It is clear that the serpent who tempted the human beings to fall was an angel, and that this angel became Satan when he sinned and fell. Let us now investigate what kind of sin the angel and the human beings committed.
The Crime of the Angel
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, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Jude 6-7 From this passage we can infer that the angel fell as a result of an illicit sexual relationship.
Fornication is a crime which cannot be committed alone. With whom did the angel commit the illicit sexual act in the Garden of Eden? In order to unveil this mystery, let us examine what kind of sin the human beings committed.
The Crime of the Human Beings
We read that before they fell, Adam and Eve were both naked, and were not ashamed. (Gen. 2:25) After the Fall, however, they felt ashamed of their nakedness and sewed fig leaves together into aprons to cover their lower parts (Gen. 3:7).
If they had committed a crime by eating some actual fruit from a tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then they certainly would have covered their hands or mouths instead.It is human nature to conceal one’s faults. Thus, the act of covering their lower parts shows that these parts, and not their mouths, were the source of their shame.
In Job 31:33 it is written, “If I have concealed my transgressions like Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom” (Job 31:33). Adam concealed his lower parts after the Fall; this indicates that his blemish was in his lower parts. Adam and Eve’s sexual parts were the source of their shame because they were the instruments of their sinful deed.
In the world before the human Fall, what act would one be willing to carry out even at the clear risk of one’s life? It could be nothing else but the act of love. God’s purpose of creation, described in the blessings “be fruitful and multiply,” (Gen. 1:28), can be achieved only through love.
Accordingly, from the viewpoint of God’s purpose of creation, love should be the most precious and sacred act. But because the sexual act was the very cause of the Fall, people often regard it with shame and even contempt. In conclusion, human beings fell through an act of illicit sexual intercourse.
The Illicit Sexual Act between the Angel and the Human Beings
Thus far, we have explained that an angel seduced human beings to fall, and that both the angel and the human beings fell due to illicit sexual love. Human beings and angels are the only spiritual beings in the universe who are capable of having love relationships. We can deduce that the illicit sexual relationship must have involved the angel and human beings.
Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires” (John 8:44).
Since the Devil is identified as Satan, (Rev. 12:9) we can assert that human beings are descendants of Satan, the “ancient serpent” who tempted human beings.
Through what circumstances did humankind become the descendants of the fallen angel, Satan? There was an illicit sexual relationship between the angel and the first ancestors.
As the fruit of that relationship, all humanity is of the lineage of Satan. When St. Paul wrote, “we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies,” (Rom. 8:23) he was acknowledging that we fallen people stem from the lineage of Satan, not the lineage of God.
John the Baptist reproached the people, calling them “a brood of vipers,” (Matt. 3:7) that is, children of Satan. Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees, “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?” (Matt. 23:33).
These verses affirm that we are the offspring of an illicit sexual relationship involving the angel and our first ancestors. This, in fact, lies at the heart of the human Fall.
Sun Myung Moon