Good And Evil Ii Series

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Pretty much all the honest

truth-telling there is in the world is done by children." This does not

mean, however, that their truth telling is always pleasant. Especially

if you have guests, or if you are like the Sunday School teacher who

asked too many questions. One Sunday she told the story of the Good

Samaritan, and she made it very vivid so the children could realize

clearly what had happened. Then she asked, "If you saw a person

lying on the roadside all wounded and bleeding what would you do?"

A thoughtful little girl broke the hushed silence and said, "I think I'd

throw up."

The truth is not only not always pleasant, but it can even be used

to promote evil. William Blake wrote, "A truth that's told with bad

intent beats all the lies you can invent." Satan is the father of lies, but

he reveals right from the start that he recognizes that truth can often

be even more effective than lies in accomplishing his purpose. If you

think the devil never tells the truth, then you have not read Gen. 3

very closely. In verse 5 the subtle serpent tells Eve that when she eats

of the forbidden fruit her eyes will be opened, and she will be like God

knowing good and evil. No one can call this statement a lie without

also accusing God, for in verse 22 God says the serpent's prophecy

was literally fulfilled, and man did become like God knowing good and

evil. Satan is not fussy. If the truth can be used to get men to disobey

God, why bother inventing lies?

Truth is never an adequate reason to justify disobedience to God's

revealed will. Satan will use the truth and nothing but the truth, and

he will offer you the very best if he can persuade you to get it by

disobeying God. Just because something is new does not mean that it

is right, or that it is God's will. Adam and Eve assumed that if they

could become more like God by disobeying God it must be the right

thing to do. They got a good thing, but they paid too great a price,

when by obedience they would have gotten not only the knowledge of

good and evil, but eternal life as well. There is no doubt that God

intended Adam and Eve to eat of both the tree of life and the tree of

the knowledge of good and evil, but it was to be only in His good time.

This seems clear if we look closely at God's words in verse 22. These

are really quite startling words, and they have led to some very

radical developments in the history of theology.

God says, "Behold the man has become like one of us, knowing

good and evil." Many have looked at these words and said that it

doesn't sound like a fall, but rather a rise. Man's first sin made him

more like God than he was when he was innocent. That is an

improvement, and it made man greater than he was before. Fallen

man is more divine than innocent man, and so the fall must have been

good. Many conclude that God intended man to fall just because it was

the way for Him to become more godlike. They do not see

tragedy in man's fall, but rather the beginning of the struggle of man

to climb to the heights of perfection. What they are failing to see,

however, is the fact that man got this good by disobedience, and so fell

from a perfect relationship to God. It is true that eating of the

forbidden fruit made them more godlike, and that is why it is

reasonable to believe that God would have let them eat of it eventually

after they had proven their loyalty to Him.

When God finished creation He said that all was good. That

included the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree was not

evil, nor was it bad to have the knowledge of good and evil. God has

it, and no one can be like God without it. Animals do not have it, and

so they are not moral beings. Man does have this knowledge and is a

moral being, and is responsible for choosing good and avoiding evil.

The Bible refers to the knowledge of good and evil as a precious gift.

God admits here that it is a quality of His own nature, and so to have

it is to partake of the divine nature. In I Kings 3:9 Solomon prays,

"Give thy servant therefore an understanding mind to govern thy

people, that I may discern between good and evil." In II Sam. 14:17 it