Be Like Gods

Be Like Gods

4/1/18

This is a curious statement that is made in Genesis and one that many have overlooked for it is a purposeful reckoning that is made about the condition of Adam and Eve.  It seems like Satan makes a bold projection here and after he does it propels Eve to take the first bite and therefore Adam next thus signaling a new lifestyle that we all endure.  All is not lost, however, for God continues to provide a way that we can be restored before eternal tragedy takes hold.  But in order to fully understand this truth, we must first know why this phrase was mentioned and believe it or not this phrase is once again (still) rearing its ugly lies to our lives today.  It is time that we know our worth and how important we are to God before we fall completely off God’s radar and into an eternal abyss.

All of us at times want to have another life, one that is filled with riches, glamour, popularity, and power.  From the richest person to the poorest soul that inhabits the earth all of us have wanted some type of change to endure the best opportunities that can be offered.  It is easy for us to dream about Hollywood starlets and all of the glamour that is portrayed as they walk out onto the red carpet.  Winning the Lottery, inheriting a huge fortune, or working for a wealthy estate is a common goal that we talk about each day as we drag ourselves out of bed and go to work and “make the doughnuts”.  To be a professional basketball player or top recruiter for any sport is a seemingly high powered position to have and everyone wants to be a top model with a fabulous voice that gains wealthy and lengthy contracts.  What do all of these wishes have in common?  Most of them never come true yet we still spend extra amounts of money trying to obtain some piece of the popularity contest, some of us would just settle for Miss Congeniality in the local county fair and the self indulgence timeframe empties and a return to the mundane parks itself into the garage at the end of the day.

One of the more exciting examples that we have when it comes to elevating ourselves to unrealistic positions is the leaders of nations, empires, groups, or even churches.  Humans seem to thrive on the idea that being superior in a certain manner brings them a kind of deity status and if one reads about the ancient pharaohs of Egypt and other dynastic rulers it is easy to ascertain this fact.  Of course, we have all of our mythological gods' examples that we can fall upon but for this article, we are going to focus on the self-human elevation that many of us seek to have.  This newly created status we imagine would bring us more authority and power over people and that they would fall at our knees and worship our words and do as we please whenever we want, all without questioning our whims.  Can you see humans performing this?  You should, because humanity has done it for millennia and we continue this practice today.  So much so, that now if others do not follow such absurdity then they are considered haters of the cause and outcast from many social settings, a dangerous and trendy mechanism of manipulation that will one day lead to significant human tragedy.

It is this life of excitement and wanting to be stimulated that drives most of on a routine basis.  No objects will stand in our way while we contend that we have this shot at bettering ourselves in the world.  Oh, and if we run over a few people along the way to ensure this status increase it is okay because I am more important and the opportunities that have been presented to me must be from someone higher up than me.  How much of ourselves are we willing to give up and sell to achieve this status for our pleasure?  It is a logical question that we should all ask because if we do not understand what is at stake we will fall for this lie hook, line, and sinker.  Yes, we are made to be perfect and to represent a higher nobility but I know in my case I always seem to fall short in these foolish desires and end up back at my desk scratching my head and wondering why I fell for this lie again.  But have faith, for Adam and Eve fell for this lie as well so we are not alone in this sinking ship, right?  No, we are more than conquerors and it is time we know why our enemy gains ground by demeaning us to our faces.

And, with God being the all-knowing and Holy Father that He is has given us a perfect example for us to learn from in His Word.  God continues to bless us with the first portions of Genesis and how its words fulfill our lives with the wisdom of God concerning how we were created and how we should be under His guidelines.  Genesis 3:4-5 states the following: “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”  This passage comes from the King James Version of the Bible and it is the translation that I use most often.  I understand that one can use this difference in wording to stand upon the translation issue and deem the verse incorrect but they cannot be discredited because they are referring to the same pointed conclusion.  Now given that information, other translations use the word “God” instead of gods and whatever version you wish to study from it is okay for it relates to a higher status of existence and it this reference that is the subject and focus for the article. 

