Eph 1061ff 5/25/89

DOCTRINE OF MARRIAGE (Part 2)

K. Principles of the First Marriage, Gen 2:18ff.

1. God’s motivation for creating the woman is found in Gen 2:18, “Then Jehovah Elohim said, `It is not good for the man to be alone; I will build [construct] a helper corresponding to him [of the same species].” Therefore, in grace, Jesus Christ manufactured a right woman and brought her to the man.

2. Gen 2:20-23, “So Adam gave names to all the domesticated animals, and to the birds of the heavens, and to all the wild animals of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper corresponding to him. Therefore, Jehovah Elohim [Jesus Christ] caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, and he kept on sleeping; then He took one of his ribs, and closed up the place with flesh. And Jehovah Elohim built [BANAH] the woman out from the rib which He had taken from man, and caused her to be brought to the man. Then Adam said, `She is now bone out from my bones, and flesh out from my flesh; she shall be classified Woman, because she was taken out from Man.”

a. The fact that Adam named all the animals means that language was not gradually developed, but existed in perfect form and grammar from the beginning of man’s life on the earth. Man was created with a complete vocabulary and language. Man began on the earth with perfect intellect and perfect expression of that intellect in language.

b. During this time, man had the free will to select a mate from the animal kingdom, but he rejected them all in the role since man is not an animal. Mankind is superior to the animal kingdom.

c. The Hebrew word EZER expresses the first tradition regarding marriage and the role of the woman in life. It means a helper. “A helper corresponding to him” means a helper of the same species - mankind. Adam needs a human wife.

d. Note the order of relationship. First, Adam had a relationship with God, then he had a relationship with the woman. The first relationship in all of history was marriage.

e. In the first sleep God operated on man and took something from man in order to create the first woman. The man’s body was created from the dust, but the woman’s body was built or formed from Adam’s rib. In this way, the man’s body is incomplete apart from his right woman.

f. God caused the woman to be brought to the man. This is the principle of right woman for the right man. First you develop a relationship with God; and then under the faith-rest drill as a problem- solving device you wait for God to bring the right woman to you. The right man waited for God to provide the right woman. And God did provide. When Jesus Christ brought her to Adam, He was performing the first marriage in history.

g. The act of bringing the woman to the man indicates divine delegation of authority to the husband over the wife.

h. The principle of fulfillment.

(1) The woman is the completion or fulfillment of the man as illustrated by how she came into the world from the hand of God. With the exception of celibacy, no man is complete without his right woman.

(2) While the man fulfills the woman, the woman completes the man. This is the concept of marriage as divine institution number two.

i. Precedence is extremely important in absolute truth, Bible doctrine, and especially when it comes from God.

j. The first marriage can be classified as the ideal marriage.

(1) In the attraction phase, there was complete fulfillment and completion in the physical relationship.

(2) In the compatibility phase, there was the fulfillment and completion of the soul relationship.

(3) In the rapport phase, there was fulfillment and completion of the spiritual relationship.

k. There were three grace gifts from our Lord. The right woman is the oldest gift in all of history.

(1) The right woman - He built her.

(2) Salvation - He did it.

(3) Doctrine - He thought it.

l. Adam did not construct the woman; he was helpless to find such a wonderful blessing. The precedence has not changed: man is still helpless to find the right woman. Therefore, God, in His matchless grace, must do the work. This requires waiting on the Lord. This requires the man to possess spiritual self-esteem. Waiting on the Lord means that premarital sex is like salvation by works.

m. Principles.

(1) Man is as helpless to find his right woman as he is to save himself. Therefore, the maximum function of the faith-rest drill is required.

(2) Marriage was established in the garden of Eden during the first dispensation.

(3) Marriage became a divine institution when Adam and the woman were married by God.

(4) Marriage was originally designed for two perfect people. Marriage has only changed in that there is no longer such as thing as a perfect person. Marriage is now designed for two imperfect people with old sin natures having different trends. We do not make friends or select a wife based on compatibility of old sin natures; for compatibility of old sin natures means friends today and a falling out tomorrow.

(5) Marriage was not designed, even in the beginning, for happiness, but for virtue; and virtue is designed for happiness. The idea that marriage brings happiness is a myth.

(6) Happiness in marriage comes from virtue, and virtue comes from understanding and using the problem-solving devices of the protocol plan of God. This means that the greatest attack on the divine institution of marriage comes from Christian degeneracy.

(7) Negative volition toward Bible doctrine destroys the right man-right woman relationship in marriage, Jer 15:8-9, 15-21; 12:7-9; 16:1-2; 17:9-11.

(8) Just as Jesus Christ is the Shepherd or Guardian of the believer’s soul, so the husband is the shepherd and guardian of the wife’s soul. 1 Pet 2:25 cf 1 Pet 3:1.

(a) Woman are out of line who complain about their husbands and want their husbands to change, or who try to improve the relationship by getting the husband to initiate communication with them. The woman should initiate communication and entertain the man.

(b) Marriage is an initiation of two people. The woman is to win over the man by her behavior, not by communication. You don’t work everything out by talking it out. For example, your past sins should never be mentioned.

3. The true meaning of sex in marriage. (See also the Doctrine of Sex.)

a. Sex was designed by God to be an expression of love in marriage. Gen 2:24, “For this cause [because the woman was taken out from the man in creation] a man shall leave his father and his mother, and he shall have sex with his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

(1) The phrase “a man shall leave his father and his mother” is given before parents existed. It does not mean isolation from parents. It does mean that marriage as a divine institution has a principle of privacy that causes all other human relationships to become secondary.

(a) There are two private and intimate relationships in life: family and parents; and husband and wife. God ordained the human race to be trained and prepared for life by parents.

(b) God ordained that marriage would be a special relationship, a system of privacy, a castle in which there would isolation from all normal functions and activities in life. This castle has invisible walls which isolate a man and woman in marriage and make their relationship special and unique. Sex is the invisible walls of the castle.

(2) The Hebrew word DABAQ means to be glued together, to grow together into one body, to blend, to be intimately united, to have sex. It refers to the sexual relationship. This means God is the inventor of sex. Therefore, sex has certain rules and boundary lines.

(3) The divine rule of sex in marriage was ordained by God in the perfection stage of the first marriage. Sex began when man was perfect. Sex is not the cause of the fall of man. It preexisted the fall of man.

(4) There are three stages to the first marriage from which we derive a great deal of precedence.

(a) The stage of perfection. Sex was involved as recreation only.

(b) The stage of spiritual death. Sex was involved in recreation and procreation, and was distorted into adultery, fornication and other factors.

(i) In the spiritual death stage, sex did not lose the purpose of being the invisible walls of the castle of marriage that shuts out the rest of the human race. Sex is designed to establish an invisible intimacy between a man and a woman in a culture.

(ii) Sex is the principle of intimacy in marriage. Sex can be an expression of love, but it is never so stated in the Bible.

(iii) Sex provides the walls of the castle that isolate two people in marriage.

(iv) Sex is the monopoly of marriage.

(5) There are two categories of sex.

(a) Sex in the garden was legitimate sex; and it is always related to marriage. In marriage, sexual activity is a legitimate expression of personal love.

(b) Illegitimate sex, which can be premarital or postmarital. It is always related to Christian immoral degeneracy. This destroys the invisible castle walls of marriage. God has ordained that marriage be constructed out of privacy and intimacy between one man and one woman. And that privacy and intimacy is far different from any other privacy or intimacy in life.

(i) Mental and overt fornication destroys the walls of privacy before marriage.

(ii) Mental and overt adultery destroys the walls of privacy after marriage.

(6) There are two precedences from the first marriage.

(a) The foundation for marriage is Jesus Christ, who performed the first marriage in history. The foundation for marriage today is the thinking of Christ, or Bible doctrine, 1 Cor 2:16.

(b) The invisible walls which isolate the marriage with intimacy and privacy are the sexual relationship between the man and woman.

(7) The blessing of intimacy is the sexual relationship between a husband and a wife. Sex is the castle walls that give two people the privacy and intimacy they will never have otherwise in any other relationship. Physically neither the male or female is complete without the other. God ordained sex for the completion of two bodies, by designing them to become one.

(8) In marriage you establish your own intimacy and privacy as an adult; the same privacy by which your parents propagated you.

(9) Sex demands virtue, tenderness, love, understanding, thoughtfulness, and tolerance. Just as personal love is virtue-dependent, so marital sex is virtue-dependent for its effectiveness. Sex demands wisdom, knowledge, communication, self-control on the part of the man; submissiveness, abandonment, joyful response on the part of the wife. When the wife is not satisfied, there is inevitable frustration. When sex becomes a source of frustration, the resultant unhappiness, incompatibility, and reaction produces a great array of problems in marriage. One or both partners may seek compensation for their frustrations in numerous categories of sin and loss of virtue.

(10) Monogamy was ordained by God to remind mankind that there is only one right man and one right woman. This goes down to the fact that God creates life for every human being. And God keeps track of all genetics and all other factors, and there is a right woman for a man, and a right man for each woman.

