Satan's MO

I've been thinking about the lies we typically believe that get us into trouble. And i've been thinking about how Satan tricked Eve in the Garden. It seems to me that Satan basically plays the same small hand of cards every time. The trouble is that situations and temptations are arranged such that we believe the matter to be far more complicated or convoluted than it is. But in truth, Satan's lies are very simple and very few.

LIE 1: WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU ISN'T ENOUGH

Satan told Eve that she needed more. She needed to become like a god. Isn't it amazing that this conversation worked with Eve? Where did Eve live again? Paradise on earth! God had given her paradise. A perfect garden that perfectly provided for her and protected her innocence and allowed her intimate first-hand relations with God. Was she really so bad off that she needed more? Was paradise really such a hardship to bear that she really needed something better? Don't we often think to ourselves, "If only i had X, then i'd be content"?? What do you fill that X in with? Money? Houses? Spouse? Physical appearance? Eve had PARADISE and yet Satan lied to her and convinced her that what God had given her was not enough. The "X" we think we have to have in order to be content would most likely NOT make us content; if Satan can convince us once that we can't be content with what we have, surely he can do it again after we've gotten something more. The bottom line is: it's a lie. It was a lie then, and it's a lie now. Instead of seeing what we don't have, we must see what we do, and just how much and wonderful it is--and that its more than enough.

LIE 2: GOD'S BOUNDARIES ARE KEEPING YOU FROM SOMETHING BETTER

Satan's conversation with Eve started with a discussion over God's rules. "Why should you follow God's rules? Why should you think God's restrictions are good ideas? God's rules," Satan tells us, "are holding you back and fencing you in, and there's all this fantastic terrific stuff outside those fences. Not only is what God's given you not enough, but there are things far better out there for you. And God's rules are just standing in your way." It's a simple lie but we buy it all the time. Sexual restrictions or relationships that are against God's rules but we think are better than what we have now, chemical dependencies that violate His rules but we think are better for us, even just having more fun hanging out with ungodly people than with His people--you name it, we argue it in elaborate manners, but the lie is always the same and as simple. Were God's rules really holding Eve back? Again, they "fenced" her inside PARADISE; it's not like there was anything truly better out there for her, she already had the best that could be had on earth. She simply believed a lie. God leads His people to an ultimate paradise. Is what's out there really so much better? Or are you just believing a lie?

LIE 3: GOD DOES NOT HAVE YOUR BEST INTERESTS AT HEART

It was incredibly cunning of Satan to tell Eve "For God knows..." "God knows all this stuff i'm telling you, Eve," Satan says. "God is well aware He hasn't given you enough and that there's better stuff out there for you and if only you'd disobey Him you could have it." Satan leads us to believe that we can't trust God's motive in dealing with us--that God just doesn't truly have our best interests at heart, so its up to us to look out for them ourselves. The truth is God always, always, always has our best interests at heart. Every single one of His expectations and boundaries are absolutely in our best interests.

LIE 4: MAYBE GOD DIDN'T SAY WHAT YOU THINK HE SAID

I've occasionally gone back and forth on whether preachers were making a bigger deal out of "Has God said you must not...?" But Satan's motive is to deceive, steal, and destroy. This inclines me to think that even Satan's opening question was a part of his game plan against Eve. We fall for this one all the time too. It's interesting that sometimes when you want something bad enough, that's exactly when you're most willing to "restudy" what the Bible says about it. "Has God really said that? Maybe i just interpretted it wrong. Maybe it actually completely allows for what i want. Maybe all those other people just wrong and didn't read it right." At base, it's not a matter of just honestly and openly seeking to know what God has said, but rather it's a tactic of planting doubt against what He has said.

LIE 5: YOU SHOULD JUDGE RIGHT AND WRONG FOR YOURSELF

Satan talked Eve into looking at that tree and its fruit with her own eyes and examining it with her own mind and judging for herself what she ought to do. To the average person in the modern world (especially the average American), that sounds like the exact right thing to do. But the truth is, i am not to be trusted when it comes to judging right and wrong. That's right. It's not a truth that my sinful pride likes to hear, but it's the truth nonetheless. I have very good reasons NOT to trust myself when it comes to judging right and wrong. To name a few: (1) i'm biased, (2) i'm a proven mistake maker, (3) there's no way for me to tell whether or not i have all the facts sufficient to make the right judgment, (4) i wasn't built or designed to be the judge of right and wrong.

LIE 6: GOD IS MISTAKEN

Satan flat out said it, "You will not surely die." "God said you would, but He's just plain wrong." People harden their hearts all the time and buy into this lie; "Yes, i know that's what God says, but my case is just different, that's just not true in my situation, or that's just not what's going to work for me." They're all variations on the same theme. God makes mistakes. The truth is God is infallible. He will never make a mistake. This sounds somewhat innocuous sometimes, but honestly i've found a lot of comfort in reminding myself of this truth. When i'm facing difficulty, it helps to remember, "God, i don't know what's going on right now or why, but i know You're in control of the world, and You don't make mistakes." People concoct all sorts of reasons why in their special situation, God is simply mistaken. "My situation is different, and the right thing for me is to lie my way out of trouble, cheat to get what i want, keep what doesn't belong to me, have sex with someone i'm not married to, divorce my spouse, break my promise, not read the Bible or pray, etc. etc." Again, all variations on one single theme--God makes mistakes. And that's a lie.

