There needs to be discord between the world and the Christian. If there is not, then something is wrong with peoples' Christianity. Generally speaking, if non-Christians are for it, Christians should be against it. Of course, there are exceptions but Christians must be quite discerning to know right from wrong.
I often go back to original sin to examine human nature. Solomon said, "There is nothing new under the sun." With that thought, Adam and Eve's encounters with God and the Serpent might provide insight in all situations. The Serpent was cunning (Gen 3:1), Eve was naïve (Gen 3:13), and Adam willingly disobeyed although he blamed it on Eve. The Serpent depended on the stupidity of the creatures to undermine themselves and God. Adam and Eve were both righteous, but the Serpent used truth to upset Paradise.
Did the Serpent lie? Let's examine what he said:
… 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. (Gen 3:4-5)There are two conclusions Satan made: (1) they would not die if they disobeyed, and (2) God would know that the two, already knowing only good, would know evil. Again, did Satan (the Serpent) lie?
Satan sinned. John recounted the situation:
And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Rev 12:7-9)Satan, the great dragon, the serpent, or the Devil drew on his experience. War had broken out in heaven: Lucifer rebelled against God. The Serpent obviously had continued to live because he was tempting Adam and Eve. He had disobeyed God and was still alive. The worst sinner of all time had rebelled against God and was merely cast out. He applied his situation to Adam and Eve. Satan didn't understand death. He knew, that like him, Adam and Eve would be cast out but would not die.
The supporting evidence is that Adam and Eve, like Satan, seemed to be only cast out of Heaven. (Scripture supports that the Garden of Eden was Heaven or Paradise.)
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. (Gen 3:23-24)
Satan knew the outcome and told the truth. He used the truth to entrap the two naïve and rebellious creatures! Satan used his experience with God to understand what would happen to Adam and Eve. Like him, they did not die, and as such Satan told the truth. For His own purposes, God had allowed Satan back in the Garden after casting him out - to test the faithfulness of His new creatures. Satan, as usual, came from walking to and fro in the world to be used by God to test his people as he later was to do with Job (Job 1:7). Note that the Serpent could re-enter the Garden for God's purposes because it had yet to be guarded by cherubim.
Satan didn't understand God's time. Mankind still does not! Satan had not died, but failed to understand that he would die in God's time. God had a purpose for the Devil, and that is to test his faithful creatures as he did with Job. The test is always under which tree will mankind stand: the Tree of Life (the Doctrine of God) or the forbidden tree (the doctrine of men). Will they stand under Jesus or will they stand under Satan?
What will happen with Satan when God has no further use of him?
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the , Gog, and Magog, to gather them gather to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Rev 20:7-10)Satan will die and it is because he rebelled against God. He did not understand two things: (1) what death is, nor (2) when death occurs. Death is spiritual torment (dying forever), and it's timing is in the end when God is through with his worldly experiment. Satan didn't lie; he thought he knew it all but didn't. He will die because if naivete and ignorance. Most of mankind will too!
Suffice it to say that the Serpent told the truth about their eyes being opened to evil, and they would be "as gods". Satan never implied that they would be gods, but that they would think of themselves in that manner. Satan used the truth again to confuse the two naïve creatures! From that day forward mankind has placed his own importance ahead of God's. Mankind is the problem, and God is the solution to that delusion!
On both points, the Serpent told the truth. Rather than setting them free, the misuse of truth put them in chains. Christians who are without discernment allow themselves to be manipulated by Satan to undermine God. Those who allow themselves to be manipulated are the fools which is referred to in this passage: "A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion" (Prov 18:2) and "A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back" (Prov 29:11; ESV).
Youth and immature adults have many opinions which are not based on Scripture, data, nor reality. Wise men hold back from arguing against the foolish! Eve should not have communed with the Serpent. Her first mistake was not standing under the Tree of Life, instead standing under the tree of knowledge. The Serpent used his knowledge to deceive her. His nature was more than liar; it was manipulator because on many occasions he uses the truth for his own purposes. Many people today are not discerning. They fail to recognize that Satan can outwit them without even resorting to lying!
Did Adam and Eve die? No! They felt the sting of death, but because of God's grace they will never die. They deserve death but God punished them with tribulation and mortality. He had mercy on his creatures because they knew not what they were doing. No one had ever died before; how were they to understand death? Satan didn't have to lie but only tell what he perceived as truth to confuse two naïve people, and still does that today.
Some Christians, unwittingly, side with evil not understanding that they are being manipulated. Discerning people test everything by Scripture.
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