(11) God invented sex for privacy and intimacy, not for love. True love never starts with the body, but with the soul. Sex between a husband and wife is an expression of the unity of a man and woman in marriage. It is the quintessence of privacy between two persons. In sex, you build a house around the person you love called privacy. “One flesh” is a description of the walls of marriage. Sex is to complete the other person in marriage. No one else should step inside those walls. This is dramatized by the two leaving their mothers and fathers.

(12) God ordained sex for the completion of two bodies by designing them to become one flesh. This is accomplished in sex.

b. The principle of 1 Cor 7:2-4, “But because of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband fulfill his duty to the wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.”

(1) In sex, each has authority over one another; each can initiate in sex. A woman having authority over another woman’s body is lesbianism.

(a) In sex, authority is canceled out because sex is intimacy and privacy equally between one man and one woman in marriage.

(b) The woman can be the initiator as much as a man. Each has something missing. The fact that the man is in authority does not mean that he initiates everything. Both are initiators.

© Both have the right to function in a way that they think the marriage will be effective. Both have something the other needs. Both can initiate and respond. However, unrealistic expectation combines with the old sin nature to destroy this principle.

(2) The Adam’s rib principle is that neither male or female is complete without the other being joined in sex. Where there is virtue, sex is the expression of love. Where there is no virtue, sex is still the fulfillment of the marriage.

(3) Marriage is built on the foundation of Bible doctrine, the thinking of Christ. The solution to marital problems is principle - the application of Bible doctrine to experience. The secret to success between a man and woman in marriage is what they think.

(4) The self-directed versus the other directed marriage.

(a) You do not solve your marital problems by changing your mate, but by changing yourself - the self-directed marriage. This is the application of doctrine to your marriage.

(b) In other-directed marriages each spouse holds the other responsible for a happy and entertaining marriage. Other-directed marriages blames the other person.

(d) In a self-directed marriage, one spouse does not try to change the other spouse to suit his or her image of the ideal mate.

(e) In a self-directed marriage, each spouse seeks to change self through postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation, the application of doctrine to experience, the execution of the protocol plan of God through the utilization of your very own portfolio of invisible assets.

(5) Just as Bible doctrine is the foundation for Christian marriage, so sex is the superstructure, the invisible castle walls.

(6) Marriage preceded family. Therefore, marriage has to be isolated from parents. There is a sense in which marriage is an isolation from society under the concept of privacy, intimacy, love, affection, virtue, and happiness. Marriage problems are not solved by having a family. On the other hand, being a good mother or father does not mean destroying a marriage. Marriage is resolved on its own merits.

(7) Sex portrays the beauty of interdependence in marriage, just as the believer is totally dependent upon God and God’s grace. Sex is not personal or impersonal love, but sex is an expression of love in marriage where personal love is inside the integrity envelop of impersonal love. The three stages in premarital romance have an application in marriage.

(a) In the attraction stage, sex emphasizes completion, the union of two bodies made into one flesh.

(b) In the compatibility stage, thinking emphasizes the coalescence of the souls.

(8) If either the man or woman are full of mental attitude sins, they cannot physically or mentally give from the ultimate source of themselves. Therefore, they contribute to destroying the walls of the castle. Hatred and self-justification result in the I-me syndrome, which means the walls of the castle of marriage have been destroyed.

(9) Sex illustrates the fact that both spouses have an area of responsibility and an area of authority in their relationship to each other. That responsibility includes bringing virtue into marriage.

(10) Principles.

(a) Sex is not a problem-solving device in marriage.

(b) Sex is the ultimate in human intimacy, the invisible walls of the marriage.

(d) Sex is designed for marriage only, and fulfills two principles: recreation and propagation.

(e) Just as self-determination, property, and life are expressions of freedom in the nation or culture, so sex is the expression of freedom in marriage.

(f) Sex is an expression of marital relationship, not a problem-solving device for marriage. Sex is the point of equality in marriage.

(11) Marriage is a state of independence from all previous relationships, like mother and father. You should grow up before you get married. Sex was designed by God as an expression of unity. Marriage is a castle that shuts out the outside world without making you asocial or anti- social. The foundation of the castle is Bible doctrine.

(12) There are three rules of marriage given in the garden.

(a) Do not sin, Gen 2:17.

(b) The perpetuation of the human race, Gen 1:28.

(13) The Corinthians, as Greeks, did not connect sex with marriage but with their religion. They were promiscuous; hence, many believers had serious problems with sex.

(14) While there are many problems and real adjustments to be made in marriage, the real problem is not money, sex, housekeeping, etc., but a mental attitude of personal love inside the integrity envelop of impersonal love. You cannot build a marriage on sex; it must be built on virtue-love.

(15) The idea that a husband should have his own wife and a wife her own husband was absolutely foreign to the Greek concept of sex. Greeks related sex only to the function of their religion—the Phallic cult—to the gratification of sex and pleasure, and the propagation of the Greek race.

(16) For the married couple sex is occasional in the time scale of life, but depends on moment by moment compatibility and rapport rather than libido. The woman is a responder in marriage. Consequently, the man cannot subject her to abuse and mistreatment and expect her to respond to his advances when he is ready to make love.

(17) Even the best sex is still part of the attraction stage of marriage. While it may facilitate moving into compatibility, sexual compatibility is not the compatibility stage in marriage. Sex is only an expression of love in marriage where virtue exists.

(18) There are certain areas where sex is not fulfilled as God intended it to be in problem marriages.

(a) If sex is lust and gratification on the part of the man, then there is no thoughtfulness, no expression of love, no tenderness, no appreciation of equality, no understanding of the purpose for which God invented sex.

(b) The irresponsible husband gratifies himself, then leaves the woman.

© The problem of tyranny and the demand syndrome on the part of the man destroys any possibility of fulfilling the divine purpose of sex in marriage. Sex is a learning process; it is not instant success.

(d) The problem of martyrdom is created on the part of the woman who, never having been satisfied, submits only because she is expected to.

(e) When sex is nothing but pain, frustration and bitterness for the woman, she learns to despise sex and begins to look elsewhere.

(f) However, the woman cannot be fulfilled in sex if she has unrealistic expectation.

4. The perfection stage of marriage.

a. This stage existed in the garden of Eden and carried specific rules which applied only to the garden stage.

(1) The mandate to avoid the sin of disobedience, Gen 2:17.

(2) The mandate to have sex in the garden, Gen 2:24.

b. Certain rules were not pertinent until after the fall.

(1) The perpetuation of the human race, Gen 1:28.

(2) Separation from parents in marriage, Gen 2:24.

c. The woman did not ovulate in the garden. And no parents existed until after the fall.

d. Parents were mentioned before they existed because the husband is the authority in marriage. After the fall that authority was confirmed in Gen 3:16; Eph 5:22. But God protects the woman from tyranny by the man’s learning respect for womanhood from his mother during his childhood.

5. The spiritual death stage of marriage.

a. The original sins were committed in the status of a perfect marriage and perfect environment. Even a perfect marriage did not protect the first couple from committing sins.

b. In the fall, Adam was the authority over his wife. But they reversed their masculine and feminine roles in the original sin. The woman sinned by taking the fruit from the tree. The man did not even go to the tree; the woman brought the forbidden fruit to him, and Adam responded to the woman.

c. The issue was the woman’s temptation of Adam versus God’s warning.

d. Adam failed in the leadership role in marriage, but his authority was perpetuated by precedent from the garden.

e. Before the fall, sex was pleasure and recreation. After the fall, sex was given a new dimension - perpetuation of the human race.

f. The fall was not only the failure of their marriage but the origin of the sin nature, which constantly attacks marriage.

g. The fall indicated that their marriage was not strong enough for them to obey God’s will. People get so wrapped up in success or failure of marriage that they forget all about God. When you leave God out, it is impossible to succeed in marriage. Failure to understand the principles of the Word of God is leaving God out of marriage. For the believer not to succeed is a contradiction of the protocol plan of God for the Church.

h. After the fall the spiritual factor in marriage was missing. Hence, they relied on human ingenuity to solve their marital problems and put on fig leaves. They tried to be respectable and right with each other, rather than right with God. What proved them wrong? They hid from Jesus Christ when He came to them.

6. The regeneration stage of marriage.

a. This is the stage of marriage that has the best grace provision. When people believe in Christ, their previous sins are wiped out.

b. Adam and the woman believed in Jesus Christ. One of the results was that Adam changed the name of his wife from ISHAH to CHAWAH. CHAWAH means to breath or to live, a reference to new life or regeneration. Gen 3:20-21, “Now the man called his wife’s name Eve [CHAWAH], because she was the mother of all living. And Jehovah Elohim made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.”

(1) Eve became the mother of the human race. This is when ovulation began. She was created with the womb, but ovulation was dormant until after the fall.

