We Christians do not realise that deep down inside we have certain ruling definitions out from which we think about God. These ruling definitions have been imbibed in us since birth and since the fall into darkness in the original garden. These definitions are tares among the wheat that cause all sorts of mutations and distortions inside our souls even as Christians. They cause us to bear rotten fruit.
One of the most terrible definitions lurking in our hard-drive is the Serpents Lie that “God knows good and evil” within Himself….in other words God is a moral being who chooses moment by moment between good and evil. Thus inside of God is good and evil…He is split apart into two opposing forces within Himself IF the words of the Serpent are true.
Gen 3:5 for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. [asv]
The Serpent was lying and is lying. He says that God knows good and evil. This no light matter. To know something-yadah- is to intimately know it, as in intercourse…to become ONE WITH THE THING YOU KNOW.
If God knows good and evil, then He is ONE WITH GOOD AND EVIL…then good and evil are His NATURE…both at the same time!! And if all things have come into being out from God Himself as Paul said, then all things including you and me are good and evil at the same time–a split apart being having good and evil sides….or as the Christian says–an evil sinful nature and a new nature from God.
So then if we imagine that God is good and evil—for He knows and is intimately one with both- then we are just like Him–good and evil in our very nature/s.
BUT THE SERPENT LIED ABOUT GOD!!
It is interesting that the King James Version does not capitalise God in Gen 3:5 as the American Standard does.
Gen 3:5 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. [kjv]
The word in question is אֱלֹהִים/‘ĕlôhı̂ym –which can refer to angels as well as to God. The King James translators rendered elohim as gods instead of God as in the ASV and most other translations.
James Strong wrote this about the word ‘ĕlôhı̂ym- H430
Plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative: – angels, X exceeding, God (gods) (-dess, -ly), X (very) great, judges, X mighty.
[James Strong’s Exhaustative concordance-H430]
‘ĕlôhı̂ym means Plural of gods!! …“and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil…Thus it is FALLEN angels that know good and evil–NOT GOD. The Serpent was saying if you fall for my trick, you will be like me(Lucifer) knowing good and evil.
Before the fall, they knew only God and themselves in union within God….Lucifer was saying that their eyes would be opened to know good and evil…in other words they would have their union with God shattered by a dualistic mindset or a division of me, bad, over here and God good over there.
In fact their “eyes” speaks of how they see themselves and God….the story that they tell themselves about themselves and about God and others. Satan was giving them a choice between how God wanted them to be –in union with Him, the One who is their only LIFE or to be their own separated self(only in their minds)doing their own thing being their own god.
Later after they both ate from good and evil the Bible says man has ‘become one of us knowing good and evil’.
Genesis 3:22
HEB: הָיָה֙ כְּאַחַ֣ד מִמֶּ֔נּוּ לָדַ֖עַת ט֣וֹב
INT: has become one of Us knowing good
This seems to validate or prove that the Serpent was telling the truth about God–that He indeed does know good and evil…that within God is both good and evil.
But again there is something wrong here.
When I asked my friend and brother in the Lord Daniel Yordy to explain, this is his reply.
Concerning the phrase, “of Us” in Genesis 3:23. Just follow the link to the Biblehub layout – here it is – https://biblehub.com/hebrew/strongs_4480.htm
Yes, the Hebrew word means “of” or “from.” But look down through the list of times it is used. Note that the red words are the translation. Where else is the word “Us” found in the translation? You see, the question is – of what? The text says, – OF those who know good and evil. But the translators decided that God should be the source of man’s new-found death, since that’s what “the Bible says” in verse 5.
In other words, “Us” is the object of the preposition “of.” Every other time the translators chose an English word for “min,” they simply chose a preposition to fit the meaning. You will see that not once did they find the need to add the object of the preposition into the meaning as they did in Genesis 3:22. That is overwhelming evidence that the word “min” does not include any indication of the object inside of it.
For example, the English word “of.” If you were translating that into Russian, you would expect the object to be its own word, of this or of that. If there is not an object in the text, then it is possible that the context could provide the object. BUT – never once does such a need occur everywhere else this common word is found.
