What Really Happened Between Eve And The Serpent In The Garden Of Eden? (Part 2)

Here we present the second and final part of Sheldon Emry’s sermon on what really happened in the Garden of Eden.  If you haven’t already done so, you can read Part 1 here.

You can listen to the audio here:


Sheldon Emry continues:

Most of the confusion and the deception of Christendom — of Israel — is in the mis-translation or misapplying passages of scripture to say something which they do not say.

3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Here we have a good clue as to the type of beguiling with which the Serpent beguiled Eve. Let me paraphrase that verse without changing the meaning….

Paul, in effect, said, “I fear your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ by methods similar to those used by the Serpent when he beguiled Eve.”

If the Serpent is Satan — and if his method of beguiling women is to seduce them — then why do we have no warning from Paul — or any other — that women should be careful that they are not approached and physically seduced by Satan?

If Satan physically seduced Eve — and threw a monkey wrench in God’s plan — why does he not continue to do the same thing in the same manner?

Are we to understand that Eve was wanton — and that all other women since then are chaste?  Eve was apparently seduced or deceived by Satan — does it mean that Satan was never able to seduce another women in scripture or all human history?

Apparently, there was no danger that he would since there is no warning in the New Testament, no warning in the Old — no warning by the prophets that women should be aware of being physically seduced by Satan.

No, the warning is “Lest your minds be corrupted.”  And this, of course, we read very plainly.  Paul was referring to the beguiling of Eve when he warned, “Lest your mind be corrupted.”  We see the seducing of minds, not the seducing of bodies.

Now some insist that the word “beguiled” in Genesis 3 — and also in the New Testament — also has a connotation of physical seduction — and perhaps some of that does come from the English translation of the Septuagint Bible — a Greek translation from the Hebrew, which was made from Hebrew texts in about 300 BC — so it is one of the oldest Bibles in existence.

Then it was translated from the Greek into English in [America] in 1808 by a Charles Thompson — and had wide distribution and acceptance in America.  This, of course, is only the Old Testament because the origin was 300 years before Christ.

He [Thompson] translated Genesis 3:13 this way:

And the Lord God said to the woman, ‘Why hast thou done this? And the woman said, ‘The Serpent seduced me and I ate.’

Many of those who teach that the Serpent physically seduced Eve perhaps used the Septuigent as their source.  But the English word “seduce” was commonly used to mean “tricked” or “deceived” then as it is today.  When someone has been swindled or defrauded of something, they will say that person was “seduced”.

In the King James translation, the word is “beguiled” in Genesis 3, and also in 2 Corinthians 11.  Here’s what Strong’s says about the meaning about the original Hebrew and the original Greek:

The Hebrew word in Genesis 3 for beguiled is “nasha” and Strong’s says it means, “to lead astray, mentally to delude, morally to seduce.” Other meanings are “beguile” or “deceive”.  The Greek in 2 Corinthians 11:3, is “exapataō”.  Strong’s says it means “to utterly cheat, delude or deceive”.  The “ex” in the Greek means “utterly” or “totally”. “Exapataō” means to cheat or deceive.  Strong’s concordance is approximately identical.

Now let’s read a few places used by the King James translators in the New Testament, and then we’ll go to Genesis 3.  In Colossians 2, Paul is exhorting the believers in verses 2 to 4:

2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; 3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.

In other words, Paul says, “I preach true words to you to prevent any others from beguiling, fooling, seducing you with other false words.” Verse 18:

18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.

Let no man trick you out of your reward.  And how might that take place?  Obviously, not sexually — no, but by deceitful words.  Next, James 1, the word “deceiveth” here is from the same Greek root word as beguile in 2 Corinthians 11:3:

26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

So, according to Paul, this man can deceive, trick, beguile or seduce himself — deceive his own heart.  This is similar to verse 22:

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

So a man can do to himself which Satan did — beguile — deceive, delude — seduce his mind.  It’s similar to 2 Timothy:

13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

Here is a direct statement that in the end of the age, there will be “seducers” who, quote, “will deceive” — by words and deceiving men’s minds. In 2 Peter 2:

13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; 14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children.

