PART 10 INVISIBLE FORCES

10

Why Does the Devil Deceive Unbelievers from Having a Relationship with God?

Ever wonder why the Devil decided to deceive Eve in the Garden of Eden in the first place? Why not let her and her husband enjoy this place of perfect environment and go somewhere else on the earth? Before we attempt to answer this, let’s find out how he deceived Eve.

Please turn to the book of Genesis.

              

Suggested Reading: Genesis 2:8-25; Genesis 3:1-24

Genesis 2:15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Adam, whose name means red, was the first man whom God created. He was made from the dust of the earth, and hence his name. God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and gave him dominion over all the lower creatures. The place where he’d ultimately reside would be called the Garden of Eden. While there, he’d dress it (preparing and enriching the [soil, in distributing the seeds,] and training the shoots in the way most favorable for the full development of the plant, and especially of its seed or fruits⁴¹) and keep it (guard or protect it). This beautiful and uncorrupted geographical area had many plants, flowers, trees, and animals in it. With that said, here’s a question to consider.

    

Could the idea conveyed to Adam to keep (protect) the Garden of Eden be related to a spiritual adversary?                                                      

Genesis 2:16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 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.

Adam was asked by God to give names to all of the animals in the Garden. He was provided with a helper named Eve, who was formed from one of his ribs. God gave them one prohibition, that’s it. It’s interesting to think that there were no other restrictions but only one. Surely, both of them would have no problem obeying this one command.

God told Adam that of all of the trees, there was only one of which they shouldn’t eat the fruit thereof, that being the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Furthermore, if either of them ate the fruit of this tree, then they’d surely die. The word die means dying thou shalt die. This speaks of a double death. Thou shalt not only die spiritually, by losing the life of God, but from that moment thou shalt become mortal, and shalt continue in a dying state till thou die⁴² physically.

Do I think that Adam fully understood the consequences of eating from this tree? I’d say that he did to some degree. However, how could someone grasp the concepts of spiritual or physical death since neither had ever occurred as far as humans were concerned? This brings us to another question to consider.

    

What would it mean to lose the life of God?

This would mean that Adam would live a life that was devoid of God’s instructions, of God’s presence, and of God’s perception about everything. In other words, he’d become self-directed, self-centered, and self-empowered. Everything would be about him. He didn’t know what this would be like, but would he really want to find out?  

    

What would it mean to die physically?

Again, he didn’t know what this would be like. Would he want to take a chance and forfeit the continuum of his life in the Garden of Eden?

The next thing we know is, all of a sudden, a serpent showed up on the scene talking to Eve. There was nothing said by her in response to this creature, such as, how are you able to talk? Maybe it was because it really wasn’t a snake at all, but simply a figurative description of the supernatural being known as the Devil. We know that in the book of 1 Peter, the Devil was also called a lion, and in the book of Revelation, a dragon. If indeed this was the Devil in his splendor as a cherub, why didn’t she say to him, who are you? I’ve never seen anything like you before. Could it be that she’d seen him at other times in the Garden, having talked to him on other occasions?

Genesis 3:1 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?

Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

His character was described as being more subtil (an intent to deceive) than any beast of the field. He brought up in his conversation with Eve the prohibition that was given to her and her husband by God of not eating the tree of knowledge of good and evil. How did the Devil know about this declaration? Somehow, he must have heard it.

Eve’s reply to him intimated that she was aware of this injunction. The Devil said to her that what God had said about her dying if she was to eat of this particular tree wasn’t true. But rather, there’s something that she’d receive that He doesn’t want her to have. This must have gotten her attention. Might she have thought, what was it that God is keeping from me?

Genesis 3:5 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.

He goes on to tell her that what will happen in actuality is the opposite of death, in that her eyes will be opened (having attained higher wisdom). Then, he continued to pour on the deception. He said that God knows that when you enter into this state of higher wisdom, you’ll have become a god (as divinity, as God, like Him), knowing good and evil (implying a fullness and accuracy of understanding such as was competent only to Elohim⁴³). Wow!

And if you’ll disobey Him and do what I say, you’ll become as wise as God Himself. By the way, you’ll also have His essence and His attributes. What do you think of that? There’s more waiting for you than you could ever imagine.

