What Was the Forbidden Fruit?

Tonight, I would like to talk about the crisis of love. We live in many crises in our world. But the worst crisis of all is the crisis of love. There are many hungers in our world. But the worst hunger of all is the hunger for love.

But did you know that this crisis of love originated at the dawn of human history?

At the very beginning, the misuse of love was there, which has brought misery to mankind today. When we read the Bible, we know that God created the heavens and the earth. He created Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, in the Garden of Eden.

We also read in the Bible that God placed a mysterious tree in the center of the Garden of Eden. Those trees were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Very strange names, aren't they?

Then God gave man a commandment, saying,

"Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day you eat of it you shall die." (Gen. 2:17)

This is the first time the Bible speaks of death. Adam and Eve, however, ate the fruit, the forbidden fruit. What was it? Was it an apple? Was it an orange? Or was it a good banana? We do not know.

A few years ago, I went to Rome and had the privilege of seeing the great Vatican Museum. On the great wall and ceiling there, probably the greatest painter in history, Michelangelo, painted the history of God, from the creation to the resurrection, covering Genesis to Revelation.

There I saw the scene depicting the fall of man. He had painted an apple tree, with a naked woman standing beside it, picking an apple and eating it, then picking another apple and giving it to Adam.

That was the scene of the fall of man, which has brought misery to mankind. Michelangelo did not do anything wrong. That is precisely how the Bible describes the scene, even though it does not specify that it was an apple tree.

If the forbidden fruit was an apple, I'm afraid that Adam had terrible teeth. He didn't even chew the apple. He swallowed it whole, and it stuck right here, in his throat. That's how all men today came to have an Adam's apple.

But the problem is, however, that the original sin that Adam and Eve committed must be hereditary, because the Bible says, “In Adam all die.”

We are suffering from the consequences of the sin of Adam. So it must have been a hereditary sin. But today, science proves that no material eaten by mouth could cause such hereditary results. It is impossible.

Furthermore, we have the word of Jesus Christ, in Matthew 15:11:

"Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man."

So, according to the teaching of Jesus Christ, that theory of the forbidden fruit being an apple cannot stand. But today, on the other hand, many theologians think that it is not significant whether the fruit was an apple, an orange, or a banana.

They say that the very act of disobedience was the problem. God was angry when man disobeyed Him and threw him into the jail of hell, casting him out. That was the fall.

Then let me ask you this. There are many good parents in this audience. I know you spank your children once in a while. I do that, too. That doesn't hurt them. But no good parent would test the obedience of his children by risking the very lives of those children.

Would you deliberately cook a poison cookie, place it in your child's playroom, and say to your child, “Listen to me; if you disobey me and eat this cookie, surely you shall die”?

And then if the child mistakenly ate this poison cookie and died, then would you say, “See what I told you?” No good parent would do that. Our God is a heavenly father to us, a God of love. He would never test His own children at the risk of their lives.

If He were, then God would not be a God of love but must be a God of cruelty. And that cannot be. So this theory does not stand. So tonight I would like to invite your attention to this serious matter and uncover the very truth about the original sin and the misuse of love.

Furthermore, Jesus spoke many times in the Bible about Satan, the devil. We also know from our lives that an evil power is working in our world, which is controlled by the master of evil, known as Satan in the Bible. Who is he?

Furthermore, according to the Bible, this Satan is constantly accusing man in the sight of God. But man has had no way to prosecute Satan in the sight of God because we have not known his true identity.

Furthermore, we do not know the crime of Satan. We will uncover these things here tonight. I invite all of you to join me on our heavenly FBI tour. Let's go to the Garden of Eden and find out what actually happened at the dawn of human history.

The tree of life was mentioned in Genesis. But this is not the only place in the Bible where the tree of life is mentioned. When we read Revelation, the tree of life also appears there.

Furthermore, we read in Revelation 22:13 that God says,

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

God is the beginning and the end, the same. Therefore, in this one Bible, the tree of life in Genesis and the tree of life in Revelation must mean the same thing. This is Alpha, and this is Omega. Therefore, the tree of life in Alpha and the tree of life in Omega must mean the same thing.

Today, however, the Christian world generally agrees about the meaning of the tree of life in Revelation 22:14:

"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates."

