"And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." - Genesis 2:16-17 (NIV).
A man who calls himself a free thinker wrote to me saying: "Sorry folks, you have to learn a totally new way of seeing if you want to help this earth. According to your teachings your God has sinned. He created everything good and evil. And whoever creates evil is evil. Enough preaching. Enough fairy tales. Santa Claus is OK for children. Jesus Christ was most likely a nice, loving man who tried to help others. He might have even been crazy, with fanatical visions. But he was only a man."
Quite a judgment—but also very interesting in that it pinpoints that which is at the very core of sin and evil. Note that he has put himself in the position of judging both Jesus and God which means he has put himself above God. Keep this in mind as you read this series.
First, God didn't create evil. However, he allowed it to happen for the simple reason that he created both angels and mankind not as puppets, but with a free will so they could choose to go God's way or "create" their own.
Second, keep in mind that the fall of Satan, the instigator of sin and evil, said, "I will become as the most high." In other words he wanted to dethrone God and set himself up above God and become "god" himself.
Third, God told the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, that they could eat of every tree in the Garden of Eden except for the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This was their free-will test to choose for themselves whether to obey God or go their own way. However, God warned them of the serious consequences should they disregard his warning and eat from the forbidden tree—the consequences would be death—both spiritual and physical.- Genesis 2:17 (NIV).
Enter Satan, the devil, who, sowing a seed of doubt in Eve's mind, said to her, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"- Genesis 3:1 (NIV). Then came the part-truth-lie: "You will not surely die.... For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." - Genesis 3:4-5 (NIV).
True, they would know good and evil, but what Satan didn't tell them was that if they disobeyed God, ate of the forbidden tree, and then ate of the Tree of Life they would be forever confirmed in a state of evil and sin—which, or course, was Satan's goal.
So when did Adam and Eve sin? Was it before or when they ate the forbidden fruit?
"But He [Jesus] was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, TO HIS OWN WAY; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity [sin] of us all." - Isaiah 53:5-6 (NKJV).
The unanswered question we asked yesterday was, "When did Adam and Eve sin?" Was it when they picked the forbidden fruit from the tree, when they ate it, or just when was it?
Actually they sinned before they took the fruit. Eating the fruit was the result of their decision to elevate themselves above God. They did exactly what Satan did. They set themselves up to be the judge between God and Satan, thus making themselves their own final voice of authority—making themselves as "god" or their own "god." (This, too, is the essence of the supposed New Age movement, the essence of which is as old as Satan. New Age people speak not of God within, but of "the god" within.)
And that is at the heart of all sin and evil. When we make our own rules and defy those of God's, we too become our own authority, and exalt ourselves above God, the Creator of us and the entire universe. Instead of being led by the Spirit of God, we are being led by the spirit of, or the example of, Satan, the devil—the original one to defy God, and in so doing he became the creator of evil. For a very poor comparison, making ourselves the final voice of authority by putting ourselves above God would be like an ant telling a man that it, the ant, knows better than the man. Rather absurd to say the least!
What self-proclaimed free-thinkers don't realize is that it is impossible for any person to be a free-thinker for the simple reason that we all have a sin nature which contaminates our ability to think purely with total honesty and to see the truth as God sees it. Plus we all have prejudices, biases, and mixed motives that contaminate our thinking. And the more dishonest we are with our inner-self, the more we will distort all truth to make it match our perception of reality. The only true freedom we have is the freedom to choose God's way or our own—to let God be God or make ourselves a "god" unto ourselves.
When you have millions of people setting themselves up above God, becoming their own authority, and deciding what is right and wrong (and justifying what they decide and do), it's no wonder that evil is running rampant throughout the world. And it will continue to do so unless we quit playing god and let God be God and accept His Word as our final voice of authority, and live in harmony with his will and rules for fully living and fully loving.
Remember, sin is defying God and going our own way. And the fact remains; we cannot defy God and live. He has warned us, the wages of sin is still death ... but the gift of God is eternal life. It is our choice which route to take—that of life or that of death.
Prayer: "Our Loving Heavenly Father, please open the eyes of my understanding so that I will be able to see clearly what sin is from your perspective, and why it is so totally destructive of human personality and those whom you love—us! Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, In Jesus Loving Name I Pray, Amen."
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