Lies Straight from the Garden

It’s a beautiful rainy day here in Northern New Mexico where I live. Since that’s a rare occurrence around here, we’re all enjoying the cooler temperatures, and of course the moisture—especially my garden!

This morning though, I was thinking about Adam and Eve and what it might have been like in the garden. We know that God created it, and that it was very good because Genesis 1 tells us that after God got done creating everything He declared it “very good.”  I have to assume there was the right amount of moisture, not too much, and not too little. Unlike the high desert, and also unlike those places that get a lot more moisture than we have, it was just the right amount and I’m sure the plants were growing like crazy with that personalized “God-care.”

Also, in the garden it seems that Adam and Eve didn’t have to work overly hard—maybe they had time to pursue their hobbies (naming all the animals is something that Adam did), or relax. One thing we know for sure is that they had the time and energy to “walk with God” regularly in the garden. We know that because the biblical text tells us that right after the fall God came down to do what He regularly did which was to walk and talk with them.

Then entered the serpent.  .. dum, dum, dummm, duhhhmmmm as my kids would say. He starts off by asking Eve a question. “Did God really say?” I sure don’t have to think very hard to think of examples of Satan asking us the same question here today. The attacks on the Bible that are quite easily found on the Internet are one example of that. The attacks on what the Bible actually teaches are another one. (Did God really say that He hates homosexuality?)

Then Eve complicates the matter by adding on to what God said the phrase “you must not even touch it.” That too is something that religions do: add onto what scripture teaches by adding on rules and regulations that supersede what God has actually said. One example of that is the rule that many religions put on religious people that says they can’t drink alcoholic beverages. What God’s Word actually says is that a person shouldn’t get drunk, and also that nothing should enslave the Christian (that would include an addiction to alcohol). These “additional” rules were actually what Jesus was fighting against most often when He interacted with the Pharisees.

The next lie Satan tells is of particular interest to those who have studied Mormonism because what Satan tells Eve next is that she won’t actually die, but instead her eyes will be opened, and she will become “like God.”  It’s not actually a lie that’s unique to Mormonism, it’s just that Mormonism so blatantly teaches it. Most other systems of belief though, that elevate man, and bring God down to the level of a man are in essence teaching that mankind is “like God.”

I’m always fascinated by these three falsehoods because I think that they form the foundation for most of the temptations Satan throws at us today, and probably throughout history. The question for us is, are one of these issues facing us personally today?

Did God really say?

Not only that, but you also must. . . 

You can become like God.

Follow the Prophets. . . except when they're wrong!

The other day, in my daily devotional reading I got caught up in reading the tale of the destruction of Israel that’s recounted in Jeremiah 52, and continued in the book of Lamentations. To tell the tale though, you really need to read the entire book of Jeremiah and hear how again and again and again Jeremiah was called to go to the kings of Israel and predict the destruction of Israel. (I had done that in the past days before this incident).

To remind you of this tragic story I’ll attempt to recap a bit what happened. After several evil kings, Zedekiah became the king of Israel and continued in his rebellion against the Lord. In his eleventh year as king, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon came against Israel and besieged it. For two years his army literally camped out outside the walls of Jerusalem, allowing no one in or out. Not surprisingly after a bit the people ran out of food. Lamentations, which is Jeremiah’s lament about all this, tells us more about this sad, hard situation and includes the detail that the ladies of the city even resorted to eating their own children! (Lamentation 2:20)

If you haven’t read it before, I’d highly suggest you read Lamentations, which is were Jeremiah literally weeps over the utter destruction of his people, and their subsequent dehumanization and humiliation. (Zed, for his part had his sons put to death in front of him, and then was blinded, and taken to Babylon where he lived as a captive for the rest of his life—see Jeremiah 52).

As I mentioned before I was absolutely gripped by this story, even though it’s not a unfamiliar story to me. And, then in the midst of this story I found the cause of the problems that Jerusalem faced very clearly spelled out:

 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. (Lamentations 2:14)

  For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, (Lamentations 4:13)

 You see, Jeremiah wasn’t the only prophet in this time period, but instead there were a whole bunch of prophets, and these prophets, every single one of them, made false prophecies which led the people astray. Early on in Jeremiah’s ministry, for instance, he went face-to-face with false prophets, and the Lord had him do it by wearing a yoke and telling the people that they should go into captivity and that if they did they’d be safe. Hananiah, who was also a prophet came against Jeremiah and said that wasn’t true, but that the Lord was saying the people would be set free (see Jeremiah 28).

And, this leads to my point, I, when I was LDS, was taught that a prophet would never, ever lead the people astray, (See http://lds.org/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-9-prophets-of-god?lang=eng&query=prophets+leading+people+astray) and yet in Old Testament times (and in the New too I suspect) prophets did just that—they led the people astray. In fact, in the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah puts the blame for Jerusalem’s destruction, and the people’s being led into captivity squarely at the feet of the false prophets.

And, yet there were some Israelites that were wise enough to ignore the false prophets, and believe the true ones (Jeremiah). How did they know? How could they discern? I think the answer lies in the biblical truth that they knew God’s Word—in their case it was a matter of knowing the Pentateuch (or the first five books of Moses, often called the Law in the Bible). Remember Moses had admonished the people that they should put his words on their door posts, and on the wall as they went in and out of their houses, as well as teach them to their children, and more! (Deuteronomy 6)  and some followed this commandment. These were the ones, I believe, who knew that what Jeremiah was saying had to be true. Because you see, what was happening in the government of the time so obviously was NOT what God wanted, that to anyone familiar with His Word, it would have been clear that they weren’t OK—not at all.

In a more contemporary example, many people were duped by Harold Camping, and spent a lot of time and money trying to convince the rest of us that what he predicted was true—that he was a true prophet, and that the world was going to end last Saturday. It didn’t of course, and those of us who knew God’s Word weren’t fooled by him. That’s because there is always, always safety in knowing what God has said—it, and it alone won’t lead us astray. Prophets on the other hand can and will, as is well documented in Zedekiah's story and several others in God's Word. 

 Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.(1 Cor. 10:11-12)

 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. (Romans 15:4)