When we accept Christ and wash our robes of sin, we shall have the right to enter the city by the gates to meet the tree of life. Here, the tree of life is interpreted as the coming Christ. In Revelation, the tree of life is Jesus.

Then, the tree of life in Genesis must also be Jesus. However, as you know, in the Garden of Eden, Jesus Christ had not yet been incarnated in the flesh. No person was standing in the Garden of Eden as Jesus Christ.

But when we read I Corinthians 15:45, we find,

"Thus it is written, 'The first man Adam became a living being'; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit."

The first Adam was the Adam in the Garden of Eden. Yet, the Bible says that Jesus came as the last Adam—or second Adam. Jesus, as a life-giving spirit, came in the position of the last Adam.

In the Garden of Eden, there was no person like Jesus, but there was Adam. In the Bible, we know that Jesus taught the truth many times using symbols and parables.

For instance, Jesus said,

"I am the vine, you are the branches." (John 15:5)

He also said that he was the true olive tree, while we are the wild olive tree. These are symbolic expressions. By the same token, in the Garden of Eden, when God said “tree of life,” God meant Adam.

But in the center of the Garden of Eden, there were two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And there were also two persons standing side by side in the center of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve.

Therefore, we can conclude that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolically expresses the person of Eve, the first woman. Then what was the fruit? The fruit is the love of Eve. The fruit bears the seed. Love bears the seed of man.

Now, let me invite your attention to another creature in the Garden of Eden, which was the serpent. This serpent enticed Eve to commit a crime. The serpent was really committing a tremendous sin in the sight of God. The serpent, you know, is an ugly animal, commonly known as a snake.

Let us hear what this snake said to the woman, Eve:

"You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Gen. 3:4-5)

This serpent enticed Eve in a very cunning, clever way. And here we must note that this ugly serpent was speaking of God and His commandment. He knew precisely what God had said to Adam and Eve.

Do you think an ugly snake in the field could do that?

No. Only a spiritual being could have the capability of knowing God.

No animal can know the presence of God, except spiritual beings—man and angels. God is spirit. And only with spirit can God be recognized. Only men and angels can recognize God; no other creatures can.

So this serpent cannot be a literal snake. It must be a symbolic expression of either a man or an angel. But man, Adam and Eve were the very victims of the serpent, so man cannot be the serpent.

So it must be an angel. Then you say, “An angel? How could an angel sin?”

Let the Bible answer. We read in II Peter 2:4,

"God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom."

God did not spare the angels when they sinned. Then what angels sinned, and what kind of sin did they commit?

We read in Revelation 12:9,

"And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him."

Here, the serpent is identified as the Devil and Satan. So now we see that an angel committed a crime in the sight of God and became the Devil and Satan and was thrown down into hell, along with his angels. Now we see that this fallen angel is the serpent, the Devil, and Satan. Then what kind of crime did this fallen angel, Satan, commit?

Again, let the Bible answer, in Jude 6-7:

"And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the great day; just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust."

The fallen angels departed from their proper dwelling and committed the same sin as the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And because of their immorality and unnatural lust, God sent fire and brimstone to bring judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

The angels likewise committed the same sins. Therefore, the fallen angel's sin must be one of immorality and unnatural lust—adultery.

Now, let us divert your attention to Adam and Eve.

We read in Genesis 2:25 that God described the sinless state of Adam and Eve.

"And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed."

They had no shame. God created nothing shameful. Then right after that, they did something wrong in the sight of God.

Then we read in Genesis 3:7,

"Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons."

In the Old Testament, we read that Job says,

"If I have concealed my transgressions from men (like Adam), by hiding my iniquity in my bosom... "(Job 31:33).

Job is saying that in the Garden of Eden, Adam tried to hide his transgression and iniquity with an apron. If the crime was eating an apple, then they would have picked that apple by hand and eaten it with their mouths. Then they should have hidden their hands and mouths.

But an apron has only one purpose: to hide the lower part of the human body. And there is only one sin that we can commit with the lower part of the body: adultery. Then we know that Satan, the fallen angel, seduced Eve.

So we can readily see that the first woman, Eve, and the fallen angel committed illicit love, false love, and fornication. This was the spiritual fall of man in the sight of God. And then, according to the Bible, that first woman brought this sin to Adam and transmitted the crime to him. She caused him to repeat this fallen act.

