January 4, 2013

After forty plus years of ministry, twenty five years of formal education, and many necessary paradigm shifts, I read my bible from a different perspective. God has revealed to us a cosmic battle between Good and evil, between true prophets and false prophets, between the Spirit of truth and the father of lies, between the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of darkness, between the Christ and the antichrist. We are in that battle whether we believe it or not (some don’t). The tone of the whole bible is set in Genesis 3:1-7, which I quote with comment:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that Lord God had made. Satan is a created being. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” Satan is questioning the will of God. And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” It may be wise not to touch the forbidden fruit, but that is an addition to God’s word, which the Pharisees did and legalists do to this day. But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Satan is questioning the word of God. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food (lust of the flesh), and that it was a delight to the eyes (lust of the eyes), and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise (boastful pride of life), she took of its fruit and ate.

Notice that Satan used the same three channels to tempt Jesus (Matt. 4:1-11), and the same three described by the Apostle John, For all that is in the world-the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions-is not from the Father but is from the world (1 Jn. 2:16). Every good initiative that God makes is countered by Satan. When God sows a good seed, the enemy sows a counterfeit (Matt. 13:24f). Let’s not be blindfolded warriors who don’t know who our enemy is and therefore strike out at one another. Let’s put on the armor of God and stand firm in our faith.

Neil

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