The Bible tells us what happened. Using a serpent as his mouthpiece, Satan the Devil approached Eve and said: “Is it really so that God said you must not eat from every tree of the garden?” When Eve repeated God’s command, Satan said to her: “You positively will not die. For God knows that in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to be like God, knowing good and bad.” Consequently, the tree seemed so desirable to Eve that “she began taking of its fruit and eating it.” The account continues: “Afterward she gave some also to her husband when with her and he began eating it.” (Genesis 3:1-6) Both Adam and Eve thus misused their free will and sinned by disobeying God.

Do you see the seriousness of what transpired? The Devil contradicted what God had said to Adam. Satan’s words implied that Adam and Eve would not need Jehovah in order to decide what was good and what was bad for them. Satan’s challenge therefore brought into question the right and validity of Jehovah’s rulership over man. The all-important issue that Satan raised, then, was that of the rightfulness of Jehovah’s sovereignty. How did the true God answer the challenge?

Some 6,000 years have passed since Satan questioned God’s right to rule. What has history revealed? Consider two aspects of Satan’s allegation against God. Satan boldly told Eve: “You positively will not die.” (Genesis 3:4) By saying that Adam and Eve would not die if they partook of the forbidden fruit, Satan was in effect calling Jehovah a liar. A serious charge indeed! If God were not truthful in this matter, how could he be trusted in anything else? However, what has the elapsed time shown?

Adam and Eve became subject to sickness, pain, aging and, finally, death. “All the days of Adam that he lived amounted to nine hundred and thirty years and he died,” states the Bible. (Genesis 3:19; 5:5) And from Adam, this sad legacy has been transmitted to all mankind. (Romans 5:12) The passing of time has proved Satan to be “a liar and the father of the lie” and has shown that Jehovah is “the God of truth.”​—John 8:44; Psalm 31:5.