Edited for accuracy on Sunday, May 15, 2011, and again on Sunday, August 14, 2011.
I just recently checked out a friend's favourite website called community.feministing.com. At first, the website I found it quite friendly and unoffensive. Under their comments policy it reads,
"We view Feministing as a platform for not only discussion among feminists and allies, but for reaching (rational, not hateful) people who may not agree with every word we write. However, we require that discussion in comments should be respectful and be directed toward the ideas and argument, not the person. All comments with hate speech, personal attacks, or offensive language will be deleted. If we have to delete a total of three comments by any one commenter, that person will be banned."
But I found a link just to the right of it with the title "Friday Feminist F*** You" which was under the Editor Favourites. An organization that professes to promote such a good cause for women comes off quite offensive and hateful to anyone who doesn't believe the same. I agree that society is quite sexist towards women, especially advertisements. This is what the world has become. But when the feminists say "F-You" to the offender, what does that help? What kind of message are they teaching others? I'm sure not all feminists act like this or agree with the way they act. But why would you want to be a part of such a group that promotes such callous behaviour governed by emotional flare-ups? I understand these women and men have tender emotions and I respect the sentimental issues. But an idea influenced by or proceeding from effusive feelings or emotions is neither logical nor rational. We must address the issues with a sound mind.
Evil
God certainly has the option of doing away with all evil immediately---but choosing this option would have definite and fatal implications for each of us. As Paul Little has pointed out, "If God were to stamp out evil today, he would do a complete job. His action would have to include our lies and personal impurities, our lack of love, and our failure to do good. Suppose God were to decree that at midnight tonight all evil would be removed from the universe---who of us would still be here after midnight?
Even though God's ultimate solution to the problem of evil awaits the future, as I have argued, God has even now taken steps to ensure that evil doesn't run utterly amok. Indeed, God has given us human government to withstand lawlessness. God founded the church to be a light in the midst of the darkness, to strengthen God's people, and even to help restrain the growth of wickedness in the world through the power of the Holy Spirit. In his Word God has given us a moral standard to guide us an keep us on the right path. He has given us the family unit to bring stability to society. And much more!
The fact that humans used God-given free choice to disobey God did not take God by surprise. C.S. Lewis suggests that God in his omniscience "saw that from a world of free creatures, even though they fell, he could work out . . . a deeper happiness and a fuller splendour than any world of automata would admit." As a theist, I don't have to claim that our present world is the best of all possible worlds, but it is the best way to the best possible world.
Philosopher Dr. Norman Geisler, an award-winning author, puts it so well:
"If God is to both preserve freedom and defeat evil, then this is the best way to do it. Freedom is preserved in that each person makes his own free choice to determine his destiny. Evil is overcome in that, once those who reject God are separated from the others, the decisions of all are made permanent. Those who choose God will be confirmed in it, and sin will cease. Those who reject God are in eternal quarantine and cannot upset the perfect word that has come about. The ultimate goal of a perfect world with free creatures will have been achieved, but the way to get there requires that those who abuse their freedom be cast out."
Feminism & Homosexuality
The Consequences of Feminism by Dr. Voddie Baucham
Now to answer your concern of the "biblical feminism." Those who are familiar with Scripture should recognize that God views women in high esteem.
Woman was not taken out of Adams head to rule over him; neither was she taken out of his feet to be trodden over by him—Eve was taken out of Adams side to be under his arm where she would be close to his heart and could be loved, cared for, and protected by him.
Then verse 8 states,
Women are so precious. Jesus loved the church the same way men should love women. This is the symbolism Jesus used to identify the relationship between and man and a woman and why we need each other. If a man does not love himself, he will not treat a women with respect that she deserves. And a man cannot be whole without a holy woman.
I hope I have made this clear that a woman is in no way separate from a man, but equal parts to a man. This is also why they should be together. Not a man to a man, or a woman to a woman. This is why God created Eve from a part of Adam and not separate.
It's a Decision, You're Not Born a Homosexual!
Darwin's Roots
The Bible has much more to say about women and their value, but many people forgot this when Darwin came along and popularized the heresy of evolution. Charles Darwin first published his book, The Decent of Man, in 1871. In it he wrote, The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by mans attaining to a higher eminence in whatever he takes up, than can women—whether requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses and hands...the average of mental power in man must be above that of woman. Feminism has been in a large way a response to the prevalent evolutionary mindset. However, some of feminism is based on communism which is evolutionary in its presuppositions. Much of the rest of feminism is, oddly enough (because it is in response to evolutionary thought), based on evolutionary thought. It is just that the women who take to this position are trying to out-evolve the men.
