The terrible fruit of the fall was man's enslavement to the devil and his unavoidable confusion with him. St. Macarius the Great speaks about this sorrowful enslavement in the following way: "The kingdom of darkness, that is, this evil prince, having taken man captive from time immemorial, has so surrounded and clothed the soul with the power of darkness, like a man, according to him: For they shall make him a king, and clothe him in royal garments, and let him wear royal garments from his head even to his feet. Thus the soul and its whole being were clothed with sin by this evil ruler, defiled it all, and took it all captive into his kingdom, that he did not leave any thoughts, nor reason, nor flesh, and, finally, not a single part of it free from his power; but all her blankets in the chlamys of darkness... The whole man, soul and body, was defiled and disfigured by this evil enemy; and He clothed man with the old man, defiled, unclean, ungodly, not obeying the Law of God, that is, He clothed him with sin itself, so that man does not see as he wills, but sees evil, hears evil, has feet swift to evil, hands that do iniquity, and a heart that thinks evil... Sin and the soul are mixed together, but both of them have their own nature." "As during a gloomy and dark night, when a stormy wind breathes, all plants waver, tumble, and set in great motion: so man, having been subjected to the dark power of the night, the devil, and in this night and darkness, spending his life, wavers, is troubled, and agitated by the fierce wind of sin, which pierces his whole nature, soul, mind, and thoughts, and all his bodily members also move, and there is not a single member, neither spiritual nor bodily, free from the sin that dwells within us" [1495]. After the fall and until our very Redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ, "the enemy possessed man with violence and torment," says the Monk Abba Dorotheus, "so that even those who did not wish to sin involuntarily sinned, as the Apostle says on our behalf: For if I do not desire good, I do, but if I do not desire evil, I do it" [1496]. The devil acts upon us, imbuing us with his thoughts, deceiving us with dreams [1497], arousing sinful sensations with thoughts and dreams, agitating and inflamed the blood, absorbing with these waves and burning with this flame all the common sense of man and all the power of his will. The actions of all passions are connected with the movement of various blood; where there is movement of blood, there is the indispensable action of passion, there is certainly the action of demons. Such an action is incomprehensible to a person darkened by the fall, who remains in his fall: evil thoughts and dreams act so subtly and cunningly in the soul that they seem to it as if they were born in itself, and by no means the action of an evil spirit alien to it, both acting and wishing to remain unnoticed.

What was the essential sin of the first-created? Outwardly, it consisted in eating from the forbidden tree. It acquires both greater gravity and greater significance when we define it as a violation of the Creator's commandment to creation, the opposition of the creature to the will of the Creator. It acquires even greater significance when we recognize in it man's attempt to become equal to God. And it is precisely this attempt that God points to in the words filled with ineffable compassion, uttered by Him at the expulsion of the forefathers from Paradise: Behold, Adam was as one of Us, who understood good and evil [1499]. "Adam of old lied (was deceived)," declares the Holy Church, "and God willed to be, and it did not come to pass" [1500]. The devil communicated his sin to a deceived person. But the sin of the devil was his own creation; he conceived in himself to become equal to God [1501], worked on this idea, strove to put it into practice, communicated it to a multitude of other spirits, persuaded them to be of one mind with him, and finally clearly rebelled against God; man's sin was an inadvertent infatuation.

Man's sin was prepared not by design, but by improper and insufficient practice and preservation of paradise. No less than that, by his sin, man became an accomplice of the devil and his prisoner. As a fallen man by infatuation, along with the utterance of execution, redemption and a Redeemer are promised.

