Who were the first Law-breakers? PART II

In Part I we ended by asking several questions, i.e.: What is the Law of God? When did it come into effect? And, is it binding upon all mankind?

There is only one source through which God speaks directly to man and where He unequivocally defines His law. That source is the Bible. In Exodus 20 He clearly defines “the law” as consisting of the Ten Commandments.

Though not codified as at Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments were functional and spiritually in effect from the time of Adam and Eve.

Even though the technical term antinomianist [anti: against + nomos: law] had not yet been coined, nor the "Christian" doctrine of antinomianism [saved by faith alone without the necessity of obeying any moral law], Adam and Eve, by breaking the law, effectively became the first antinomianists -- the first law-breakers.

Adam and Eve had clear warning of the dire consequences associated with breaking the law God gave them – they would die. The law was simple, yet profound . "The LORD GOD COMMANDED the man... you may freely eat of every tree in the garden. but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat... for in the day you eat of it you will certainly die." However, having not yet experienced death of anything upon the earth, the horrendous effect of disobedience and the consequent result of death had not penetrated their minds. To them it probably was a strange “philosophic” idea. Under influence of Satan they may have reasoned: "God surely must be mistaken. We will not die – we will live forever." How could they arrive at that conclusion? Satan said so!

As people we are still like that. When given the choice – and as free agents we always have that choice – to choose between two opposing options, we gravitate “instinctively” towards the choice that would please and satisfy our natural desires – irrespective of the logic or truth that might support the opposite, or righteous, view.

Adam and Eve decided to choose the viewpoint that pleased their natural, human, carnal preference – the sinful preference -- to eat the forbidden fruit despite the fact that Yehovah explained the true consequences of such a decision and action. Since that first act of rebellion against the Eternal's clear command, mankind have followed in the footsteps of their rebellious parents who remained troubled in mind and tortured in spirit for the rest of their lives, lasting a punishing nine centuries.

In the spiritual realm under the influence of theologians, employing perverse logic, philosophic fables, contrived traditions, historic inaccuracies, and blatant untruths, people are presented with delectable escapist doctrinal and behavioral choices. The self-pleasing mantra seems to be: "Do as you please. Live life anyway you like. God will not surely, eternally, destroy you. You have an immortal soul that cannot die. God, therefore, cannot take it away from you!" [What assinine reasoning: What God gave He can take away! What He made He can destroy!]

Bible Dictionaries and Encyclopaedias inform us that antinomianism arose in Germany circa 1535 among people holding the view that faith alone is sufficient for justification and/or salvation [confusing two separate issues!], without the necessity to observe any moral law. [Luther added “alone” at Galatians 3:11 in clear contradiction to James 2:24 which states that man is NOT justified by faith ALONE! Luther the lawyer will one day have his day in the Court of the Creator to jurisprudentially justify his unjustified addition to scripture. He will find out what it means to seek justification, "alone!"]

However, antinomianism, as we have pointed out in Part I, started with Adam and Eve in response to God’s command to them. Satan, by a lie and deceit fused with Eve’s confusion and innate desire to try the tree, created a moral paradox in her mind. The situation presented her with contradictory aspects – a paradox – relative to God’s prohibitive command ["Don’t eat of the tree of life."] and permissive command ["Eat of every tree, except..."] and God's warning [“You shall surely die!”] versus Satan's enticing deceit ["You shall not surely die."].

Satan introduced “liberation theology”. By false information and promises Satan theologically liberated Eve from God’s command. When Satan told Eve: “You shall not surely die!” he implied that God’s law – His Word, as given in Genesis 2:16-17 – had no validity, no “life”, no “force”, no “power” in it -- neither legal authority to enforce the death penalty, should you break it. You are free from His law. You are liberated from that "law of sin!" You will have eternal life -- without obedience! That is Satan's eternal lie!

Thus the doctrine of extreme radical grace was introduced by Satan in Eden, and man lived in uncontrolled lawlessness ever since. Antinomianism reached its apex in the time of Noah, compelling the Eternal to wipe out all humanity, save eight. Humanity has reached that pre-flood level of antinomianism again. Thus it faces a real extermination within a few years from now, again, with only a few -- a remnant -- surviving to restart a new society--a new world order based on God's holy, righteous and eternal laws and not selfish, oligarchic greed!

Through antinomian dogma – strengthened by the deceptive doctrine of limitless, unbounded, extreme radical grace, taught by thousands of false ministers within hundreds of denominations – people are misled to make disastrous life choices which lead them blindly, but pleasantly, to hell.

Clerics and laity alike pay scant attention to the clear instructions of the Word. From top to bottom the churchians will delete from and add to the bible. [See, inter alia, our Blogs on Prestidigitational Preachers and Prophetic Profiles.] Ministers will provide wild, weird, wicked, wacky, and astonishingly perverse personal interpretations not intended nor imbedded in the text. Some vainly boast – contrary to clear scripture (John 3:13) – that they had been raptured to heaven and instructed by Christ to bring a special message to earth.

