Just Because: The Story of Salvation for Children (3 page)

will bite his heel, and He will crush your head.”

Satan got out of that snake’s body and ran out of

there as fast as he could go, but of course only the

Lord saw him go because he was invisible to Adam

and Eve. The snake fell down and started crawling

away. Satan found some of his demon buddies waiting

for him and told them what the Lord had said, but not

exactly as the Lord had said it.

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“This woman is going to have a child, He told

me, and He said I’m gonna fight Him and He is going

to win. How can a kid beat me? I’m the greatest.

I’m the king of this world now. Adam and Eve have

fol owed me, and God’s precious lit le people are

al going to die.” Satan was angry and screaming by

this time. “I’l make al people hate God. I’l make

them believe God doesn’t exist. I’l drag them into

hel , and God wil wish He had never made any of

them. I wil make God sad for His lit le creatures,

because He hates to see them hurt and sinning. I’ll

make them learn to hate and fight and kil . When

this kid who is supposed to beat me comes along,

I’l kil Him while He is stil a baby; He won’t have

a chance to beat me.”

Satan thought it might be Eve’s baby who was

going to fight him, but he was wrong. That special

baby wouldn’t be born for a very long time, and His

name would be Jesus.

Meanwhile back in the garden the Lord was

talking to Adam and Eve. He said to them, “Because

you have sinned, this whole world will be affected.

All the plants and animals and the ground also, every-

thing I gave you, will have death and disease because

you have made Satan the ‘god of this world,’ because

you have sinned like him. All people will sin because

of you, and only those children of yours who decide

to love and obey Me will escape from being Satan’s

children. All those who follow him and refuse to

change will end up destroyed in hell as he will.”

Just then they heard the roar of the lion and saw

him run from the garden with blood on his mouth.

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The killing had started. The little lamb that had

played with the lion was dead. The Lord watched all

of this. He knew this was the first little lamb to die,

but one day another lamb would die, one who would

be called the Lamb of God, Jesus, and He would die

for a good reason, to save the world from sin.

So terrible things happened because of Adam and

Eve’s sin. The Lord told them to leave the garden

because nothing with sin could stay in there and

survive, and the Lord put one of his sword-angels to

guard the gate. When they went outside the garden

they saw that thistles had begun to grow and the

animals were hunting each other. Adam noticed

that some of his hair had started to fall out, and Eve

thought she might have some wrinkles and a tooth-

ache. They were beginning to die.

The saddest thing was that when they were not

in the garden they could not hear the Lord as well as

when they were. Sin had made them separate from

God, and now it was much harder to hear His voice

and impossible to see Him. Not only were they dying

in their bodies, but worse than this their perfection

had died; they were not perfect anymore.

God forgave Adam and Eve for their sin, but as

when anyone sins, bad things happened that were

because of that sin. The Lord didn’t stop Satan from

tricking them, and He didn’t stop them from sinning;

He wanted them to choose whom they would follow.

If we couldn’t choose, then we couldn’t even choose

to love the Lord. So it is a good thing to have a choice

even if we make the wrong choice sometimes.

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Now Adam and Eve were out of Eden, and Satan

had power on the earth. The Lord had decided He

would let the world exist for a set number of years,

and then He would finish it. But only He would

know when that day would be. That day He would

take all the people who love Him home to His para-

dise. But those who hate Him, He would have to let

go with Satan and be destroyed forever at the end

of the world. But now the world would never be the

same, and there would be sadness and horrible things

happening. People would get sick and die, and people

would learn to hate and kill. But Jesus would also

come and save His people, and all this has happened

Just Because Adam and Eve sinned.

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Life outside the garden was much different for

Adam and Eve. They had to plant seeds and

grow their own food although the Lord had put many

fruit trees outside for them as well. Back at the gate

into Eden the sword-angel stood and stopped anyone

from going inside. He held a flaming sword in his

hand which looked like bright fire.

Satan and his buddies stayed away from him

because they knew God’s sword-angels were the

toughest angels in the galaxy. They found that out

when they tried to have a war in heaven and throw

the Lord out. They had been the ones thrown out. You

just don’t mess with the Lord’s angels—not that they

would ever hurt anyone who loves the Lord. In fact,

the Bible says God has one of these dudes keeping an

eye on every boy and girl.

The world was no longer perfect, but Adam and

Eve tried to make a new life and a new family. The

Lord told them to have lots of children, so that was

what they decided to do. Their first two boys were

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called Cain and Abel, and they were very different

guys. Abel really liked to look after sheep so he

became a shepherd, someone who looks after sheep.

That makes sense, doesn’t it? Cain liked to grow

things so he grew lots of wheat for making flour and

bread, and he grew vegetables and stuff.

One day Cain and Abel brought offerings to

give to the Lord to ask for the Lord’s blessing on

their work. Now Abel brought some meat, and Cain

thought, “I’m gonna bring whatever I want so I will

bring some wheat grain.” The Lord was pleased with

Abel’s offering but not with Cain’s, and Cain became

angry about this. So the Lord warned him to be careful

that his bad moods didn’t make him do evil things.

Cain didn’t listen; some people just never do.

