Category: Adam and Eve

The Serpent’s Subtilty #3

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3 KJV).

The Serpent is “subtil,” so the saint must be sagacious!

Some of Paul’s converts in Corinth, Greece, were questioning his apostleship, doubting that Jesus Christ had really sent him to them. False teachers had caused them to become anti-Paul, and thus, anti-Jesus Christ: they rejected Jesus Christ speaking through the Apostle Paul. That is the context of today’s Scripture. We want to focus on verse 4 now, particularly the phrase, “another Jesus:” “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”

Paul feared someone would “preach another Jesus, whom we have not preached.” What does that mean? Paul was preaching “Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery” (Romans 16:25). There was a special way to view Jesus Christ—primarily, Him being the Head of the Church the Body of Christ. This message was committed first to the Apostle Paul; God kept it secret prior to Paul. Peter, James, and John never preached it. To learn about the Jesus Christ whom Paul preached, we must read Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon.

We do not follow Jesus’ earthly ministry (Matthew through John)—it was to Jews only (Matthew 15:24; John 4:22; Acts 2:22; Romans 15:8). The Bible says, “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more” (2 Corinthians 5:16). Jesus Christ now has a heavenly ministry through Paul… to reach us Gentiles (1 Corinthians 14:37; cf. Romans 11:13)!

Unfortunately, there is so much emphasis on Matthew through John in most churches today, that few ever realize that Jesus Christ revealed additional information to Paul years later, special doctrine found nowhere else in Scripture. Like Eve, Satan has deceived them; they are misapplying, misquoting, and watering down Scripture, denying the contexts of Israel’s verses, et cetera. Satan’s relentless attack on God’s Word continues….

The Serpent’s Subtilty #2

Monday, September 15, 2014

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3 KJV).

The Serpent is “subtil,” so the saint must be sagacious!

We read in Genesis 2:16,17: “[16] And the LORD God commanded the man [Adam], saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: [17] But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

The Bible student will carefully compare this with Genesis 3:1-4: “[1] 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? [2] And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: [3] 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. [4] And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die….”

Satan first questioned God’s Word. Then, Eve misquoted it (note the underlined, bolded phrases—Eve added to God’s Word, subtracted from it, and watered it down). Satan finally denied God’s Word, although he knew what God had told Adam (and what Adam had told Eve). If Satan can cause you to doubt God’s Word to you, and you do not even know what God said to you, you are sure to fail!

The Devil actually quoted the Bible to Jesus Christ when tempting Him as he had enticed Eve thousands of years earlier (Matthew 4:6; Luke 4:10,11)—Satan again butchered the text, obviously, but he certainly preached a message that appeared good (he did quote Scripture!). Unlike Eve, Jesus knew better; He knew and believed what the Scriptures really said, so Satan could neither deceive nor distract Him.

Likewise, we must learn God’s Word to us, lest we misquote it and fall into Satan’s trap….

The Serpent’s Subtilty #1

Sunday, September 14, 2014

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3 KJV).

The Serpent is “subtil,” so the saint must be sagacious!

Satan, commonly called “the Devil” or “that old serpent” (Revelation 12:9), is one of the most misunderstood individuals in Scripture. The average church member is completely oblivious to exactly what he wants accomplished and how he operates to achieve it.

We should know our enemy, beloved—after all, he aspires to defeat us!! Just as a soldier does not haphazardly enter the battlefield, but first is briefed about his mission and the activity of the opposition, so we must study our Bibles to see how Satan wages war with us Christians (his overall goal is to thwart God’s plans). In today’s Scripture, Paul clearly explained that if we could understand the method Satan used to deceive Eve in the Garden of Eden, then we could comprehend how he will trick us.

Let us read verses 1 and 2 with today’s Scripture: “[1] Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. [2] For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. [3] But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

As God’s spokesman to us Gentiles (Romans 11:13), Paul had a righteous jealousy. He did not want doctrinal error to spiritually defile us as illicit sexual activity would physically spoil a virgin. We Christians are joined to Jesus Christ; we are His Body forever, so we have no business dabbling in (false) religion. Six times JEHOVAH told Israel that He was a “jealous God,” so they were not to participate in heathen religion (Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:14; Deuteronomy 4:24; Deuteronomy 5:9; Deuteronomy 6:15; Joshua 24:19). If we are to withstand Satan’s war against us, we too must learn to identify and avoid “doctrines of devils….”