(2) The skins came from the sacrificing of animals, which meant the shedding of blood. The coats of skins represent the imputed righteousness of God which covers the nakedness of our spiritual death. This indicates their salvation through faith in Christ.

c. Many people think they are perfect in marriage; but even if they were, perfection is not the solution to problems in marriage. This delusion is destructive to marriage.

7. There are three classifications of marriage today.

a. The marriage of two unbelievers, in which the laws of divine establishment apply.

(1) It is possible for marriage between two unbelievers to be successful. But so much depends on virtue which is extrapolated from the laws of divine establishment. That such marriages do exist is verified by Eccl 9:9: “Enjoy life with your right woman whom you have loved all the days of your life of emptiness [no salvation], which life of vanity has been given to you under the sun. For this is your portion in life [having a right woman] and in your work in which you are working under the sun.”

(2) There are two sources of blessing for the unbeliever.

(a) Making the right marriage.

(b) Having the right job.

(3) Note that happiness is extrapolated from places where responsibility is involved.

b. The marriage of one unbeliever and one believer, in which 1 Cor 7:13-15 applies.

c. The marriage of two believers, in which Eph 5:22-33 applies. This marriage has a better chance of success, if the spiritual factor is added through the execution of the protocol plan of God and use of the problem-solving devices.

8. Since the fall, all marriages unite not only the bodies, but the old sin natures as well. Old sin natures change their trend. This is why compatibility of old sin natures is not the basis for compatibility in marriage.

9. Unrealistic expectation combines with the old sin nature to create the I-me syndrome.

a. Because of the arrogance of the I-me syndrome, communication has been accepted as a substitute for individual spiritual growth and the utilization of the three divine laws for a successful Christian marriage.

b. Communication and the expression of emotions are considered essential to the development of intimacy and success in marriage. This is a myth. Communication is just as much a system for sowing the seeds of discontent and disenchantment as the resolving of marital problems.

c. In reality, the problem-solving devices of the protocol plan can never be replaced by the so-called “talk it out” communication approach to marriage.

d. Unrealistic expectations create tension and frustration. Then the couple make matters worse by attempting to negotiate their needs. Husbands expect their wives to be slaves, while wives expect their husbands to entertain them.

e. The I-me syndrome prevents marriages from advancing beyond the attraction stage.

f. The man is so designed in his body that if he is in an arrogant state, he cannot complete the concept of marriage. He cannot give physically or mentally from the ultimate source of himself while in a state of arrogance. And if the wife is full of unrealistic expectation and the arrogance of self-fragmentation, she cannot give either physically or mentally of herself. Therefore, she becomes bitter, frustrated, miserable, full of hatred and self-justification, which leads to the I-me syndrome.

g. Christian husbands and wives must bring into the marriage a mental and spiritual rapport. And God has given them the edge through sex. Each lacks something in the body the other has authority over. You fulfill your duty to your partner by advancing from attraction through compatibility to rapport.

h. Too many couples are more interested in self-centered thinking, such as, “What can I get out of marriage?” rather than the doctrinal viewpoint, “What can I bring to this marriage?” Each partner must bring something more than sex into the marriage. They must bring virtue and positive volition toward doctrine, so that there will be doctrinal conceptualism in their souls.

i. Marriage is a problem-manufacturing device, not a system of happiness. Marriage was designed for virtue, and virtue is designed for happiness. The happiness in marriage comes from the virtue in marriage, not from the marriage itself, and not from sex.

10. The first marriage in history set the following precedents:

a. The unity of one man and one woman in marriage.

b. Separation from your family to establish your own marriage.

c. The sexual relationship as an expression of a monopoly that belongs to a husband and a wife.

(1) Sex is the invisible wall between you and your parents.

(2) Sex creates an invisible home, a fantastic intimacy and system of privacy. Sex demands that even among husband and wife there must be privacy.

(3) In the function of sex in marriage there are two authorities. The wife has authority over the husband’s body, and the husband has authority over the wife’s body. When two authorities coalesce in sex, there is equal authority, which is no authority. This means sex does not recognize, during that period, the authority of the husband over the wife or the submission of the wife to the husband. Where there is no authority there must be the highest form of virtue.

(4) In sex, virtue makes demands on the husband: thoughtfulness, tenderness, patience, self-control. Therefore, in sex, the husband is not exercising his authority, he is exercising his virtue.

(5) The husband must realize that sex in marriage is not the demand syndrome; he does not use his authority in marriage to force his wife into something she does not understand or resents. Sex is not putting your lust or desire into a slot machine. Self-gratification is an arrogant intrusion upon the purpose and meaning of sex.

(6) On the part of the wife there must be the combination of abandonment on the one hand and initiation on the other hand.

(7) Sex does not attack the authority of the husband, but strengthens it where the husband possesses virtue. The sex act in itself does not emphasize authority, but the fulfillment, unity, intimacy, privacy of marriage.

(8) God invented sex for recreation and procreation. In recreation, the sex act gives the husband a vacation from his function in authority and the wife a vacation from her subordination function in marriage. Authority is set aside in the sex act. Where authority is not set aside, there is not intimacy. Where is authority is set aside, there is the ultimate in intimacy. With this intimacy is created respect for the privacy of the other person. Sex is the unity in marriage.

(9) In marriage neither male or female body is complete without the other. Therefore, sex portrays more than any other relationship in life the interdependence of marriage. Interdependence means mutually dependent on each other. Interdependence rejects nagging from the wife and bullying from the husband, the demand syndrome, unrealistic expectation, self-righteous arrogance, self-justification, role-model arrogance, and the feet-of-clay syndrome.

(10) Sex portrays the beauty of interdependence in marriage just as Bible doctrine indicates the believer’s dependence on God and God’s grace.

(11) Each spouse must bring into the marriage something more than sex. God, in His marvelous sense of humor, invented sex so that each spouse would lack something whereby the other spouse would have control over his or her body.

(12) Sex in marriage is God’s invention: God’s grace design so that for a short time the structure and authority of marriage can take a brief holiday for recreation and refreshment.

(13) Sex can be for better or for worse in marriage. Better or constantly improving sex depends upon the husband and the wife and their advance to compatibility and the rapport stages.

(14) Sex was designed for husband and wife to complete each other; and in so doing, an invisible wall is established around that husband and wife, and unity is established behind that wall. This unity means privacy, intimacy, a personal virtue, in which husband and wife together execute the three divine mandates of marriage. This unity is dramatized by leaving father and mother. You go from family privacy and unity to marital privacy and unity.

(15) Sex was not designed for the gutter, but for the castle.

11. Why the first marriage failed.

a. They were perfect people in perfect environment with no relatives, no children, no sin nature, no financial or sexual problems; Jesus Christ Himself had performed the wedding ceremony; yet the marriage failed. Gen 3:1-5.

b. Gen 3:1, “Now the serpent was smarter than any creature of the field which Jehovah Elohim [Jesus Christ] had made. And he said to the woman, `Is it really true that Elohim has said, `You shall not eat from every tree of the garden’?’”

(1) The Hebrew word for serpent, NACHASH, means to hiss, to whisper, to be bright. The serpent appeared bright and beautiful to the eyes. The serpent’s voice sounded like a hiss to the ears when it spoke. Adam had named the serpent for its beauty.

(2) The serpent was apparently the woman’s pet; hence, was the perfect creature for Satan to indwell in order to tempt the woman. Demon possession occurs in animals as well as mankind, as illustrated by the demons who indwelt the swine in Mt 8:28-32.

(3) In 2 Cor 11:3 we discover that Satan’s weapon was a mental attack. “But I am afraid, lest as the serpent who deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of occupation with Christ.”

(4) Apparently, the serpent was hostile to Adam for some reason. Perhaps the hostility was inspired by Satan, or the serpent was antiauthority. In any case, the serpent became the agent of Satan for which Satan gained the title of serpent in Rev 12:9. Further details of Satan’s possession are not revealed.

(5) The serpent itself is not speaking, but Satan is speaking through demon possession. The serpent as an animal could not speak in the human language of the garden. Satan’s first and most brilliant weapon has always been conversation. And Satan is far smarter than any creature who has ever existed.

(6) By entering into conversation with the woman, Satan rejects divine authority and the divine order. It was Adam who had the authority over the woman and all animals. If Adam, who had the authority, had fallen first, his fall would have removed the issue of volition as far as the woman is concerned, because the woman would have simply obeyed her husband. The woman would follow him in the fall because she is under the authority of the man. So the genius of Satan picks the right target.

(7) Gen 2:17, “From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it. For the day you eat from it, dying you will die.”

(a) “Dying” is the qal infinitive absolute from the verb MUTH, a reference to spiritual death. This is what the woman will omit. She did not believe the wages of sin was actually spiritual death, but physical death. “You shall die” is the qal imperfect of MUTH. The second MUTH is a reference to physical death.

(b) The wages of sin is spiritual death. Because we have an old sin nature we eventually die physically. So the woman will only discuss physical death, and Satan will encourage her in that (Gen 3:3- 5). She is the source of the first heresy - that the wages of sin is physical death. That is a denial of the salvation work of our Lord on the cross. The wages of sin is spiritual death, not physical death.

