THE FALL OF MAN BY THE STUMBLING STONE
November 16, 2007
by Alex Leech
In the Garden of Eden, the greatest battle to date took place between God and Satan and happens every day inside each and every believer. It was and is a battle fought with swords. Paul in Ephesians 6:17 states that the sword is the word. There are two swords, the word of God, which is the sword of the spirit; and the word of Satan, which is the sword of carnality. Depending on which word a believer receives, he/ she either walks in the ways of the Lord as Deuteronomy 5:33 says, or stumbles at the word as stated in 1 Peter 2:8. John 1:14 declares the word as being Christ. But if there is one Christ, how are there then two words? Paul gives us this answer in 1 Corinthians 2. He states that there are two words because there are two spirits; the spirit of man and the spirit of God. One reveals the deep things of God, and one is ignorant of them.
The Bible says that Satan “beguiled” Eve. That word in the Hebrew not only means to deceive, but to lead astray, and even more powerfully, to seduce. So Satan seduced Eve in order to impregnate her with his word so that she would give birth to the word that he gave her instead of the word of God. God said don’t eat of the tree, and Satan questioned God by saying, “Did God really say that?” The outcome was the birthing of Satan’s character which is the misinterpretation and misunderstanding of God’s word. This child of misunderstanding and confusion we can call unbelief. This is plainly shown because if Eve believed God’s word, she would’ve rejected Satan’s and feared the death that God said was to come.
Satan in the garden was a serpent. This is a picture (or is symbolic) of religion, this being both the false interpretation of God’s word and the teachers of it themselves. In the book of Matthew chapter 3 verse 7, John the Baptist calls the Pharisees and Sadducees a generation of vipers. A viper is what? It is venomous snake. So in essence, he was calling them the devil. He even goes on to imply this in verse 9, and we understand that this is what he was saying because it is exactly what Jesus says in John 8:39-47 where he literally tells them that they are the sons of the devil and don’t know God the Father. Why don’t the Pharisees know God and why do they do the works of the devil? Verses thirty-seven, forty, forty-three through forty-five, and forty-seven plainly explain that they don’t have the word of truth in them. So from these verses one can plainly see that this battle between God and Satan is a battle of words; a battle between the word of truth and the word of deception and misunderstanding which creates misinterpretation that in turn causes death, both natural and spiritual.
Multiple places in the New Testament the apostles speak of the truth and obeying the truth. But what is this truth? What are these deep things of God? They are the symbolisms and parables that Jesus taught, the mysteries of the kingdom (Matt. 13:11, Mark 4:11 and Luke 8:10). The Bible says that without a parable Jesus did not speak (Matt. 13:34 and Mark 4:34). So if Jesus only spoke in parables for the majority of his ministry, and He is the Word, then it is crucial to our salvation to understand the words that He said.
When Jesus says that the seed is the word, He’s saying that the word of God is supposed to be planted into our minds, take root, and bring forth a fruitful harvest when a mature tree is produced. But Jesus was not only saying this, he was saying something much deeper. There are many words for “seed” in the Greek language, which is what the New Testament is written in. In verse twenty-four of Matthew 13, the word for “seed” in the Greek is the word “sperma”, which means sperm. So in this instance, Jesus is saying that the sperm of God is the word. This is why the apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 1 verse twenty-three that we are born again by the incorruptible seed which is the word of God. This is also why Jesus in reply to Nicodemus’ question to salvation says flesh is birthed of flesh and spirit is birthed from spirit. God wants to impregnate our minds so that we can give birth to his nature which is holiness, righteousness and perfection.
Most religious leaders today are just like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, oblivious to the fact that they are interpreting God’s word incorrectly, therefore leading masses of starving souls to Hell. God is calling out to His people, crying out as Jesus did with a passion for them to get “eyes to see and ears to hear”. This cry is echoed all throughout scripture. Jesus in Matthew chapter 13 verse thirteen, Mark chapter 4 verse twelve, and Luke chapter 8 verse ten says that he speaks in parables because seeing, his people don’t see, and hearing his people don’t hear. This same thing was also said by the prophets during their times. (Deuteronomy 29:4, Isaiah 6:10, Jeremiah 5:21 and Ezekiel 12:2). All throughout history God says that His people have been foolish and without understanding. All he wants is a people that will seek Him with all of their soul, heart, mind and strength. He wants a people that will seek the truth which is His secret things (Deut. 29:29) and not compromise for any other gospel than the revelation of Himself and His son. Solomon said “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings to search out a matter” (Prov. 25:2). That word “matter” in the Hebrew is “word”. God wants us to search out his word, and by doing so, we receive honor from him.
The testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10), and God said that he desires all of his children to be prophets (Numbers 11:29). So we must all press in to what God is saying in his prophetic scripture and give birth to the character by which we receive power and authority. The Bible says in Matthew 7 verses twenty-eight and twenty-nine that the doctrine of Jesus is what gives authority; this being authority over our lives, (mainly the sin in them) and others’ lives (those that need cleansing). Peter says that God’s grace comes at the end of the revelation of Jesus, (1 Peter 1:13) so the way we come into God’s grace is to understand who he is through the unveiling of His word. What God wants His people to do is understand the truth of His word and not partake of the carnal word that causes confusion and enmity against him (Rom. 8:7). We all must cast Satan out of our gardens and eat from the tree of life on a daily basis, this is the only way we will ever be able to truly please Almighty God and save ourselves from our own understanding. We must take on His understanding and character.