I recently came across two different people referring to Adam & Eve’s act of eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden as an act of rebellion.
One said, “Humans chose to rebel while in paradise.” and the other said “Adam and Eve…rebelled against the wisdom and authority of the Creator…”. That prompted me to respond.
Did Adam & Eve really “rebel”?
Continue readingMany seem to think that the creation established in the beginning was later altered by God and that He instituted physical death, in response to the Fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden.
However, upon careful examination of the stories found in Genesis 1-3, I draw a different conclusion.
Genesis 2 tells us of the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil that existed in the Garden of Eden.
The created man (both male & female) was placed in that garden. And while the man was told by God that he could eat of any tree therein, he was forbidden to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil, lest he surely die.
Genesis 3 tells the story of a serpent speaking to Eve in the garden. While she reiterates what God had said concerning the forbidden fruit, she is led astray by the serpent and ultimately partakes of that fruit. And she gives the fruit to Adam, and he eats it as well.
Shortly thereafter, the two are confronted by God about their misdeeds. The blame game unfolds with she gave it to me and the serpent deceived me, and God responds.
In this post, I focus specifically on what was told to Adam at this point.
In Genesis 3:17-19 it says,
“And unto Adam he [God] said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, “Thou shalt not eat of it”: cursed is the ground for your sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
As I said in the beginning, many seem to think Creation was altered and physical death was instituted at this point of the story.
While I address the notion that Adam’s DNA was altered as a result of his sin in my study, For All Have Sinned*, published in 2017 — concluding that it did not, today I’d like to specifically address the Land and the institution of physical death.
[*Please note: my position has changed since this study was published concerning these two latter points, thus, today’s post.]
Did God really change the way the Land that brings forth vegetation operates from His original design & creation, or did He simply change the position of Adam on the Land?
And…
Did God really institute physical death for Adam after Adam ate the forbidden fruit, or was Adam’s mortality part of his original design?
Religious indoctrination would have us believe the former is true on both points, but a closer examination reveals otherwise.
Continue readingI came across a comment on another website yesterday from an apparent Bible believer that indicated his/her belief was that humans are not perfectible. And that begged me to respond.
According to the Bible, in Genesis 6:9, Noah is described as being perfect.
These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
Then in Genesis 17:1, we see that YHVH told Abram to be perfect.
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
The Hebrew word translated as “perfect” in these verses is “tamiym” (H8549), and according to Brown Driver Briggs, it means “complete, sound“.
This word is used all throughout the books of Leviticus & Numbers and is translated as “without blemish” in the King James Version.
Then in Deuteronomy 18:13, Moses instructs the people to be perfect with YHVH their God.
Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
There are many passages throughout the Old Testament that use this word to describe men, and many times it is translated as “upright“. I encourage you to do your own search of this word and see for yourself where & how it appears.
Clearly the Old Testament presents the idea that humans are capable of being perfect and expected to be so.
Continue readingFor most of my life I was led to believe the Bible was the inerrant Word of God. I heard that phrase repeatedly and never questioned it too much. But now I see that is not the case at all.
When I was young, I was exposed to a Christian “catechism” that stated, when asked the question, “Who wrote the Bible?”, “Holy men of God wrote the Bible” was the answer. So, I acknowledged the idea that the Bible was written by men (as opposed to God Himself).
When I tried to understand how this book could be considered “the Word of God”, I could see throughout the Old Testament stories of God speaking directly to man, so naturally, if “holy men” wrote down what God said, then that could justify those written words to be “the Word of God”.
And at some point, I heard the phrase “divinely inspired” applied to the Bible, and that justified in my mind how the remaining texts comprised in the Bible could also be considered “the Word of God” indirectly.
But when I stopped to think about it, I had a hard time believing the Bible was “inerrant”, especially considering the fact that it was written & handled by human beings, who are obviously fallible, for hundreds (if not thousands) of years.
Continue readingMy husband recently started making videos discussing his ideas regarding intentional communities, which is a subject we’ve talked about for many years.
We understand the need for community in real life at the local level in order to survive & thrive outside the control of powers-that-shouldn’t-be. But what should that community look like?
This morning he recorded & posted a talk I did with him at his YouTube channel sharing what I see to be problematic with faith-based communities. This is part one of a series we entitled Faith- vs. Value-based Communities.
Please check it out and let me know what you think:
Please check them out, and let me know if you have any questions or concerns and if you need me to clarify anything with what I said.
I still need to go through more old posts to update them with my current understanding, so if you come across something that seems to contradict something elsewhere on this site, please bring it to my attention in the post’s comments of the post, and I’ll address that next.
Also, I would love to hear from you as to where you’re at in your understanding as it relates to:
And if there’s anything in particular that you’d like me to address either in a blog post or on a video, please let me know in the comments below.
Thanks!
Six years ago, I embarked on a new video-making journey. But, before I could get anywhere with it, it ended.
Well, now, I’m back. Check it out…
As I said in my previous post, I feel called to move forward and focus on:
I look forward to this venture going forward, and I hope to see & interact with you along the way!
Personally, I see the Bible as a treasure trove of wisdom.
Unfortunately, I believe the Bible has been weaponized by the Enemy of our soul to destroy mankind.
Through deceptive manipulation, I believe the Bible has been used by agents of our Enemy to destroy us by presenting a faulty understanding of the value, design & intended purpose for the existence of mankind.
We’ve been taught that man is now fundamentally flawed due to Original Sin, referring to the Fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, and that we are all inherently sinners. Therefore, we are all automatically separated from God at the onset of our lives.
Furthermore, we’ve been led to believe that we are only human (as if being human was somehow inadequate), incapable of ruling & governing ourselves and thereby unable to be without sin.
We’re told we need someone to mediate on our behalf — and that it is up to us to find that intermediary and accept that figure as Lord over us in order to receive forgiveness and be brought into good standing with our Maker.
We’re also told that this world (the earth, in particular) is either being ruled by our Enemy or by God. Therefore, we are led to believe that we have no real control over what happens here.
All of this is conveyed by the teachings & traditions of men who use the Bible as an authoritative vessel by which these notions are made known to us, claiming the book is the inerrant Word of God.
Continue readingI’m in favor of searching out a matter within the Bible. That’s how I got to where I am today. However, I believe it is necessary to first have a foundation that is based on what is physically true/real & self-evident before going on any spiritual expeditions.
When I began to question what I understood about the Bible, I started seeking out answers to specific questions I had concerning what the Bible said, and that journey took me all over the place. And it was exciting! It was like the book was brand new to me.
I started washing myself in it, and I began to read whole books from start to finish.
And eventually, I naturally went back to the beginning and started reading from Genesis forward with a new, open mind.
When I did so, I realized so much of what I was taught in my Christian upbringing was baggage that was hindering me from seeing all that was plainly written on the page. So I began to unload that baggage.
Continue readingI believe every Bible student, Bible reader, and so-called Bible believer needs to actually read their Bibles, starting at the beginning of the book.
They need to gain a firm grip on what is established there, and then hold fast to it when reading all that comes after it, in order to make proper sense of it all.
I would think this approach would make common sense and need not be said, but evidently someone needs to say it, because it’s not happening, across the board.
But also, more importantly, I believe people need to get a firm grasp on reality before they even open the Book. And then they need to hold fast to that whenever seeking to understand whatever is before them.
Unfortunately, I see too many people doing it backwards.
For example, too many are reading passages in the New Testament and flipping here, there & everywhere to support their understanding, and then they are using that understanding as their foundation for understanding Genesis!
Or, many are taking what they come to understand from the Bible, in general — apart from reality, and using that as their foundation for understanding the world around them.
It’s upside down!
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