"Has God indeed said?"

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 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.’”4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 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.”6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that itwas pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

"Has God indeed said...?"

Ladies and gentlemen, this is where it all begins.

And it is exactly as it is today. There really is nothing new under the sun, or the moon for that matter. The integrity and the authenticity of God's word has been under attack since this moment in the first garden. Many refuse to read this story and take it as a factual moment in history. Many proclaim it to be a metaphor in which gain insight into the eternal war of good vs. evil. Many just simply disbelieve the whole thing and that the notion of the existence of God is just pure bunk.

And since none of us have been given the means to prove the validity of the reality of the story, we are hard pressed on how to explain our belief in God's word.

There are many evangelical approaches to those not yet saved. Many of them are wonderful and some not so wonderful. For instance, the approach of Eve in her evangelical efforts to persuade Satan that God did indeed say ended up in a pretty extreme mess. So much can be gathered from these verses but I want to focus on what Eve did wrong. I don't mean the partaking of the fruit, although that was clearly wrong but instead lets focus on her efforts to proclaim the Gospel to the enemy.

Eve's first mistake is quite often the one we still make to this day. At Eve's disposal (and ours) is a hot line to the Creator. In the blink of an eye any of us who are saved can call on Him and get immediate help on how to answer the enemy whenever the enemy attacks the truth of God's word. But no, she and unfortunately we often take it upon ourselves to answer for God. even Jesus in His infinite wisdom knew better than to answer Satan with any earth born words or means. When tempted by Satan Jesus used the very thing that Eve should have used which was the word of God. Pay attention to the exact wording of Eve's first response; And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 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".

Eve misquoted God. Here is what God said to Adam recorded in Genesis 2;
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 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.”

Somewhere between Adam filling the wife in on this pretty important little rule and Eve talking with the Devil about it was a slight little misinterpretation. Was this misinterpretation, this little adding on about touching the fruit that big of a deal? Is focusing on her adding to the word of God really that big of a deal? Was it actually worse than her eating the fruit and then giving it to Adam?

The comparison of the mistakes Eve made isn't the point. The point is that whenever we change one dot or tittle of God's word we are setting ourselves up and those around us up for disaster.

This I imagine would seem to be pointless nitpicking to many. But think about it. If the exact translation of God's word was good enough for Jesus to use during His temptation by the enemy shouldn't it be good enough for us as well? Did Eve going to battle by herself and improperly without the exact truth of God's word not open the door for the enemy to put his foot in the doorway?

Paul writes to us in Ephesians to put on the whole armor of God. Out of all the pieces of armor, all meant for protection of the body, only one piece of weaponry is described. The sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.

In a day and age when the truth is not only up for grabs anymore but is openly being discarded and rampantly abused, we desperately need to be a people of His body who can wield this sword of His Spirit properly. The lines are being drawn in this war in their most distinctive and clearest capacity then they have probably ever been drawn before. When you have had such a vicious attack on God's word and His truth as we have seen in this day and age then you must know this; the enemy is gearing up and amassing his troops for war. This war is also nothing new. But what is new is the mind boggling, overt display of anti-Christian sentiments everywhere you look. You want to talk about people coming out of the closet to portray the truth of who they are; there has been nothing like what we are seeing before our very eyes in man's history of the extent and numbers of those who openly and wantonly attack the validity and authenticity of the word of God. And even more disconcerting are those who have been mounting these attacks from the pulpits and pews of so many churches. I read an article the other day about a Christian softball league that kicked another church's team off of the league because the pastor from that church was openly bi-sexual. Believe it or not many, if not most people that replied in a forum about the article, were offended that Christians would dare to kick a team out of their league just because Christians aren't supposed to perform such a judgmental act. Uh, what about the obvious offense of a pastor of a Christian church being bi-sexual? What is wrong with that picture? How can a Christian church be allowed to allow pastors to be gay? Well, not all "Christian" churches are in actuality Christian. Nor are they part of the body of Christ. I could build a hamburger joint and put some golden arches outside of it but unless I have the corporate backing of McDonalds, it's no McDonalds.

Many are being deceived. And it's so easy to see how this deception is occurring because many of the deceivers themselves believe their hearts are in the right place. What is being presented by so many is the common denominator that is within most human beings; the desire for justice and love.

It is partly understandable how this came to be. Most of us want to see justice prevail. We want to see people treated with love and grace. We cringe at the idea of people being abused and mistreated. And we cringe for good reason. Because all of us were made in the image and likeness of God. God hates it when we mistreat one another. You see this theme running throughout the entire Bible.