(8) Satan undermined the authority of Adam by attacking the woman. Satan had to attack both the divine institution of marriage and the prohibition in the garden. He understood the principle of authority and bypassed it to attack the woman through conversation.

(a) 1 Cor 11:3, “But I intend to have you understand that the head [authority] of every man is Christ, and the man is the head of the woman,...”

(b) 1 Cor 11:8-9, “For man does not originate from the woman, but the woman originates from the man; as a matter of fact man was not created for the sake of the woman, but the woman was created for the sake of the man.”

© 1 Cor 11:11, “In any case, neither is the woman anything apart from the man, nor the man anything apart from the woman, because of the Lord.” “Because of the Lord” refers to the fact that Jesus Christ established the precedent for marriage at creation.

(d) Satan must do something about this situation God has created. So he attacks marriage, authority, and the perfect environment of the garden.

(i) Satan always uses agents to attack authority. He used the serpent to establish dialogue with the woman; then he used the woman to undermine and destroy the authority of the man; finally he used Adam’s original sin in an attempt to overthrow God. However, Satan’s victory falls short of his unrealistic expectation. This coup d’etat gave Satan the temporary rulership of the world, which he will have until the Second Advent, but no victory over God. (ii) Jesus Christ, as the last Adam, will defeat Satan in two advents. In the First Advent, Jesus Christ defeated Satan through His salvation work on the cross (1 Jn 3:8). In the Second Advent Jesus Christ defeats Satan by taking over the rulership of the world and imprisoning Satan for 1000 years (Rev 20:2).

(iii) The woman was the weakest point in the marriage because she had no authority. Therefore, Satan attacked the first marriage at its weakest point through dialogue with the woman. Satan’s weapon was his own genius. Violence or intimidation would have alarmed Adam and the woman and driven them into the protective custody of the Lord. But Satan used dialogue to lure the woman away from two categories of authority: the human authority of Adam as her husband, and the divine authority of Jesus Christ as her God.

(e) In entering into conversation with Satan, the woman was socially unfaithful, which was the first step toward total unfaithfulness. Satan often attacks through the people we love most. Perhaps she was bored with perfect sex and a perfect marriage. If a woman does not have some interests in life, she will be bored with the best or worst marriage. Women often become more interested in a stranger than in their husbands. The stranger stimulates and fascinates her.

(f) Satan is a supergenius, and can outthink any human being. Human beings are dependent upon God to resist the superior thinking of Satan. God has provided the thinking of Christ to resist the evil thoughts of Satan.

(9) Satan used the interrogative particle of surprise APH, which is correctly translated “Is it really true?” The particle indicates he was going to tell her something very important. She had lived in harmonious thinking up to this point in her life, but now she was facing the reality of antagonism toward her life and her lifestyle with her husband and the Lord Jesus Christ. This was a word she had never heard before, and women are always intrigued with something different.

(10) Throughout this dialogue Satan uses the word ELOHIM, the title for transcendence, but not the word JEHOVAH ELOHIM, the title for relationship. Satan used the name ELOHIM for God when he said “God has said.” The woman only knows God as JEHOVAH ELOHIM, not as ELOHIM. But Satan uses only ELOHIM, which indicates that Satan recognizes the Supreme Being, but he ignores the Savior, the person of Christ. He makes God an impersonal God. To reject God’s statement, “dying, you will die,” you must first reject the source. Therefore, this is an innuendo of insult to Jesus Christ. Personal God must be changed into just a divine name to exaggerate the prohibition in hopes of exciting the woman’s mind to distrust God, therefore, to distrust His word (Gen 2:17).

(11) The question, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden” implies that since God has forbidden one tree of the garden, this somehow makes Him unfair. Satan maligns logistical grace, for God has provided everything man needs for body, soul, and spirit. For his soul, Adam was provided the woman, and for his spirit, Adam was provided Bible doctrine.

(12) One tree is forbidden by God to test the volition of man. This test is the extension of the prehistoric angelic conflict into human history. Satan distorts this volitional test by the insinuation that God is somehow unkind. And if God is unkind, then He must be unfair to prohibit even one tree.

(13) This subtle turn of the conversation prepares the way for a change of mental attitude in the woman. There was no unrealistic expectation in her life up to this point. Satan is using dialogue to change the woman’s mental attitude from appreciation of God’s grace to resentment of God’s one prohibition, to resent God’s authority. If a woman in marriage gets her mind set on one petty thing, under unrealistic expectation she will balloon that thing up until it will destroy the marriage. A woman’s mindset can take an insignificant factor and enlarge it into a disaster.

(14) This is the first women’s liberation movement in history. When women get “liberated,” they become miserable and frustrated. None of us were ever designed to be out from under some system of authority.

(15) The woman begins to resent the authority of God. Therefore, there will be resentment of God’s delegated authority to the man in the divine institution of marriage.

(a) God did two things in the garden to protect the woman and give her great happiness: He gave her doctrine; He gave her marriage. God performed the marriage before the Fall to protect the man and woman from the Fall. Marriage was designed to protect two people, not one person. Privacy protects one person. Marriage was designed as a protection, not a problem-solving device. It was not a problem-solving device in the garden because there were no problems in the garden. In fact, when the problem was introduced, the marriage collapsed.

(b) Resentment and rejection of authority is the beginning of arrogance; for Satan’s fall follows exactly the same pattern. The mental attitude of resentment of authority will ripen into open rebellion. The woman’s insubordination will place her in the Satanic trap of arrogance. Soon she will begin to think of herself in terms of being equal or even superior to God. When people start thinking equality, they are really thinking superiority, especially when they have been suppressed. This is exactly the same thinking that Satan had prior to his fall.

c. Gen 3:2, “Then the woman replied to the serpent, `From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;’”

(1) She points out God’s grace without realizing its implications. God has logistically supported the man and woman in the garden.

(2) The woman was under double authority: under the authority of Jesus Christ who created her, gave her doctrine, and gave her the perfect man; and under the authority of her husband designed by God to be her own right man.

(3) The woman’s dialogue with Satan is dissatisfaction with the perfect environment provided by God’s grace. The very fact that the serpent began to address her in her language should have been a warning signal. She should have called for Adam at once. It was time for authority to handle the situation; she did not have the authority to cope. We must all recognize our own limitations. Perhaps boredom and resentment of authority made her easy prey and vulnerable to the superior genius of Satan.

(4) The woman was no fool. She was a genius by creation. But she may have been a malcontent woman. A rebellious woman has a predilection for what is false. Therefore, she will distort truth, i.e., doctrine and principle, or she will gossip and slander.

(5) The woman’s distortion of the situation indicates her lack of positive volition toward both our Lord’s authority and His doctrinal messages.

d. Gen 3:3, “But from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, ELOHIM has said, `You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’”

(1) The woman falls into the trap by following Satan’s lead in the dialogue. Satan used ELOHIM; she also uses ELOHIM instead of JEHOVAH ELOHIM. This indicates that the woman has already accepted the authority of Satan, a stranger, while rejecting the authority of both JEHOVAH ELOHIM, her God, and Adam, her husband. A bored and malcontent woman finds it easier to be nice to a stranger than to those who truly love her.

(2) The woman not only used the unfamiliar ELOHIM, but she added the phrase “you shall not touch it” to the Word of God. God said “dying, you shall die” when you eat from it. Now she adds “you shall not touch it.”

(a) her misquote means that she has misinterpreted the prohibition of Gen 2:17. She thought death lay in the property of the tree, that the tree was somehow poisonous. But the venom was in the serpent (Satan), and death was the result of negative volition.

(b) She was dissatisfied with the divine prohibition.

© She misinterpreted the prohibition because she had a preconceived concept that eating would cause physical death; she did not understand that the issue was in the soul and therefore death here was spiritual.

(d) Interpolation is insertion, alteration, or corruption of foreign matter into the text. Her interpolation reveals how misinterpretation as well as rejection of God’s authority and God’s Word spawns false doctrine.

(e) In Gen 2:17 God spoke in terms of two deaths: spiritual and physical. However, the woman quotes only one death. Which death? By adding the phrase “you shall not touch it,” the woman assumes that death resides in the tree; that if you touch it or taste it, it will cause physical death. So she emphasizes physical death.

(f) She was wrong. There was no death in the tree itself. The deaths resided not in the tree, but in the act of disobedience. Because she emphasized the physical rather than the spiritual consequence of sin she had to interpolate God’s Word and make it agree with her preconceived ideas.

(g) Spiritual death always precedes physical death: “dying [spiritual death], you shall die [physical death].”

(h) The woman failed in dialogue because she added to the Word of God “you shall not touch it,” and she subtracted from the Word of God one of the verbs (the qal infinitive from MUTH). This is one reason why women have never had the spiritual gift of communication.

(3) The woman has a new mental attitude of human viewpoint. This false interpretation of the wages of sin still exists today. The wages of sin is not physical death, but spiritual death. Physical death is a result of having spiritual death. The order is always the same.