One deluded multi-millionaire manufacturer of astonishing stories, seemingly still being affected by constant use of LSD in his pre-churchian days, was ostensibly instructed whilst in heaven: “Tell My people I’m coming soon.” How idiotic is that!? Every bible-reading, prophecy-minded Christian knows that! Christ did not have to whisk someone into heaven to tell “[His?] people” something they already know! But then, false ministers have used such fakery and falsehoods forged on the anvil of their sin-hardened souls for millennia to gain prominence, power, popularity – and, of course, RICHES!

These pretentious astral trekkers are invited by gullible and equally deceived ministers who offer them handsome purses, to come and entertain their “silly dove” [Hos 7:11] members and TV audiences into a spiritual swoon.

These private textual interpreters then turn personal visions, dreams and speculations into church dogma – to their own peril!

They, like Eve and Adam, will swallow another modern-day false prophet lie: “You will not surely die!” Because, proffer the preachers from the philosophical pig-pits of theological speculation [forgive the “Lutheranism”], “You have an immortal soul.”

Therefore when the next person in the Genesis drama entered the garden east of Eden, to wit, Satan, the great tempter and deceiver, a wayward Eve was easy mental and moral pickings.

The tried and tested technique of deceivers is to present some truth. To get agreement or consent from the targeted victim. Salesmen are taught this technique in their training sessions. Get as many “Yesses” from the unsuspecting target as possible by presenting some obvious truth, link it to some reward or pleasant surprise or great benefit and the victim will be had.

Eve was deceived by Satan admitting to some of the truth God declared to her and Adam. She reasoned, "This handsome creature”, coming as an angel of light, “is saying the same thing as God.”

But, as with most humans selfishly preoccupied with their own thoughts, narcissism and vanity, Eve did not listen attentively; she did not process the information logically, nor did she comprehend the importance of the command. Eve was confused because of her self-absorbed inattentiveness and ended up confused about the salient points of the simple demand of obedience to a command -- a law!

Satan’s subtle personal reinterpretation of Yehovah’s Word is recorded in Genesis 3:1-3. Note the subtle deception, the misinterpretation by Satan, of Yehovah's original instructions.

“Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Yehovah Elohim had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, has Elohim said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"

God didn't say that. Quite the opposite. He said, “… you may freely eat” of every tree, "except..." Satan turned God’s positive permission into a negative prohibition. Yet, what Satan stated in the negative was the truth, as they may not eat of every tree since the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was forbidden. Subtle but lethal!

“And the woman said unto the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden …” Eve, quite correctly, affirms the positive permission God gave them to eat of every tree, except one. But she forgot which tree! This is illustrative of how important it is to pay attention to a single truth, a single instruction, a single command, a single law from the Eternal. Forgetting or ignoring just one law can cost you your eternal life! But to continue:

“But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden…” Eve now errs grossly. The forbidden tree of good and evil was not in the “midst” of the garden. The tree of life was in the middle of the garden. Eve was confused. She misidentified the trees. Harsh as it may be, her forgetfulness, or confusion, resulted in her inadvertently telling a lie. [It should serve as a warning example for would-be preachers and prophets and self-styled expositors of the word of God: In not knowing some teaching clearly, yet presenting it as “God said…” they by extension, make themselves false teachers and liars, misrepresenting the Eternal, His Word, His authority, and His truth.]

Eve, referring to the tree of life in the centre of the garden, continued: “God hath said, You shall not eat of it [Since Eve misidentified the tree, that statement was also wrong, or a lie!] God did not say they may not eat of the tree in the middle of the garden, in fact, they could have eaten of it! Eve, in her confusion, used God as authority for not eating of the tree of life but instead eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve misused His name, His authority, by linking it to a lie originating in her forgetfulness.

Eve then engages in a typical superior self-righteous behavior by adding to the word of God. She added: “… neither shall ye touch it…” [A typical Procrustean ploy used by false preachers. See our Blog: Prophetic Profiles.]

According to the text God did not say that. Eve is adding to God’s Word, making her standard higher than the Eternal’s. Human self-righteousness had now crept into human behavior. And, that by means of another lie!

[This is typical sanctimonious, self-righteous, self-justifying behavior on the part of ministers when they seek to avoid and negate simple direct instructions from the Almighty. They invent false, superior sounding teachings to negate God’s direct commands. They divert the attention from biblical reality and truth to sanctimonious, soft, sweet, holier-than-thou teachings to preach “smooth things” [Isaiah 30:10]. Today this is manifested in various deceptive teachings like: “Once saved always saved”, “Radical Grace”, “Saved by grace alone”, "Your Best Life Now", ad nauseum.]

Notice Eve’s soft-peddling of God’s words: “… lest (so as to prevent the possibility that) you die.” There was no possibility factor in the equation with God. His statement was an absolute: “You shall surely die.” “Lest” implies the possibility that it may not happen! Eve watered down the absoluteness of the consequences of the sin.