The Thing Which is Good

Monday, September 1, 2014

“Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Ephesians 4:28 KJV).

On this Labor Day, we talk about work, “the thing which is good.”

In this day and age of increasing “government assistance,” people are becoming less and less aware of our hard work being the Lord Jesus’ preferred method of the source of our incomes. While the physically and mentally disabled are obvious exceptions, the God of the Bible expects all of us to contribute labor in order to provide for ourselves. For children and young adults, even being a student in school is work enough!

Observe the doctrine being communicated in today’s Scripture. The grace life does not merely teach us to quit doing bad things, but it also instructs us to start doing good things (Titus 2:11,12). Once a thief trusts the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished crosswork as sufficient payment for his sins, then God expects that thief to quit stealing and find a job so he can provide for his needs!

The God of creation calls work “the thing which is good” (today’s Scripture). Work is not something to be avoided; it is something to be embraced for the Lord’s glory!

When the Lord Jesus Christ put the first man, Adam, on earth, that man had a divine commission. Adam was not to simply loaf around and do nothing: “And the LORD God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15). Adam was to protect that garden, to till its ground, to prepare it for Jesus Christ to come down and dwell in with he and Eve (because of sin, that earthly kingdom over which Jesus Christ will rule is still awaiting fulfillment!).

Saints, may we work to provide for our families (1 Timothy 5:8), and may we work to help those who truly are needy (today’s Scripture). In the words of God the Holy Spirit, that is “good!” 🙂

What Smart Kids!

Saturday, August 16, 2014

“And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased, And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Matthew 21:15,16 KJV).

The children of today’s Scripture knew more spiritual truth than most adults do today!

Some time ago, I heard a large assembly of elementary students at a private Christian school, let out such a gasp when a speaker talked about how some people in our nation did not want to utter the name Jesus Christ or dare speak about the Holy Bible. The thought of such wickedness had never seemed to cross these young, pliant minds. I could not help but conclude that these preteens had more respect for the Lord Jesus Christ than many adults!

When young children, perhaps as young as five or ten years old, saw Jesus riding on the donkey’s colt, entering Jerusalem, with less than a week to live, they praised Him. Earlier, they had heard the adults shouting, “Hosanna [Salvation] to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest” (verse 9). Now that He had cleansed the Temple of the thieves in religion, the children joined in the praising of Jesus Christ. This so irritated the chief priests and the scribes. Their hearts filled with rage, hatred, envy—“How dare He come here, stop our funding, and get the praise that we deserve!”

They then asked Jesus if He heard the children praising Him, and He replied in the affirmative. He then showed these religious leaders’ Bible ignorance, asking if they ever read Psalm 8:2. In that psalm, God explained how He would use man—a fragile creature made of mere dust—to glorify Himself in the earth. Jesus was saying that, by praising Him, these weakly children were doing what God designed man to do from the very beginning when He created Adam!

 

Cain Came and Brought Shame #10

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD” (Genesis 4:1 KJV).

Can you identify the very significant phrase our King James Bible contains in today’s Scripture, and why it was said?

The Bible student understands what began in the book of Genesis is brought to its ultimate fulfillment in the book of the Revelation. God’s purpose and plan for creation initiated (and delayed) in Genesis is thus brought to fruition in the Revelation; Satan’s evil world system that began in Genesis is destroyed in the Revelation.

One of the primary ways that God will comfort believing Israel during those most difficult years—the horrors of the seven-year Tribulation—is to teach them using types, previews of their situation, found in the Holy Bible’s historical narratives. All of the Old Testament Scriptures about enduring hardship (especially the Psalms) will be critical to believing Israel’s spiritual edification as Satan tries their faith.