Now Satan had heard what went on, and he decided

to put a few very nasty thoughts into Cain’s head.

Cain started thinking some very bad things such as

“the Lord likes my brother more than me so I think I

will try to get rid of him.” So Cain had a plan, a very

evil plan. He may have thought it up all by himself,

but I think perhaps he had some help from you-

know-who. Cain didn’t have to listen to these bad

ideas, but his anger started to control him. One day

Cain asked Abel to go out to the fields with him, and

Abel went. When Abel wasn’t looking Cain picked

up a big rock and smashed it down on Abel’s head,

and he fell to the ground and died. He had a big cut

on his head, and the blood went into the ground, and

the Lord knew Abel had died.

Cain went home, and the Lord went to him and

asked him, “Where is your brother Abel?”

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Cain said, “I don’t know where he is, and it isn’t

my job to look after him anyway.”

The Lord told Cain that Abel’s blood had called

to him from the ground, and this meant the Lord

knew that Cain had killed him. The Lord told Cain he

must be punished for killing his brother; now when

he tried to grow his vegetables and other produce he

would have heaps of weeds and stuff. The Lord also

sent him away from his family to live in the land of

Nod. Funny name, I reckon; but Nod was a real place

in those days, and that was where he went.

Old Satan was pleased, of course, because he

had seen the first person kill another person. Satan

loves to see evil things, especially people hurting

each other and rebelling against God. Cain left his

family, and he and his wife went to the land of Nod

and made a home there.

Now Adam lived to be a very old man; in fact he

lived to be 930 years old. People lived much longer

in those days because they didn’t get sick and didn’t

have any bad germs around.

One of Adam’s great-great-great-grandchildren

was called Enoch. Enoch lived until he was 365

years old, and he never ever died. That’s right, guys.

He never ever died because he always obeyed the

Lord, and one day the Lord just zapped him up to

heaven. He didn’t collect anything to take on the

journey; he just shot through, straight up. Must have

fairly freaked out Mrs. Enoch, eh? She was probably

walking around her kitchen calling out to Enoch to

come for dinner.

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“Hey, dear, why don’t you come for dinner?

You’ve been praying for ages, and your dinner

is going to get cold if you don’t stop soon. I can’t

understand why you love God so much when you

can’t even see Him.”

“Enoch!” she yelled. “Get in here, will you, man?

Enoch, why don’t you answer me?” Mrs. Enoch

walked outside just in time to see Enoch’s feet disap-

pearing through the clouds. She probably fainted or

something, and when she woke up she had twice as

much food to eat.

I’ll bet Satan was as mad as a donkey with its tail

on fire. Up until now he had watched everyone die

when they got old, but Enoch slipped right through

his fingers. Satan was still watching out for this

baby that was gonna fight him, but he wasn’t really

worried at the moment because things in the world

were becoming very, very bad.

After Cain killed Abel other people did that as

well, and things were going to get even worse. Some

of Satan’s demon buddies had decided they would

like to have children and their children would be

huge giants who would teach the people very evil

things. When you thought it couldn’t get any worse it

did—and Just Because only one man on earth really

loved the Lord now. His name was Noah. The other

one who really loved the Lord had just left through

the clouds before dinner. ZAP—gone.

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Now things were getting very bad in the world,

and people stopped believing in the Lord. One

man still believed in the Lord and also loved the Lord,

and his name was Noah. Near where Noah lived and

everywhere in the world, people had become very

evil. Some of Satan’s buddies married human girls

and had babies that grew into big giants. They were

called the Nephilim, and they were half demon. They

were very powerful and strong, and many people have

written stories about them. The Nephilim taught the

people evil things, like how to kill each other. They

made the people worship Satan. All the people except

a few were listening to Satan and his demon buddies

and not to God. People would do anything Satan

asked them to do, and they did terrible things to each

other. They were killing each other and stealing and

killing their children and burning people alive. They

built big buildings like pyramids and killed people

on top of these buildings. They told the people that

if they did this then the gods would help them. The

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gods they were talking about were their parents, the

demons, and especially Satan. It was a terrible time

to be alive in those days because you never knew

when terrible things might happen to you.

The Lord saw all the evil in the world, and He

decided to stop it. He decided to give the people a

chance to change; He would make a big flood, and

every evil person would drown. So the Lord told Noah

to build a huge boat called an ark. The Bible doesn’t

tell us how He spoke to Noah, but Noah heard Him

anyway. Now Noah decided to trust the Lord even

though he didn’t know for sure what would happen

in the future. The Lord was pleased with Noah for

trusting Him, because God loves people to have

faith. Faith just means to trust the Lord and do what

He asks, even when you don’t know for sure what

will happen.

The Lord told Noah exactly how to make the

ark and how many rooms to put into it. Noah drew a

picture of what the ark would look like, and he started

work. It was the first time anyone in the world had

ever built a big boat. It would be bigger than a whole

football field and take a very long time to build. Noah

was five hundred years old when he began to build

the ark, and it took one hundred years to build. But

he had some help because Noah had three sons called

Shem, Ham and Japheth.

While the ark was being built everyone in the