I was just listening to Sinclair Ferguson talking about the temptation of Adam and Eve. He asked an interesting question:
What was Satan questioning when he asked, "did God say you couldn't eat from any tree in the garden?"
He said he had always learned Satan was questioning God's Word, which is true. However, it goes farther than that. Satan is questioning God's character. Is God really good?
Sinclair compared Satan's picture of God with a cruel father who takes his child to an incredible toy store only to laugh cynically and promise the child he will not receive any of the toys.
I think my view of God has been impacted by Satan in many small ways. I don't see God as taking me into the toy store and saying, "this is all yours, my son." I think of him as saying, "you could have had this, but you screwed up. If you would have kept my law, done your devotions etc., you would have gotten my favor. But you didn't, so you can't have anything."
We are so often guilty of the Satanic scheme of separating God's imperatives (his commands) from God's indicatives (what is true about him and us in him). In other words, we separate his law from his character. In doing this we see his law as a burden rather than a blessing.
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You must be joking. A supposedly superior entity places 2 totally naive beings with a hostile entity (supposedly the second most powerful one at that) and, despite supposedly being omniscient, has absolutely no idea what’s going to happen or even what is happening to them. The point you get from this is that the (effectively) children Deserve the punishment of unending pain and suffering. Wow. I’m very sorry for you.
Lets examine your little metaphor. Suppose a child disobeyed their parent (don't forget though, the reason they disobeyed was that a much wiser criminal adult was allowed by the parent to freely interact with the child and the child was not even warned not to trust the criminal), first off shouldn't the parent have known the child was likely to disobey and made some effort to educate them on why they should obey? Second, a (by definition) innocent act of disobedience is rewarded by showing then denying the child all the pleasure and happiness that they can never have. Yes that’s pointlessly sadistic. What’s worse is that it isn’t even the child who disobeyed, but the child’s great (etc) grand parents. Reasonless sadism.
It does seem that most xians are guilty of separating their gods character and law from the reports of his actions. Seeing someone pointlessly cause suffering and proclaiming such actions as good and loving goes beyond battered wife syndrome or Stockholm syndrome, it’s quite twisted and sad.
A few final points:
“Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Oops. Was your god lying or just wrong?
“Genesis 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:”
So after eating the fruit, humans had knowledge of good and evil equal to the gods (which gods one might wonder) and your god was afraid of what would happen if 1 man and 1 women with such knowledge were to live forever. Sounds rather pathetic really. Would even a comic book character have reason to be so afraid?
>> In other words, we separate his law from his character. In doing this we see his law as a burden rather than a blessing.
“Exodus 23:19 Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.”
I’m not sure if this law is a burden, I don’t see it being a blessing. It is hilarious however. Maybe that’s what you’re missing.
I must say I think this does summarize xian philosophy quite well: What is the Great Crime that causes your god to forever torture all humans but the small percent he “grants” forgiveness?
Gaining Knowledge.
I look forward to your response.
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