What Eve seemingly didn’t realize was that the state of perception or wisdom that she and Adam were already abiding in was the state of higher wisdom than what the Devil claimed God was holding back from them.       

Genesis 3:6-7 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. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.                                                                                             

The Devil wanted Eve and Adam to forfeit their spiritual connection with God as he had done and live their lives void of any kind of divine influence. So, Eve, thinking that there was a personal gain from eating from the forbidden tree, decided to eat its fruit. After which, she gave it to her husband, who, apparently without hesitation or questioning, also ate of it. All of a sudden, something drastic took place in both of their lives. Immediately, they discovered that they were naked (with the destruction of the normal connection between soul and body through sin, the body ceased to be the pure abode of a spirit in fellowship with God⁴⁴).                                                                                                                                

Genesis 3:23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

Instead of Adam and Eve remaining in a place of drawing closer to God, they were now sent out to a location where divine judgment was forthcoming. Life as they knew it would never be the same. The continuation of life in the Garden of Eden would be replaced with the termination of life on the earth outside of it. The relative ease of the Garden’s fruit production would be replaced by the hard labor of planting and cultivating fruit outside of it. They were removed from a place of peace and God’s connectivity to a place of human contention and heartache.

This is the ultimate story of betrayal, of someone who pretended to be your friend and seemingly had your best interests at heart but who ultimately was plotting behind your back your spiritual and physical demise. 

I think that the general idea or theme is this. The Devil promotes everything about self, period. He doesn’t see any value in anyone following God. He probably believes that he should be able to live the way he chooses without any consequence from Him. In other words, he presumably has reasoned that he has free will, which he does that allows him to think, speak, and act the way he decides.

I wonder how many people think this way. Live and let live, for tomorrow might never come. If only life was that simple, but it isn’t. Unfortunately, there’s a heaven, and there’s a hell. There’s a place where those who believe in God as He was revealed in each dispensation will abide forever. There’s also another place where those who don’t believe in God as He was revealed will abide forever. This brings us to the following question.

    

What’s the determining factor for someone to enter heaven?

Heaven, a place of holiness, can only receive those who are holy or righteous. How does a person become accepted or have a right standing with God?

In the Old Testament, it was the belief in Jehovah (Yahweh).

During the time when Christ lived on earth, there was a belief in Him as the Messiah.

During the time following Christ’s ascension into heaven and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on His disciples on the day of Pentecost, it was repenting of sin to God the Father and believing in his Son Jesus Christ, who being one of the members of the Trinity came to earth in the form of a man being born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, was condemned to death on the cross, paid the penalty for the sins of the whole world thus satisfying God the Father’s justice and providing forgiveness (wiping away the record) for sin, rose again after three days never to die again, and ascended into heaven as proof of the Father’s acceptance of His payment.

In the Garden of Eden, man’s communion with God was lost. Following Adam and Eve’s banishment, it has been God’s desire to see this fellowship restored. This is the conflict of the ages. Now, what’s brought before us is the million-dollar question.

 

Why did the Devil deceive Eve in the Garden of Eden?

Likewise, what might be his primary purpose in thwarting an unbeliever from becoming a child of God? While what I’m about to say is conjecture, Scripture does provide some evidence to support it.

But before we find out these answers, I’d like to provide you with a hint about what strategy he might use to achieve his personal agenda, as illustrated in the following story.

 

CONVICTION OVERTURNED FOR MO. MAN WHO SPENT ALMOST A DECADE IN PRISON FOR MURDER

Ryan Ferguson, 28, was convicted in the brutal killing of a sports journalist.

[On November 5, 2013, & #151; -- For the first time in almost ten] years, Ryan Ferguson can start imagining a life [outside prison] walls.

A Missouri state appeals court panel today overturned the murder conviction of the 28-year-old man, who has maintained his innocence while serving a 40-year sentence in a [maximum-security] prison for the 2001 slaying of a newspaper editor. The appeals court ruled that the prosecution withheld evidence from Ferguson’s defense attorneys that could have helped his case while he was on trial for the brutal murder of Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt. “Under the facts and circumstances of this case, we conclude that Ferguson did not receive a fair trial. His verdict is not worthy of confidence,” Western District [Appeal Court Judge,] Cynthia Martin wrote in the 3-0 decision. The state has 15 days to decide whether to retry Ferguson for the crime.

