'elohiym

Perhaps you are asking how I became mired in a pit in the first place. Unfortunately, the short answer to that question raises more questions than it answers; but if you would like to know anyway, then the short answer is that I was born there -- and I was not the only one. But, alas, I am getting ahead of myself.

Let's take a journey together back through time before you, your parents, or even your grandparents were born; before the industrial revolution, the birth of the United States of America, or even the "discovery" of the New World by Christopher Columbus; before the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance, or even the Middle Ages; before the Roman Empire and Republic, the "worldwide" conquest of Alexander the Great, or even the golden years of Greek civilization; and before the empires of the Persians, the Babylonians, or even the Egyptians. We have covered thousands of years of time, and yet we have thousands of more to go before we reach our destination. But once we arrive we will find something truly amazing:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
-- Genesis 1:27-31

This is my very good Friend. Obviously, He is much more than that. Here He is named 'elohiym or, simply, God. You see, He created the very first man and woman and, like the rest of His handiwork, they were very good. In some ways they were like us today: they looked much like us in appearance, they were blessed with the ability to bear and raise children, they ate food, and they craved and enjoyed fellowship with each other. In some ways they were quite different from us today: they walked with God in unrestrained fellowship, they knew no sin, they were immortal, they were vegetarians, and they were granted rule over the entire animal kingdom.

How long the first couple enjoyed this state of perfect bliss is difficult to say beyond that it was less than 130 years. But what is certain is that it did end. According to Genesis 2:16-17, "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 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."

The tragic sequence of events is recorded in Genesis 3:

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 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.

Now you may notice that Adam, the man whom God was addressing in Genesis 2:16-17, is patently not dead in the conventional sense. In fact, according to Genesis 5 he lives on at least another 800 years to the ripe old age of 930. So what's the deal? Didn't God tell Adam that he would die the day he ate the forbidden fruit? We need to remember Genesis 1:27 which states, "...God created man in his own image...."

Man, like God, is more than just a body: he is a spirit, too. Adam's spirit and his unrestrained fellowship with God died the very day that Adam sinned by eating the forbidden fruit as evidenced by Genesis 3:22-24.

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

This passage also points out that Adam's body began to die the day he sinned. Although it appears that Adam lived a supernaturally long life, we must remember that he was created to be immortal. However, the most tragic part of Adam's sin was his immediate separation from 'elohiym, his Creator.