(a) In original sin the wages of sin was first spiritual death, then physical death.

(b) At the cross, the wages of sin was first spiritual death (where Jesus Christ bore our sins), and then physical death.

e. Gen 3:4, “Then the serpent said to the woman, `No! Dying, you will not die!’”

(1) This verse deals with the first theological heresy and the first cause of problems in marriage. The first heresy in history was that the wages of sin is physical death. Satan did not make this mistake.

(2) Satan quoted Gen 2:17 accurately, but he added the negative adverb LO, meaning “not.” He is more accurate than the woman because he is saying “no” to the whole concept, i.e., that there is no wages for sin. The woman only denied spiritual death. Satan categorically and absolutely denied the truth of the doctrine that the wages of sin is spiritual death. This makes is possible for the woman to choose her authority in teaching: God or Satan. Satan is the father of lies, Jn 8:44.

f. Gen 3:5, “For ELOHIM knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.”

(1) Satan consistently fails to recognize that there can be a relationship between God and man. He does so by the use of the word ELOHIM rather than the name of relationship JEHOVAH ELOHIM. By using ELOHIM he seeks to divorce the woman’s thinking from any personal relationship with God. This will also divorce the woman’s thinking from any personal relationship with her husband.

(2) “For God knows” indicates that Satan is trying to tell the woman what God knows and what he is afraid of. The qal active participle of the word JADA indicates that this is not all that Satan said. Satan attacks the justice and omniscience of God, implying that God is unfair. Satan not only denies the connection between sin and its penalty, but he denies the relationship between God’s omniscience and God’s integrity.

(3) “Your eyes will be opened” is plural, referring to both the husband and wife.

(a) Satan is now telling the woman that she knows what is best for her husband; God and Adam do not know. Satan will help the woman reject authority in life.

(b) This also indicates that Satan is implying that she is the only hope; she must save the marriage. He is saying that Adam needs her help in having his eyes opened; so not only must she eat from the tree, but make sure that Adam gets some fruit to eat also.

(d) Satan implies that it would be a blessing for both of them to get their eyes opened. He implies that God is holding back some blessing from them. This gives the woman a crusade - to save her marriage from boredom.

(4) “You will become like God” is the arrogant motivation of Satan at the time of his fall, Isa 14:14, “I will make myself like the Most High God.”

(a) Satan implies that the woman is as good as God; she simply doesn’t know it. He implies that they will know what God knows and better.

(b) Satan plants the seed of dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction in a marriage destroys marriages.

(i) Dissatisfaction is the reactor factor of the second stage of reversionism. Hence, dissatisfaction plays an important role in destroying marriages. The third stage of Christian degeneracy destroys marriages.

(ii) Christian degeneracy is the destroyer of Christian marriages.

(iii) In the dialogue Satan has stimulated her arrogance, which is the fuel for dissatisfaction. You never find dissatisfaction without finding some measure of arrogance involved.

(iv) Dissatisfaction demands change. Change not only destroyed the first marriage in history, but it changed mankind from perfection to sinfulness, from innocence to spiritual death.

(v) Arrogance motivates dissatisfaction, stimulates insubordination, and replaces grace orientation with self- fragmentation.

(vi) One spouse in self-fragmentation disrupts and often destroys marriage; two spouses in self-fragmentation blow it apart.

(vii) The woman now approaches emotional revolt of the soul, the forth stage of reversionism.

(5) The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

(a) This tree was not necessary for man to live in the garden of Eden. In the garden, neither Adam nor his wife needed this knowledge.

(b) This tree was Satan’s policy of good and evil. His policy was based on his original sin of arrogance. In the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there are two categories of good involved.

(i) Human good, which is a part of Satan’s policy of evil and the basic policy by which He tries to rule the earth.

(ii) Divine good, which is God’s plan for the believer.

(d) Sin plus human good equals evil. Human good is the policy of Satan in trying to rule and control the world. Evil always says the end justifies the means.

(e) God has countered evil with divine good which is the protocol plan of God. When mankind tries to do the work of God and establish His kingdom on earth, it becomes evil under two categories.

(i) Human good, which destroys freedom and self- determination, because a human being rather than God is determining what is best for you. And God has delegated that function to government.

(ii) Sin, which means the use of violence, murder and tyranny to gain the objective. Human good combined with sin produces evil.

(f) The tree was forbidden to Adam and his wife as a volitional test in the extension of the angelic conflict. Man was created with free will and self-determination as a part of his soul, just like the angels. Satan appealed the prehistoric judgment of the Lake of Fire for fallen angels, Mt 25:41, and man was created to resolve the issue of the fairness of the justice of God.

(g) In the garden was the tree of life, Gen 2:9. Apparently, it was in the middle of the garden near the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

(i) The tree of life was for mankind in the status of perfection, while the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was for mankind in the status of spiritual death.

(ii) The tree of life was grace blessing, which was only available in the status of perfection and innocence, Gen 3:22. As a result of sin, mankind was expelled from the garden and cut off from the tree of life, Gen 3:24. Why? If mankind, in spiritual death, had eaten from the tree of life, his free will would no longer be the means of resolving the angelic conflict. The purpose in the creation of mankind could not be perpetuated after the Fall. Expelling man from the garden was the only way to keep his volition intact.

(iii) The first tree (of life) demanded positive volition; the second tree (good and evil) demanded negative volition.

(6) In tempting the woman, it was Satan’s objective to get her to disobey God, to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and to win his appeal trial before God.

(a) It was Satan’s objective to persuade mankind to become positive toward the second tree, which would make them spiritually dead. Perpetuation of spiritual death without a solution would make Satan the winner in the angelic conflict.

(b) But when mankind ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and became spiritually dead, God cut them off from the tree of life, and thereby provided a solution to the problem of spiritual death. The volitional issue was perpetuated by a new tree - the cross. The tree of life still exists in the form of the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross is our tree of life. We eat from that tree today by one act of faith in Christ. Eating from the tree is a picture of non- meritorious response to Christ, an illustration of faith in Christ.

© Satan was successful in his first objective, but he failed in his second. In winning the first objective - inducing man to disobey God - Satan demonstrated that marriage is not a problem-solving device. The perfect marriage did not keep them from sinning.

(d) Mankind had a choice in perfection; and mankind still has a choice in spiritual death. Satan had not counted on that. Satan can never defeat the grace of God.

(7) Therefore, marriage needs help from God, and God has provided that help in the problem-solving devices and the ultimate solution, the spiritual solution. The spiritual solution includes escrow blessings for time, invisible impact, blessing by association, and being part of the pivot. If either or both spouses attain spiritual maturity, it brings the marriage under maximum blessing from God, and provides something far better than the perfect environment in the garden. (8) Man is constantly seeking to improve his environment, but environment is no protection against evil. In fact, Satan’s objective is to create his own perfect environment in his attempts to take God’s place. But satanic good only turns out evil.

(9) In the first temptation, not only was the woman’s volition involved, but also her marriage. Even with the best of intentions, the spouses make decisions that destroy their marriage. God has invented Bible doctrine as the protection against Satan. Principles solve problems, not application. Bible doctrine insulates the believer against the satanic policy of human good and sin. Bible doctrine reveals establishment principles whereby freedom and self-determination can exist in the cosmic system.

(10) You can have a great marriage even though you live in the cosmic system. But your chances of having a great marriage depend on the principles of the Word of God, not the cleverness of counseling. Counseling suggests conversation and communication as the solution to marital problems. But conversation and communication are also weapons of the old sin nature that produce mental attitude sins. Conversation as such is not a problem-solving device. Communication is only a problem-solving device in monologue, and only when the monologue is the teaching and communication of Bible doctrine.

(11) If arrogance will destroy the perfect marriage or any other human relationship, it will destroy imperfect marriages. If the perfect marriage failed under arrogance, what will imperfect marriages do under arrogance?

(12) This appeal to arrogance is the transfer of Satan’s weakness to the soul of the woman. It was a soulish seduction. This was accomplished through conversation.

(13) By eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil the woman came to know good and evil. She discovers the lie of Satan. She now understands that the wages of sin really is spiritual death.

g. Gen 3:6, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was an object of desire to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

(1) Arrogance has been added to her genius. Once you add arrogance to genius there is never any satisfaction. She is not satisfied with the fact that she was a genius, or that Adam was a genius. The tree was not designed to make her wise, but to change her status from perfection to spiritual death.

(2) Adam was not with her when she ate. “With her” means that he was a part of the marriage. Satan used her as an agent. Satan will use those we love the most to defect us from God’s plan.

(3) Marriages are broken up by outside influences, such as friends and loved ones, who work on the husband or wife until there is arrogance plus dissatisfaction. Marriages are also destroyed by the inside influence of the old sin nature.

(4) The woman’s vulnerability to conversation with a stranger (Satan) stems from rejection of both categories of authority over her: her husband and God. She was both socially and spiritually unfaithful. Her social unfaithfulness indicates her rejection of her husband’s authority. Her spiritual unfaithfulness indicates her rejection of the Lord’s authority.

