18. Beginner Bible Course: The sin of Adam and Eve, Pt. 1 (the Perpetrator)

EPISODE 18.  The simple Bible overview of…THE PERPETRATOR BEHIND OUR FALL INTO SIN

We reached the end of Genesis chapter two, things are looking really good. Remember our edge piece made God, made us wonderfully and takes great delight in us. But in Genesis chapter three, all that comes to a screeching halt. By the time we reached the end of the chapter, the wheels have come off creation, man, woman, marriage, and our relationship with God even creation itself becomes derailed. How did that all happen before I direct you to Genesis chapter three? His answer I'd like to make a quick correction in earlier podcasts. I said there are 800,000 words in the Bible.

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That's correct. I then suggested if there were 10 words, perverse there's 80,000 verses. I did a little research. I asked Siri about that and she told me there's 31,000 verses in the Testament averaging 25 words, perverse. So going forward, I'll be more accurate. There are actually 31,000 little pieces in this Bible jigsaw puzzle. Genesis chapter three contains 24 of those little pieces. These 24 little pieces are right up against the edge pieces straight in the last. Let's take a look. What caused the wheels to come off creation and God's relationship with man and men and women's relationship with each other.

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There was a Perpetrator. It shouldn't surprise us with an all powerful eternal God. The planet earth was not as only handiwork and day five and day six creatures. His only creatures, the Bible gives little peaks to what happened prior to day. One in creation as recorded in Genesis, God created angelic beings. They're called ministering spirits and scripture. I call them God's bellboys the scriptures, hint that there are millions of these beings and even gives names to three important ones, Michael Gabriel, and Lucifer. In some ways they may also be made in the image of God, but clearly they have a will.

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In other words, these are not spirit robots, star Wars, storm troopers, as it were the name of this last angel Lucifer means light bearer, scripture suggest he was the highest order of angels. Zeke you'll may of heard him say, I will be like the most high God. The new Testament tells us God is light Lucifer light bear. The head bellboy goes rogue. Lucifer is also called in scripture. Satan the devil and some other names that describe him that we'll get to in future podcasts. Hollywood's movies on the devil demons and possession intersect with biblical truth.

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Scripture verifies these movies are not pure fiction. However, in a couple of they've warped what scripture teaches about Satan in the other bell boys that went rogue. As we look at the Perpetrator in Genesis three in his posse, the demons, please keep in mind. These other scriptural teachings, the devil is not equal to God. That's called dualism like God and Satan are in a tug of war. And it's going back and forth. Scripture also teaches he does not reside or rule over hell. Milton taught that in paradise, lost Satan is not everywhere. He's limited.

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Satan unlike God cannot be everywhere at the same time. He is not all powerful. And here's another very important clarification. We are not bought back from him by God. Going back to my story of the little girl in the ship, the Bible teaches that the shopkeeper is not Satan. God does not pay a ransom to get us back. As the girl paid her allowance to get her ship back. The Bible teaches that that payment was made to God. The final clarification I want to make is how Satan has been depicted to us. The cartoon character with the Pitchfork and horns. You know, the one that sits on one shoulder while the angel on the other shoulder tries to talk to us in our out of bad behavior.

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And he's not the heart thumping monster we see in Hollywood movies, the sinister one that makes your skin crawl. He's a light bearer, a deceiver, a counterfeiter. I tell my students of Satan wanted to mislead or perpetrate something on them. He'd most likely look like an older soft-spoken gray haired Bible teacher in their Christian school classroom. And so we get to Genesis chapter three. Now the serpent was more crafty than all the beasts of the field cartoons and Hollywood and even ancient art depicts Satan as a snake, all the texts tells us is it was a serpent.

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One of God's creatures. I tell my students, I imagine a Komodo dragon or something like that. Why a serpent? Remember these are spirit bellboys. They don't have form throughout scripture. When interacting with man, they seem to enjoy inhabiting another body there. Hollywood gets it right? I tell my students. Now, if you're dozing, please wake up. Here's what Satan through. The serpent says to our happy couple. Really did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden. Eve replies, of course we may eat of it. It's only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not allowed to eat.

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God says we must not eat it or even touch it. Or we will die. The serpent replies, God knows that your eyes will be open when you eat it. And you will become just like God deja VU. How did God's perfect creation come apart? The answer is it began with a temptation perpetrated by Satan. What made that temptation compelling? The answer is important because it's the same tactic that's used on us. And we'll talk about that in our next wordpicture.