By Ron Webster
Continuing in Genesis 3: How true then is the statement Satan made “ye shall not surely die?” This is only half true, for they did not physically die in the day they ate of the forbidden fruit, but they certainly died spiritually knowing good and evil, without the ability to discern between the two. Because they were told only half the truth, they in their imagination questioned God’s statements, assuming God had forbidden something that actually was good, and concluded the consequences of partaking of the fruit of this tree was not true. One cannot have their eyes opened if they are dead! The “original sin” is privileging oneself as a god, skewing the words of God to explain something that is not understood at the expense of ignoring a clear command of God.
How does Eve respond as a god? “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 to her husband with her; and he did eat.” She assumed the command to not eat of the fruit to somehow not be true, even though it is a most undeniable straight forward command. She chose to base her reasoning on what I call the “law of the flesh” as described by John in I John 2:16. “For all that is in the world (the way the natural man thinks to discern ...
