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Now
the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the
LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye
shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And
the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees
of the garden: But
of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye
die. And
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.
And
when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her
husband with her; and he did eat. (Genesis
3:1-6)
I sincerely believe that evolution is an obstacle to coming to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. It's not so much that I believe a person can't be Christian unless he's a creationist. Rather, I believe that when a person begins rejecting the word of God, it is typical that he will also reject God. It occurred to me that we see the process of how this occurs right in Genesis 3. Pastors often use acronyms, alliteration, and similar mnemonic devices to help people remember some particular point. I've said in the past, “always avoid alliteration” (//RKBentley chuckles//) but in this passage, the “Five D's” leaped out at me so strongly that I can't resist using them.
DOUBT
The first step in unbelief occurs when we begin doubting the word of God. In Genesis 3, the serpent begins sowing seeds of doubt in Eve by saying, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Satan tries to obscure the clear meaning of God's command by taking God out of context. God did say Adam could eat of every tree... except one! Satan didn't mention that.
It's sad that many people who claim to be Christian have very little understanding of the Bible. Many Christians are unable to answer the simple question: Where did Cain get his wife? Such ignorance opens the door to all sorts of false doctrines. Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:”
DENY
In Genesis 3:4, the devil said, “Ye shall not surely die.” Of course, this denies the commandment of the LORD in Genesis 2:17: “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” We can assume Eve believed Satan and denied the clear words of God because she eventually ate the fruit apparently believing she would not die.
It's a short step from doubt to denial. When some people have doubts about a difficult passage, rather than study and pray, they opt for the simpler method of denying the truth of the passage. We hear this often when people say things like, “Adam and Eve weren't real people; Genesis is just an allegory.” When the Bible presents something as a fact, we are ill advised to suggest it is not a fact. It is no different than when Satan said, “you will not die.”
DIMINISH
When we deny the truth of what God has said in His word, then we diminish God's authority and make His will subservient to ours. In other words, we elevate our opinion above God's. In Genesis 3:6 says, “the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise.” Eve should have understood that God knew best when He commanded they not eat of the fruit. Nevertheless, she thought of reasons why she should.
Romans 1:25 talks about people “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.” These foolish people rejected the Creator of the universe and worshiped instead the lesser things of His creation.
DISOBEY
Genesis 3:6 says, “she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” After Eve had denied God's commandment and decided that she knew better than God, what was left then but to disobey Him?
Judges 21:25 says that when there was no king in Israel, “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” If we do not recognize an authority greater than ourselves, there is no need to abide by that authority. To reject God's word will always lead to disobeying God's word because His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9).
DEATH
Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Death has always been the punishment for sin (Romans 6:23). When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they were cursed with death. We are descended from Adam and so we have inherited his body of flesh. Because of this first sin, we all die physically (Romans 5:12). However, those who die without Christ face the second death which is the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8).
*****
So there you have it – the Five D's of Unbelief. It begins with doubt and ends with death. Again, I'm not saying that people who believe evolution are doomed to hell. I will say that to begin doubting God's word from the very first verse is a dangerous road to be on!
I sincerely believe that evolution is an obstacle to coming to a saving faith in Jesus Christ...The first step in unbelief occurs when we begin doubting the word of God.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I'm pretty sure that you're right. Many Christians manage to get over that obstacle, but there are plenty of testimonies of people who didn't. I don't think that the discovery that geocentrism was false had nearly as much impact (though Gerardus Bouw, the "Biblical Astronomer," does raise the question of how one can believe what the Bible says about the raising of the Son while rejecting its statements about the rising of the sun." Bible believers routinely compromise a literal reading of the Bible with concessions to empirical reality of one kind or another: how do biblical teachings about God opening the windows in the sky to send rain on the just and the unjust comport with modern meteorology?
Second, though, several people (including C.S. Lewis) have pointed out that the single biggest obstacle to Christian faith is comparative religion: the world is replete with supernatural claims and candidates for "the word of God." Nearly everyone rejects nearly all of them. It's rather bizarre, intellectually, to be aware of all the hordes of prophets and scriptures and then not to doubt whether the particular scriptures you were raised with are, in fact, "the word of God." Doubt is not some arbitrary decision in the face of what is unarguably the word of the Creator and Ruler of the universe; it is a response to the unquestionable existence of so many rival claims of what constitutes such a word, and so many rival interpretations of most of them (the Bible included).
Many Christians are unable to answer the simple question: Where did Cain get his wife? Such ignorance opens the door to all sorts of false doctrines.
The Bible doesn't actually say where Cain got his wife. Certainly, there are possible inferences from what the Bible does say, but there's no explicit declaration. And the assumption that he married one of his sisters is a bit problematic; the Bible elsewhere is rather unfriendly towards incest between siblings. Shall God require in some instances what He expressly forbids in others? The problem isn't basic ignorance as that all possible answers seem to contradict other Biblical statements.
Steven J,
DeleteYou said, “First, I'm pretty sure that you're right. Many Christians manage to get over that obstacle, but there are plenty of testimonies of people who didn't.”
Thinking back on my post, I'm not sure if I made it clear of one objective I had in writing it. Compromising on Genesis to make it “compatible” with science is a dangerous gospel. Once we begin doubting God's clear word, it's a quick path to disobeying God's word and I've written in the past about many apostates whose journeys began with doubting Genesis.
You said, “The Bible doesn't actually say where Cain got his wife. Certainly, there are possible inferences from what the Bible does say, but there's no explicit declaration. And the assumption that he married one of his sisters is a bit problematic; the Bible elsewhere is rather unfriendly towards incest between siblings. Shall God require in some instances what He expressly forbids in others? The problem isn't basic ignorance as that all possible answers seem to contradict other Biblical statements.”
Genesis 5:4-5 says, “And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.” According to Jewish tradition, as recorded by Josephus, Adam had 33 sons and 23 daughters. Those exact numbers aren't attested in the Bible, but given that Adam lived over 900 years, it's not a stretch to believe he fathered dozens of children.
As for commands against incest, I've sometimes used the analogy of kosher diets. In the Garden, God told Adam he could eat any green thing. After the Flood, God told Noah he could also eat meat. It wasn't until the time of Moses and the Law that God established the dietary restrictions that Jews observe.
Certainly God doesn't change. What did change were our circumstances. There was no death before Adam sinned so killing an animal in order to eat it was strictly forbidden. After the Fall, animals began killing each other but Noah still likely followed God's original command and was strictly vegetarian. After the Flood, the previous lush environment no longer existed and God allowed Noah to supplement his diet with meat. By the time of Moses, disease and sickness were such that God established careful laws for how His people would kill and eat their food.
Likewise, the nearly-genetically perfect Adam would have had near perfect children. There was no risk of close relatives having genetic birth defects in their children. By the time of Moses, the risk had become great enough that God now expressly forbade it.
I could go on by Google's character limits prevent it. Thanks for visiting and for your comments. God bless!!
RKBentley