In this case “beguiling” is from another Greek word, which shows that beguiling and deceiving are used inter-changeably by the English translators.  In this passage, of course, they mention “adultery” and sin in such as way that you could make a sexual connotation of it, but nowhere else in the New Testament can it be used that way — the key verse must remain 2 Corinthians 11:3 where Paul’s fear is that Christian minds would be seduced — beguiled from the truth of the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus — in the same manner that Satan beguiled Eve.

Let’s turn now to Genesis 3 — and as I read, I will mention one or more ways in which these various passages are interpreted by those who say that Eve was sexually seduced by Satan — and then we will see if that would be a logical conclusion from the plain English or the Greek.

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.

Now there are some who teach that the Serpent was a Negro or a negroid creature.  Many teach from a book titled The Tempter Of Eve by professor Charles Carroll (1902).  Professor Carroll says that this “tempter” — this thing called the Serpent — was a Negro — and that he was the most intelligent of the Negroes, and therefore he was able to trick Eve, probably because he was a servant — and was probably friendly with Eve as a servant — and therefore Eve had some reason for trusting this Negro servant.  Again,

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.

This verse does not say that the Serpent was a beast of the field.  It says that the Serpent was more “subtle” than any beast of the field.  If I were to say that Professor Carroll was more intelligent than any college student, that would not make Professor Carroll a college student, would it?  It would just make him more intelligent than a college student.  Yet Carroll somehow concluded that the Serpent was a Negro beast of the field.

I’m not adverse to him using that term to describe a Negro because there is a creature in the Bible called the “beast of the field” which which has hands, which can sin, and which can repent, and which does serve man — but that verse simply does not say that.

So what was the creature in Genesis 3 — in the passage in 2 Corinthians 2:11, the Serpent who beguiled Eve.  The word Serpent there is from the Greek word “ophis” and the root of that word means “sharpness of vision,” and Strong’s says the use of that word in Greek was to mean “a snake, figuratively as a type of sly cunning.”  We still use it that way today.  Strong’s goes on, “An artful, malicious person, especially Satan.”

That same Greek word is used several times in the New Testament:

“Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?” (Matthew 7:10)

“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)

“Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:33)

“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19)

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:” (John 3:14)

Some say Moses paid homage to the “ophis” or the Serpent when he lifted up the brazen serpent and who looked on it were healed but he lifted up, in effect, a dead serpent — telling the Israelites, who lately came out of Egypt, where the serpent was worshiped as a god, that God had control over that serpent.  Remember, God had sent firey serpents among them because of their sin — and when they saw the dead serpent, they were healed.  And how was Jesus lifted up before men?  He was lifted up bodily, dead, on a cross.

Revelation 12:

7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

This must be the chief “ophis” — chief Serpent — and he is here called the Great Dragon, the Devil, and he is called Satan.  And here the Greek word for “deceiveth” is “planaō” which according to Strong’s means “to cause to go astray, deceive, err, seduce, wander, be put out of the way.”  In other words, this verse that identifies the “ophis” as Satan could read — without changing its meaning — “And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan which seduceth the whole world.”

Again, more evidence that the word “seduced” used in the Bible does not necessarily mean any physical seduction at all.  It is primarily a deception of men’s minds.

Revelation 20:

1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.

We cannot guarantee that this serpent was the same serpent in the Garden of Eden, but the Serpent, the Devil, the Dragon is called “ophis” in the Greek in the New Testament, and that is the word Paul used in 2 Corinthians 11:3 when he referred to that character in Eden who beguiled Eve.

Back to Genesis 3 — to see if there is any writing that allows for a sexual interpretation of Satan’s beguiling.  I’ve pointed out already that I believe that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was God’s law, but I believe in fairness to those who accepted — perhaps unknowingly and without investigation — the doctrine that Satan actually physically seduced Eve, we should study what they say and what this — the scripture — says.  I want you to believe what the scripture actually says, not what I — Pastor Emry — says it says.

