Genesis 3 is one of the most important chapters in all the Bible, in part because it gives God’s explanation for the presence of evil.

Up until this turning point, where “that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan” arrived on the scene, everything had been fine and wonderful.

“In Romans 5, Paul says ‘by one man sin entered,’ and it entered in this chapter with one event that’s jam-packed with information,” says Jordan. “I tell you, folks, in one chapter God lays out the whole skinny of the whole human history. No extra fluff; just the bare-bones facts.”

The Fall of Man through Adam’s eating of a grape (not an apple, as commonly thought) points to the only possible explanation for evil—and for sin, sorrow and suffering—in a world made by a benevolent, perfect Creator.

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Jordan continues, “As long as there is sin in the earth, where did it come from? In Genesis 3, you see the subtle devices of the enemy; ‘the subtilty of the devil.’ (Acts 13:10) You see the powerless of human nature and its tendency to cover up its shame with human performance and human merit.

“You see the grace of God to guilty sinners. You see the seed line of the promised Redeemer.

“Genesis 3 is one of the most unsavory, objectionable to talk about passages . . . in it you find that the root source of all questioning of the Word of God comes from Satan. Adding and subtracting from the Word of God, rebelling against God and showing the desire to be godlike.

“By the time you get to the end of the chapter, you see that man is a fallen, deluded, deceived, self-righteous buck-passer who hides from God and uses his religion as a means to disobey God’s Word.”

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When God emphasizes repeatedly in Genesis 1 that He made all the creatures of the earth “after his kind,” He’s saying, “Understand it’s always within the kind and that’s the law of nature because that’s the way I set the thing up.”

Obviously there’s no room at all for evolution in that. As Jordan once said, “You can breed ’til you’re dead and gone and you’ll never make a dog a cat—or a cat an elephant.”

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Genesis 1:16 says God “made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.”

Jordan explains, “When it says ‘he made the stars also,’ that’s not saying it was as an afterthought that God made the stars. He made the stars also to RULE. These planetary bodies are all designed in the heavens and placed for the benefit of the earth.

“In Psalm 147:4 is a very interesting thing when you study the stars in the Bible. It says, ‘He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.’ Isaiah 40:26 says, ‘Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.’

“God has numbered the stars and He’s also named them. When it says ‘he telleth,’ that’s like a teller in a bank counting up the number of the stars. It says He calleth them all by their names. God has given names to the stars and the constellations out there and He knows exactly how many there are and what they’re there for.”

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The Apostle Paul is referencing back to Gen. 1:14 (“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years”) when he writes to the Galatians:

“But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.”

As Jordan explains, “Paul said I’m worried about you because you keep months and days and all of that stuff; the significance and the reasons for birthdays and Easter and Christmas and Halloween. All the celebrations of religion start there with that issue of ‘let them be for signs’.”

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Bible students often question why Jesus Christ in John 1:49, referring to His future reign as king of Israel during the millennial kingdom, assures, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”

“They ask, ‘Well, why does it say ascending and descending rather than descending and ascending?’ ” explains Jordan. “The reason is the throne of the Lord Jesus Christ is the command center and He’s sending them out on His business and they’re coming back to report to Him. They’re going up into the heavens and coming back.

“The earth in the original creation was the location for the government of God over the universe and it will be that once again in the ages to come.

“In the millennial kingdom, people are going to see Christ and the angels coming and going from His presence in the function of their duties. Christ will be the center of activity. He’s on the earth with the throne and government that extends all the way out through the universe. He’s the head of the government of the universe.”