When the serpent spoke
to Eve in the Garden, he called into question the content, context, and
consequences of God’s revealed word. “Did God actually say…?” the Devil asked.
In doing so, he sought to insert doubt into the woman’s mind. Was God’s word
really as settled as her husband, Adam, seemed to think? Was God protecting
Adam and Eve from something dangerous, or was he actually holding out on
something good? Was God’s word really an absolute law, or was it only a
guideline or rule that could be disregarded with little or no ill-effects? It
did not take long for Eve to decide God’s command about the tree could be
disobeyed, and humanity has suffered the consequences ever since.
What worked for the serpent
in the Garden continues to work in his devilish mission today. The Devil calls
into question the integrity, beauty, and authority of the divine word, and
fallen humanity is more willing to embrace the Devil’s lies than the Divine Lord’s
law. The Bible is full of controversial, politically incorrect statements and
decrees, to which men and women ask, “Did God actually say this?” By the time
enlightened man finishes deconstructing the Word of God, Paul was a misogynist,
Jesus was prone to make mistakes, and Adam was a fictional character.
Has God actually said?
You and I have to make a decision about that. Will we trust what God has said
in His word? Will we trust what the Church has confessed to believe from the
mouth of God for the last two thousand years? Or will we decide we know better?
Will we abandon our former confidence in the goodness of God’s revelation,
discarding what we now deem as a simple, unenlightened faith for a more
exciting adventure outside the borders of the Garden? Does it matter what
Scripture says, or are we willing to re-interpret, revise, or otherwise ravage
it?
There was really no
question that day in the Garden what
God had said, but Adam and Eve decided that was not enough for them. They were
no longer sure God’s Word to them was for their good. They wanted something
else, something more. They certainly got something else, but not anything more.
Indeed, humanity has enjoyed less ever since we decided that it doesn’t really
matter whether God said it or not. –JME