This constituted the physical fall of man in the sight of God. God created man in spirit and body. And man fell both spiritually and physically. God created Adam and Eve so that they would become perfect. Adam was to become the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

As I said, of course, the tree of life is symbolic, so I have no way to show the tree of life. But for illustration, this will represent the tree of life.

However, Adam never reached the tree of life because God blocked the way to the tree of life by the cherubim and a flaming sword after the fall of man. Adam never reached the tree of life.

The first man and woman were created in the lineage of God, as God's true children. They were pure and genuine, of the tree of life. But Adam and Eve united with Satan. Spiritual death came.

This is why Jesus said,

"You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning." (John 8:44)

This fallen angel really murdered Adam and Eve and gave them rebirth, making them the sinful children of the Devil.

This is why Jesus said,

"You are of your father the devil. He was a murderer from the beginning."

How did he do it? With a lie.

Therefore, Jesus said in this same scripture that he was a liar and the father of lies. Since then, all mankind has been born from a dead tree, not from the tree of life.

We are born into the fallen, Satanic lineage. God does not recognize this tree, this root. All mankind comes from the wrong root.

Jesus Christ came 2,000 years ago as the first tree of life in history. What he was asking us to do was to become adopted as sons of God. We were born from the wrong tree, the wrong root.

We must be adopted. We must be cut off from the wrong root and adopted, grafted into the tree of life. This is what the Bible means when it speaks of adoption as sons in the sight of God. This is what the Bible means when it says we must be born again.

We must be cut off from the tree of evil and born again into the tree of life. This is what Christianity is all about. We, the wild olive tree, must be grafted into the true olive tree and share the richness of the true root of God. However, all mankind is still born from this dead tree. Each of us has to be adopted. This is our destiny.

However, Jesus promised the Second Coming.

Do you know why he is coming?

There is one more step of salvation to bring us total salvation. He will make us whole so that we will no longer be born from that tree and wrong root.

We shall be born from the root of God from birth, without sin. We shall have life in God from our birth. We will not need a Savior.

We will live in the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. And without a Savior, all men can be automatically accepted into the Heaven of God. Actually, this is what God designed. If there had been no fall, no Savior would have been necessary.

Isn't that true?

If you are enjoying perfect health, why would you need a physician? Therefore, the Day of Hope is coming. Christ is returning to bring us into wholeness so that we all may be perfected, without original sin.

We will be born of God. Then Christ will no longer say, “You are of your father the devil.” He will say, “You are of your father, God.”

Let me quickly go over the way this all happened.

What was the motivation of the fallen archangel, Satan?

Initially, God created the angelic world before He created man. And many people today do not know why God created angels. And many people even worship angels.

But did you know that an angel is a servant of God?

And do you know that you are created as a child of God?

You are the princes and princesses of God. And the angels, who were supposed to be the servants of God, must also be the servants of man.

This is why the Bible says we are to judge the angels. We are to have power and lordship over the angelic world.

This is the power of man, because we are children of God. But there was an archangel named Lucifer, who was something like the prime minister in the angelic world. He was very jealous of Adam when God created man. He harbored false ambition. He was very arrogant. He thought, “Is there any way I can not only rule over the angelic world but the entire human world as well? I want to be like God.” This was his ambition.

Let me give you just one verse from the Bible that shows Lucifer's ambition:

"How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, Lucifer, son of Dawn. You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will make myself like the Most High.' "(Is. 14:12-14)

Can you see the arrogance and ambition of Lucifer?

He wanted to put his throne above the Most High and rule over the stars of God. Who are the stars of God? You and I.

Adam and Eve were the stars of God. And Lucifer thought the only way he could achieve that ambition was by seducing Eve, thus toppling the position of Adam, taking over Adam's role by uniting in love with the first woman, the mother of mankind. This was his motivation. And when he looked at Eve, she was beautiful to him.

After all, Eve was the latest creation of God—shall we say, the latest model? The later God created, the more beautiful and complex His work must be. That was a woman.

