I look around at Chrisitans today and fear and concern grip my heart. So many, for the sake of “love”, are willing to tolarate and converse with anyone. Why is it important who we listen to, and whose thoughts and teaching we tolarate? Because my friends, if we don’t, we could find ourselves on a clear path to hell or at minimum in a temporary pit doing Satan’s will (2 Tim 2:26). So how do we recognize the seriousness or danger of what someone is teaching us? Can we recognize if what they are teaching comes from the enemy or not? You better believe it! And Paul, Jude, Peter and others make sure we are serious about it.
As I ws sitting with the Lord, pondering how to test these things and how to challange others too, He drew me to Gen 3. Boy, was there ever a wealth of information. For one, we know there is nothing new under the sun. But beyond that, I want you to understand that we have a very crafty enemy. He is more patient than you think when it comes to bringing you down. Though he may disguise himself in many different ways, the root of his agenda or his techniqe does not really change. Right now we have an overwhelming amount of false teaching pentrating through the Church. For instance, lets look at the main one that got me started on this discerment with the Lord. There is a current book being promoted called Velvet Elvis. Now in this book the “Question” (for those who argue) is raised, about Jesus birth. Let’s see what this “teacher” wants to teach us:
“What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers through in to appeal to the followers of Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births?
But what if, as you study the origin of the word “virgin”, you discover that the word “virgin” in the gospel Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word “virgin” could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being “born of a virgin” also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse? (VE 026,027)
Now this writer wants us to question whether the virgin birth really should be a deal breaker? My first response is of course it is and I would walk away and ignore this guy in an instant. But, I note that with this day and age the overall member of the church may have no shock value towards this statement he just wrote and will even brush it off as a harmless question to get us thinking. So is this how Jesus, or even his true disciples got others to come to the faith? No where in the Bible do you ever see a true minister for Christ bringing any doubt to the the world about what Christ has done or who He is. They proclaimed and defended it with their very lives. But, I will tell you where we do find it, Gen 3.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. Now before I move on I wanted to look up the definition for the word “crafty”. For if this is how Satan works and appears, I want to know what this means. Here is the answer: Marked by skill in deception, cunning men often pass for wise, clever. (Wow, this certainly sounds like someone I would converse with. He is skillful and wise. Seems to filled with knowledge.) But keep looking closer!
He said to the women, “Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden?” Well, Well, Well, if this does not ring a bell! The enemy always starts with doubt. Now as true believers we have a choice. We can look at scripture that teaches us and gives us true wisdom and say, “Be warned”. We read Eve’s story and think wait Eve, don’t converse with this serpent. He is tricking you. He is about to take you down a very dangerous road, and of course we know he does. But I ask you today Church, how can we be so concerned for Eve when Satan clearly was only posing a question to her. Was it really that harmful? Of course it was, it was deadly! Knowing this, we have no excuse when we clearly can test the spirits and see Satan standing right in our midst again planting doubtful questions for many to ponder over for no good reason. We do not need to make the same mistake as Eve. What was that mistake you may ask? Let’s just see.
The woman said. Well there’s her first problem, she said something! As a women I know how much I like to talk (as many of my friends can attest to), but that can be very dangerous when you don’t know who you are conversing with. So instead of giving a short pointed answer, like say ummm, the truth, “Yes” and walking away, Eve ponders the question of doubt and begins to give her own answer. Ladies, sometimes the best thing to do in these situations is flee for your lives and avoid them at all costs. Just by tempting you with the question, does not mean you have sinned, it is when you give in to it and allow it to take root in your thoughts. The thought life can be a very dangerous battleground and we must be very careful about what we let in. “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.” Well, how many times when I was little did I over exaggerate a story. We always want things to seem worse than they are. Even now I must always be on guard against doing that. That is always a temptation the enemy wants to trap us with, but here it works. Eve not only thinks about the question that was just posed to her, she now adds to Gods words. Satan always wants us to think the situation is really hopeless. He always wants us to feel like God just holds things back from us because He wants us to suffer and enjoys it. That is a lie! See, the Lord never told Adam or Eve they could not touch the tree, just that they could not eat of it. But I am sure that doubt caused Eve to question what God really said, and those thoughts allowed her to see more into what God had said than was really there. Be careful ladies when those questions come. When God said that Jesus was born of a virgin, that is what He meant. You walk by faith, and you don’t need to do all kinds of research to find out what other pagan religions were doing in Christ’s day and if this was some myth just to attract pagans. Born of a virgin, means born of a virgin, plain and simple! Finally we conclude with Satans final plot: “You will not surely die,” the serpant said to the woman. So see, Satan never starts with the lie dear friends. If you are looking for the enemy to show up in a recognizable face, with an outright blatent lie, then you already have yourself fooled. He always starts with the truth. Satan acknowleged that God had given them the command. He himself knew it. He even asked about eating, he never uses the word “touch” as Eve does. He used the truth and then distorted it. He posed it as a seemingly harmless question to cast doubt in Eve’s mind. Only after the enemy creeps in and gains your trust and cast doubt can he pounce on you with the lie. See, now that Satan had Eve’s attention with the doubt, he could clearly expose the lie, because she had now recieved the doubt. So Satan says “You will not”. In other words “God will not”. Amazing the answer that he uses to follow up that lie is that God would only want what was best for them. Surely He would not withhold a blessing from them. You see ladies, only the Lord determines what a true blessing is. He knows what is right for us. We are very emotional creatures, and we can be led by our emotions. We must always make sure though, that we allow the Lord to lead and guide us to what is right and what is worthy in our own lives. So the next time you hear something, some teaching, please remember to always test it back to the Word. Because you never know who you could be conversing with!