Now, can anyone tell me the difference between these two verses and what Satan was selling to Eve any different than what the world tries to offer us today?  There is absolutely no difference whatsoever for when Adam and Eve walked this planet the same being that tempted them into believing that they could be greater than what they actually were is the same one that performs such miraculous lies on us today.  And like Eve and Adam, we fall for these disgusting lies with ease since we are already primed to believe the lies instead of remembering the truth about how and why we were created.  Satan knew exactly what he was suggesting and in the words that he used and the manner in which he stated them they applied to her status that somehow she had now believed was lower than what she was when she was created.  This had to be because why would anyone suggest a better position if they believed and then acted like they were on the top of the world in the first place?  And we all know that gods cannot die and that their wealth and power never diminish or cede, or at least that is how they are portrayed.

This proposition must have excited her in some capacity for it did not take her long to complete the task before her and then give the fruit to Adam.  Adam is not out in the clear here either because according to Genesis 3:6 he freely and willingly took the fruit from Eve and ate it.  He did not mention anything concerning about what Eve had said to Satan nor did he even question the act that Eve had already done, but he ate it also.  Satan knew exactly what would occur to them after he got them to disobey God’s only command.  The act of disobedience was a dream come true for now he had complete access to their lives and could rule them and eventually have an opportunity to end their spiritual lives as well.  Satan did a pretty good job in describing (lying) to both Adam and Eve over the time he spent with them concerning gods and what they had the power to do.  This plan was done well enough that when it came time to pull the trigger on the issuance of disobedience both would not hesitate.  It kind of reminds me of the parable of the prodigal son where the friends he had in the city convinced him that nothing they did was bad and that it was okay.  In both settings, everything that had been given to them was lost through the bad choices that were made.

Adam and Eve should have known that if something sounded too good to be true that it probably was not, yet they fell for this disaster and ushered in a completely new and unorganized life.  However, even with this example being given at the outset of God’s Word there really should not be any more discussion about sin and what we should not be doing.  But, as we continue to read along we find that there are numerous more accounts of basically the same type of settings.  So, I guess we have not fully understood what occurred that dreadful day in the Garden of Eden and just how important our lives matter to God and the most importantly the value of obeying God at all times.  It does not have to be just biblical settings that we have examples of disobedience and while humanity portrays this process on a one-sided adventure it still carried consequences that can present themselves as deadly.  Ironically, when Satan brings on his minions and rules the world through one man, it will be disobedience to his laws that cause a permanent end to those who do not comply.

It is this process of eternal separation from the world that we fail to see as important.  Anytime anyone brings forth a complaint about you or how you look at yourself if left open it can eventually cause your senses to question your physical appearance and anytime one doubts their uniqueness and individual appearance on any level the door is opened for altered lifestyles that can only result in a belief of a “better” way of existence.  It is this philosophy that is still preached and promoted from the world and represents the prime example of how we have allowed our enemy to convince us that we need improvement.  If we do not realize soon enough that this physical improvement plan comes from Satan himself it shall open the spiritual doors so that he can alter our spiritual appearance as well.  It is this pattern that we can see had been developed in Adam and Eve with the statement that Satan used when he and Eve had the conversation at the tree.  I mean, don’t you find it very intriguing that this specific conversation occurred while they were in front of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

What a perfect setting for Satan to introduce another option to the holy plan of God than in front of the truth about Adam and Eve’s past, present and future?  But it also represents the fact that over the course of time the conversations and relationship between those three beings had become comfortable enough that they were drawn to that location and had that conversation.  It had to be exciting for them to hear what Satan said because it meant an elevation in their personal and spiritual enlightenment, to know that God was hiding something from them all this time and if they just did what they wanted that they would unlock such knowledge to use for their own gain.  However, what they had forgotten through this conversation is who they were in God and how their lives represented, in truth not based on emotional excitement according to the pleasure of their surroundings.  Adam and Eve’s actions here tells the story that they believed Satan and believed his lie that they could be a greater being or presence than what God had created them to be.  Does this pattern sound familiar today?

We must never forget that God is for us at all times and this means that He is for us no matter how we are created both spiritually and physically.  Adam and Eve forget this truth or had already been convinced to deny it as a lie itself, a picture of personal control of a setting.  We may believe that a small change in our appearance will not matter but it is through these small changes that our lives are opened up to the bigger picture concerning the spiritual nature of our lives.  We cannot forget that our physical lives are already lost and will cease to exist at some point in the future it is this reason alone that the New Testament writers stress that our battles are not physical but spiritual in origin, our physical is already dead it is the spiritual that is in need of defending and protecting.  If we continue to open our physical up to the enemy it will not take too long for him to begin his quest for your eternal side of life.  I am going to give an example now that may make a few people upset, but it does not matter what you think about me or how you may react with the example, for it is your eternal placement that is SO important to God that He gave us His Word, His Son, and His Eternal Covenant so that we may choose Him and live with Him for eternity. 