Labor, Agriculture, and the Fall

It just occurred to me today while i was reading something that toiling, making a living by the sweat of one's brow, and cultivating/farming the earth were parts of the curse of Genesis 3. They are consequences of the Fall. In other words, they are among the things that indicate that the world is not as it should be. They are symptoms of a fallen world.

i found this interesting in comparison to the common, sometimes cultural view that hard labor, learning to earn (arduously) a dollar, and even the family-run farm--that these are valuable, ethically respectable things about the world. Many people deem these as "the high road" or that in some sense they are facets of a morall-superior lifestyle.

i'm not about to suggest that these things are immoral and people should quit farming or working hard. This wouldn't be any more of an appropriate conclusion than would be that we should form nudists colonies that live in gardens. But what's interesting to me is that the Bible basically places these things about the world in the same category as death, birth-pains, the loss of innocence, the earth yielding harmful and useless plants, etc. Thus, hard labor and agriculture are "bad" things in the same sense that death and birth-pains are "bad" things--their basic cause/origin and purpose is the same or related. They are a part of the basic digression of the material world. They represent the world turning from ideally-blessed to cursed. In God's paradise, while man did care for and manage nature, he did not arduously labor to produce sustenance from the earth, but provision from nature came (in some comparative sense) easily. That change resulted from sin's entrance into the world, and thus was not some natural ethical value engrained in us from the beginning.

And yet it seems that many people, especially of a traditional mindset, would not at all be inclined to put all these things in the same category, but would tend to see hard labor and agriculture and an ethically valuable part of the world.

Sola Scriptura and the Early Church

All my Protestant inclinations tell me to cling dearly to Sola Scriptura and reject all forms of spiritual authority which try to make the Bible a mere co-authority (or really, a sub-authority) with church tradition.

And yet, my Restoration-Principle inclinations tell me to look to the early church to see how they did things and to mimick them.

So what do you do with the doctrine of Sola Scriptura when the early church didn't even have the NT? They had the OT, they had the Apostles, and they had miraculous gifts of the Spirit (some of which were means of access to special revelation). Can we claim they had something analogous to the idea of Sola Scriptura? Or is what they had nothing like our idea of Sola Scriptura?

I think we can point out that the early church did use written revelation as authoritative--they read the OT, and they received letters from NT writers and even circulated these among congregations. I think we can point out that they limited themselves to sources that were inspired--the OT, the oral teaching of the Apostles, the letters that NT writers wrote, and the revelatory gifts of the Spirit are all arguably infallible sources of information. Are these similarities enough to say that the Protestant idea of Sola Scriptura is justifiable even by the Restoration-Principle? Is more needed? Or is Sola Scriptura simply incompatible with the Restoration-Principle?

More Than One Problem Of Evil?

intellectually it has always made sense to me first, that basically God doesn't owe me anything, second, that the world simply isn't as it should be and hasn't been since Gen 3, and third, that God will truly rectify and correct everything at the last day. These have helped me understand that i haven't been robbed by God (since He didn't owe X to me anyway), the entire world is amiss, not just the particular instance in my life (since the world is fallen and cursed), and i should hope in the redemption that is to come and stop trying to get God to make things perfect right this second (what, then would be the point of Jesus' return?).

as intellectually sound and digestable as all that may be, there's still, i think, an emotional or relational problem of suffering, isn't there? It's not that i'm doubting God's existence due to evil in the world, and it's not even that i'm doubting whether goodness is truly an attribute of His character, but rather i'm experiencing a relational sort of confusion.

Consider the idea of a dog that just can't comprehend why it's master just hit it with a rolled up newspaper. The owner may have a reason (maybe the owner only just now found something the dog chewed up several hours ago), but in this case the dog can't comprehend the reason, and more to the point, the dog is relationally confused as to why his master, a master that he loves and adores and who plays with him and gives him food, water, and shelter--the dog can't grasp why such an owner would now inflict pain or harm. How is the dog supposed to wag its tail and be happy and run *toward* a master that's currently smacking him with a newspaper?

On paper and in philosophy classes, i really haven't ever seen that the problem of suffering is much of a problem at all (and in fact, i think, raises more problems for the anti-theist than for the theist). But as a Christian, i'm not sure i know what to say about the relational issue. Just recently, someone has deeply and horrifically wronged both me and my son. i understand that doesn't mean God doesn't exist. and i understand it doesn't mean that God isn't good. i also understand that it doesn't mean that God doesn't care about me and what i'm going through. i don't have any sort of anti-theistic, intellectual leanings due to my current suffering. Nevertheless, it's very hard to sort out emotionally how to relate with the same affection or openness to a sovereign God Who's currently beating us with a newspaper or has, at least, allowed someone else to do so.

What do you think about this particular problem of suffering?

Worship Service

Does the New Testament explicitly mention or describe such a thing as a "worship service" as we conceive of it? i think i read of gatherings and assemblies, but i don't think i find this particular conception in the New Testament, and i suspect it's an altogether post-NT concoction. In a future blog, i think i'll spend some time trying to precisely define what "worship service" in the modern sense means and contrast it to assemblies mentioned in the NT. Do you agree? Do you disagree?