Women have been, and in many cases, are mistreated. The answer, however, is not the feminist movement. The answer is for people to read their Bibles soberly and humbly (not taking the Scripture out of context--errors and contradictions are made when you go into the Bible with a presupposition to find problems in it).
One day in the future, Christ will return, strip away power from the wicked, and hold all men and women accountable for the things they did during their time on earth. Justice will ultimately prevail. Those who enter eternity without having trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation will understand just how effectively God has dealt with the problem of evil. Evil is not yet defeated.
Creation
God has the option of creating Eve as an entirely new creature. But He chose to create her from Adam's rib to make them the same flesh. Adam and Eve were meant to be for each other. Eve was to submit to Adam as Adam submits to God. And Eve chose, from her free will, to submit to the serpent. God decreed that Adam and Eve were to rule over all the animals together. But Eve broke that rule listening to Satan's trick. And as Eve took from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, as too because Adam loved her, he submitted to her sinful choice and too fell into Satan's trap. They acquired knowledge without trusting God. God had provided them all they needed yet they thought they could do it themselves. We are rebellious from the beginning, falling to our fleshly desires.
God blessed them. He didn't say he blessed the animals. The animals were cursed to be reigned under mankind. After Adam and Eve had broken his rules and were cast out of Eden they were cursed more than the animals.
Adam needed someone to whom he could compare. None of the animals were sufficient.
They were not ashamed. They didn't feel disgraced to be with each other. God had created them for each other. They didn't feel disapproved from God. For they had no knowledge of sin.
They only felt ashamed when they had broken God's rule of not eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life and the tree of knowledge were in the garden of Eden. Some would ask, "Why would God put the trees there in the first place if he knew that Adam would eat from it?" If there was no cause to sin, what example could there be to show us good from evil? God is good. But man isn't. God knew it from our beginning so he showed us right from wrong. What better example than to throw us out of Eden. Because Eve, and consequently Adam, disobeyed God’s word we are still suffering the consequences. Adam and Eve had first tried to make their own clothes—covering themselves with leaves. But this was not adequate. God killed an animal (this was the first animal death), shedding its blood, to atone for their sin. With the skin of the animal, He made clothes for Adam and Eve—a continual reminder of their disobedience.
Naturally we seek God and want to understand His will. Adam and Eve ate the fruit and learned the hard way. As we do the same in life making mistakes and dishonouring God trying to please ourselves and learning from good and evil by ourselves. We choose to live morally by our own standards instead of allowing God to show us. We fall just like Adam and Eve to the temptations in life and the deceiving lies Satan leaves in our path.
On further notice, Eve fell unto the sin of temptation. The serpent deceived her and said, “You will not surely die, but acquire knowledge of good and evil.” He tricked her by saying this that she shouldn't fear God. She was righteous for speaking of God's Word. But because she loved God, and wanted to be like him, knowing good and evil. She only saw the fruit to be good for food when another voice made it pleasant to her eyes. As being a loving partner to Adam she also gave to him the fruit, and he ate.
Genesis 3 records for us that the serpent tempted Eve and that she took the fruit of the tree. 1 Timothy 2 reminds us that Eve was deceived. However, Eve doesn't get the blame for sin because it was Adam who was the head of the human race, and it was Adam who was given the specific instruction by God not to eat.
It was only until the fruit was pleasant to the eyes that made the fruit desirable. God asked Adam if he ate from the tree of knowledge because they were ashamed to be naked in front of Him. Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. But it was Adam's fault. He didn't want to admit it. Adam and Eve didn't know good from evil before they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge.
The Fall Into Sin
The Bible makes a very conscious distinction between man and animals. In the previous chapter it explained that Adam gave names to the animals. (Clearly the animals could not do that themselves!) A speaking serpent is incongruous against the background of the Creation account. Speaking animals would seem to belong to paganism which has no concept of creation. Yet it is only later that we learn that the serpent was an instrument of another power. In Genesis 3 all that is not immediately relevant is omitted. All we are told is that the character of the animal made it a particularly well-adapted instrument for the power that used it, and we learn that it was created by God a beast of the field. That is very important for there was an order of authority in the creation. That order was: man ruling over beast; man ruling over the creation.
