[God created the world and everything in seven days. God saw that all was good. Then God put Adam in the Garden of Eden and commanded him, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 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.”
One day, the serpent said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'you shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?"
And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
After that, God announced His judgment, so the serpent was cursed, and it would walk on its stomach and eat dirt and would have enmity with people. Although Adam and Eve did not die on the spot, but because they could no longer eat the fruit from the tree of life, they could not be immortal forever. Out of dust and back to dust became the end of mankind!]
Carefully analyzing this incidence, we can get several important points:
First, the serpent took the initiative to explain to Eve the meaning of God's words.
Second, the serpent has cunningly evoked Eve's desire - a desire to be like God knowing good and evil.
Third, although there are some discrepancies between "lest you die" and "you shall surely die”, by and large, Eve still vaguely remembered the key points of God's command. But under the temptation, Eve chose to satisfy her own desires and accepted serpent’s explanation.
Fourth, Adam, Eve, and the serpent were punished by God, which clearly proved that the serpent’s interpretation was wrong.
Fifth, by believing and obeying false interpretations that violated God's truth and command (everything that comes out of the mouth of God is truth), Eve and Adam came under the righteous judgment and became mortal.
Using this as an example, let us examine whether today’s church misinterpret the Bible and God’s words like what the serpent did in the Garden of Eve.
Let us refer to Matthew 3:16, 17: When he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Today, some churches may still question you that did God really say “This is my beloved Son”? Don’t you remember Jesus’s proclamation of “I and my Father are one”? This implies that Jesus meant to say he was God Himself. And in fact, spiritually, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one. Furthermore, they are of the same substance. All these facts imply that Jesus was not only the Son but also the Father at the same time.
What could be wrong with this interpretation?
Fundamentally, by extrapolating the interpretation, you can see that it has subtly rewritten what God had said “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” to “This is me, in whom I am well pleased”. Comparatively, this is similar to what the serpent had done in the Garden of Eden where it had changed God’s command from “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” to “For in the day that you eat of it you will not surely die”.
Although the church and the serpent might be singing two different tunes, both serve the same purpose - to make Eve and others believing in the truths that are completely opposite or different to the original meaning of God's words!
If we carefully analyze and compare the above two incidences, we can also get several key observations:
First, the church took the initiative to preach its doctrines and theologies.
Second, the church evoked people’s desire “wanting to have peace, joy and eternal life."
Third, "As long as you believe, you will be saved" has become an excuse for not needing to study the truth. So in order to satisfy their own selfish desires, people just choose to accept church’s interpretations. "The Son is the Father too" is just one of them, isn't it?
Fourth, do we need to hear God's judgment before we admit that it is wrong to interpret God's words "This is my beloved son" as "This is me"?
Fifth, Eve received the righteous judgment when she believed and abided wrong interpretation. So if today's Christians make the same mistakes, do you think our righteous God will favor us but not Eve?
Frankly speaking, I can only say that what supports my beliefs are some simple Bible facts. The followings listed two of them for your perusal:
First, “No one has seen God at any time”! It means that Apostle John meant to tell us that the Jesus whom he had seen with his own eyes was not God Himself!
Second, When the Jews heard Jesus said that “I and my Father are one”, they thought that Jesus meant to make himself God, thus committed blasphemy. As such, they wanted to stone him to death. Jesus defended himself, saying that “do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?”. By saying so, not only Jesus had denied that he had tried to make himself God, but also had denied that he had ever said “I am God”. And in Jesus denial, he had also meant to tell us that he was not God Himself.
Obviously, the Jews’ interpretation of "I and my Father are one" was in error.
Apostle John’s statement of “No one has seen God at any time”, and Jesus’ refutation that he was not God but only the Son of God, has unequivocally shown that the church’s interpretation of “Jesus is the Son and also is the Father” is in error too.
Last but not least, in the fifteenth century Martin Luther published The Ninety Five Thesis revealing the 95 perverted truths. Lord Jesus said that only truths would sanctify; truths are the words that came out of the mouth of God! If God's truth is all being perverted by man's desires, what else can man rely on to be saved? Isn't this the result which the enemy of God and Lord Jesus Christ dreamed to achieve?
This is Desert Rose’s 2021 year-end reflections sharing it with all my dear friends!
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