Israel will particularly benefit from the Bible’s accounts of how their ancestors were delivered from Pharaoh (a type of Antichrist), how David was delivered from Saul (a type of Antichrist), how Daniel’s three friends were delivered from Nebuchadnezzar (a type of Antichrist), how Daniel endured the lions’ den (a type of the Tribulation), how Job survived his awful ordeals (a type of the Tribulation), and so on. JEHOVAH was faithful to all of these saints, and He will be faithful to Israel’s believing remnant now facing the Antichrist’s wrath.

Regarding the story of Cain and Abel, Israel will learn how Abel gave his life for the very God they will now be serving to the Antichrist’s hatred. They need not be discouraged; they need not marvel that the world hates them (1 John 3:11-13). Even if they lose their lives (and many Messianic Jews will perish; Matthew 10:39; Revelation 20:4), Abel’s testimony still affirms that God is faithful (Hebrews 11:4). After all, Jesus Christ will return to defeat Satan, the Antichrist, and all of Earth’s wicked, and believing Israel will be resurrected bodily, to enter God’s earthly kingdom (Revelation 19:11–20:6).

Cain brought shame, but the real Messiah, Jesus, what joy and hope He will bring! 🙂

Cain Came and Brought Shame #9

Monday, June 30, 2014

“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD” (Genesis 4:1 KJV).

Can you identify the very significant phrase our King James Bible contains in today’s Scripture, and why it was said?

Daniel 9:26,27 says, “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary…. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease….”

Firstly, the Holy Ghost moved the Prophet, 600 years in advance, to predict Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. Secondly, Daniel foretold that “the prince,” someone after Messiah (a false Messiah), would arise and make a covenant with “many” (chiefly Israel, but probably with her Middle-East enemies also). The Apostle John indicates that this “one-week” covenant, or peace treaty, is actually a week of years (that is, seven years; see Revelation 11:3 and Revelation 12:6, which divide the seven years into two 1260-day periods).

There has not been a Jewish Temple operating in Jerusalem since A.D. 70 (when the Romans destroyed it), so the Antichrist will rebuild it and resume the sacrifices as commanded in the Old Testament (which sacrifices God forbade after Jesus Christ’s “once-for-all” sacrifice of Himself; Hebrews 10:1-31). Israel’s believing remnant will recognize the Antichrist’s religion as satanic, but the rest of Israel will be duped, captivated by its “godly appearance,” thinking they are serving JEHOVAH (after all, the Antichrist will be quoting Moses’ books as proof of his religion’s “godliness!”).

Halfway into those seven years, the Antichrist will force all sacrifices to cease (Daniel 9:27, quoted above). As Paul wrote, he will then sit in the Temple, “shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4). The Antichrist will demand worship (Revelation 13:1-18), and just as Abel refused to convert to Cain’s “sacrificial system,” so believing Jews will decline to partake of Antichrist’s wickedness. Hence, we read about the saints “beheaded for the witness of Jesus” (Revelation 20:4; cf. Revelation 6:9-11).

While we have merely scratched the surface, let us summarize this devotionals arc….

Cain Came and Brought Shame #8

Sunday, June 29, 2014

“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD” (Genesis 4:1 KJV).

Can you identify the very significant phrase our King James Bible contains in today’s Scripture, and why it was said?

With our completed Bible in hand, we can look back and see what damage Cain inflicted—especially the long-term effects. His wickedness not only caused the murder of God’s first prophet (Luke 11:50,51), but it began a way/method to approach God on the basis of our will and our preferences. Even today, the same works-religion system afflicts and deceives the (Jesus-rejecting) world.

Describing unbelieving Jews living during the seven-year Tribulation, the time period after our Dispensation of Grace, Jude wrote: “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core [Korah]” (verse 11). Although beyond the scope of our current discussion, suffice it to say that Jude selected three specific Old Testament accounts of rebellions against the God of the Bible. The Holy Spirit led Jude to mention Cain first. Again, instead of being God’s Messiah/Christ (as Eve assumed; today’s Scripture), Cain was the person who began a “way” (system, manner) of attempting to approach the God of creation on the basis of our will, trying to reach Him how we choose rather than how He instructed.