Some say the trees in the Garden of Eden were actually people — and that the different types of trees were different races — and they refer to Isaiah 10, Ezekiel 28, Ezekiel 31.  But let’s read Genesis 3:

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of 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 hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

So Eve could eat of the “fruit” of other trees — did that mean — or could that mean that Eve was allowed to cohabit with other people in the Garden but not certain people?  But we read in Genesis 2, after Eve was created,

23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

So Eve is called Adam’s wife, and they were to be considered “one flesh” — and cleave one to another.  In that same chapter, before Eve, we read

8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Then:

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

So God told Adam specifically of every tree in Eden he may eat except one — Eve repeated that.  Those who say that trees in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2 and 3 are people are, in effect, saying that Adam and Eve were specifically allowed by God to have intercourse with some of the trees, but not with others.  And therefore the only sin was committing this sexual act with the certain one which was forbidden.

Now strangely enough, this was literally the teaching of the Babylonian Talmud. For the Talmud says,

Where Rabbi Eliazar explains Genesis 2 in verse 2 and 23, Eve is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh — the rabbi says that means that Adam had intercourse with every beast and animal but found no satisfaction until he cohabited with Eve.

And you have to understand that the Babylonian Talmud teaches that all people other than Jews are “beasts”.  So they are saying that Adam had intercourse with these other beasts here in Genesis called “trees” — and then later with Eve.

This teaching of the Jewish Talmud — that all non-Jews are beasts — is what allows them to take so-called “gentile” women and make prostitutes out of them — it is not against their religion.

An August 14, 1976 Associated Press article about Jewish women who desire change — the name of this new magazine is Lilith — called the “new feminist magazine for the Jews.”  Another article comments on this magazine, saying it’s named after Lilith, Adam’s legendary first companion — the first woman equal with the first man.  Lilith “pre-dated Eve who was originally the embodiment of independent womanhood.  The character of Lilith has had bad press over the ages changing her in some accounts from an independent woman to a wild-haired demon.”

Believe it or not, the Mormons also teach that Adam had two wives.  From page 227 of the book Mormonism: Shadow Or Reality?, under the headline, “Adam: A Polygamist”:

Brigham Young, the second president of the stated, ‘Now hear it, O inhabitants of the Earth, Jew and Gentile, saint and sinner, when our father, Adam, came into the Garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body and brought Eve — one of his wives — with him.’ (Journal Of Discourses)

Some of the Mormon people that the teach that Adam was a polygamist actually originated with Joseph Smith delivered in a sermon in a tabernacle in 1885. H.W. Naismith (?) stated,  “It is said that Joseph Smith, the prophet, taught that Adam had two wives.”

So there is another point of identity between what is called Judaism — or what was really the religion of Babylon — and Mormonism.  And the more you read about Mormonism the more you see the similarity between them.

On page 178 from the Mormon book The Seer, under “Celestial Marriage” — they teach that Adam became God:

From the passage in the 45th Psalm, it will be seen that the great messiah who was the founder of the Christian religion was a polygamist, as well as the patriarch Jacob and his prophet David from whom he descended according to the flesh.  Paul says, concerning Jesus, ‘Verily I he took not on him the nature of angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham.  Abraham, the polygamist, being a friend of God, the messiah chose to take upon himself his seed and by marrying many honorable wives himself, showed all future generations that he approbated the plurality of wives under the Christian dispensation — as well as under the dispensation in which his polygamist ancestors lived.  We have shown clearly that God, the father — [remember when they say “God the father” they mean Adam] — had a plurality of wives — one or more being in eternity by whom he begat our spirits as well as the spirit of Jesus, his first born, and another being on the earth by whom he begat the tabernacle of Jesus as his only begotten in this world.