(5) The woman was stimulated by Satan’s beautiful voice, which through conversation filled her soul with lust for power, lust for wisdom, lust to be equal, i.e., superior to God, and to get out from under the restraint of being prohibited from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

(6) The woman was stimulated by the lust of the eyes. Her lust caused her to concentrate on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Lust caused her to concentrate. Any concentration that comes from lust will inevitably result in sin. She has a new mental attitude and is going right for that tree.

(a) Divine provision is greater than anything a creature (Satan) can provide. Divine provision is based on grace.

(b) To become dissatisfied with divine provision means boredom, lack of capacity for life, negative volition toward doctrine.

(d) Doctrinal conceptualism is the secret to blessing in marriage because it changes self, not someone else. It also tolerates the failures of others and appreciates their successes.

(7) The woman was already in the equivalent of degeneracy, emotional revolt of the soul, and scar tissue of the soul. When she touched the fruit, she did not fall dead as she thought she would. But she was still under temptation until she ate the fruit. When she ate, she became spiritually dead.

(8) Adam had no conversation with Satan, therefore, his temptation was entirely different. Adam must choose between Jesus Christ and remaining in the status quo of spiritual life, or his wife and entering into the status quo of spiritual death. The issue is fellowship with God, or compatible relationship with his wife. When a man gives into a woman who is obviously wrong because the Bible says so, it inevitably destroys the relationship.

(9) It appears that Satan knew he could not persuade Adam to disobey God and sin. Therefore, Satan attacked through the woman, who could persuade Adam, because Adam loved her dearly.

(10) The difference in their original sins is given in 1 Tim 2:14, “And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman, being deceived, fell into the transgression.”

(a) The woman was deceived and committed a sin of ignorance. But the man committed a sin of cognizance and was not deceived. Therefore, man’s sin was far greater.

(b) Spiritual death is first manifest, not by another sin, but by human good, by legalism.

h. Gen 3:7, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; consequently, they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”

(1) After the first sin, the first action of spiritual death was an act of human good, the function of legalism. “The eyes of both of them were opened” indicates spiritual death. In the status of total depravity, God must come to them, they cannot go to God.

(2) They now had knowledge of good and evil. A conscience becomes part of the soul of the spiritually dead. Perfection has no need for a conscience in the soul. In perfection and innocence nakedness was never an issue. In spiritual death and sinfulness, nakedness becomes an issue.

(3) Nakedness now becomes a social problem demanding a solution. There were two possible solutions to the problem of nakedness: regeneration, which for the moment they have rejected; and legalism or human good, which is the solution they adopt. Even in the best of marriages, problems exist. But what really compounds problems is wrong solutions.

(4) The new conscience was suffering from guilt reaction. A culprit must be found to pacify the conscience; so they try to pass the guilt on to someone or something else. They blame everything on their nakedness; later they will blame each other. They decide that if they can adjust to each other, then they will solve the problem. They have left God out of the solution. They completely forget about God because they are spiritually dead.

(5) Only God in grace can solve marital problems. He has provided solutions through problem-solving devices and principles in His Word.

(6) In covering their genitals (loins), they are agreeing not to have sex. This is their solution to the problem of their guilt complex. They will make up for what they have done wrong by denying each other sex. By covering up their genitals, they are attempting not to arouse each other. This is self-righteous arrogance, evil, stupid, legalism.

(7) The first marriage is temporarily destroyed by the function of legalism. Legalism destroys more marriages than all other so- called causes put together. Legalism always blames the other spouse in the marriage. Legalism is self-righteous in mindset, and self-justification in function. Each spouse seeks to justify self by covering their genitals with self-made clothing. Now they are going to be “good,” and have no sex.

(8) Nakedness and sex in marriage was not the problem, but an act of disobedience to God. They answered their guilty conscience by becoming slaves to a system of penance, designed by them to assuage their feelings of guilt. They enjoyed sex, and thought they could make up for their failure by eliminating it. They had been naked for the whole time in the garden and there was no one else to look at them, so nakedness obviously was not the issue, but giving up sex. They probably refrained from sex until they were regenerated.

(9) The guilty conscience motivated them to become “do- gooders.” They decided to give up what they liked doing the most - sex. Spiritual death plus a guilty conscience motivates the production of human good. They tried to improve themselves by giving up sex and putting on clothes.

(10) Spiritual death is anthropocentric. They had the philosophy of religion that God will accept my good works as the basis for having a relationship with Him. People do the same thing today when they say, “If I am right with my fellow man, then I am right with God.” This is salvation by works. Instead of turning to God for help, spiritual death always thinks in terms of social adjustment, social action, social improvement, crusader arrogance. The order must be reversed. If we are right with God we have the potential of being right with people.

(11) When there is the denial of sex in marriage, the invisible walls of privacy and protection go down and the couple is vulnerable to any category of sin related to the trend of their old sin natures. The legalistic approach to sex destroys marriage.

(12) Note that the first death in human history was spiritual death, not physical death. Compare Eph 2:1; Rom 6:23, “The wages of sin is death” - spiritual death. Physical death is the result of spiritual death.

i. The Evidence of Spiritual Death. Gen 3:8, “Then they heard the sound of Jehovah Elohim walking in the garden in the spiritual time of the day [time for Bible class]; consequently, both the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah Elohim among the trees of the garden.”

(1) There is a spiritual time of the day, a working time of the day, and a recreational time of the day. This tells us that you must organize your life. You start with doctrine as your number one priority and go from there. The spiritual time of the day is your capacity for pleasure and life, your sense of responsibility and thoughtfulness of others.

(2) Previously, the trees had been a source of blessing in the garden. Now they are the place of fear and rejection caused by spiritual death. Now they are only a place to hide. Without relationship with God, there is no capacity for enjoyment. Without doctrine in the soul and, because of spiritual death, the trees are no longer a source of blessing and happiness. It is not the circumstances in life that cause happiness, but the status quo of the soul.

(3) God in His grace provided the trees for Adam and his wife in perfection and innocence. In spiritual death, Adam and his wife used the leaves of the fig tree to adjust to each other. But that did not help.

(4) Spiritual death distorts grace. The change is not in the trees but in the souls of the spiritually dead couple. Hence, the same garden, but different souls. Capacity to enjoy the trees of the garden does not exist in spiritual death.

(5) Spiritual death is inability to solve their own problems, so they hid themselves. In spiritual death they could not even talk to God. The solution to spiritual death is personal faith in Jesus Christ resulting in eternal salvation.

j. Gen 3:9, “Then Jehovah Elohim called to the man, and said to him, `Where are you?’”

(1) He called to the man because the man was responsible, not the woman.

(2) Jesus Christ broke the silence; that was an act of grace. Spiritually dead Adam and the woman deserved the silent treatment. They did not deserve to ever hear from the Lord again; but in grace He came to them.

(3) The implication of our Lord’s question is: “Adam [addressed to the responsible one], why are you where you are?” The question was designed to orient them to the status they were in. As God, Jesus Christ knew exactly where they were. He also knew why they were where they were. But He asked the question because an investigation must begin with interrogation to bring out what is in the man’s spiritually dead soul.

(4) The first marriage was in trouble because they emphasized the wrong thing: their nakedness and fear rather than the real issue - their sin and spiritual death. Most marriages fail because the couple emphasizes the wrong thing.

(5) Spiritual growth teaches you what should be emphasized; for example, taking the responsibility for your own wrong decisions. When you blame your spouse, you are emphasizing the wrong thing.

k. Gen 3:10, “And he said, `I heard the sound of Your voice in the garden; consequently, I was afraid because I was naked; therefore I hid myself.’”

(1) Adam was not hiding because he was ashamed, but because he was worried about the consequences. Fear is the function of spiritual death. Spiritual death produces a lifestyle of fear. Fear is a complex of emotional sins which prevents you from thinking in terms of Bible doctrine. Fear is a good representation of emotional revolt of the soul. Emotion cannot solve problems; thinking solves problems.

(a) The more things you surrender to fear, the more things you fear.

(b) The extent to which you surrender to fear, you increase the power of fear in your life.

(d) Emotion does not have the power or ability to think or to reason; emotion as a sin has no doctrine, no common sense. 2 Tim 1:7, “God has not given us a lifestyle of fear, but of power, and of virtue-love, and of sound judgment.” 1 Jn 4:18, “Fear does not exist in virtue-love; but virtue-love drives out fear. For fear causes [self-] punishment. The person who is afraid has not been matured by virtue-love.”

(2) When confronted by God, Adam could only hide himself. In spiritual death man is totally helpless to do anything to enter into a relationship with God.

l. Gen 3:11, “Then He said, `Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

(1) God knows that Adam has eaten and is in spiritual death. This question is designed to focus Adam’s attention on the act of disobedience rather than self-righteousness, self-justification, or nakedness.

(2) Man’s sin was disobedience, not guilt, fear, shame, or nakedness. Nakedness was never an issue in the perfect marriage in the garden.

