What beginning is referred to in John 8:44, which states that Satan was a liar from the beginning? Lucifer was perfect from the time he was created until the day iniquity was found in him (Ezekiel 28:15). His defection commenced here on earth, in the physical Garden of Eden, and is associated with the dawn or “beginning” of human civilization.

The failure of Lucifer to exercise continued and steadfast trust in the inherent goodness of God, as well as his failure to maintain a proper respect for the dignity of the office of the Supreme Deity, paved the way for his downfall. These failures, together with the development and the harboring of personal pride and ambition in his thoughts, were the soil or culture of his heart, in which the seeds of sin germinated and lodged.

Piecing together the clues in the Genesis narrative reveals that the Adversary felt confident in his distorted assessment of what appeared to be the true nature of God’s motives and dealings with the first human pair. Until events proved otherwise, Satan felt justified in his appraisal of the situation, and he was oblivious to the rebellion in his own heart and to the abhorrence of his own defection. The record is clear that Satan desired to be Adam’s Lord and God. It did not take much imagination on Lucifer’s part to see that the creation of physical beings on this planet was but the prelude to a vast program of populating all the other physical universes with creatures similar in nature to Adam.

Nor did the Adversary, up to this point in time, possess a sense of dread of impending judgment for his actions. None of God’s intelligent creation had heretofore died in the spirit realm. It would therefore be easy to assume falsely that death to those created in God’s image was an impossibility. Until this time no occasion had arisen to invoke divine indignation, for God’s will was, is now, and ever will be done in heaven. The exception is the earth; it is here that God did not prohibit or interfere with the introduction of sin-which He foresaw-to stain, pollute, and to temporarily mar His physical work. The divine intention is that all should see, as an object lesson, the exceeding sinfulness of sin and be alerted to the danger of the allurements of evil, so that those who are rightly exercised will profit thereby.

Satan’s strategy in Eden was to beguile Eve in order to get through to Adam. The Adversary used the serpent as his medium by taking possession of that creature so that he could better incite or provoke the woman to transgress the Lord’s commandment and thus prove his estimate that God was a liar.

First, the serpent (or Satan) put God’s commandment to Adam in a very unfavorable light by introducing an improper emphasis into the original declaration. God had put the emphasis upon the generosity of His terms: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil [merely], thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof [dying] thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:16, 17)

Satan’s slant was a negative approach: “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1)

The Devil thus planted a seed of doubt, impugning God’s motives by injecting suspicion into Eve’s mind in the form of a question to engender distrust. Note Eve’s reply: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden [she omits ‘every tree’]: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” (Genesis 3:2, 3)

It can be seen that both Eve and Satan misunderstood the situation. The prohibition of the tree of knowledge was simply a test of obedience on mans part. If, on the one hand, the penalty of death for disobedience was severe, the test, when seen in its proper light under normal circumstances, was, on the other hand, a very simple and reasonable one to obey. God did not say, “If ye touch it, ye shall die”; but He said, “ If ye eat of it, ye shall die.”

The woman thought God had implied that this particular species of tree was exceedingly poisonous and that mere contact with it would be lethal. Anyone possessing a suspicious nature will sometimes misunderstand the most explicit of statements. This trait also applies to the Adversary, in spite of all the intelligence he may possess. A careful reading of Genesis 2:9 plainly indicates that every tree of the garden, including the tree of knowledge, was good for food-the tree of knowledge was simply prohibited. At first, both the Devil and the woman thought God had implied that the tree was poisonous; and since they both saw the serpent partake of it, they concluded that the Creator had deliberately misrepresented the matter. It is written that God had made the serpent “more subtil” (Genesis 3:1); therefore, the cunning this creature possessed did not result from partaking of the forbidden fruit as a “brain food,” but was a part of its very implanted nature.

The Adversary’s reply to the woman revealed Satan’s own mistrust of Deity. Note the boldness and effrontery of Lucifer’s flat contradiction of the Creator’s original declaration of the death penalty. The Devil declared, “Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). The inclusion of the word “surely” is tinged with sarcasm and even contempt. “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil ‘ “ (Genesis 3:5)

It is true that the Lord Himself designated this particular species of tree “the tree of knowledge of good and evil,” but the Lord did not mean, as the Adversary thought, that eating its fruit would enable man to possess the intelligence of angels in acquiring a superhuman ability to discern that which is wise and that which is unwise, or to foresee in greater measure the results of certain actions or events for good or evil in due process of time. Rather, God’s designation of the title “the tree of knowledge” indicated His foreknowledge that:

1. Man would sin by partaking of the forbidden fruit.
2. Man, by partaking thereof, would experience shame, nakedness, and related guilt complexes, as well as harrowing experiences ending in death. All such experiences would be in marked contrast to his former blissful state before the entrance of sin.
3. This tree would forever be a symbol of the exceeding sinfulness of sin and its dire consequences.

By believing the tree was a brain food, Satan thought God was trying to curtail the liberty of both Adam and Eve lest they become too independent of divine control. The Adversary regarded the threat of death and extinction as a mere bluff on God’s part to prevent them from getting too far out of line. Satan therefore patronizingly posed as man’s true benefactor, hoping to win to himself the friendship and loyalty of the parents of a new and potentially illimitable race of physical beings. Thus reasoning, he would be the “Lord God” over a vast physical domain, similar to Jehovah’s supreme rule over the vast spiritual realm.

Therefore, the woman seeing that the tree was “desired to make one wise” feeling to some degree that God had withheld this reward from her and her husband for some selfish reason, and realizing that the food was not poisonous as she mistakenly thought she had been led to believe – considered her doubts about God justified and ate the fruit. The scriptural narrative indicates that Eve had Adam accompany her to the tree. “She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her [i.e., by her side]; and he [no doubt shocked by her betrayal and act of disobedience to the divine command] did eat [the forbidden fruit]. (Genesis 3:6)

Adam was not deceived with the hope of obtaining an illegal reward as was Eve. In a sudden, impulsive suicidal pact, he partook of the fruit to share with her the penalty of death (1 Timothy 2:14; 2 Cor. 11:3). And the Lord God, who had taken the man and put him into the garden to dress and keep it, now banished him without.

Improper Translation: “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.” (Genesis 3:22)

It is difficult to see – yea, almost incomprehensible to understand-how man, through an act of disobedience, could become more godlike, resembling God or the Logos or the angels of heaven. What would have happened had man not sinned? Would he whom the Creator had looked upon and declared to be “very good” have been less godlike by abstinence from sin? Certainly not! Adam and Eve were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) before they ate the forbidden fruit.

Corrected Translation: “And the Lord God said, Behold the man become as one of us [previously made in our image and likeness] to know good and evil [how he has fallen!].”

– Frank Shalliu “The Revelation of Jesus Christ”

 

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