Intelligent beings use logic and wisdom. Theologians believe
that the human faculty of reason was instilled from eating of the fruit of the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. [i]
Adam and Eve became capable of learning
evil and were instilled with logic to know the difference between what is good
and evil. Condensing the definition, “good” is doing God’s will. and evil is
doing one’s own will.
The Will:
Beasts have one will – their own. Mankind is of a
different kind or species than beasts. With original sin, mankind became as beasts, believing they were as gods. They did their own will rather
than God’s. The human-kind “will” is a mental faculty used in making choices which
is perceived as benefitting oneself.
The Serpent deceived the perception of Eve. She
perceived that eating of the fruit would be beneficial for herself although God
warned her of eminent death. [ii]
She was deceived because she failed to understand death. She and Adam believed
only in the biological definition of death, not understanding that the soul is
immortal!
“Free will” is the ability of mankind to make decisions
of their own volition. The “will” is an attribute of all intelligent animals. “Free
will” is for mankind only because it is based on morality. Animals can decide
whether to chase the pray or leave it be. They may even imagine the taste of a
nice meal. On the other hand, humans must evaluate it on some type of moral scale.
The western world has mostly used Judeo-Christian percepts to guide their free
will. In the beginning, that was also the case.
Reprobate men – those who have their own moral (immoral)
compass - do what they will. They are like the beasts. They never relinquished
their instinctual desire to sin or practiced sin so often that their beastly
nature returned. Psychologists call them psychopaths. Indeed, they are pathetic
beasts.
Such beasts: animals and the reprobate do their own will.
People are born with beastly natures. They take what they want unless restrained
by some law or rule. God made commandments
to control the beasts. How would people even know they are beasts unless there are
standards of bestiality. Murderers are beasts, haters are beasts, thieves are
beasts, and so on. The worst beasts are those who have no God and do what they
want to do without considering the well-being of others. Barbarians are beasts
because they do what they want to do.
God’s Way was to tame the beasts. He wrote rules for
civility for the beasts to follow. However, because they had no respect for the
writer of the commands, they broke all the commands. After all, only they knew
they were beasts, or so they thought!
God is merciful. He could have destroyed Adam and Eve
for doing their own wills over His. He gave them other chances – many others –
to tame the beasts within them.
Breaking the Will:
God’s Way was to break the will of Adam and Eve. He
made them safe by covering them with a cloak of skin. He took life for the
first time, presumably the life of a lamb. [iii]
Shortly thereafter he expelled them into the wilderness, [iv]
and placed guards there to keep them from re-entering the hedge of the Garden for
safety. [v]
In the wilderness, the two learned by operant conditioning.
Satan was permitted to test and retest either until they got it right or gave
up. The Books of The Conflict of Adam With
Satan (Pseudipigraphia Unknown) is about their
operant conditioning. With God’s protection, they saw the prize, wanted it, and
will soon obtain it!
Operant conditioning is a way of breaking or at least
modifying the will. On the other hand, classical conditioning is merely
obtaining what is desired without choices. God used operant conditioning for His chosen people - the Hebrews. The Abrahamic
Covenant [vi]
offered a choice - to either do God’s will or not, with two possible outcomes -
prosperity or tribulation. Direct prosperity would come with the promised land.
That was the reward which made the beasts salivate.
On the other hand, those prophets and patriarchs who
were more than beasts understood the true reward – the real “Promised Land” –
the City of God whose King is Jesus.
Test group #1 – legalistic Jews - had to learn by
reward and punishment. God kept His promise, and they continued to see Canaan land
as theirs. As they got closer to the reward, the more they salivated. Many of
the Hebrews wondered in the wilderness for forty years. They continued to
salivate for the land of milk and honey, but never tasted the reward. Most even
failed to realize the true reward because they were spiritually blind beasts.
Time and time again, God endeavored to train them by
punishment. They remained untamed, and in the end, when the reward was near,
their bestiality was revealed. They killed their Rewarder even while they salivated
for the reward.
Jesus knew why. He said, “They know not what they do” [vii]
Jesus was referring to the Gentile guards, but inferred it was all mankind.
Test group #2 – Messianic Jews – understood the real
reward. They weren’t looking nearby - only to the promised land, but looking to
the promised Savior! They salivated at the thought of eternal life without even
tasting it. Of course, the promised land was a little taste of heaven, just enough
to keep the Jews salivating for a Savior.
Note that it was never the Law which brought salvation.
That was only the punishment they received by looking at the wrong reward. It
was God’s way of saying, “The real reward is not the land; it’s the Savior.”
Most Jews to this day still look at the wrong reward. Operant conditioning has
failed to work on the undomesticated.
Throughout history, the nature of man has evolved.
Barbarians – the beasts – for most of history have ensured the survival of the
fittest, not even realizing that they were unfit beasts. Time and again, those
ruling beasts were defeated by deadlier beasts. Jesus death on the cross tamed
the beasts. It even tamed Constantine. The fittest are those who see the reward
and do what it takes to get the reward.
Civilization resulted from the taming of the beasts.
Romans, although still cruel, were civilized. They were some of the fittest and
their offspring still are. What made them fit? The death of God’s Flesh on the cross
on which the Beast should have been nailed.
[i]
Genesis 3:5
[ii] Genesis
3:3
[iii]
Genesis 3:21
[iv]
Genesis 3:23
[v]
Genesis 3:24
[vi]
Genesis 12:1-3; Genesis 15:18-21; Genesis 17:2-9; Gen 17: 9-14
[vii]
Luke 23:34
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