So it's easy to understand why so many see us as being intolerant and bigoted about this whole same sex marriage thing. They see it purely as an equal rights issue and here we come along with our history of wack a doos protesting the funerals of slain soldiers; Jim Jones and his horrors; the Crusades; Catholic priests sexually abusing children; the blowing up of abortion clinics; the embarrassing truth of the failures of so many Christian marriages and just the plain wackiness you see routinely on Christian television and then we proclaim that your wanting to legalize same sex marriage is wrong because our Bible tells us so. Let's keep it real folks. All too often the bad press that the church has gotten is well deserved. Of course all the good that the church has done (and it sure has) gets no coverage at all because that stuff just doesn't raise the ratings nor does it fall into the enemies missionary agenda. But the sad, pathetic truth is that we as the body have given them plenty of ammunition to shoot at us with and to roll their eyes at us when we try to proclaim anything about the truth of God's word. Be aware of why they react the way they do. Have they been deceived? Absolutely, but know that they don't want to just hear what we have to say, they need to see it being lived out in order for it to make any sense to them.

The failures of the church combined with people in the pews giving an ear to anything outside of the truth of God's word has not just allowed the enemy to get his foot in the door; it's invited him in and has fed him dinner on a silver platter.

The only way we get to where we need to be is when we allow God's word to overrule any thought, opinion, emotion, philosophy or experience that would persuade us to go in any other direction.

It is this simple. We are people who either trust completely the full counsel of God's word above and beyond everything else or we are people who are easily swayed by the winds of this day and age.

Back in the day when I knew that God wanted me to believe in Him through His Son, I was reluctant and extremely skeptical about believing in anything about the Bible. The idea of becoming one of those "Christians" frightened me. Part of my "reasoning" about not believing was how could anyone know what to believe in because of the vast marketplace of religious beliefs all claiming to be "it". Plus the fact that I thought you "Christians" were all a bit nuts. Plus I had a reputation as an agnostic with a chip on his shoulder to uphold. By the way, the chip is still there.

I've never heard the voice of God but I have gotten what I can only call as being clear, precise, exact impressions from God. And at that time the impression that was as clear as anything that has ever been communicated to me was this; "you think you know something about My word; you know nothing (ouch). In order to believe in Me, you MUST believe in Me through My son" (keep in mind this was way before I read John 14:6). And here was the kicker; " I want you to approach My word as if it were the truth and lets see what happens".

And so my reluctant and skeptical self submitted and did what I had been told.

I have seen so far what has happened. In a nutshell His word impresses me more and more every day with how it has weaved together a mind boggling array of threads that all connect to one another in the most cohesive manner in anything I have ever encountered. In it's infinite complexity there is found the most profound simplicity where all verses, chapters and books all lead to one destination and that is the person of Jesus Christ. It led me to "religion" but not at all in the conventional sense that word imparts but to a religion of His truth where what is at the very core of this "religion" is the revealed heart of God made manifest in the person of Jesus Christ.

I have watched and experienced what has happened as a result of my submission to His command and I am at a loss of words to really describe what it is I have experienced. All I know is that it makes the most sense to my mind and it makes the most sense to my heart.

And I watch a world being destroyed and I get to see so many precious lives being torn to shreds by the creator and father of lies. And I see a multitude of people buying into his "religion". And I see on a daily basis the earthly end result of what happens to those who buy into his religion when I see people who I have counseled for substance usage who end up relapsing over and over again and you can see the life and spirit just being drained out of their bodies; the addicts who have ended up with a family and a community of friends grieving over their dead bodies in a funeral home or the addicts who have given up all hope and end up taking their lives because they and so many around them have bought the lies that life has no meaning and it's all crap because don't you know that in the end we just die and end up in the ground and none of this means anything?

Well that's not what God's word says.

God's word says that all life is more precious than silver and gold. That the value of every man can be found on a cross raised up on a hill outside of Jerusalem where the Son of God bears upon Himself the price and penalty of all of us believing the lie instead of believing Him. God's word also says that when we look to the One on that cross and believe in Him that we are then granted eternal life with Him and with those who believe the same. We think too often of sin of being the bad things we do when at it's core it's our giving ear to the enemy when he whispers in our ears, "has God indeed said?" To believe that life is meaningless; that there is nothing after we die or that everyone regardless of belief or non belief goes to heaven is one of many lies of the devil. To believe anything that is contrary to God's word is to believe a lie. Is this nitpicking? I think not because lies kill. Truth gives life.

The only adequate and necessary answer to the enemies question of "has God indeed said" is found in the word of God. Not in human reasoning or persuasion of wonderful words but only in His word which is the weapon of choice for all Christians. If it worked for Jesus it can certainly work for us.

Even little children who attend Sunday school know this for they are taught this simple yet most profound of truths:

Jesus loves me! this I know,

For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong;
they are weak but He is strong.

Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.

Armed with this truth you can withstand the assault and attacks in any and every capacity. Things may look bleak but remember what the Bible says about the end result;

God wins.