They teach that it was Adam who impregnated Mary with the child Jesus:

So Mary would also be the wife of Adam.  We have also proved most clearly that the son followed the example of his father and became the great bridegroom to whom Cain’s daughters and many honorable wives were to be married.  We have also proved that God, the father, and our Lord Jesus Christ inherit their wives for eternity as well as in time. And that God, the father, has already begotten many thousand millions of sons and daughters, and sent into this world to take tabernacles. This is their teaching that those born to God in heaven are spirits come here then to take tabernacles of flesh.  And that God, the son, has the promise that of the increase of his government there will be no end, it being expressly declared that the children of one of his queens should be made princes in all of the earth (quoting Psalm 45:16).

So they teach, in effect, that Adam while on earth had two wives — one was Eve and one was Mary.  The Jews teach that Adam had two wives — one was Lilith, and one was Eve.  And, of course, the Mormons add that God has many wives.  A Mormon book says that God — or Adam — in heaven has a thousand wives and did begat one billion and several hundred million children — a figure given by Joseph Smith over 150 years ago at a time he figured would be enough take care of all of the earth.  He didn’t think of the possibility that the earth now having four billion souls — all supposed to be the children of Adam who had only one billion. Who knows where the rest of these “spirits” came from?

When you investigate these false, anti-Christ religions, they preach nonsense — they actually contradict themselves — but all of their teachings go back to and are based on the origin of knowledge coming from Lucifer — Satan, the Serpent — sexually cohabiting with Eve.  Then all of their religion becomes, in effect, a religion of sex.

All of this pornography in the world today — and all the movies made by the Jews where they portray every ungodly act known to man — is based on their religion — and its foundation is the story that sex begat wisdom and knowledge to mankind.

People are confused when their pastors tell them that this religion of Judaism is really the foundation of Christianity.  Nonsense. It is the foundation of Satan’s religion.  Mormonism is actually a new type of Satanism.

What about the other biblical passages that seem to say that trees are symbolic of people — and that the trees in Eden were people?  One is Isaiah 10, the destruction of prophetic Assyria:

17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; 18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standardbearer fainteth. 19 And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.

This passage is often quoted by those who say that the trees in Eden were people.  We also have Israel called a “green olive tree” in Jeremiah 11:16.  Judah in Babylon was called by Jeremiah a “fig tree”.  Paul used the phrase “wild olive” for cast off Israelites being grafted back into Israel.  The olive tree in Romans 11.  David said a follower of God would be like a tree planted by rivers of waters in Psalm 1:3.  And in Psalm 92:12, the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.  In Isaiah 61:3, God’s people might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord.  Jude wrote of men who are wicked and called them in verse 12 “trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.”

So we do have Bible verses where trees stand for individual human beings — or for a group of beings — but in the Bible people are also called sheep, wolves, asses, dogs, lions, leopards, cattle, and other animals.  Does that mean that all the animals in Eden were actually people?  No, it does not — no more does it mean that the trees in Eden were people.

In Ezekiel 31 is the main passage used by those who teach that the trees in Eden were people — and therefore when Eve partook of the fruit of a tree, she was partaking of sexual intercourse with some sort of a living being, such as in verse 9:

9 I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.

No, envy seems to be a human trait — not a trait of trees.  And verse 16:

16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.

And verse 18:

18 To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

So far we have seen that the Serpent in the Garden was the fallen angel called Satan.  We have also seen that all of the trees planted in Eden by God.  We have seen Adam and Eve were allowed to eat the fruit of some of the trees.  The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil must have been, therefore, planted by God even though it was forbidden to them.  It therefore was a separate entity from the Serpent — its fruit was not directly connected with Satan, but it was directly connected with God.  Its only connection with Satan was that Satan and Eve talked about it — and then Satan apparently seduced Eve — seduced her mind — into partaking of the forbidden fruit.

3 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.