So Lucifer, driven by his ambition and his urge for illicit love, ruthlessly approached Eve. And unfortunately, Eve did not keep faith in God. She listened to Lucifer's lie and united with him. Not only that, but after that act, she carried it over to Adam, thus bringing herself and her future husband to the side of Satan.

This brought all humanity into the wrong root, the wrong lineage. Briefly, this is what happened.

Now I know you have one grave question: How could God's creation go wrong like this?

God must be almighty. He created everything. The angel, the man, and the woman are all creations of God. They must be created in the principle of God.

That's very true. So let me make one vital point. I have borrowed this toy railroad track. Let's say this track is like the law of God.

Now here is a toy train that goes on this track. A train, running on the rails, does not have a steering wheel. An automobile has a steering wheel, but a train does not.

Do you know why?

It doesn't need one. The train has no freedom to derail from the tracks. In the same way, all creation is like a train, created upon the track of God, the law or principle of God. So the creation has no power of itself to stray from the law of God.

But sometimes train accidents happen. Some power greater than the holding force of the track may hit the train, derailing it.

If some power in this universe is greater than the divine law of God, then even Adam and Eve can stray from the original course. Is there such a power?

Ladies and gentlemen, yes, there is one power in this universe greater than the law and principle of God. It is supreme over all in the universe. That is the power of love.

God did not want to create a world of law, a world of commandment. God is love—infinite love. God wanted to create a world of love, where He could give His infinite love and receive infinite love and joy in return. This is the world God envisioned in His creation.

Therefore, He made the power of love greater than every other power, giving love the supreme position. And we can see this in our lives.

Last winter, there was a great fire in Boston. Knowing a baby was sleeping in the burning house, a mother ran up the stairs, picked up the baby, and threw the baby down, shouting, “Take care of my baby! Take care of my baby!” She burned to death. The sacrificial love of a mother can go beyond the power of death.

Many young Americans have laid down their lives for the love of their country. Romeo and Juliet certainly proved that the power of love goes far beyond the power of death. This is the power of love.

Because the power of love is supreme, once man reaches perfection and unites with the love of God, nothing in this universe can separate God and man.

In other words, once we reach perfection and unite with God, all mankind would remain in that state for eternity. In the perfection of God, no corruption is possible because we are welded into the power of the love of God. This is the world God envisioned. But before Adam and Eve could reach that state, God knew that they would have to grow into maturity.

Isn't that true?

Your children, our teenagers, have to grow into maturity. God knew that Adam and Eve must grow into maturity. During this period of growth, God knew that man needed extra protection, extra help. For that purpose, God gave Adam and Eve the commandment, Do not eat the fruit.

This commandment actually means. “Watch out! Until you reach perfection. Do not misuse your love. Preserve your purity.”

That was the commandment. As a good father, what kind of advice would I give to my nineteen-year-old daughter? The best advice I can give, the best commandment I can give, is the same advice that God gave Adam and Eve.

"Watch out! Until you reach perfection and are united in the spirit of God. do not misuse your love."

Isn't that the same advice you, good parents, are giving to your children?

And what broke God's heart?

Eve trusted Satan more than she trusted God. This really broke God's heart. In other words, the woman listened more to the word of the lie of the fallen angel and disobeyed God.

Obedience must come from the faith of man. But the faith of man cannot be forced.

Tonight, if I forced you at gunpoint to make you believe in God and Christ, it would not be called faith. In 1951, I was fighting in a fierce battle in the Korean War.

I was a company commander. The Red Chinese army attacked. We were counterattacking a hill. Moreover, Hill, there was a machine gun bunker. And the enemy soldiers there were firing, firing, firing, firing—right up until the very end when our soldiers finally got there and threw hand grenades into the bunker.

As a company commander, I thought, “Even though they are the enemy, what brave soldiers they are! How loyal they must be!” I admired them. But when I got down into that bunker, I found that every enemy machine gunner was chained to the concrete blocks. They had no way to escape. They had been put there by force—to die.

Do you call that loyalty? Do you call that faith in the country?

No. God did not want to use chains to tie up your heart to a concrete block. This would not be faith. God could not take any delight or joy in such children. What God is hoping and wishing for is our willing response, our willing loyalty to Him.

This is the kind of faith that Adam and Eve did not demonstrate in the Garden of Eden. This is the same faith this world is failing to demonstrate in God and Christ today. The problem is the same.