Satan planned to interrupt that order—to take the lowliest of the beasts and make that beast rule over man. He wanted man to listen and to follow the lowliest of the beasts rather than for man to obey and follow God. He approached the woman first to induce her to lead her husband astray, and thus further disrupt the natural authority of man over woman.
The Bible does not make the sharp distinction between abstract theoretical knowledge and practical experience that we tend to make. To know good and evil means to know both something about it, and to know it in practical experience. The name of the tree is appropriate to its function for if man rejects the temptation then he shall know good and evil in the actual experience of having chosen good and rejected evil. The contrast between the two will be clear to him. If on the other hand, he rejects the good and chooses the evil, then in bitter experience he shall know good and evil.
It may seem strange that God placed such temptation before man, but it is not wrong of God to provide an opportunity for man to demonstrate his obedience and thus receive greater blessing. God later tested Abraham to offer his son Isaac, and gave him greater blessing as reward for his obedience. However, Satan’s motive was very different. It was not wrong for man to listen to the temptation—nor was it sin to be tempted. Sin was the yielding to temptation.
Satan’s strategy was to create doubt in the mind of the woman as to God’s generosity. The woman should have rejected the speaking serpent as incongruous with the created order. Perhaps Satan’s question seemed innocent enough in itself, but it placed the emphasis on the negative. Instead of stressing the generosity of God in giving so many fruits to man, it raised the question as to why God should not allow them every fruit.
Satan tempts them to be like God in that they shall be their own authority. He tempts them to reject God as the highest authority and to place their authority above God’s. And so arising from doubts as to God’s goodness and generosity; from disbelief in God’s word which said sin would bring death; from a desire to displace God as the highest authority and obey their own fancies rather than God—sin came. The woman ate and gave to the man who also ate.
The sequel was hardly what Satan had led them to expect. Instead of the glory of being gods, there was the shame of nakedness. Martin Luther penetrated with great insight into what happened. He said that sin is a reversal of the created order. It changed things; it turned things upside down. Man’s greatest glory became his greatest shame. Whereas before there had been a perfect unity between the man and the woman; the wall of shame came down. Fear and isolation intruded in their relationship with each other—and in their relationship with God. They had doubted the goodness and the veracity of God. Now instead of loving Him, they could only fear Him.
God proceeds to question them—‘Adam, where are you?’ (Genesis 3:9). He asks this, not because He does not know what has happened, but as we often do with children, to bring forth a consciousness and admission of guilt. But Adam has not yet reached that stage and tries to shift the blame. Adam said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” Basically he is saying, “It’s the woman’s fault. It is the fault of the woman that you gave to me. It’s your fault for giving her to me.” Here is a clear evidence that the unity between the man and the woman has been broken. The man stands apart from the woman and tries to throw blame on to her. In turn, the woman throws the blame onto the serpent. The sorry and familiar cycle has begun. Blame-shifting and recrimination have entered human life.
Then come God’s curses. These curses afflict man and woman in the centre of their lives. Adam’s task was to have been king of this creation - to rule over the ground—but the ground will no longer accept his rule. It revolts against him. It brings forth thorns and thistles until man finally loses the unequal battle. He returns to the dust of the grave and the dust then rules over man. Instead of joy, man’s work shall be hard, wearisome toil. It shall be in his work that man will find his greatest frustrations. The king has fallen and his kingdom is in a state of anarchy and revolt.
That is true for us today as it was for the first man and woman then. We have merely succeeded in diminishing the physical toil involved in our labour, at the cost of multiplying the mental and emotional agony.
References: Who Made God? by Ravi Zacharias and Norman Geisler, http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v4/i3/fall.asp, http://community.feministing.com, Holy Bible, New Living Translation
I just recently checked out a friend's favourite website called community.feministing.com. At first, the website I found it quite friendly and unoffensive. Under their comments policy it reads,
"We view Feministing as a platform for not only discussion among feminists and allies, but for reaching (rational, not hateful) people who may not agree with every word we write. However, we require that discussion in comments should be respectful and be directed toward the ideas and argument, not the person. All comments with hate speech, personal attacks, or offensive language will be deleted. If we have to delete a total of three comments by any one commenter, that person will be banned."