Cain was certainly not the Messiah. Actually, he paved the way for the Antichrist, the counterfeit Messiah, and his satanic religious system (which would arise at least 6,000 years later)! Cain is a picture of the Antichrist and his followers; Abel is a type of believing Israel, God’s remnant of believers whom the unbelievers persecute. The Prophet Daniel described how the Antichrist will “destroy the mighty and holy people… and by peace shall destroy many” (8:24,25) and “speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High” (7:25). In the spirit/attitude of Cain, the Antichrist will speak against the God of the Bible and execute God’s people….

Cain Came and Brought Shame #7

Saturday, June 28, 2014

“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD” (Genesis 4:1 KJV).

Can you identify the very significant phrase our King James Bible contains in today’s Scripture, and why it was said?

Jesus Christ forewarned Israel’s religious leaders: “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive” (John 5:43). Christ was referring to the climax of Satan’s policy of evil, when “the man of sin, the son of perdition” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) would arise in the world’s governmental structure. National Israel refused Jesus as their King; hence, God would give them what they wanted (Satan’s error, spiritual ignorance). Instead, Israel would receive an “antichrist,” a counterfeit Messiah, someone who would fool them into believing he was their true Redeemer.

Intriguingly, this significantly parallels the passages of Cain’s birth and his murder of Abel. Adam and Eve had high hopes for Cain, going so far as to name him in reference to the Redeemer (Genesis 3:15 cf. today’s Scripture). However, they thought little of Abel, who would actually become God’s prophet and believer (God’s spokesman; Luke 11:50,51)—the name “Abel” means “vanity, emptiness.” In a tragic reversal, Cain turned out to be a mere professing believer; he disappointed his parents by killing righteous Abel (God’s child)!

Similarly, Israel saw no value in the true Messiah, Jesus, but she will have such high hopes for the Antichrist, for he will promise Israel peace and deliverance (and like Cain, the Antichrist will be manifested to be a disappointment). As Cain founded a civilization built on false religion (Genesis 4:15-17), so the Antichrist will (Revelation 13:1-18). Like Cain, the Antichrist will initially fool mankind, and introduce his own religious system, “the way of Cain” (Jude 11). As there was a “mark” associated with Cain (Genesis 4:15), so a “mark” will be associated with the antichrist’s religion (Revelation 13:16,17). Like Cain murdering Abel for following the Lord, the antichrist and his followers will kill believing Israel, those who trust Jesus Christ and reject that false religious system….

Cain Came and Brought Shame #6

Friday, June 27, 2014

“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD” (Genesis 4:1 KJV).

Can you identify the very significant phrase our King James Bible contains in today’s Scripture, and why it was said?

Whilst Eve assumed that Cain would be a man who would serve the God of the Bible, 1 John 3:12 says, “Cain… was of that wicked one.” Cain was not a man of faith; he was eventually manifested to be Satan’s tool, not a believer in God’s Word. Like Satan (Isaiah 14:12-15), Cain wanted to be his own god, his own authority; moreover, like Satan, Cain wanted to get rid of God’s people, those who testified of God’s Word and who hindered the “progress” of Satan’s evil world system (the real reason why Cain killed Abel).

Spiritually, Cain was Satan’s son. Jesus commented to Israel’s lost religious leaders, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning…” (John 8:44). Beloved, the same godless, sinful spirit (attitude) that operated in Satan controlled Cain and Israel’s religious leaders. It operates in today’s religious people (Ephesians 2:1-3), and it will operate in future religious people. They all want to do what they want; they starkly disregard the will and instructions of the God of the Bible. Like Cain, they offer the sacrifice they want, the sacrifice God never instructed them to bring. They refuse to depend upon Jesus Christ’s blood sacrifice for acceptance before God (the ONLY sacrifice He will accept); they prefer to offer their own “good” works, the fruit of their own hands. The Bible is clear that they, like Cain, will be rejected of God.

Satan’s chief way of corrupting the nation Israel was to infiltrate it with pagan religion (spiritual lies had been successful with Adam and Eve in Eden, and with Cain; Satan uses the same old tactics!). Baal worship, pagan idol worship, began in Israel in Judges 2:11-13 and it has yet to lose its grip. Beyond our present day, after our dispensation, Satan will make one final attempt to bring about what Cain started, and many “Abels” will perish….