So the Assyrian Empire is likened, while God speaks to Pharaoh, to a tree — he didn’t say it was a tree — he’s using symbolic language.  Then:

8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty…

The implication being that the Assyrian was greater and more beautiful than the trees in the Garden of God.

9 I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.

Some say that this proves that the trees there in Eden were other people like the people of the Assyrian empire.

16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth….

18 To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth…

Let me tell you what this chapter is about — the reason he used the trees of Eden for comparison was because Genesis 2:9 says

9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food…

So the trees in Eden were good, so God uses them to compare to some great mission — just as Jesus in Matthew 13 said that the kingdom of heaven was like a grain of mustard seed which was the tiniest seed, but when it was grown it is the greatest among herbs and becometh a tree.  This is symbolic — not literal language.

[Paraphrasing]….So before you exalt yourself, remember Assyria overcast in the beauty of the trees in Eden, and yet Assyria has been brought low, brought down to the pit.  And then he says to Pharaoh, in Ezekiel 31:18

…yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth…

Trees could not be people — because if they were, they still would have existed, but in Ezekiel 31 God speaks of the trees of Eden in the past tense — they are gone, they are destroyed.  And he says, “Pharaoh, you too will come down to the pit, like the trees of the Garden of Eden.”  So the trees in Eden could not have been people or races of people.

The literal area of the Garden of Eden was that great area of southern Arabia on the south to Persia on the east, to Turkey on the north, and to the Mediterranean on the west. Most of that area is a vast desert today — I believe, destroyed in the Flood of Noah’s time.  The trees of Eden are no more — they are spoken of in the past tense in Ezekiel 31.

Ezekiel 28, where Eden is again referred to,

1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God…

This is the prophecyed destruction of Tyre, verse 8:

8 They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. 9 Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.

Then the rest of that chapter goes on to speak to someone who was in Eden:

13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering…14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

But who was this person who was in the Garden of God?  Was it the Prince of Tyre — or Princes of Tyre — who are spoken of in the first verses?  No, it was not, for if you read verses 11 and 12:

11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God…

Some say that means that these rulers in the city of Tyre were people in the Garden of Eden — no, it is not.  That second half of chapter 28 in Ezekiel is speaking to the King of Tyre — the first half is to the Prince of Tyre.  And who was the King of Tyre?  The religion of Tyre was Baal worship.  Satan was their god and their king.  It was Satan who was in the Garden of Eden, not the people of Tyre.  So again we are left without any certain verse of scripture that tells us that the trees in Eden were actual men and women.

There is not one clear verse of scripture in the Bible which can be interpreted to mean that Eve had sexual relations with anyone other than her husband, Adam.  The trees of Ezekiel 31 are empires — not literal trees.  The empires are compared to the trees in Eden for beauty.  The being in Ezekiel 28 who was in Eden was the King of Tyre — the god, Satan who was, as we’ve already seen, in the Garden.

So these passages cannot be used to produce another human or another creature who might have had a sexual union with Eve when she “partook” of the Tree of Knowledge Of Good and Evil.

Back to Genesis 3 — both Adam and Eve knew they could eat of the trees but not a certain one — that stood for God’s law — the only source of the knowledge of good and evil:

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

The terms “eyes were opened,” “naked,” and then their act of covering themselves with aprons have all been interpreted to mean physical or sexual acts.  But what are they?  What opened their eyes?  Psalm 19:8 says,

The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.

Psalms 119:18,

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

Psalms 146:8,

The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous.

And we’ve already read Deuteronomy 30:15 where Moses spoke of God’s law:

See I have set before thee this day life and good, death and evil.