But I found a link just to the right of it with the title "Friday Feminist F*** You" which was under the Editor Favourites. An organization that professes to promote such a good cause for women comes off quite offensive and hateful to anyone who doesn't believe the same. I agree that society is quite sexist towards women, especially advertisements. This is what the world has become. But when the feminists say "F-You" to the offender, what does that help? What kind of message are they teaching others? I'm sure not all feminists act like this or agree with the way they act. But why would you want to be a part of such a group that promotes such callous behaviour governed by emotional flare-ups? I understand these women and men have tender emotions and I respect the sentimental issues. But an idea influenced by or proceeding from effusive feelings or emotions is neither logical nor rational. We must address the issues with a sound mind.
The Response
Evil
God certainly has the option of doing away with all evil immediately---but choosing this option would have definite and fatal implications for each of us. As Paul Little has pointed out, "If God were to stamp out evil today, he would do a complete job. His action would have to include our lies and personal impurities, our lack of love, and our failure to do good. Suppose God were to decree that at midnight tonight all evil would be removed from the universe---who of us would still be here after midnight?
Even though God's ultimate solution to the problem of evil awaits the future, as I have argued, God has even now taken steps to ensure that evil doesn't run utterly amok. Indeed, God has given us human government to withstand lawlessness. God founded the church to be a light in the midst of the darkness, to strengthen God's people, and even to help restrain the growth of wickedness in the world through the power of the Holy Spirit. In his Word God has given us a moral standard to guide us an keep us on the right path. He has given us the family unit to bring stability to society. And much more!
The fact that humans used God-given free choice to disobey God did not take God by surprise. C.S. Lewis suggests that God in his omniscience "saw that from a world of free creatures, even though they fell, he could work out . . . a deeper happiness and a fuller splendour than any world of automata would admit." As a theist, I don't have to claim that our present world is the best of all possible worlds, but it is the best way to the best possible world.
Philosopher Dr. Norman Geisler, an award-winning author, puts it so well:
"If God is to both preserve freedom and defeat evil, then this is the best way to do it. Freedom is preserved in that each person makes his own free choice to determine his destiny. Evil is overcome in that, once those who reject God are separated from the others, the decisions of all are made permanent. Those who choose God will be confirmed in it, and sin will cease. Those who reject God are in eternal quarantine and cannot upset the perfect word that has come about. The ultimate goal of a perfect world with free creatures will have been achieved, but the way to get there requires that those who abuse their freedom be cast out."
Feminism & Homosexuality
The Consequences of Feminism by Dr. Voddie Baucham
Now to answer your concern of the "biblical feminism." Those who are familiar with Scripture should recognize that God views women in high esteem.
First, Genesis 2:21-22 says,
"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man."
Woman was not taken out of Adams head to rule over him; neither was she taken out of his feet to be trodden over by him—Eve was taken out of Adams side to be under his arm where she would be close to his heart and could be loved, cared for, and protected by him.
1 Peter 3:1-2,
"1 In the same way, you wives must accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if some refuse to obey the Good News, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over 2 by observing your pure and reverent lives."
1 Peter 3:7,Notice here that God tells men to give honour to women as they would a possession that was very precious to them. Women are not being called weaker here. The term does not mean that women are of lesser value or quality; the term means that they are to be something very precious to a man.
"In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in Gods gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered."
Then verse 8 states,
"Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters."
The same in Ephesians 5:21-33,
21 "And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. 25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of Gods word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body.
31 As the Scriptures say, A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."
Women are so precious. Jesus loved the church the same way men should love women. This is the symbolism Jesus used to identify the relationship between and man and a woman and why we need each other. If a man does not love himself, he will not treat a women with respect that she deserves. And a man cannot be whole without a holy woman.
I hope I have made this clear that a woman is in no way separate from a man, but equal parts to a man. This is also why they should be together. Not a man to a man, or a woman to a woman. This is why God created Eve from a part of Adam and not separate.
It's a Decision, You're Not Born a Homosexual!
Romans 1:18-3218 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Or who, by their wickedness, prevent the truth from being known.19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
Romans 2:1-4
God’s Judgment of Sin2 You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. 2 And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. 3 Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? 4 Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?
