What Do You Know?
Everyone has their own experiences.
Perspective
Even when numerous people are present at the same event, if one were to ask them to explain what happened, there would be variations in the story. Experiences are unique, because they are subjective. I often explain it to children and youth by sitting or standing face to face. I will ask them what they see, tell them what I see and even though we are in the same room, there are usually few similarities. Then, if we add emotional components to the discussion, we could be in for some very different stories.
People are unique. We internalize and contemplate, we imagine and compare, we project and relate. We are complicated and multifaceted. People are tri-part beings: body, soul and spirit. Adam and Eve were originally created in the image of God. They walked with God in the cool of the morning and it was good.
Meanwhile, in Heaven, Lucifer was performing his duties as the worship director. He saw that God loved mankind and treated them differently. He also decided that he didn’t want to direct the worship to God, but that he would be like God, lift his own throne above that of God’s and be like the Most High.
Consequences
That didn’t work out though. God threw him out of Heaven and cast him to earth, where he enticed Eve to take a real good look at the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. She saw t it was good for food, enjoyable and would make one wise. So, she took it, ate it and gave it to her husband. God had to drive Adam and Eve out of the garden, so they wouldn’t eat from the Tree of Life and live in that sinful state forever, stripped of the glory God had given them.
Their sin was not believing God. He told them not to eat of one tree and they did. By doing so, they abdicated dominion of the earth to Lucifer, the devil. God changed his name to Satan, because he had taken on the form of a serpent in the garden. He then made clothing for Adam and Eve, using skin from an animal. This was the first death recorded in the Bible. It is so sad that the innocent died for the disobedience of another.
Many people today have no education about God and His Word, the Bible. The Bible is the progressive revelation of the relationship of a creator, God with all of His creation, including me and you. It is history and teaching and documenting of His interactions, His thoughts and people’s responses and results. There are 66 books, 39 Old Testament and 27 New Testament. Some of what is written hasn’t happened yet, some has, but there are a good many “ifs” in the Bible.
Free Will
God did not create robots. He created people, unique individuals with perspectives, talents, gifts and free will. So, He is not in control of us, we are in control of ourselves. We choose what we will do, just as Adam and Eve did.
God’s Word tells us that He wants all people to be with Him forever. He knows that will not be the case, but He would like for every person to have the opportunity to accept His offer of eternity with Him. He went so far as to pay the price. You see, we are born in the image of Adam and Eve, we have sin, a condition that separates us from God. So, Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, died a horrific, excruciating and humiliating death. He was the innocent who died for our disobedience.
To be only begotten means that He was not born of Adam. The Holy Spirit of God overshadowed Mary. A Father’s genetic material is said to determine the child’s blood type. So Jesus’ blood type is from God. He was the only person, ever, to have perfect, sinless blood. He was fully God and fully man. So only He could crush the grip of sin for us. Have you heard this before? If so, what will you choose?