Genesis 3 with Pages 20-27
"Our first parents were not left without a warning of the dangers that threatened them" (PP 20). Adam and Eve were given heavenly messengers that told them about the history of the serpent that would soon tempt Eve in Genesis 3. Thinking about it deeply, it wouldn't have been fair not to give them insight, without insight they wouldn't know what to look out for, God wouldn't let us have temptation without warning us.
"The Law of God is as sacred as God Himself. It is a revelation of His will, a transcript of His character, the expression of divine love and wisdom." (PP 20). I remember Sonder saying this a lot. God's character defines good and evil, Because the transcript of His character is the law, and us being made in His divine image would also shape our morality. Of course, after the fall, it has been corrupted.
"He who spared not the angels that sinned, could not spare them; transgression would forfeit His gifts and bring upon them misery and ruin." (PP 20). God isn't giving misery to Adam and Eve, God wants them to live peacefully, but their actions lead to the disruption of lawfulness, because they have disobeyed, God cannot give them the luxury of Eden because transgression has ruined it.
"Every angel in heaven would be sent to their help...but should they once yield to temptation, their nature would become so depraved that they would have no power and no disposition to resist Satan." (PP 21). Even the angels in heaven we know can fall to Satan, as 1/3 of heaven was cast out due to the rebellion.
"Satan was not to follow them with continual temptations; he could only have access to them at the forbidden tree." (PP 21). Even Satan is to obey God, he's given restrictions of his power despite his rebellion against God. I think that it's also because that is the only place in Eden where God placed the option of Obedience or Disobedience.
"The Serpent was one of the wisest and most beautiful creatures on earth. It had wings, while flying through the air presented an appearance of dazzling brightness" (PP 21). We know snakes today as just a head and a tail that slithers on the ground, but pre-fall it actually had a lot of beauty, but the use of sin and temptation ruined it's beauty and cursed it.
"The angels had cautioned Eve to beware of separating herself from her husband...with him she would be in less danger of temptation than if she were alone...she was alone, she felt an apprehension of danger, but dismissed her fears, deciding that she had sufficient wisdom to discern evil." (PP 21). This passage goes into how the temptation happened, it wasn't pre-meditated that Eve just waltzed up to the tree one day, she was distracted and separated from her husband, she felt danger, but she herself dismissed them because she thought she alone could withstand evil and temptation. This is what lead to the fall, going towards evil and temptation alone.
"he declared they would attain to a more exalted sphere of existence and enter a broader field of knowledge...the tempter initiated that the divine warning was not to be actually fulfilled; it was designed to merely intimidate them...such has been Satan's work from the days of Adam to the present, and he has pursued it with great success." (PP 22). The pattern for temptation is always the same, and it always works as we're all still sinning.
"In judgement men will not be condemned because they conscientiously believed a lie, but because they did not believe the truth, because they neglected the opportunity to learn what is truth." (PP 22).
PP 23 goes over how when Eve came to Adam with the fruit and tempted him as well, Adam was in a huge conflict, he loved Eve and didn't want to be separated from her. In the end he decided that if she would die, he would die too, and chose to eat.
"Adam could neither deny or excuse his sin...he endeavored to cast blame upon his wife...Thus, like Adam, she charged God with the responsibility of their fall. The spirit of self-justification originated with the father of lies". (PP 24). Now that sin had infected them, the father of lies began planting his own performance Ideology in Adam and Eve, causing them to shift the blame to others on who's fault it was to avoid punishment. "He started it therefore he should be punished" kind of ideology.
"In the creation God had made her (Eve) equal of Adam. had they remained obedient to God in harmony with His great law of love, they would ever have been in harmony with each other, but sin brought discord, and now their union could be maintained and harmony preserved only by submission on the part of the one or the other." (PP 25). Ellen essentially is saying that because Eve sinned first, she was put in submission to Adam because she also solicited Adam into sinning. However she also mentioned that men have abused this supremacy and make women very bitter.
"It was not the will of God that the sinless pair should know aught of evil. He had freely given them good, and withheld the evil...they had eaten of the forbidden tree, and now they would continue to eat of it, they would have the knowledge of evil all the days of their life...instead of the happy labor heretofore appointed them, anxiety and toil were to be their lot. They would be subject to disappointment, grief, and pain, and finally to death." (PP 25).
"The tide of woe that flowed from our first parents is regarded by many as too awful a consequence for so small a sin, and they impeach the wisdom and justice of God in His dealings with man. But if they would look more deeply into this question, they might discern their error. God created man after His own likeness, free from sin...but their obedience must be tested; for God would not permit the world to be filled with those who would disregard his Law, yet in His great mercy, he appointed Adam no severe test, and the very lightness of the prohibition made the sin exceedingly great. If Adam could not bear the smallest of test, he could not have endured a greater trial had he been entrusted with higher responsibilities." (PP 26). Adams trial was the first test, God wouldn't give him a huge trial to begin with. Adam was given a small test, he failed. Therefore God put him in a situation that might prepare for the future. (For us it would be to prepare for another trial or responsibility, in this case it was to prepare for the plan of redemption.) Plus it also mentioned that "their sin opened the floodgates of woe upon the world. Who can know, in the moment of temptation, the terrible consequences that will result from one wrong step?" (PP 26-27).