Eve partook of the law of God — she saw it was good for food — and God’s law is called “bread”, and it’s called “meat” and it’s called “food” and it’s called even “honey”.  In Ezekiel 3 where Ezekiel ate God’s word and it was like honey in his mouth.  So Eve gave God’s word to Adam, and he did eat.  Genesis 3

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat

So here is a direct statement, via a question, from God Almighty, that it was the eating of the tree which told Adam that he was naked:

And by that eating they knew they were naked — so they hid from God

Before this in verse 25 of Genesis 2:

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

So they were already naked before they ate — how did the eating make them ashamed?  2 Corinthians 5

1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. 13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

They partook of God’s law — their eyes were opened to the truth that they were sinners and that they were mortal.  Satan said, ‘Ye shall not surely die but ye shall be as gods,’ but when they read God’s law, they found they were mortal — they were sinners — and they did not have the clothing of immortality.

Adam said, “I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.”  In Revelation 16, verse 15, is a warning from Jesus Christ for the end of the age:

15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

Revelation 3, verse 5:

5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

Verse 18:

18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear…

Revelation 7:9,

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.

Verse 13,

13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? 14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

What clothing do we need — and that Adam and Eve understood they needed — that they would not be naked and ashamed? Revelation 19:

6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. 7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

What is that?  The garment of salvation — the white robe of Jesus’ righteousness for the Bible says all our righteousness is as “filthy rags”.  We are naked — and they see our shame until we have the salvation of Jesus Christ and his blood.  And what makes us realize we are naked and unclothed before God?  Reading God’s law.

In Adam and Eve’s state before they partook of God’s law, they were without the knowledge of either sin or salvation, but once they read the law, they understood sin — their eyes were open — and they understood they were without a robe of righteousness to cover their sin.  They were ashamed and could not stand before God — and so they hid themselves.

Adam and Eve did not recognize their nakedness because of something Satan did — or because of any sexual intercourse that Eve had with Satan.  They recognized their nakedness — their need of salvation clothes — by partaking in the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil by reading God’s law.

That is why God told them in verse 21, just before He drove them from Eden, they were clothed in animal skins — animals whose blood was shed to provide them with atonement according to the ritual of the law.  That shedding of those animals’ blood and clothing of Adam and Eve in those skins was a type of the perfect sacrifice that would come in the future through Jesus Christ — the sacrifice that would cover their sins and ours — and clothe us in righteousness to cover our nakedness so we — along with Adam and Eve — can stand before God.

The gospel here is very simple.  It is only the lies of Satan that make it very complicated.

So someone is certain to ask, “Why God did not himself give the law to Adam and Eve?”  Why did He allow Satan to perform this supposedly dastardly and deceitful deed?  God purposed it that way — God purposed that Satan would be responsible for death.  It is God’s law that decrees death — Satan brought death— he knew that he was doing it — and he thought he had won — that Adam and Eve would now be destroyed.  He told them they would not die — to trick them into partaking of the law which he knew would condemn to death.  But Satan did not know that he was a loser — that although the law condemns every man to death, that God had provided the way to life.

That work by Satan was the same thing that God allowed Satan to do when Satan was the instrument of the death of Jesus Christ. In Luke 22:

3 Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. 4 And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them.

John 13, Christ told his disciples that one would betray him:

25 He then lying on Jesus’ breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? 26 Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. 27 And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.

It did not say that Judas was a son of Satan — it said Satan entered into him.  So Satan lost again.  1 Corinthians 2

7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory

In other words, there was a hidden thing:

8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Satan and his minions did not know that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ brought victory over them and their deceit.  In Hebrews 2

14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood

In other words, the children of Abraham are mortal — flesh and blood…

…he [Jesus] also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. 15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

What did Jesus do?  He delivered them from the death that which Satan had tricked them in partaking of way back in the Garden of Eden.  Satan thought he had won in the Garden when he tricked Man into placing himself under the death decree in God’s law.  Satan thought he had won again when he led Judas and the Pharisee princes of this world to slay Jesus.  But in both cases, the Devil’s own actions sealed his doom, not that of God’s creation.

The law of God — the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil planted in the Garden of God — the death from the law therefore came from Satan’s deception.  Jesus was of God — Jesus is the Tree of Life, symbolically planted in the Garden of God — and the death of Jesus came from Satan — but Satan’s was a loss and the triumph of God for Man.

