A Possibility?

Well, here's one opinion to that question below ... I heard it recently, and it got me thinking. I'm still not sure whether its right or not ...

In a sense, Satan was telling the truth ... indeed, God said later that "man has become like us" (I love this verse too because it testifies within the first few chapters of the Bible about the Trinity). So, in some way, man became "like God" in knowing good and evil. In another real sense, Satan lied - man did not become nearer to God, but rather fell away from communion with Him!
So, what is knowing good and evil? It couldn't just mean "knowing" in an intellectual sense what good and evil is (because Adam and Eve both knew that it was wrong to eat from the tree). Could it mean "knowing" in the sense of experience? No, probably not, because how would God experience and participate in evil?
So ... perhaps "knowing" good and evil means knowing in the sense of determining good and evil. Just as God, from His very nature, knows and determines what exactly is evil and good, Adam and Eve aspired to that same position as "autonomous law-makers" ... they desired to determine for themselves what was good and evil, and not live under the determining of God in these matters.
End summary - it was an extreme arrogance, hungering for the power and authority to create their own "good and evil," that Satan tempted Adam and Eve with and they both grasped for.

As I said before, I'm not exactly sure if this is the right or only answer to the question below ... but its interesting to ponder. Any thoughts?

"Man has become like one of us ..."

Here's an interesting question for you readers ...

In Genesis 3:5, what did it mean for Satan to tell Eve, "God knows that when you eat of [the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil"? What does it mean to know good and evil, and how would Adam and Eve "be like God" in knowing good and evil? Was there a grain of truth in what Satan said, or was he deceiving Eve (or both)? How did God know good and evil in a way Adam and Eve originally didn't?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this!

Sanctity of Life

Remembering those of Virginia Tech,

as well as the hundreds of thousands dying daily in terrorist bombings,

from starvation and AIDS, victims of genocide, and of pointless murders and rage ...

-

"Whoever sheds the blood of man,

by man shall his blood be shed,

for God made man in His own image."

Genesis 9:6

-

"No man is an island.

And any man's death diminishes man."

John Donne

Deserving ... What?

Have you ever noticed how much our of rotten attitudes and sins (well, at least my rotten attitudes and sins) flow from a certain, subtle thought that often whispers in our head: "I deserve [fill in the blank]"? These days God has been mercifully but often painfully showing me my own "wretchedness" ... to use the words of Corinthians, that I am simply a jar of clay, holding a treasure, and my significance and identity is worthless if it is not tied to the glittering treasure which I hold. To think that I "deserve" anything is almost a joke ... but I too often think this anyway! When God closes a door that I was really hoping He would keep open, I frequently get rather irritated, thinking, "I deserved to be able to do that!" When God is "silent" when I passionately pray to Him, and when my prayer requests are answered with a "No" (with no explanation!) I will very often become discouraged and think, "What did I do or pray wrong to deserve this?" Sometimes I will very deliberately "drop my guard" and "permit" myself to go against what God would want, thinking, "Well, I've tried so hard to be good all week ... I deserve a break" (actually a good clue to cause of the second half of that sentence is the first).

You get the idea. The notion that I somehow deserve special treatment is one which time and again I use to permit or excuse sin. And yet when I read the Bible, I see a mirror-image of myself, deserving only the wrath of God - nothing else. I see someone who has received the undeserved grace of God, epitomized in the sacrifice of His Son for me, and my being adopted into His family as His son. THAT'S undeserved grace.
May God help me (and us all) to remember what we deserve and what we don't, and may His Spirit enable us to see Jesus Christ with "unveiled faces" to behold His glory and the glory of the Good News, to be transformed into His likeness.