WILL WE EVER LEARN

Adam and Eve knew exactly what they could do, what they could not do and the consequences if they disobeyed. Ditto Today! Satan denied three virtues of God in his temptation of Adam and Eve: First, he denied the truthfulness of God, “you shall not surely die”, challenging the consequence of disobedience. Adam and Eve died spiritually and their bodies became mortal... God does speak truth. Second, he denied the goodness of God, “your eyes will be opened”, implying God was withholding a positive blessing of knowledge from them. The “may” of our freedom in God is still framed by the “must not” that limits it... as seen today in God’s moral law. Third, he denied the “Otherness” of God, that God alone is self-dependent, depending for Himself on Himself. Satan’s diabolical suggestion was that Adam and Eve could become “Like God”, ignoring the fact that they were already like God in every way God intended. This shot over the bow of God’s sovereignty was aimed at the fundamental way Adam and Eve were unlike God, in their creaturely dependence on Him as His created beings. Adam and Eve’s desire was not to be “Like God” but “God Like”, Self-deification as Self-dependent beings rather than God-dependent created beings. The devil still denies God’s warnings of eternal judgment and the fearful reality of a literal hell. He makes the permitted things, the ample freedom of what God allows His children, to seem boring and unsatisfying, while making the prohibited things, which God in His wisdom does not allow His children, seem attractive and desirable. Then as now satan stirs the fire of proud coveting independence in the heart of gullible man who refuses to acknowledge his continuing dependence on God... attempting in denial to become God Like. Not much has changed...

ONLY GOD HAS “OTHERNESS”