So, the translators of Genesis 3:22 used the larger context, something they never did again, in order to drag God into knowing good and evil through the devil’s words. [Email correspondence Daniel Yordy] also see here
Thus Gen 3:22 should simply say “the man has become one knowing good and evil”
To say that man is like God now…is also to say that man was NOT LIKE GOD BEFORE he ate from the tree. Use your brain dear reader.
God had said He made man in his image and likeness. Now God supposedly says that ‘after man has eaten from the forbidden tree, he has become like God’. You cannot have it both ways. Either man was already like God as God said he would create him…or now after falling into sin and death man has become like God.
If it is the latter–then what God is saying in Gen 3:22 is that He Himself is filled with sin and death. He cannot banish man from the Garden and keep him away from Life without also banishing Himself if He is like man and man is like Him—knowing good and evil.
(GNB) Then the LORD God said, “Now these human beings have become like one of us and have knowledge of what is good and what is bad. They must not be allowed to take fruit from the tree that gives life, eat it, and live forever.”
How utterly ridiculous is that!! God is saying that He Himself should not be allowed to live forever….for He like Man lives by the knowledge of good and evil!!
Poor God!! He must be driven out of His own garden away from the tree of life for he has the knowledge of good and evil like Adam does. Banish God to the wilderness of sin and death!!
No my friends, man had not become like one “of Us”–ie, like God knowing good and evil. Man had become like the Serpent, who had chosen to turn his back upon God’s design and place for him and go after a “higher” place not assigned to him. Man had become like the arrogant Serpent filled with pride and lust for superiority over others. Now man must be driven out of the garden lest he eat of life and be stuck in that condition forever.
God sent Jesus Christ, the last Adam to win our redemption by dying upon the cross. In dying he set us free from the curse of the Law(knowledge of good and evil) and brought us into His(tree of)Life within Himself and us in Him.
It is the Law that brings the knowledge of sin and death. Living under the Law is living with the knowledge of sin and death. This guarantees death and condemnation for all who are under it. There is no rest or peace for the one living by the Law.
Through Jesus our Mediator we have died to the Law, died to Satan the Accuser and Prosecutor of the Law. We are freed from the condemnation and curses of the Law ONLY by faith in Jesus Christ.
The way to the Tree of Life is Jesus Himself. And Jesus Himself, with the Father comes to dwell in you through the faith of the son of God. His abiding in you is Life. His abiding in you is freedom.
All those still imagining that they must choose between good and evil are banished from the garden and the tree of Life. They cannot live in His kingdom while they reject Jesus’ Life inside them as being the only life they have. The Old Covenant was all about man choosing good or evil and that Covenant failed to give Life to anyone.
In Christ Jesus there is no consciousness of sin. (Heb 10:1-2)That means there is no thinking about right and wrong, good and evil. The blood of Jesus has cleansed us from all consciousness of sin. But trying to live by the Law –the knowledge of good and evil–places us back into hiding from God like Adam and Eve did for by the Law is the knowledge of sin.
Lucifer lied to Adam about God knowing good and evil. Man did not become like God…but like a god. That god of course is Lucifer himself masquerading as God. Man in his childlike innocence was already like God. In fact Jesus said ‘unless you become like little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven’. (Matt 18:3)
Little children are weak little creatures. Man chose to be like the Serpent who appeared strong and self sufficient. Little children need help from another all the time….until they too learn to spin their own story of ‘I am my own god’.
The Serpent is who man desires to emulate
Thus says the Lord GOD: “You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
Eze 28:13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created.
Eze 28:14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.
Eze 28:15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you.
Eze 28:16 “By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones.
Eze 28:17 “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you.Isa 14:12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!
Isa 14:13 For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north;
Isa 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.‘
The Serpent, Lucifer, Satan…wanted to be the one who is the image and likeness of God…not that puny weak man God made like Himself. So he knew he must trick Man into denouncing being God’s image. Instead Satan successfully tempted them to make the bright shiny angel in the Garden the image and likeness they craved to be like…a glorious heavenly being!!
