Today, as part of our Tuesday/Thursday devotional series, we are going to start a new series on Great Questions in the Bible. I hope you enjoy them

Genesis 3:1

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

 In this passage, we see several firsts. This is the first question asked in The Bible. It is the first thing said by Satan in The Bible. Finally, it is the first attempt we see by Satan to undermine and cast doubt upon the truthfulness of God’s Word. In the thousands of years since this event occurred, nothing has changed. Casting doubt is still the primary tool The Devil uses to cast doubt upon the truthfulness of Christianity in general.

The reasons for this seem easily evident and obvious. Orthodox historical Christianity considers The Bible, to be inspired, inerrant, and the all sufficient rule for faith and life. The Word itself tells us this is true.

Psalm 119:160 160 Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

2 Timothy 3:16, 17  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:  That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

We don’t believe the Bible simply to be an unconnected collections of random, perhaps true stories from the history of God’s chosen people in the Old Testament and the Christians of the New Testament. We believe The Bible is a cohesive tapestry of a story from the first Word in Genesis until the last word in Revelation. What is the story? Well, it is the story of Redemption of course. It is the story of the Creation, Fall, and Redemption of man, from the beginning of history, until history is no more. God’s Word is the story of Jesus Christ. Because it is one story from beginning to end, the easiest way to make the story unravel is to pick apart the individual vignettes one at a time. No creation? Well then we evolved into our evil, sinful states. No fall? Well, then no need for redemption. No death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus? Well, then nothing else in The Book matters even a little bit.

Attacking the truthfulness and accuracy of Scripture has been, and will always be, the primary tool used by Satan to undermine true Christian faith. He still does that today, using non believers and even those who profess belief(just not belief in God’s Word) to carry out his attacks.

Let’s look at Satan’s tactics with Eve quickly. Now, we don’t know exactly how Eve got God’s Word concerning what she could and could not do in the Garden of Eden. She may have gotten it directly, or she may have gotten in from Adam. But she clearly got it, because she recited it back to Satan correctly. We see this in the following:

Genesis 3:2-3 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it,…………………

We will cover in a bit what Eve did by adding TO that Word, but she evidently knew what God had initially said.

Now, back to Satan. What was his tactic as he planted doubt in Eve’s mind about the truth of God’s Word?

First, He questioned if God, in fact, said what He said in the first place. Hath God Said?

Did God really say that?

How do you KNOW that is the inspired Word of God anyway?

Next, he clearly tried to make it seem as if following God’s Word was some awful burden to bear, rather than simply exactly what was said. Adam and Eve could eat any of the multitude of things in the Garden of Eden; only one tree was off limits. Satan emphasized the restriction rather than the bounty, saying: Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

See? That big, mean God won’t let you eat EVERYTHING!

God just wants to take your fun away!

Note here that Eve fell right into that particular trap, and seemed quite willing to jump on the bandwagon of God as bad guy. God simply said not to eat of that tree. That’s it. No more, and no less. But, following The Devil’s lead, Eve quickly added to God’s Word, saying not only could she not eat it, but neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

Here the practitioner of license says: Do anything you want, your sin is forgiven!

Here, the legalist says: Here is my list of rules you have to follow to get/stay saved

Finally Satan, after warming Eve up some, crossed over the line to an outright accusation that The Word was simply false. God said, don’t eat of that tree, lest ye die. Satan said, ye shall not surely die.

God lied

Adam made it all up when he told you that

It’s a forgery!

Science disproves it!

Jesus was  Jew, and NEVER taught that!

So and so..and so and so….made that up!

You’re a moron!

And so it goes.

Has anything really changed?