The recipients of a lie believe it because they are convinced they will gain some benefit by accepting it. One of the most notorious lies of all time was the one told in the Garden of Eden, by the Serpent, to Eve. She bought into that lie wholeheartedly since she already aspired to Self-actualization. One of the human goals identified by Abraham Maslow’s 1943 Pyramid of Needs. Everything that she needed to facilitate her happiness already existed in great abundance. To satisfy all her physiological, safety, love/belonging, and esteem needs.
“And a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground, then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Genesis 2: 6-9 (NKJV).
One piece of self-evident truth is that The Creator is the only legitimate mover and shaker in this story and in all human history. He alone called everything into existence. This is a vital piece of revelation that all nations need to grasp and fully understand. Although there are a number of supporting actors. Including the new anthropogenic creatures that He has just made. Apparently, everyone else on earth earnestly wants to dethrone Him and take over. That is their ultimate objective and for that sole reason, they have bought into the lie. The Serpent who formulates this lie is also a significant part of this whole conspiracy. The Bible labors and strives to remind the world’s inhabitants repeatedly of who God really is. Because due to our mortal, finite, and sinful condition, we are prone to misperceive, ignore, or forget. That God is infinite, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. These are realities that we will never be able to fully understand. Nevertheless, we need to appreciate them.
“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.” Psalm 33: 6-9 (ESV)
There are theologians who have argued that Adam was never deceived. But rather that he acted out of love for Eve and that he ate the forbidden fruit because he treasured her and was afraid of losing her to death. A condition concerning which the Creator had warned him in consequence of disobedience. This argument may seem at first to be meritorious of some consideration. However, upon closer examination, it would become abundantly clear that even if Adam entertained this thought it would be an act of outright rebellion against divine authority. Because it clearly indicates that he was attempting to develop his own agenda, thereby, challenging God’s sovereignty.
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:15-17 (NKJV).
Our first father’s ultimate death, was by no means coincidental. Although he was subsequently permitted to live for 930 years. Witnessing the misery and tragedies that his act of infidelity had brought upon the world. He was warned in advance of his act of transgression, of what the consequences of sin would be. What our first parents did was reject Christ. They made that decision by relying on their own limited physical senses, their own misconception of reality, and their own imperfect erotic love. Things are never what they seem to be. Because we are severely limited in every particular. As the years rolled by Adam witnessed Eve’s fading beauty, the death and decay of the natural world in its entirety, and the depraved and exceedingly sinful nature of his own descendants. Only then did he fully understand that instead of life he had chosen only dust and ashes. He had chosen death.
Certain my resolution is to Die;
How can I live without thee, how forgoe
Thy sweet Converse and Love so dearly joyn’d,
To live again in these wilde Woods forlorn?
John Milton’s Narrative Re: Eve (Lines 990-993)
… she embrac’d him and for joy Tenderly wept,
much won that he his Love Had so enobl’d,
as of choice to incur Divine displeasure for her sake, or Death.
Is it any surprise therefore that The Creator warns us repeatedly in scripture and throughout history to carefully ‘watch ourselves’ Since we are only human creatures and actually don’t run or even fully understand anything? Little did Ashli Babbit and all the incarcerated Maga Maniacs know that their every move was being watched and recorded by the infinite eye. If she only had conducted her life appropriately within the context of those sobering facts. If they only understood that everything they did on January 6, was being recorded by supernatural agencies. Maybe they would have behaved differently. Then maybe they would be with their family and loved ones today instead of being held behind bars.
“Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.” Deuteronomy 5:32-33 (NKJV)
Was it really merely coincidental that Ashli Babbitt was shot to death on January 6? Was she at that location by blind accident or chance? Or was she predestined to die on that day and under those circumstances? Because of who she was. Are all the convicted MAGA maniacs behind bars, imprisoned, because they were accidentally in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or is there a vast cosmic computer program/network tracking every member of the human race? Does such a program know at all times the location of everyone and the precise geographical situation of every malefactor?
Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left. And the Lord said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may die at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’ Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you.” 1 Kings 22:19-23 (NKJV).
(TO BE CONTINUED)
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