(3) The hiphil perfect of the Hebrew verb NAGAD means “who caused you to understand you were naked; who denounced you because you were naked?” Satan did, of course. As ruler of the world in self-righteous, crusader arrogance, Satan demanded that the man and woman get dressed. Satan ruled that there would be no nakedness in his kingdom. So Satan tried to improve the environment. Man lost rulership of his wife, and then lost the rulership of the world.

(4) Satan tempted mankind, then denounces their fall and status of sin by demanding they clothe themselves. The inconsistency of a higher form of creation (angels) has infected the lower form of creation (mankind).

(5) Satan demands two things in his kingdom: if you violate his laws, you should feel guilty and you should be afraid. Satan started out with human good rather than freedom. As a result man came under guilt and fear, which are sins. Satan used evil to seize power and then demonstrated his arrogant self-righteousness by denouncing the nakedness that resulted from the original sin.

(6) Satan is trying to make a perfect world without God. This is the basic concept of communism and socialism. This is what is wrong with Christian activism.

m. Gen 3:12, “Then Adam said, `The woman You have given to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.’”

(1) Notice the inconsistency of spiritual death. As the former ruler of the world, Adam was the responsible person in marriage. But even though responsible, he blames the woman. He also blames God for giving him the woman. That is inconsistent and irrational. As long as men blame their wives instead of their own volition, marriages fail.

(2) 1 Tim 2:14 stresses the fact that Adam was not deceived, but the woman was quite deceived. Operation patsy blames something or someone else for one’s bad decisions, especially in the area of sin, human good, and evil. Operation patsy is refusal to take the responsibility for one’s decisions, therefore, avoiding the blame.

(3) Adam tries to dodge the issue of his sin by blaming the woman for tempting him. Spiritual death is inevitably inconsistent. Spiritual death refuses to take responsibility for its own bad decisions.

(4) In blaming the woman, Adam made a disastrous mistake. As the ruler of the world and the husband in marriage, Adam was responsible for his own fall. He cannot be the ruler and charge anyone else for his own mistakes. Adam blames his wife for the function of his own free will and self-determination. He is out of sync.

(5) A weak man will inevitably accuse the wife. It is cowardly, arrogant, and totally immature. As long as husbands fail to take the responsibility for their own decisions and blame their wives, marriages fail. Every person in a successful marriage assumes the consequences of his own decisions. This is grace orientation plus spiritual adulthood.

(6) Both are equally guilty of sin, though the woman’s sin was a sin of ignorance and Adam’s sin was a sin of cognizance. This is why the old sin nature is passed down genetically through the man.

(7) In Christian marriage, the believer-spouse must be responsible for his/her own bad decisions; otherwise, no Christian marriage could ever be successful. Without accepting responsibility you can never grow up spiritually. In taking the responsibility you move instantly to the rebound technique.

(8) Adam not only blames the woman, but blames God at the same time: “whom You gave me.” Adam recognizes God’s grace (God gave her in grace), but also blames God for giving the woman to him. Again he is inconsistent. A man can have a great relationship in marriage for a long time; then as soon as something goes wrong he falls apart, complains, points the finger at her, and quickly excuses his own sin.

(i) Anyone in a place of authority must be quick to recognize their mistakes and correct them. This is leadership in authority.

(ii) Even a genius in spiritual death is stupid.

(9) Adam will not take responsibility for a bad decision. This tells us that his leadership was faulty. You cannot exercise authority without leadership or in arrogance. Arrogance is destructive to everything in its periphery. Adam lost control of the woman when he obeyed her. In spiritual death, Adam became arrogant and accused everyone else.

(10) God could not and would not give Adam back the rulership of the world; He will do that for the Last Adam. But He did give him back the rulership of the woman.

(11) Mankind in spiritual death cannot love God. Therefore, mankind in spiritual death blames God for his decisions, which is the quintessence of human blasphemy. The Church Age believer in Christian degeneracy cannot love God. So the believer blames God for his own bad decisions. This is the epitome of Christian degeneracy. When anyone shifts the blame to others or blames God for his own bad decisions, he pulls the pin of the grenade and enters into self-fragmentation.

n. Gen 3:13, “Then Jehovah Elohim said to the woman, `What is this you have done?’ Then the woman replied, `The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’”

(1) When properly interrogated and faced with her guilt, the woman cannot blame either God or Adam, but she does find a patsy - the serpent.

(2) Neither the woman or the man has the capacity to accept the responsibility for their own decisions. Spiritual death has made them totally immature.

(3) Since the serpent was the agent of Satan, he will be judged. However, Satan himself is not judged, because he had been judged long before man was created, along with all fallen angels, Matt 25:31.

o. Gen 3:14, “Then Jehovah Elohim said to the serpent, `Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all domestic animals, and more than every wild animal of the jungle on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.’”

(1) Notice that the order of sentencing is reversed from the order of interrogation.

(2) Jesus Christ communicates with His own creatures and is the judge.

(3) Since the serpent was the agent of Satan, he must be judged. Judging the serpent before the promise of salvation to mankind spotlights the separation between the serpent’s seed and the woman’s seed. Note that there is only a reference to the serpent’s seed and the woman’s seed. Why not the man’s seed? Because Adam’s sin was a sin of cognizance and through him is passed spiritual death and the sin nature. Hence, mankind is a part of Satan’s or serpent’s seed.

(4) The serpent as the agent of Satan is the representative of Satan’s policy of sin, human good, and evil. Now all men (the human race, man’s seed), being born spiritually dead, are classified as the seed of the serpent. “Serpent” is one of the titles for Satan, Rev 12:9.

(5) The difference between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman has been noted in 1 Tim 2:14. Satan was judged prior to human history; the serpent in history. But both are excluded from salvation.

(6) The pattern of judgment is: the serpent as Satan’s agent is judged in verse 14; salvation is promised in verse 15; the woman is judged in verse 16; the man is judged in verses 17-19; and salvation is then provided for them in verse 21.

(7) The qal passive participle from the Hebrew word ARAR indicates that the crawling of the serpent is a memorial to what happens to the servants of Satan. “Constantly being cursed” brings out the linear aktionsart of the participle.

(8) The serpent was under the authority of Adam, revolted against that authority, and exalted himself above mankind. Therefore, the serpent receives the fitting and just punishment of degradation. This punishment is noted in Lev 11:42, “Whatever crawls on its belly is detestable.”

(9) The degradation of the serpent is described as eating dust, even as the degradation of man is described in Isa 49:23 and Micah 7:17 as licking the dust. The degradation of the serpent formed a new category in the animal kingdom - herpetology.

(10) Capital punishment applies to all the animal kingdom since the entire kingdom is under a curse, Gen 9:5; Ex 21:28-29; Lev 20:15- 16.

(11) The snake has no way of handling his food; therefore, his food must lie in the dust when he eats. And when he moves, he swallows dust. Every snake should remind you of the fall of mankind. And just as the snake who is about to strike is repulsive to you, so is the sin of mankind to God.

(12) By crawling on the ground the snake is vulnerable to attack, especially in the head, his most vulnerable part. While the snake can strike man from the ground, man can kill the snake by crushing his head.

(13) The serpent was judged before salvation was brought to mankind.

p. Gen 3:15, “Therefore I will put hostility [antagonism] between you [Satan] and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He [Jesus Christ] shall crush you [Satan] on the head [bearing sins on the cross], and you [Satan] shall strike Him [Jesus Christ] on the heel [at the cross].”

(1) This verse is a break in the judgments. It is the promise of salvation for mankind. Grace precedes judgment. Salvation by grace is announced in verse 15 before the judgment of Adam and the woman in verses 16-19. There is no offer of salvation for Satan, since he was already judged and sentenced in eternity past.

(2) The Hebrew verb SHUPH means both to crush and to strike.

(a) The first qal imperfect, meaning crushing, is a reference to the double defeat of Satan. The first defeat: at the First Advent when Jesus Christ was judged for the sins of the world. The second defeat: at the Second Advent. In both the beginning and ending of the millennium Satan is defeated.

(b) The second use of SHUPH refers to Satan as the subject, and the second masculine singular suffix refers to Jesus Christ in His two advents. The crushing of the serpent’s head is the declaration of our Lord’s victory over Satan in the two advents.

(3) The woman’s “seed” is a prophecy concerning the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and the entrance of the God-Man into the Dispensation of the Hypostatic Union; hence, a prophecy about the new tree of life, which is the cross of Christ. Jesus Christ came into the world through the seed of the woman.

(4) Why hostility between Satan’s seed (Homo Sapiens) and the Seed of the woman (the first title of Christ emphasizing the angelic conflict)? God is setting the barriers for hostility in the next phase of the angelic conflict, which will always exist in the devil’s world.

(a) Satan has two seeds: all fallen angels, and unregenerate mankind who perpetuate their spiritual death till the point of physical death, Jn 8:44).

(b) The Seed of the woman will redeem the seed of man (human race). When anyone believes in Christ, he will become the seed of Christ.