The Bible says,

"God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son..." (John 3:16).

But that is of no use until you respond to the Son of God. This is why the Bible says,

"... that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

If you have no belief in him, then no matter how many times Christ knocks at your door, it is of no use; God cannot force your faith. God is teaching us and inviting us to the great glory of life. This must come from faith. This must come from the willing response, from our free will. This is what we should do.

You know, today in America, there is so much misuse and abuse. By the way, I am a great admirer of America. I really admire the Christian character of America.

In 1952, when I first came to America and saw her beauty, I wrote my tribute to America. I admire her. But today I can see that America is getting away from her beauty. There is misuse of freedom. Freedom is abused. Free morality, free sex, free drugs. Misuse of drugs, misuse of weapons, misuse of power, and misuse of money.

However, the worst consequences of all can come from the misuse of love. Love is something like atomic energy.

If you unleash atomic energy, as in a hydrogen bomb, it can destroy this world in no time. But if the atomic energy of hydrogen is controlled, it can turn the Sahara Desert into a blooming oasis.

Atomic energy can bring a physical utopia, like Miami Beach. When we misuse love, it can bring destruction to ourselves, our family, our society, and our whole world in no time. But love is God's supreme gift when we use it in one way—God's way. Then love can bring eternal happiness, true joy, and unity with God.

Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by brimstone and fire because these two cities indulged in immorality and unnatural lust.

Today, my heart is aching. America is each day increasingly turning into another modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah.

We must fear God. And we must realize that God's time bomb is ticking. God's patience is running out. We must realize that America is important in the sight of God. He has been waiting patiently. An awakening must come right away.

Some time ago, Time magazine revealed the most startling news in the results of a survey. They found that there is a VD epidemic in America—venereal disease—second only to the common cold. We cannot accept that. I don't want to believe it of my America. This is not the America I saw. We must not let this happen.

Today, we must learn the right use of God's love. We must learn to redirect our love and use it correctly. Jesus said that first we must love God and Christ more than anybody else.

God is your God. He is the Author of life. Actually, you are loving your life most.

Therefore, we must love God with all our hearts and our zeal, mind, and soul. This is the first and greatest commandment.

Jesus said,

"He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

Do you think Jesus said this because he was very selfish and stingy? No. He wanted to give true life. Only in love can we unite.

Only through love can we become one with Christ so that we can truly live not for this world alone, but for eternity. For that purpose, Jesus came.

The other day, a young man came up after the speech. He was a very handsome, good-looking fellow. And with tears in his eyes, he said, “Col. Pak, I am no good anymore. I have lived a miserable life. I have no hope. I'm a sinner. I'm dirty. I'm a no-good guy.” I said to this brother, “Come here, please.

Do you know that I am another sinner?

And do you know anybody who is not a sinner in this world in the sight of God?”

Then I said, “Let me tell you something. God always speaks in the language of the present tense.

God will not ask you, 'Where have you been? What were you?' God will only ask you, 'What are you? Are you with me?” If your answer is, “Yes,” then God will no longer ask about your past. I will give you an example.

When Jesus was crucified on the cross, there were two criminals crucified together with him—one on the left and one on the right. They were thieves.

The thief on the left said to Jesus,

"Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" (Luke 23:39).

In other words, “If you are the son of God, why don't you come down and save yourself and save us too?” He was scornfully laughing at Jesus Christ. Then the thief on the right said to the left-hand thief, “You rascal! Don't you fear God?

The two of us deserve this criminal's death. But this man, Jesus, did not do anything to deserve this death.”

Then this right-hand thief turned his head towards Jesus and said to the Lord,

"Lord Jesus, remember me today."

Do you know what Jesus said to him?

"Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23-43)

The first man ever to accompany the Son of God into heaven was none other than the worst kind of criminal you can think of, the one who was crucified on the right-hand side of Jesus Christ.

Today, God will not ask you, “Where have you been?

Where were you?” Tonight, God will ask you, “Where are you? Are you with me?” If your answer is “Yes,” you are blessed.

If your answer is “No,” tonight is the night to accept God and Christ, because tomorrow will never come.

Tomorrow will always remain tomorrow, and tomorrow will never come.