You are most welcome Lissa. I look forward to seeing both of you here!!!

Hi Lissa, James and everyone else,

This is my second post.  I love the Almighty God and His Word deeply and talking about Him and His TRUTH is my greatest source of joy.  Again, I am grateful for this forum.  This post we are to discuss the amazing falsehoods that the first fallen angel who transformed himself into Satan  (which means resistor and adversary of our Creator the Almighty GOD), had the nerve to introduce to Adam and Eve. 

Let's set a basis here.  Why is it important to identify these lies?  Because they were accepted then 6000 years ago, they were carried along and sowed by most of the offspring of the first couple, they spread, were divulgated wherever humans went and settled and they persist, pervade and are promulgated throughout every continent today!

So let's zero in on the first religious falsehoods.  Let's examine Genesis chapter 3.

Verse 1: With crafty negativity and  subtleness Satan approaches the junior member of the team,  Eve, not Adam - 'Excuse me Eve, but is it really true that GOD told you not to eat of every tree of the garden?' 

Vs 2,3:  Eve replied,  'oh we can eat of any tree except the tree in the middle of the garden. If we eat of it, we will forfeit our future of living forever here in paradise on earth, and we will die!'

Vs 4,5:  Satan whereupon stated at least 3 FALSEHOODS: 

i.  'Oh, no, you are NOT going to die if you eat that fruit! YOU  CAN EAT IT AND STILL LIVE FOREVER!

ii.  'Actually you  will gain the ability to know and decide what is good and bad for yourself, without HIS rules. You will be able to make all decisions for everything and anything yourself!  You won't need to be dependent on  HIM (their loving Creator).  You won't have to follow His rules! You won't have to worship and obey HIM!  YOU CAN AND WILL BE LIKE A GOD YOURSELF!

c.  'GOD knows you can be independent of him and continue to have your wonderful life here in a paradise earth, without dying! But He wants to control you.  GOD IS KNOWINGLY WITHOLDING SOMETHING WONDERFUL FROM YOU:  INDEPENDENCE FROM HIS RULES!

Any comments on the above welcome and encouraged.

Next:  Let's examine exactly what did happen in terms of Satan's above 3 falsehoods. 

Hi Miriam, because Eve gave in to the temptation of the serpant, she changed the course of history. Had she not wandered away from Adam, do you think this would have happened? Please give your comments!!

Genesis 3

14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

 16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

 17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

10/6/2007 1:11 PM

Hi everyone, sorry I wasn’t able to get back sooner.  James, to comment as you asked, I am only speculating, but I suppose they didn't spend every single moment of the day together.  It seems that the fallen angel took advantage of a time when she was alone and vulnerable without her spiritual head Adam to guide her.

AS JAMES SAYS, LET'S STAY FOCUSED IN ORDER TO SUCCEED:

THE FOCUS OF MY THREAD WAS AND IS:  IDENTIFYING  THE RELIGIOUS FALSEHOODS THAT SATAN INTRODUCED INTO THE ORIGINAL PURE WORSHIP OF THE CREATOR AND HOW THEY ARE  INCORPORATED INTO RELIGIONS TODAY.

From Genesis 3:1-5 we identified  at least three FALSEHOODS that  Satan placed in Eve's mind and that she fell for, after which inducing here husband to join her:

1.     ‘You can eat the fruit and still live forever.  You positively will not die’.

2.     'Actually you  will gain the ability to know and decide what is good and bad for yourself, without HIS rules. You will be able to make all decisions for everything and anything yourself!  You won't need to be dependent on  HIM (their loving Creator).  You won't have to follow His rules! You won't have to worship and obey HIM!  YOU CAN AND WILL BE LIKE A GOD YOURSELF!

3.     'GOD knows you can be independent of him and continue to have your wonderful life here in a paradise earth, without dying! But He wants to control you.  GOD IS KNOWINGLY WITHOLDING SOMETHING WONDERFUL FROM YOU:  INDEPENDENCE FROM HIS RULES!

Perhaps we can first  FOCUS on FALSEHOOD #1. (We’ll discuss them one by one, carefully examining the scriptures as the Bereans who the apostle Paul preached to did -  Acts 17:10, 11)

Genesis 3:4:  “YE SHALT NOT SURELY DIE,”  or   “YOU POSITIVELY WILL NOT DIE!” 

