Summarizing and concluding this brief series.
First, any use of the intellect to exalt the human ego above God’s Word:
Second, Satan cleverly deceives intellectuals by assuring them they:
BECAUSE:
Third, and you need to read Isaiah 11:2-3a to understand that Isaiah predicted Christ as the fulfillment of which he wrote. Jesus personified the ONE way that God accepts the validity of pursuing knowledge:
That guarantees the wisdom Paul declares we naturally possess by the Holy Spirit’s direction, I Corinthians 2:1-16. A wisdom that anchors our life in the Past, Gears it to the Present and Focuses it on the Future. And all made possible by God in Christ. Our education:
HAVE NO impact on that Life. God originated it in the Past, now sustains it daily and Perfects it in the Future. Fini
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Looking past some interesting points of reference, see the example of Simon Peter to Christ’s instructions in Luke 5:1-11. Jesus:
Simon saw two faults with that instruction:
Then, completely overcoming his ego, and proving that the 7-9 month Early Judean Ministry has convinced Simon of Christ’s authority, he concluded, “But because you say so, I will let down the nets” 5:5. Had Eve replied to Satan-via-serpent as Simon-to-Jesus, she would have said to the tempter:
Because no better reason exists to obey God than HE SAYS SO! From Simon Peter we learn what Eve should have taught us, but didn’t. If God says it:
God rules by his word, not
Not fooled by the devil, as she claimed, Eve became his ally, believing his lie that acquiring enough knowledge would allow her to improve her status from mortal to goddess. Instead, she became only a knowledgeable SINNER:
Obviously, God shredded her deceived explanation into a useless excuse. A man named George Fabyan once said we can’t ever lose by too much knowledge. Woman Who Smashed Codes, p. 24. Yes, we can. A little knowledge, deprived of God’s word, corrupts. A great knowledge minus his word corrupts entirely. Surely the perfect example is baseless organic evolution spouted as science now accepted by unconverted minds as Fact. Since their common consent led:
How can our MINDS NOW,
Faced with one Test – don’t eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil—Eve, then Adam with her, failed. When God called them to account, Adam rejected responsibility by blaming Eve. Eve accepted partial responsibility by blaming the serpent who deceived her. Consider her claim: does it fit or deny the rules of evidence?
My trusty Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, defines deception as the “act of misleading someone”. And misleading implies:
With that definition, and its corollaries, read Genesis 2:15-17 and 3:1-7. The individual and combined texts leave no doubt:
Leaving us with this question: if, at the beginning of human history Adam and Eve would pit their intellect against God’s Word, bringing disaster on humanity, WHY would using it against God now bring us benefits? Therefore, a definition of the word deceived doesn’t fit Eve’s experience in Eden. Since she knew the conditions of their stay in Paradise; and knew the result if they disobeyed God; if she wasn’t a woman deceived, what kind of woman was she? End Part I |
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