Adapted from Creation Answer Book by Hank Hanegraaff 

Eve was tempted to do the unthinkable—to take the place of God as arbiter of good and evil. Satan tempted, and the woman tasted temptation’s ripened fruit. God authored the potential for evil by providing the woman with choice; the woman actualized evil by exercising that choice. Yet the very passage that references humanity’s fall provides—in embryo—the prophetic antidote.

First, we should note that proto-evangel is a compound word meaning “first (proto) gospel (evangel).” As such, the proto-evangel offers the first note of hope and redemption following humanity’s fall into perpetual sin terminated by death.

Furthermore, we experience the gospel in embryo as it grows to full maturity by reading the rest of the story. From Adam’s rebellion to Abraham’s Royal Seed, Scripture chronicles God’s unfolding plan of redemption: the serpent would strike the Savior’s heel, and the Savior would forever crush its head.

Finally, to pray, “Thy kingdom come,” is to remember afresh that Christ has already won the war, but the reality of his reign is not yet fully realized. At present we are sandwiched between the triumph of the cross and the termination of time—between D-day and V-day. D-day was Christ’s First Coming when Satan was decisively defeated. V-day is the Second Coming when Paradise lost will be Paradise regained.

History is hurtling toward a glorious and climactic end when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord. A day in which we, like Adam and Eve, will once again walk with God in the cool of the day.

“And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

Genesis 3:15