Darwin's Roots
The Bible has much more to say about women and their value, but many people forgot this when Darwin came along and popularized the heresy of evolution. Charles Darwin first published his book, The Decent of Man, in 1871. In it he wrote, The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by mans attaining to a higher eminence in whatever he takes up, than can women—whether requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses and hands...the average of mental power in man must be above that of woman. Feminism has been in a large way a response to the prevalent evolutionary mindset. However, some of feminism is based on communism which is evolutionary in its presuppositions. Much of the rest of feminism is, oddly enough (because it is in response to evolutionary thought), based on evolutionary thought. It is just that the women who take to this position are trying to out-evolve the men.
Women have been, and in many cases, are mistreated. The answer, however, is not the feminist movement. The answer is for people to read their Bibles soberly and humbly (not taking the Scripture out of context--errors and contradictions are made when you go into the Bible with a presupposition to find problems in it).
One day in the future, Christ will return, strip away power from the wicked, and hold all men and women accountable for the things they did during their time on earth. Justice will ultimately prevail. Those who enter eternity without having trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation will understand just how effectively God has dealt with the problem of evil. Evil is not yet defeated.
Creation
God has the option of creating Eve as an entirely new creature. But He chose to create her from Adam's rib to make them the same flesh. Adam and Eve were meant to be for each other. Eve was to submit to Adam as Adam submits to God. And Eve chose, from her free will, to submit to the serpent. God decreed that Adam and Eve were to rule over all the animals together. But Eve broke that rule listening to Satan's trick. And as Eve took from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, as too because Adam loved her, he submitted to her sinful choice and too fell into Satan's trap. They acquired knowledge without trusting God. God had provided them all they needed yet they thought they could do it themselves. We are rebellious from the beginning, falling to our fleshly desires.
Genesis 1
27 So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
God blessed them. He didn't say he blessed the animals. The animals were cursed to be reigned under mankind. After Adam and Eve had broken his rules and were cast out of Eden they were cursed more than the animals.
Genesis 2
15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
Adam needed someone to whom he could compare. None of the animals were sufficient.
21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, band He brought her to the man.
23 And Adam said:
“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman(Eve),
Because she was taken out of Man.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
They were not ashamed. They didn't feel disgraced to be with each other. God had created them for each other. They didn't feel disapproved from God. For they had no knowledge of sin.
Genesis 3
The Temptation and Fall of Man
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
They only felt ashamed when they had broken God's rule of not eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life and the tree of knowledge were in the garden of Eden. Some would ask, "Why would God put the trees there in the first place if he knew that Adam would eat from it?" If there was no cause to sin, what example could there be to show us good from evil? God is good. But man isn't. God knew it from our beginning so he showed us right from wrong. What better example than to throw us out of Eden. Because Eve, and consequently Adam, disobeyed God’s word we are still suffering the consequences. Adam and Eve had first tried to make their own clothes—covering themselves with leaves. But this was not adequate. God killed an animal (this was the first animal death), shedding its blood, to atone for their sin. With the skin of the animal, He made clothes for Adam and Eve—a continual reminder of their disobedience.
Naturally we seek God and want to understand His will. Adam and Eve ate the fruit and learned the hard way. As we do the same in life making mistakes and dishonouring God trying to please ourselves and learning from good and evil by ourselves. We choose to live morally by our own standards instead of allowing God to show us. We fall just like Adam and Eve to the temptations in life and the deceiving lies Satan leaves in our path.
On further notice, Eve fell unto the sin of temptation. The serpent deceived her and said, “You will not surely die, but acquire knowledge of good and evil.” He tricked her by saying this that she shouldn't fear God. She was righteous for speaking of God's Word. But because she loved God, and wanted to be like him, knowing good and evil. She only saw the fruit to be good for food when another voice made it pleasant to her eyes. As being a loving partner to Adam she also gave to him the fruit, and he ate.
Genesis 3 records for us that the serpent tempted Eve and that she took the fruit of the tree. 1 Timothy 2 reminds us that Eve was deceived. However, Eve doesn't get the blame for sin because it was Adam who was the head of the human race, and it was Adam who was given the specific instruction by God not to eat.
It was only until the fruit was pleasant to the eyes that made the fruit desirable. God asked Adam if he ate from the tree of knowledge because they were ashamed to be naked in front of Him. Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. But it was Adam's fault. He didn't want to admit it. Adam and Eve didn't know good from evil before they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge.