Just what is Satan actually saying?  Would you share what you get from this? I am looking forward to comments from many of you on this!

Sincerely, Miriam  ~  www.fastincomemecca.com

Hi James, Lissa and everybody,

We've got a little sunshine and blue sky in the Seattle area today. Summer breezed by in the form of a perpetual spring and I wonder what winter will be like.

So who are willing to drill down into my thread?

As a review, my theme or focus is:IDENTIFYING  THE RELIGIOUS FALSEHOODS THAT SATAN INTRODUCED INTO THE ORIGINAL PURE WORSHIP OF THE CREATOR AND HOW THEY ARE  INCORPORATED INTO RELIGIONS TODAY.

We identified at least 3 falsehoods originated and planted by the fallen angel Satan the DEvil.

Let's  first focus on Falsehood 1: 

The Devil told them as recorded at Genesis 3:4:  "You surely will NOT die if you eat of that fruit forbidden by GOD the Creator.'

Bold, massive contradiction! Whatdo you think  he meant?

GOD their Creator had said they would  return to the dust from which they were taken. Back to total oblivion.  Pure inexistence.  Pure unconsciousness and eventually pure "dust" of the earth.  The only vestige remaining of them would be memories. 

What I want to stress is that GOD said NOTHING about an invisible part of them continuing to live.  Nothing about an invisible part of them to be tormented forever for disobeying HIM. Genesis 2:7 relates  that when they were created GOD breathed into their nostrils the breath of life, the life force, and as their lungs expanded and their circulation began, they BECAME living souls. 

At death that force of life would dissipate from  their bodies, thus returning to HIM who had initiated it.  Their punishment would be PURE AND TOTAL DEATH, and they would lose something most wonderful:  the marvellous opportunity of living as perfect humans forever on a paradise earth. (Genesis 1:28) PLEASE NOTE THAT GOD SAID NOTHING ABOUT A PART OF THEM, A SPIRIT, OR A SOUL, CONTINUING TO LIVE AND TO SUFFER TORMENT FOREVER IN A HELLFIRE.  THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO GRASP THIS FROM THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE BIBLE.

The facts are, Adam and EVe DID  die  They were denied the marvellous privilege of living forever in a paradise earth.   Because they had been created perfect, they were able to reach incredible lifespans by our standards,  Genesis 5:5 states Adam "lived 930 years, then he DIED," in the late 3000's BC.

So, reasoning on this, as the noble Bereans did in Paul's day, we can see where the idea of an immortal soul or spirit originated.  What had Satan said?  'You shall not die'.  So since Adam the living soul's body obviously died and he became a dead soul and eventually disintegrated into dust,  Satan perpetuated the falsehood that something invisible continued to live!! 

ONE GOD ESTABLISHED ONE TRUE RELIGION IN EDEN.  HE WAS THE FIRST GOD, THE ALMIGHTY GOD, THE CREATOR. Adam and Eve lived about 4000 years BC. One can only imagine the variety of opinions and beliefs that clans of families idead and adopted and passed on as humans spread on the earth.

Within 600 years, the influence of Satan the Devil and his demons along with the  imperfections inherited from Adam had again conquered the majority. Circa 2269 the Tower of Babel construction began under wicked Nimrod, a mighty hunter (not a pastoralist)  Genesis 10:9,10. It was not built for the worship of the Almighty GOD, the Creator. obviously, as HE confused their language and the people dispersed from the land of Shinar in Iraq  to various new abodes according to their language groups.  And what did they take with them? Their religious ideations, including the animism/immortal soul belief!!  So far, Satan has been  very successful in diverting fallen humans into false religion! 

Egypt was  on its way to being the first  world power named in the Bible after 1600 BC.  She espoused animism, pantheism, polytheism - a list in the tomb of Thutmos III names some 740 gods -  including degrading animal worship and of course continued belief in the falsehood of the immortal soul. (ref. their "Book of the Dead").   But during this time there were always a few, those who worshipped the Almighty God the Creator alone,  preserving the truth that their forefather Adam had abandoned... Abraham with whom GOD made a special pact, Melchizidek, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph,Moses...then the Israelites as a nation...........

Please post your comments on the above, remembering our FOCUS.

Next time let's consider the now huge organized religions that began to form in the 1500's BC and forward.  Did they carry the thread of the belief in the immortality of the soul and of eternal torment for the wicked?