When “Nightline” spoke to Ferguson in a jailhouse interview last month, he had hoped to be released before Thanksgiving. “I’m going be ready for whatever life throws at me because I’ve been preparing for so long,” Ferguson said at the time. “[So,] you know I just … maintain positivity and hope that one day I’ll wake up and I’ll get a good phone call.”

Ferguson’s parents were thrilled to learn that their son’s conviction was overturned. “It almost seems like a dream,” his mother, Leslie, said. “I keep pinching [myself,] hoping that I’m not dreaming.”

His father, Bill, was angry that it had taken so long. “I think it’s a phenomenon that happens all across this country. It’s a combination of the prosecutor and the police and the court system all working together or not working together [that allowed] this travesty to take place,” he said. “The charges had no merit initially. And to evolve to where we got to here and go through a couple of appeals to be turned down and then [finally, after nine and a half years] finally get Ryan’s sentence vacated is just way too long. There’s plenty of blame and responsibility to go around.”

Ferguson’s saga started [ten] years ago when he was in college. A former Eagle Scout growing up in Columbia, Mo., he was a popular kid and extremely close with his family. But one day, in 2003, when Ferguson was leaving class, police pulled him over and accused him of viciously murdering Heitholt on Halloween night 2001.

Police questioned Ferguson for [hours,] and he never wavered in his insistence that he had nothing to do with the murder. But at the same time, a man named Charles Erickson, one of Ferguson’s classmates, was in another interrogation room down the hall, telling police that he and Ferguson had committed the crime and that it had been Ferguson’s idea. Erickson said the pair had been out together on that Halloween night when Heitholt was killed.

“We had a few drinks, hung [out,] and then when the bar closed, you know, I took Erickson [home,] and that was pretty much the night, like any other Halloween,” Ferguson is heard telling police on interrogation tapes. Erickson, who had a history of substance abuse, had started telling people before Ferguson was a suspect that he had dreamt he had been at the crime scene the night of the murder. Ferguson said one night, Erickson showed up inebriated at a friend’s house while Ferguson was there and started talking about it.

“He starts asking me if I know about him having anything to do with the murder of Kent Heitholt,” Ferguson recalled. “And I’m looking at him, I’m like, ‘I don’t know anything about that [man. I know I took you home that night, but you even saying that is incredibly strange,] and it’s kind of freaking me out,’ so, you know, pretty much, ‘get away from me.”’

When Erickson was interrogated by police in 2004, the interrogation tapes showed that he seemed confused and didn’t seem to know how the murder occurred or even the kind of murder weapon used. “I think it was a shirt or something,” Erickson is heard saying on police interrogation tapes when he went with police to the crime scene. “I know it wasn’t a shirt,” an officer said. “Maybe a bungee cord?” Erickson replied. ⁴⁵

Did you know that a similar game plan might be used by the Devil based on the sentence rendered against him, which is found in the book of Matthew? Please turn there in your Bible.

Matthew 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Revelation 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

I’m sure that after the Devil decided to rebel against God inwardly and then outwardly by means of a failed coup that he knew at some point in time, there would be a day of reckoning. Scripture tells us that he, along with the fallen angels, would be cast into a place called the Lake of Fire. When the Devil finds out about this rendering, the consequence appeared certain. But I’m sure he must have thought to himself, how can I convince God not to execute this judgment?

    

Is it possible that he reasoned if he could coerce Adam and Eve to enter into human perception in the Garden of Eden that God wouldn’t send all of the fallen human race, including himself and the forces of evil, to this place of eternal torment?

So, now we can deduce why the Devil is so persistent in inhibiting people from believing in God. What’s in it for him? What’s in it for him is acquittal. What else could he want but his sentence to the Lake of Fire thrown out of court? The more people choose not to believe in God, the more they’ll be destined to live apart from Him. Would God send countless numbers of people to live for eternity separated from Him?

    

Now that we’ve learned why the Devil deceives unbelievers, the next question we’ll attempt to answer in the following chapter is this. Why does the Devil wage war against believers?