So, Eve got her trees mixed up. However, Satan did not correct her erroneous view, nor directed her to eat of the tree of life. His strategy was to consolidate Eve’s confusion and misunderstanding. He didn’t want Eve and Adam to have eternal life. Why should he? He didn’t want to share the universe with any other ever-living beings. Satan wanted Adam and Eve dead! That’s why Christ called him a “murderer from the beginning” [John 8:44].

Since Eve was already deceived by her own forgetfulness that she should not eat of the tree in the “midst of the garden” [the tree of life] she clearly would have thought that it’s OK to eat of the tree of the “knowledge of good and evil”.

Satan, capitalizing on her confusion, i.e. that she would die eating of the tree of life and live eternally by eating of the forbidden tree, focused attention on the forbidden fruit which, he correctly understood, if eaten, would result in her death. Eve, however, being confused about the two trees, believed that the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” – the “tree of death” – will bring her life!

Being so persuaded by her own confusion, it was easy for Satan to induce Eve to eat the forbidden fruit thus signing her own death warrant!

The ancient Genesis garden drama continues amidst the foliage of a holy paradise as confusion of thought, intent and action were being advanced, thought by thought, lie by lie. Here's the record:

Genesis 3:4-6: “And the serpent said unto the woman, 'Ye shall not surely die…'” [Based on a lie, Satan strengthened Eve’s doubt about her dying should she eat the forbidden fruit. Through his lie he implies God is the liar!] He further strengthened the deception by calling God as his presumed witness in declaring: God knows that in the day you eat this forbidden fruit your eyes will be opened and you shall be as gods in knowing good and evil.

By his two lies Satan misrepresented the truth and made God out to be the liar!

Subtly Satan subverted Eve by changing the subject from the curse of dying due to disobedience to the blessing of disobedience. He introduced the original red herring and became the first heterodox minister to mankind -- and millions of ministers opposed to the truth have followed him since Eden!

Having convinced Eve she won't die he offers her the exhilarating benefit of superior, divine, celestial knowledge. [Like all salesman are taught -- sell benefits, benefits, benefits! -- whether real or imagined. Lying doesn't matter, just get the sale!]

Thus, as far as Eve was concerned, Satan was absolutely right because she already believed the other tree [the tree in the midst of the garden, the tree of life], would cause her to die if she ate of it! Therefor, she assumed, God must have had some symbolic, philosophic, theoretical concept in mind when He talked to them about this thing called “dying”, which they, up to that point, had never experienced. And, if Eve understood the meaning of death [perhaps God explained it to them], Eve reasoned that He surely did not mean “death”, literally! And, Satan confirmed her viewpoint by his statement: “You shall not surely die.”

Satan latched on to Eve’s misperception to strengthen her confusion. He presented a direct lie to appeal to and consolidate her own self-deception. The series of temptations both physical-sensual and mental-spiritual, manifested itself through the lust of the eyes. The misperception was that the fruit was “good” without any experiential proof, yet. The pleasantness to the physical senses, the desire to be wise, to intellectually ascend into the celestial divine sphere and the tingling sensation spawned by the anticipated flavor of the deeply coveted forbidden fruit, all coalesced within Eve’s confused, thrilled and sensually agitated mind. She was rapturously overwhelmed, swooned out of her senses, and finally she succumbed to the temptation spawn in the heart of the subtle, handsome "angel of light"!

The "fall of man" was birthed in the twin delusions of misperception, and its consequence self-deception, because God's original command was forgotten, misinterpreted, twisted to suit personal desires and finally strengthened by the smiling salesman of the original “snake oil”.

[It is more than interesting to realize that what scripture describes as Eve’s mental processes is highly descriptive of the later philosophers’ perceptological speculations and vain argumentations to arrive at their various subjective and conflicting “realities”. Some believe the universe is real. Others argue it is merely the figment of our delusional minds. But more about these confused clerics and cliques of claques in ecclesiastical and academic parlors, later.]

Eve ate. Adam joined in the feast. And, the first act of disobedience against the first law God gave man, was fait accompli. THE LAW WAS BROKEN – AND SO WAS MAN!

What did this disobedience entail? WHAT RESULTED FROM this forgetfulness of one SIMPLE and direct command of the Eternal? How did disobedience to ONE COMMAND turn into quiet defiance AND REBELLION to turn Adam and Eve into the first law-breakers – the FIRST ANTINOMIANISTS?

In Part III we will cover the list of the commandments Eve broke when she disobeyed the Eternal’s primary command not to eat of the forbidden tree. We will discover the awesome truth that, as James says, when we BREAK ONE COMMAND OF THE ETERNAL WE ARE GUILTY OF ALL! [JAMES 2:10.]

James wrote this decades after the death and resurrection of Christ when, according to Protestant, Reformed, and Pentecostal denominations, the law had supposedly, according to their antinomian obsessions, been "done away".

It should make some teachers think, don't you think?

[Rvw-2022/06/19]