Earthly life

The Lord, having expelled man to earth from paradise, dwelt on it directly the sweetness of paradise [1502], so that he, constantly turning his eyes to paradise and at the same time nourishing himself with the hope of returning to paradise, would dwell in unceasing weeping of repentance. The direct indwelling of the paradise of sweetness shows that Adam was given a living memory of paradise, and the earth itself, with its beauties, preserved to some extent even after its curse, resembled paradise. The earth is appointed as a place of repentance for the forefathers and for all the human race that came from them. The earthly life of each person is a time given to him for repentance. All mankind on earth must be immersed in repentance, in inconsolable weeping. It must travel on it, not clinging with its heart to any objects with which this hotel is furnished, but constantly thinking about its heavenly Fatherland and striving with all its might to return to it. Labor and suffering, the indispensable companions of repentance, and the parents of humility, which gives rise to repentance, must rule on earth, according to the very decree of God. A person must constantly remember that the Lord has appointed him in the sweat of his brow to eat not only his material, but also his spiritual bread; Man must constantly remember that he is on earth in temporary exile, that he is earth, that he must return to the earth from which he was created. Everything on earth constantly reminds him of this. He is in incessant and varied suffering, in the struggle with his own malice, in the struggle with the malice of his neighbors, in the struggle with the elements, in the struggle with the earth, which is cursed for his sake and obeys him only when bloody sweat is shed. His brethren constantly remind him of this, being snatched away one after another by an inexorable death. From the earth he is permitted to use only that which is most necessary, necessary for our earthly pilgrimage, by no means superfluous, which separates thought from eternity. All the righteous of the Old Testament Church, who wandered on earth, beginning with Adam, spent their earthly lives in accordance with the purpose given to them by God. They lived on earth as in the land of exile, as in the land of weeping and repentance, nourished by the hope of the promised deliverance, watching with the eye of faith eternity. The Apostle says of them, they are destitute, sorrowful, embittered: the whole world is not worthy of them, wandering in the wilderness, and in the mountains, and in caves, and in the abysses of the earth. And these thou wast obedient in faith [1503]. By faith I all died, not accepting the promises, but seeing from afar, and kissing, and confessing, that strangers and strangers are on earth [1504].

World

These words of the Apostle can be applied to few people; few of them spent their earthly lives in accordance with the purpose given to them by God. The fall of man has damaged him so deeply that, having rejected the life of weeping on earth, he has chosen on it a life of pleasure and material progress, as if triumphing and celebrating his very fall. To this life of carnal pleasure and prosperity, which kills life for God, some of the children of Adam have already begun to incline, paying little heed to the story of paradise and the spiritual state of man, finding in the land of exile full food and satisfaction in their bestial and bestial passions. The grandchildren of Adam strove even more towards the development of material life on earth with a forgetfulness of eternity. Here, at last, all his descendants, with the exception of a few chosen men, rushed here, considering the legend of paradise a fable, an invention of a superstitious imagination. In vain death reaped people from the face of the earth: they continued to live and act, as if eternal on it. The maintenance of bodily strength by eating the necessary amount of simple food turned into delicacy and satiety with exquisite viands. Quenching thirst passed to the enjoyment of various drinks and to drunkenness. Covering one's nakedness with leather vestments was transformed into adorning oneself with rich clothes and utensils. Modest dwellings for shelter and protection from the elements and beasts that rebelled against man began to be replaced by huge and magnificent chambers. Luxury appeared, with its innumerable demands, which turned into an inexorable law in the midst of a society of fallen men. The lawful copulation of the sexes for the reproduction of the human race has changed into insatiable fornication, which opposes the reproduction of men. This is not enough: people, inflamed by unbridled desire, completely deprived of the right aspiration, have invented unnatural sins. The power of spiritual energy began to overcome the insatiable desires and demands of sin-loving man: quarrels, insults, murders, robbery, robbery, war, and conquest appeared. The verbal power of man is wholly used to bring him earthly benefits and advantages, it is used to assist sin: lies, deceptions, deceit, hypocrisy appeared. Thus, immediately after the fall of man, a world hostile to God began to form on earth, and in the course of time to receive greater and greater development from its very beginning.

The world is the life of men on earth solely for the sake of the earth, solely for the purpose of satisfying their sinful desires, for the purpose of carnal pleasure, for the purpose of material progress, with a goal completely opposite to the lofty and all-good purpose with which man was placed by God on earth. "The world is the general name of all passions. The world is carnal life and carnal wisdom. Where the movement and action of the passions have ceased, there the world has died." Thus the great instructor of monasticism, St. Isaac of Syria [1505], is inquisitive. The Holy Spirit commands His disciples to hate this world, to renounce this world, when He says: "Love not the world, neither are you in the world." If anyone loves the world, there is no love of the Father in him. For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of this world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he who does the will of God endures forever [1506]. The whole world lies in evil [1507]. The love of this world is enmity to God: for whoever desires the world to be a friend is an enemy of God [1508].

