Adam and Eve made the decision to disobey God's instructions. As a result, He expelled them from the Garden of Eden.

Not long after our first human parents' experience in the Garden of Eden, people began to replace the veneration of God with their own forms of worship. They quickly degenerated into idolatry by willfully rejecting God's laws. As with Adam and Eve, they, by their actions, rejected a close relationship with God (Genesis 6:3-7). Mankind's behavior grew so destructive that God finally destroyed the evil society of that day in the great flood of Noah's time.

Notice where Paul places the blame for the breakdown in the relationship between God and man. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse" (Romans 1:18-20, New Revised Standard Version).

Although man has generally continued to reject Him, God has chosen a few people down through the ages to enjoy a personal relationship with Him.

We find in Genesis 6:8 that Noah "found grace in the eyes of the LORD." Noah was a "just man" (Genesis 6:9). God called Noah to preach to preflood residents of the earth (2 Peter 2:5). But all of them rejected His message. Only Noah and his family survived the flood.

Hebrews 11:1-40 lists examples of other righteous people who lived before the time of Christ with whom God had a relationship. Hebrews 11 is often called the faith chapter because most of those mentioned in it were faithful to God.