Spirituality Column #795

February 8, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

A Sinner’s Lament

By Bob Walters

“…and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” – Genesis 3:5 KJV, Satan to Eve in the Garden of Eden.

This is where humanity’s trouble started, and it is critically important to notice what Satan is really saying.

Satan is not lying to Eve, saying she will be “as” the uppercase God and “know (God’s) good and evil.”  Look at the grammar.  Satan is telling Eve an absolute truth: that by her disobedience to God and eating from the tree, she, Adam, and all humanity will be stricken as lowercase “gods” – plural – with their own false versions of good and evil.

Satan’s word trick entrapped humanity’s freedom and curiosity in prideful vanity.

Everywhere in the Bible, the Creator and commander of all knowledge, things, righteousness, and truth is referred to as “God” – uppercase – or “Lord God” as He is identified in Genesis 3. Satan is promising Eve humans will be “as [false] gods.” True.

Linguistic ruses aside, learn this lesson: Ignore God, and you won’t know truth.

And when you do not know – or disregard – God’s truth, it is almost impossible to identify sin. You’ll see it as if you are your own god, not as God.  Sin becomes something that resides in the eye of the beholder causing us to look away from God.

Humanity’s history is full of Satan’s squishy lies that sound so much better to man than God’s righteous truth.  Jesus is our defense against Satan but my, how the false gods of today’s culture have a lamentable deal with the devil for us all.

I’ve begun reading Rod Dreher’s 2020 book, Live Not by Lies: A Manuel for Christian Dissidents.  It is an eye-opening, unsettling report by an Orthodox Christian who has read and interviewed countless survivors, escapees, and descendants of totalitarian cultural takeovers of the past 100 years: Soviet Russia, Hitler’s Germany, Communist Europe, etc.  Christians have taken a hard hit every time, as have others.

Dreher’s subjects include Solzhenitsyn, Carol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), Pope Benedict XVI, Václav Havel, and dozens of others.  Dreher tracks disturbing yet familiar trends in modern day America and Europe that may redefine what it means – and what it takes – to be a Christian. 

If the subject is to your liking, take a look. I’m going to stop there and avoid the politics of discussing Dreher’s themes, action points, and conclusions.  But I believe he presents Godly truth about the sins and lies of our time and that it’s a sin to ignore them.

And this … My great friend and mentor George Bebawi fied a year ago, Feb. 4, 2021, and I just wanted to note the anniversary of his passing.  Because of George’s international ministry, Covid has presented the “all-points” memorial gathering we would like to have had but he lives on brightly in many, many hearts … especially May’s.

George taught that “sin is maybe 10^th or 20^th on the list” of why Christ came into humanity.  God’s kingdom, glory, and love brought Jesus into our realm to, yes, save us from sin, but more profoundly to capture our faith in the truth, light and life approaching the heavenly realms that await beyond.  The uniqueness of Christ shone brightly in George.

We miss you, dear teacher.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) coordinated George’s weekly Bible and theology studies at East 91^st Street Christian Church, Indianapolis, 2004-2017.  Here’s a link to an in-depth video (and text) with Dreyer: ‘Live Not By Lies’—Rod Dreher: How Much Are We Willing to Sacrifice for the Truth?