is exactly how the authority of God is now being usurped, and will finally culminate in the legislation of worship, with the judiciary concluding that God also gave us the wrong day to worship on.
This is one of the main reasons why we are now witnessing an unprecedented uptick in violence, crime, mass shootings, terrorist activity, and general dissolution of society, where suspicion, unrest, and conspiracy theories are flying back and forth. This is also the reason for the highly unusual election cycle which is being branded as a choice for the better of two evils. Many do not know it as yet, but we have been cornered as a nation, and moral declension will continue to escalate to a frightening extent, if we do not put on the emergency brakes real soon. Let’s read:
(CNN) Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are historically unpopular, but large numbers of Americans who can't stand them will likely vote for one of them anyway. They'll do this because, among other reasons, they'll feel forced into choosing the lesser of two evils.
(The Christian Post- By kevin Porter) Since Franklin Graham knows that many Christians feel that they don't have good options this presidential election season, he's advising that they support the candidate most likely to listen to their concerns. "You have to make that choice," he said. "Now, you might have to hold your nose." He also identified what he felt were currently the biggest threats to the nation, which included crime, racism, secularism, abortion, and gay marriage. During his tour stop in Madison, Wisconsin in June, Graham said the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida -- the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history -- was a "symptom" of the country's spiritual condition.
Therefore, the question is, what do we do? What can now be done to arrest the situation, so that we may experience a reversal of our fortunes? What can we do, to try to prevent the full consequences of our actions from taking effect? We must now turn to the Bible for answers, for it contains the only safe, and workable remedies that can be applied. Let’s read:
2nd Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
15 Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place.
Humbling ourselves individually and nationally will include first an admission that we have sinned, then asking God to forgive us, and a repeal of that which has caused a serious rupture in our relationship with The God in whom we claim to trust. Then, we must be willing to bear the adverse consequences of our actions, even though it will include actual loss in the temporal realm, including human lives. Then, when these prerequisites are in place, we may ask God to have mercy on us, so that He may again rein in the millions of demons that have been let loose across the land, by our own choices.
These scriptural recommendations are not expected to be popular or politically correct, but they are the only ways by which we can be restored to the divine favor. Thus, we hope and pray that our political and religious leaders may begin to connect the dots, for we have strayed very far from God’s ideal for his earth-born children. We therefore end with a few passages of scripture which encapsulate where we are, and what needs to be urgently done to stay the current, cascading course of evil. Let’s read:
Isaiah 1:15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed”…
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
May God add His blessing to the study and practice of His word.
God bless!