The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

CHAPTER FIVE: The Penalty of Death for Disobedience

When God placed man in the Garden He told him plainly, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:16, 17). CFF1 69.1

The message of God could hardly have been clearer. He declared that He would punish disobedience with death. This Adam and Eve understood full well, for Eve referred to the death threat when she parleyed with the serpent. And as intimated, it was doubtless fear of punishment that prompted the guilty pair to flee in terror when they heard God calling them in the Garden. Let us return to the frightened pair standing before their insulted Maker that fateful day in Eden. CFF1 69.2