I recently heard of a lesbian couple that proudly announced that they had delivered a child.  I am not going to mention the names of the people because their names are not important for this example, but the origins of their relationship and what they represent is.  First of all, they have bought into the lie that they can find true love with being together as a couple and in the eyes of the world alone that is a “truth”.  In the eyes of God, it is a direct lie to how He developed our bodies and lives both on the spiritual and physical level.  The second lie is that when a person represents themselves in a homosexual manner and then accounts it in a marriage, then takes the next step in having a child, the process of having the child is a lie to the relationship, which is actually a lie towards a lie.  If one gives up the other sex for the same sex yet returns to the other sex for a benefit that the same sex cannot provide, it is a lie. 

The third lie is the child and what its presence means for once the decision has been made to enter into the homosexual relationship and the people involved give up the ties to the results of the heterosexual relationship.  It is a lie for the woman to give birth when the process originates with the introduction of the male genetic code inside them woman, yet IVF is possible but a male needs to be present at some time in order for this process to work, a direct lie to both the pregnant woman and the other woman in the relationship.  So, now you have a lie, then that lie is being lied to and then to top all of it off you have a lie that is lying to the other two lies.  How is this process healthy?  And it is this process of convincing that Satan used in order to trick Adam and Eve to eat from the tree.  Homosexual desires and options have been around for thousands of years and in some past societies were considered to be a noble destiny, but they were a lie then and they are still a lie today, even though the world considers this practice to be sanctioned.  A lie can only produce another lie and if left alone long enough become believable and therefore lived.

Now, according to God and His Word and Ways which have not changed since the day our existence was given, how does this example which I gave differ than what occurred in the Garden of Eden at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?  None!  The personal example here might be different but the origins of the lie are the same and it is the origin of such lies that brought Adam and Eve to their nakedness and it is the same origin that will eternally separate us from God as well.  Adam and Eve fell for the lie of being like a god and it is this pattern through this example here and countless others that we are falling for today.  Our lives are precious in many ways that we can explain and even more ways that we cannot explain as of yet and we cannot afford to believe that we can be something or someone we cannot.  It is God’s plan to mold us in His image, not into the image of the world.  If things do not line up with the Word of God then it is a lie, plain and simple our only problem is that we have stood around the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and listened to the serpent long enough that we are having a hard time knowing what good and evil are, or even defining what good and evil are which gives us the “truth” that we really do not want the world to change its ways so we just keep the status quo and follow it.

Good and evil are being redefined every day and it can become easily confusing if we listen to the world’s rules about changing and being normal.  Being a part of the world is NOT being higher in or on any level according to the One who Created you, that higher status can only be achieved on the spiritual level through the One who Created you.  Our enemy wants to destroy your eternal existence any way possible and he has brought the truth about our existence so far down that we no longer can see what God wants us to be.  Satan shall tell you that you can change yourself to be like a god, but since he is the father of lies that is all he can tell you, a lie.  As God has stated above, Satan has already beaten us physically and it is his job now to beat us spiritually.  It is incomprehensible to understand what it means to be separated from God but we need to get it into our heads and especially into our hearts that separation from God eternally is what this lying enemy of ours wants.

Church, we cannot teach that the world is our friend and that it is okay to have a relationship with the world on any level.  The world is an eternally dangerous entity and its ruler is a liar and cannot teach anything but lies.  God gave us an authority over our dominion and to dress it and to keep it on His standard at all times.  That command from God has never changed since it was put into place so long ago and we have the responsibility to continue this holy command today.  God kept Adam and Eve from the world for a reason and it is His desire for us to choose to live in that totally separated place with Him again.  But as stated in a previous article, as long as we stand in front of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and have a conversation with the enemy the chances of making the correct choice for the exclusion of evil goes significantly down.  Turn from the world Church, so that we may teach of the good news of God and that His Son lived, died, and was resurrected for our each one of us and to represent our lives to the dying world as a child of God and no other.

DLB