There was no physical seduction — no sexual act between Satan and Eve, which opened their eyes.  In John 10, when the Jews accused Jesus of having a devil:

21 Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?

The obvious answer is no — Satan could not open the eyes of Adam and Eve — only God’s word can open Man’s eyes.

Since there was no physical seduction, Cain’s father must have been Adam — and we read Genesis 4:1

1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

That’s rather plain language — the same phraseology used in verse 25

25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

So in both cases, we are told that Eve understood that Adam was the father of these children.  But before that, Cain’s offering was rejected, and Abel’s was accepted — and some say that’s because Cain was the son of Satan.  But God said in verse 6 of Genesis 4,

6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

In other words, his offering apparently was rejected because of his own sin — not the sin of Satan — or the sin of the supposed satanic father.  Cain’s offering — as we see from verse 3 and 4 — was without blood — it was from the things of the field — Abel’s was of animals.  So Cain, in effect, rejected the idea of blood atonement — his sin was not his origin.

Why did Cain slay Abel?  1 John 3:

11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.

No blame on Satan — it says Cain’s works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.  Now as to what Cain’s works were — we already had a clue in that he did not give an offering to God which included the shedding of blood.  And also Cain is mentioned in Jude — where Jude speaking of the wicked in verse 11:

11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

In verse 7, it says that the wicked go after strange flesh.  Cain took a wife from another land — a wife apparently not of his own kind — and although he was the eldest, he was replaced by Seth as the inheritor of Adam’s line.

Some still say the reason Cain was replaced was he was the seed of Satan — so God had to give another seed to Eve.  But we have a parallel with Esau and Jacob — where Esau, the eldest, lost his birthright, and later took wives of the Canaanites.  Some who say Cain was fathered by Satan and not Adam should read of Esau in Romans 9:

10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. 13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

Had Esau sinned in the womb?  Had Esau another father other than Jacob that caused his rejection?  No, neither need we ascribe another father to Cain in order to bring about his rejection.  Esau was rejected in the womb and Romans 9 makes it plain he was born of Issac.

How about the phrase in 1 John 3:12:

Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.

Cain and Abel

Let’s read 1 Corinthians 3:

3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Were they saying they were born of Paul or born of Apollos?  No, they were saying they were followers of Paul or followers of Apollos.  In 1 Timothy 1, Paul will call Timothy “my son”, and I believe that “of the wicked one” means Cain was a follower of Satan, not necessarily a literal son.  And that is possible — even probable — when we read in 1 Samuel 2:12,

12 Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD.

They were followers of Belial.  If Satan was an angelic being, we also have it on Jesus’ authority that angels do not father children. In Matthew 22:30 Jesus answered a question by saying,

For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

Why wasn’t there any warning in the Old Testament or the New that women should beware of physical seduction by Satan or any angel?  And yet every pagan religion from Egypt, to Babylon, to Greece, to Rome and to Asia teaches that the god’s have intercourse with females.  Every pagan anti-Christ religion teaches that gods have intercourse with humans.  The Bible teaches no such thing.

There is no warning — and there was no warning in the Bible of this because it never happened — nor could it.  Satan has no power of creation.  Satan therefore has no power of procreation.  His “children” are his followers, not his sons.  Satan’s followers must be those spoken of by God when He said, “I have created the waster to destroy.” (Isaiah 54:16), and “even the wicked for the day of evil.” (Proverbs 16:4).

God did not produce Adam through sexual union with any woman, yet Adam is called the son of God.  Neither did Satan produce any man through sexual union with any woman, and yet he has people called his “sons” because they are what?  They are his followers.

God has turned over to Satan beings which God created for the day of evil.  They are called “the children of the devil” — they are followers Satan — but they are not his physical seed.  Like all things, they must be creatures of the only creator, God Almighty.