But when the Holy Scriptures say that God so loved the world, as He gave His Only-begotten Son to eat, so that whosoever believeth in it shall not perish, but have eternal life,[1509] then by the word "peace" we must understand all men, not excluding sinners, as the Apostle John the Theologian says: Wherefore the love of God hath manifested itself in us, as God hath sent His Only-begotten Son into the world, that we may live by Him [1510].

Again: and the whole of human society, in conjunction with their sinful life, in conjunction with their bodily pleasures, with their material progress, with their pandemonium, is called "the world." This world is hostile to God and His servants. If the world hates you, said the God-Man to His disciples, "lead, for you will hate Me before you." If you were of the world, the world would love its own: as you are from the world, but you have been chosen from the world, for this reason the world hates you [1511]. This world has been and remains alien to both God the Creator and God the Redeemer; he recognizes the persecution and murder of God's servants as the service of truth [1512].

The head and ruler of this world, hostile to God, is the fallen angel; Other fallen angels and people carried away by him help and serve him in this insane and audacious battle. The earth itself and its creatures, formerly subject to Adam, after the fall of Adam, together with him submitted to Satan. Satan himself thus testified to his power over the world: having dared to approach the Son of God for temptation, he led Him up to a high mountain and, having shown all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, said: "To Thee will I give all this power and their glory: for it is delivered to me, and to Him if I will, I will give it" [1513]. Satan calls the power over the world not his own, but his self-loyalty. Exactly: she is devoted to him. "The enemy, who deceived Adam," says St. Macarius the Great, "and thus assumed dominion over him, deprived him of all power and proclaimed him the prince of this world. At first, God made man the prince of this world and the lord of all visible things... When he gave himself over to the flattery of the enemy, he at the same time betrayed his superiors to the deceiver. Sowing for the sake of guilt, the Magi and sorcerers, acting contrary to the power, by the permission of God, a certain wondrous creator appears, possessing poisonous beasts and entering into fire and water without harm" [1514]. For this reason, the Holy Scriptures call the fallen angel the ruler of the world, the prince of this world [1515].

Idolatry

Satan was not satisfied with the fact that he subdued man and with the earth under his power, that he kept him in captivity, arousing in him various passions and fettering him with them, that by serving sin he brought him into the service of himself. The thought that enveloped the angel in heaven did not leave him in the heavenly realm, whither he was cast down from heaven as in the antechamber of hell: the thought of becoming equal to God. He fulfilled it by introducing idolatry on earth. The human race, gradually multiplying on earth, at the same time more and more passed from the satisfaction of needs to the satisfaction of whims and sinful desires. Not compatible with such a life is true knowledge of God and self-knowledge! Men, drowned in earthly cares and pleasures, having become exclusively flesh, have lost the very concept of the true God. But the feeling of worship of God is a feeling inalienable from the human heart, as innate and natural to it: it is not destroyed by the fall, it is devoid of correctness. Led by this unconscious feeling, men gave divine worship to the inventor and parent of sin, the fallen angel and his host of demons. Man deified the sin that killed him in all its forms, deified the representatives of sin – the demons. He recognized the satisfaction of all passions as divine pleasures. And fornication, and drunkenness, and theft, and murder are given honor. Each passion was depicted as its own idol or idol. The idol was a symbol of a demon, completely alien to life, completely dead to spiritual sensations. Before such idols both public and private or domestic worship was performed; before idols, sacrifices were made of animals, and often of people. The death of the spirit was strong because it was reflected in a negative life. But the outward service to idols was in essence the service of demons, as the Divine Apostle Paul teaches us [1516]. Idolic temples and idols themselves were the favorite abode of demons. From these dwellings they uttered voices and prophecies to deceive unfortunate mankind. And man himself, having ceased to be the temple of the Living God, became the temple and dwelling place of Satan [1517].