The story of Adam and Eve remains one of the most recognisable and foundational accounts in all of Scripture. It explains not only the origin of man, but of the world we inhabit: the institution of marriage and family, the entry of sin and death, and humanity’s ruptured relationship with God. Artists throughout history have depicted the famous scene—Adam and Eve beneath the forbidden tree, deceived by the serpent, grasping at what God had forbidden.

Yet this account is far more than a mere historical explanation of beginnings. It is a warning.

The echoes of Eden reverberate throughout history, and more than that, we are living through such an echo today. Like Eden, Western civilisation was once a fertile garden. It was ordered by Christian belief, marked by personal restraint, ideals of chivalry, respect for women and children, and a moral framework in which rape, theft, and murder were not a daily occurrence. Then the serpent arrived.

He did not come openly as a destroyer, but as a liberator—an angel of light. He whispered new ideologies to Western men and women, promising freedom and autonomy. These ideologies were presented as enlightenment, freedom, and progress, yet their true design was the same as in Eden: to entice mankind to eat to their own destruction.

In the name of liberation, Western civilisation embraced rebellion against God. And as in Eden, the result was not freedom but cultural and social madness, compounded by inevitable judgment. Satan has not changed his strategy. He never needed to. The tragedy in our own downfall is not his cleverness, but our blindness. Biblically illiterate and historically ignorant, we failed to recognise the serpent when he spoke yet again.

The deception was not merely that Western man embraced new ideas, but deadly ideas. They were the inverse of those foundational assumptions from which the Western world emerged. Scripture calls Satan a murderer for good reason. His aim in Eden was the death of Adam, the loss of the garden, and the curse upon mankind. The same pattern holds today. Satan promised the Christian West, “You shall be like God.” What we received instead was bondage, disorder, and decay.

The account of Adam and Eve is not only a historical record of the beginning. It is a perpetual warning. When the enemy infiltrates the garden and persuades its inhabitants to transgress what God has forbidden, the result is always death and destruction.

The Western world once enjoyed the increasing blessings of Christ and the peace produced by the gospel. We abandoned it, believing freedom could be found apart from God. All we gained in return was expulsion from the garden, cultural disintegration, and the shadow of death that now hangs over our civilisation.

So what shall we do? Where shall we go?

We cannot repair what we have destroyed by continuing to heed the serpent’s voice. The serpent should have been recognised, exposed, and cast out of the garden long ago. Instead, he was tolerated, believed, and then celebrated.

In the same way, the enemies of Christ infiltrated the garden of Christendom and asked its heirs, “Hath God said?” We ate. And today, we are suffering the consequences.

The elites of this world seek to build their own Eden, in their own image—a garden where they, not Christ, sit on the throne. It is a false Eden. But like the true Eden, it will not be established without the shedding of blood. That is why every attempt to impose a man-made utopia on earth has resulted in the mass slaughter of the innocents.

Across all known major attempts to impose these utopian delusions, conservative historical estimates indicate that more than 100 million innocent people have been slaughtered through executions, engineered famines, forced labour, and ideological purges. Even at the lowest credible estimate, the death toll rivals the combined casualties of the deadliest wars in human history.

But Christendom is unique. Not because it didn’t require bloodshed—it did. But because the blood has already been shed, and the blood that was shed was the blood of the King in place of his people.

There is a pathway back to Eden. If we want to return to the garden, in this life and more importantly, the next, then we must return on the path God has set before us. There is only “one Way.”

God did not abandon Adam and Eve to their rebellion. Even in judgment, He acted in grace. He clothed them, and He promised that someday a child of Eve would restore access to the garden. The only hope for humanity today is the grace once extended to Adam and Eve—bought at a price by the blood of Eve’s promised offspring, Christ Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords.

Without returning to Christianity, the greatness of Western civilisation will not, and cannot, be restored. Unfortunately, at present, the enemies of Christ understand that far better than the heirs of the West.