But they will say, Satan is the father of something — turn to John 8:44, Jesus speaking to the Jewish Pharisees:

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it

There is only one thing of which Satan is the father — and that is a lie.  He is the father of lies.

45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

Why?  Because they believe Satan — they were followers of Satan; therefore, they had become Satan’s children — just as [Adamic] followers of God become God’s children.

God had said to Satan that “I will put enmity thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.”

Who was the “seed of the woman”?  Was it Abel?  Or was it Seth?  Remember, Cain was born of Eve also — so Cain would have been a seed of the woman if any of the rest were children also.  In Galatians 3, Paul is speaking of the promise:

16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.  He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

There is a [Adamic] seedline in the Bible — Eve’s seed, Abraham’s seed, David’s seed — and that one seed is Christ.  The enmity of Satan — his lies — which are his seed — are directed at Christ who is the seed of the woman.  Satan’s lie is enmity to Jesus which is truth.

Why do the anti-Christ religions teach that Satan physically seduced Eve and fathered Cain?  The answer is simple — to hide God’s word of truth — to corrupt minds that is the simplicity which is in Christ Jesus in Genesis 3.

For Genesis 3 truly teaches that Man is a creature of God — Man gets his knowledge and understanding from God’s law — and by that same law is the knowledge of sin — and the knowledge that he is naked and needs atonement for salvation and eternal life.

The gospel of Jesus is in Genesis 3, but it totally hidden by those who believe Satan’s lie.  And millions in the world throughout history have believed Satan’s lie — that he seduced Eve and was the source of man’s wisdom.  And they, therefore, have worshiped Satan as the source of all knowledge.

That story — that Satan seduced Eve — is so much a part of Babylonian religion that Herodotus tells us that in Babylon every woman — before she was married — was required to go to the Temple of Baal, and have sexual relations with either a priest or any other man.  Then — and only then — could she marry her husband.  It was what?  It was a worship ritual of Satan’s lie that he seduced Eve.

Today, the promoters of pre-marital and extra-marital sex are promoting a ritual of Baal — have sex with someone other than your husband — just as Satan and Eve did — for that premarital sex is what?  A source of liberation, a source of wisdom.  There is the Devil’s lie.

Jesus said to the Pharisees, “By your traditions you have made the word of God to none effect.” (Mark 7:13).  And I say to the teachers of this doctrine, by your repetition, perhaps unknowingly, of this tradition — this lie of Satan — you hide the truth of Genesis 3.  You hide the truth that our first parents were mortals who died from sin — and can live forever only by partaking in the Tree of Life, which is Jesus Christ.

Thank God for the atoning blood, the atoning sacrifice, the laws of sin and death, and the power of Satan is now broken — just as the truth of Genesis 3 shows Satan’s power is only is in his ability to get people to believe his lie.  He has no children — he never seduced Eve — his power is only in his lie.  And Jesus Christ — and the word of God — and that truth that’s in the Bible destroys Satan’s power.

Jesus’ truth is the seed of the woman.  Satan and his lies is the seed that has enmity against them.  God’s law was first given to Man in Eden.  Abraham knew the law — for God said of Abraham in Genesis 18:

19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment.

And we know it was before Abraham — for God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, broke down the Tower of Babel, and brought in Noah’s Flood because of transgressions of the law.  But now we can really understand what Paul meant when he wrote in Romans 5,

12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 13  For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

It is quite simple — the law was given to Adam and Eve to divinely appointed events in Eden.  Satan’s lie — that those events in Eden were something else — and that not the law but Satan was the source of Adam and Eve’s wisdom — and that not God but at least in part Satan was a co-creator of some of the people of the earth — those lies have deceived millions.  But some day, it will deceive them no more — for God’s truth will cancel out all of Satan’s lies.

Revelation 22, speaking of the kingdom of the New Jerusalem:

1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him

Verse 14:

14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Praise God that he has destroyed Satan’s lies by his truth that mortal man will become immortal, not through Satan but through Jesus Christ and his blood.

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