The Fall Into Sin
The Bible makes a very conscious distinction between man and animals. In the previous chapter it explained that Adam gave names to the animals. (Clearly the animals could not do that themselves!) A speaking serpent is incongruous against the background of the Creation account. Speaking animals would seem to belong to paganism which has no concept of creation. Yet it is only later that we learn that the serpent was an instrument of another power. In Genesis 3 all that is not immediately relevant is omitted. All we are told is that the character of the animal made it a particularly well-adapted instrument for the power that used it, and we learn that it was created by God a beast of the field. That is very important for there was an order of authority in the creation. That order was: man ruling over beast; man ruling over the creation.
Satan planned to interrupt that order—to take the lowliest of the beasts and make that beast rule over man. He wanted man to listen and to follow the lowliest of the beasts rather than for man to obey and follow God. He approached the woman first to induce her to lead her husband astray, and thus further disrupt the natural authority of man over woman.
The Bible does not make the sharp distinction between abstract theoretical knowledge and practical experience that we tend to make. To know good and evil means to know both something about it, and to know it in practical experience. The name of the tree is appropriate to its function for if man rejects the temptation then he shall know good and evil in the actual experience of having chosen good and rejected evil. The contrast between the two will be clear to him. If on the other hand, he rejects the good and chooses the evil, then in bitter experience he shall know good and evil.
It may seem strange that God placed such temptation before man, but it is not wrong of God to provide an opportunity for man to demonstrate his obedience and thus receive greater blessing. God later tested Abraham to offer his son Isaac, and gave him greater blessing as reward for his obedience. However, Satan’s motive was very different. It was not wrong for man to listen to the temptation—nor was it sin to be tempted. Sin was the yielding to temptation.
Satan’s strategy was to create doubt in the mind of the woman as to God’s generosity. The woman should have rejected the speaking serpent as incongruous with the created order. Perhaps Satan’s question seemed innocent enough in itself, but it placed the emphasis on the negative. Instead of stressing the generosity of God in giving so many fruits to man, it raised the question as to why God should not allow them every fruit.
Satan tempts them to be like God in that they shall be their own authority. He tempts them to reject God as the highest authority and to place their authority above God’s. And so arising from doubts as to God’s goodness and generosity; from disbelief in God’s word which said sin would bring death; from a desire to displace God as the highest authority and obey their own fancies rather than God—sin came. The woman ate and gave to the man who also ate.
The sequel was hardly what Satan had led them to expect. Instead of the glory of being gods, there was the shame of nakedness. Martin Luther penetrated with great insight into what happened. He said that sin is a reversal of the created order. It changed things; it turned things upside down. Man’s greatest glory became his greatest shame. Whereas before there had been a perfect unity between the man and the woman; the wall of shame came down. Fear and isolation intruded in their relationship with each other—and in their relationship with God. They had doubted the goodness and the veracity of God. Now instead of loving Him, they could only fear Him.
God proceeds to question them—‘Adam, where are you?’ (Genesis 3:9). He asks this, not because He does not know what has happened, but as we often do with children, to bring forth a consciousness and admission of guilt. But Adam has not yet reached that stage and tries to shift the blame. Adam said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” Basically he is saying, “It’s the woman’s fault. It is the fault of the woman that you gave to me. It’s your fault for giving her to me.” Here is a clear evidence that the unity between the man and the woman has been broken. The man stands apart from the woman and tries to throw blame on to her. In turn, the woman throws the blame onto the serpent. The sorry and familiar cycle has begun. Blame-shifting and recrimination have entered human life.
Then come God’s curses. These curses afflict man and woman in the centre of their lives. Adam’s task was to have been king of this creation - to rule over the ground—but the ground will no longer accept his rule. It revolts against him. It brings forth thorns and thistles until man finally loses the unequal battle. He returns to the dust of the grave and the dust then rules over man. Instead of joy, man’s work shall be hard, wearisome toil. It shall be in his work that man will find his greatest frustrations. The king has fallen and his kingdom is in a state of anarchy and revolt.
That is true for us today as it was for the first man and woman then. We have merely succeeded in diminishing the physical toil involved in our labour, at the cost of multiplying the mental and emotional agony.
References: Who Made God? by Ravi Zacharias and Norman Geisler, http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v4/i3/fall.asp, http://community.feministing.com, Holy Bible, New Living Translation
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