(5) Satan struck our Lord with physical abuse prior to and on the cross. The striking of the heel is a reference to our Lord’s judgment on the cross for the sins of the world.

(6) Throughout human history the volition of man is always the key issue. Throughout history the sovereignty of God and the volition of mankind coexist.

(7) Now that man has become a sinner like Satan, two things become necessary: first, establish a new test - the cross - for human volition; second, extend the human race beyond Adam and his wife.

q. Gen 3:16, “To the woman He said, `I will greatly multiply your pain in pregnancy. In pain you shall bring forth children; Yet your desire shall be for your husband; therefore, he shall rule over you.’”

(1) The three categories of the curse include: ovulation and resultant pregnancy; childbirth; and subordination to the husband. There are two kinds of pain mentioned: in pregnancy and in childbirth. God has used childbirth punishment as the grace means of turning cursing into blessing.

(2) The man’s authority must always be exercised in virtue- love. But the authority is not fully operational until one reaches spiritual self-esteem. It becomes more effective as spiritual growth increases. God never intended for man to be abusive, evil, or a bully toward his wife. The man’s authority can only be properly exercised under two conditions: there must be the integrity envelope of impersonal love; and there must be spiritual self-esteem.

(3) In Gen 3:13 and 1 Tim 2:14 it is clear that the woman was deceived. Where sin is concerned, ignorance is no excuse. Where lawlessness is concerned, ignorance or even mental illness is no excuse. Human volition must take the responsibility for its own decisions. 1 Tim 2:15 says that the woman will be saved through bearing children. The role of sex is redefined after the fall, forming two categories rather than one category (recreation) in the garden.

(a) As recreation, sex provides the invisible walls around the marriage, expressing the unity, privacy, intimacy, and thoughtfulness in personal love.

(b) As procreation, sex provides the means of perpetuation of the human race and the establishment of the family as the basis for rearing and training marriage.

(4) The hiphil infinitive absolute RABAH plus the hiphil imperfect indicates intensity. “In pregnancy” in the Hebrew is a hendiadys, the expression of an idea by two nouns or verbs joined by a conjunction. Part of the woman’s judgment is that she began to ovulate, became pregnant, and gave birth to children.

(6) There are various categories of pain involved after the fall for the woman. These often cause subjectivity and bad judgment.

(a) Pre, mid, and postmenstrual pain.

(b) Pregnancy and morning sickness.

(d) Pain in giving birth.

(e) Menopause and potential involuntary melancholia.

(7) The Hebrew word TESHUKAH connotes intense sexual desire. Her sexual drive will help to establish the invisible wall around their marriage. And will be ruled by the man. The woman’s motivation for subordination to her husband is related to various areas of life.

(a) Spiritual motivation from life inside the divine dynasphere and momentum from metabolized doctrine.

(b) A mental attitude motivation from enforced and genuine humility.

© Physical motivation from her sexual desire. It is absolutely necessary for the man to see to it that the woman is satisfied sexually in order to establish his authority in marriage. The man that never satisfies his wife fails to establish his authority. He also establishes his authority through impersonal and personal love, and by his virtue in the function of sex.

(8) The qal imperfect of MASHAL means to rule. The husband is responsible to satisfy his wife sexually. He is responsible to love her from virtue-love. Therefore, more even than the wife, the husband is responsible for growing in grace through daily perception of doctrine. In 1 Cor 11:3 the man is also said to rule over the wife.

(9) Every pregnant woman is a reminder of the curse of the fall and the original sin of our first parents. Pregnancy is a reminder of the woman’s revolt against God and her husband. Every birth is a memorial to divine justice. Sex gives the woman optimum pleasure, but is also the source of great discomfort in childbirth. Physical life and spiritual death at birth is a reminder that every member of the human race must be born again.

r. Gen 3:17, “Then to Adam He said, `Because you listened to the voice of your wife, and you have eaten from the tree concerning which I commanded you, saying, `You shall not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in sorrow you shall eat from it all the days of your life.’”

(1) Adam had a double authority over his wife: as ruler of the world, and as her husband. Adam was led, when he should have been leading. He was influenced by her, when he should have been influencing her. It was the responsibility of the man to be the teacher of the woman in things related to their relationship. This Adam failed to do. By subordinating himself to his wife, who had no authority, Adam became spiritually dead and lost the rulership of the world.

(2) The Lord, as judge, makes the issue clear before he sentenced Adam. This should be done when training children. You never punish unless the child understands what they have done wrong. Notice that Adam’s sin is mentioned, but not the woman’s .Each are responsible for their own sin but Adam knew what he was doing. Temptation does not become sin until volition is involved.

(3) Nature shares in the results of Adam’s sin, Rom 8:19- 22. The ground will no longer self-produce food. Man must now work for food or to earn a living. And this curse will not be removed until the Second Advent, Isa 35. Adam also lost control of animals because of his fall. This will also be corrected by our Lord during His millennial rule, Isa 11:6-9; 65:25.

(4) The precedent of satanic indwelling has now been set by the serpent, and both man and animals are subject to demon possession.

(5) The Bible does not teach that a woman cannot work to support the family. The examples are Ruth in the Old Testament and Lydia in the New Testament. Whether a wife works or not is a personal matter between a man and a wife. And they should decide without any outside interference. So both husband and wife may work in the market place. The more a husband and wife go outside the marriage in deciding things, the weaker the marriage becomes.

(6) “All the days of your life” means that physical life will come to an end. This indicates that physical death is the result of spiritual death. Life begins with spiritual death and ends with physical death. But the first physical death occurred through murder when Cain slew Abel. The curse of Cain is also related to the ground, for the ground no longer gave Cain its strength. In Gen 3:18 the ground brings forth thorns and thistles rather than freely giving of its production. And in Gen 3:19 we see Adam returning to the ground in death.

s. Gen 3:18, “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you shall eat the plants [vegetables] of the field.”

(1) The use of thorns in the Bible.

(a) In the fall of man thorns are associated with the curse of both mankind and nature.

(b) In Jer 12:13 thorns are related to economic depression and disaster.

(d) The unconquered Canaanites in the land of Israel were called thorns to client nation, Num 33:55; Josh 23:13; Jud 2:3.

(e) Thorns are related to negative volition, Prov 22:5; 26:9.

(f) Thorns are described as distraction to positive volition to doctrine, Matt 13:17, 22.

(g) Our Lord wore a crown of thorns, which signified the doctrinal principle that He was made a curse for us when He became the substitute for our sins. Matt 27:29 cf Gal 3:13; 1 Pet 2:24.

(h) Thorns indicate the stages of Christian degeneracy, Heb 6:8. “Thorns” refers to implosion or self-fragmentation; “thistles” refers to explosion or polarized fragmentation as the second stage of Christian degeneracy; “worthless” refers to reversionism as the final stage of Christian degeneracy; “near to being cursed” refers to the sin unto death; and “its end is for burning” refers to the burning of human good and no escrow blessing for eternity.

(i) In the millennial rule of Christ, the ground and nature is released from the curse of the fall of man, Isa 55:13; Ezek 28:24.

(2) Being in the market place and having to work is very debilitating and hard on a marriage. There is wear and tear on the person who has to work, and the other spouse must understand this.

t. The double curse of life and death is mentioned in Gen 3:19, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread [the curse of physical work] till you return to the ground [the curse of physical death], because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

(1) The sweat may be inward or outward: physical or mental labor. Man must work to survive, earn a living, and control the animal world. This is the curse of life.

(2) But God has turned cursing into blessing, so that there is the challenge of doing a good job as unto the Lord.

(3) Just as regeneration turns cursing into blessing regarding spiritual death, so God’s grace turns cursing into blessing with regard to physical death. For the believer physical death is God’s victory.

u. The first marriage in regeneration. Gen 3:20, “Now Adam called his wife’s name Life, because she was the mother of all living.”

(1) After the fall the woman’s name is changed to CHAWAH (life). “Eve” comes from the Septuagint, the Greek word EUA. In the Latin Vulgate the smooth breathing accent was changed to a rough breathing accent and we have HEVA. This was finally corrected to EVA, from which we get EVE.

(2) “Life” has a double meaning. It is the fulfillment of the divine mandate in Gen 1:28 (“be fruitful and multiply”) and Rom 6:23 (eternal life). The woman is the source of biological life. God is the source of soul life.

(3) While woman is the mother of spiritual death, Adam called her “Life” as a testimony to her personal faith in Jesus Christ.

v. Gen 3:21, “And Jehovah Elohim made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”

(1) The sign of their salvation is given as leather clothing, for the animals had to die to provide the skins for man. The leather skins replaced the fig leaves. The garments of skin are a picture of salvation.

(2) The death of the animals depicted the work of our Lord on the cross.

(3) The hiphil stem of the verb LABASH means God caused them to be clothed. In the same way God causes us to have salvation. Everything comes from God.

R. B. Thieme, Jr. Bible Ministries 5139 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77056 (713) 621-3740

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