"..Thou Shalt Surely Die"
“...Thou Shalt Surely Die”
In God’s communication with Adam, God
oriented the first human to the rules of life. The
only reservation which God made to Adam is
recorded in Genesis 2.
Genesis 2: 16, 17:
And the Lord God commanded the man,
saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest
freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day [not
a day, but in that very day] that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die.
In the beginning there was only one who was
above Adam, and that was God. Except for God,
Adam was the supreme being. As earth’s ruler,
Adam had only one “hands-off’ stipulation with the
consequence being “...for in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die.”
In the beginning, the spirit in man made it
possible for God to talk to him and for man, in turn,
to talk to God. The natural man of body and soul
only has his five senses whereby to acquire knowledge.
In contrast, the first man not only could
acquire knowledge through his five senses, but he
could also attain knowledge through his communication
with God, made possible by the spirit from
God within him. Adam had two ways whereby he
could know things, and he had the freedom of will
to choose whether he was going to gather
knowledge by his five senses or by spirit – God’s
speaking to him.
When God created spirit within man, man had
perfect fellowship, perfect communion, with the
Creator at all times. Adam also had supreme power
on earth over that which God gave him dominion.
Genesis 1:26:
...Let them [man] have dominion over the fish
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth....
Adam had dominion over all God’s creation
because God had given him this dominion; and as
long as Adam walked by the spirit, he had perfect
fellowship with God. But the moment Adam let his
senses rule over his mind and body instead of
walking by the spirit, calamity resulted. Why?
Because then he was no longer God-ruled. Adam
had the option of walking by his senses or walking
by the spirit. He determined by his free will whether
to be led by what he could see, hear, smell, taste
and touch or to be led by God.
In Genesis the story of Adam develops. Remember
that Lucifer, who had fallen, is also called the
serpent.
Genesis 3:1:
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast
of the field which the Lord God had made. And
he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said,
Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Did the serpent know what God had said? He
knew what God had said. With this knowledge, the
serpent went to Eve and said, “Has God really said
this? Did God say ye shall not eat of every tree of
the garden?”
In observing the downfall of man, we can
carefully observe how the Devil consistently operates.
The first things that the Devil had Eve do –
and the first thing he will get us to do – is to
question the integrity and accuracy of God’s Word.
He said to her, “Did God really say ye shall not eat
of every tree of the garden?” The Devil knew what
God had said. The Devil also knew that he wanted
to instill a doubt in Eve’s mind. This is the
beginning of trouble. The Devil slyly gets people to
doubt the accuracy and integrity of God’s Word as
he disguises himself as an angel of light. The Devil
is not so stupid as to barge into one’s affairs in a
straight–forward, obnoxious way. He slyly questions,
“Did God really say that you couldn’t eat of
every tree of the garden?”
With this doubt placed in Eve’s mind, she reacts
to the serpent as recorded in verse 2. “And the
woman said unto the serpent ...” This is the next
pitfall. A person cannot stop satanic influences from
approaching, but one can stop them from lodging or
staying in his mind. We cannot always help it if a
bad thought comes, for instance; but we can keep
from harboring and incubating it. The complication
of the situation with Eve was not that the Devil had
said to her, “Hath God not said, Ye shall not eat of
every tree of the garden?” The trouble rooted itself
when Eve started to participate by conversing and
“reasoning” with the Devil.
Genesis 3:2:
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may
eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.
Is that what God had said? God had said, “Of
every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.” Do
you know what Eve did? She omitted the word
“freely.” If one word is omitted from the Word of
God, is it still the Word of God? No, it has become
private interpretation. By omitting one word, Eve
no longer had The Word. Eve continued her conversation.
Genesis 3:3:
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.
God never said anything about touching the fruit.
Now what had Eve done? She had added to the
Word of God. When one adds to the Word of God,
is it still the Word of God? Again, it becomes
private interpretation. The moment a word is
deleted or added, one no longer has The Word. God
never said what Eve quoted Him as saying. But was
she sincere? She was sincere, but she was totally
wrong.
What else did Eve do to God’s Word? “Ye shall
not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”
God had said, “For in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die.” There was no equivocating
about it. Eve changed the truth of God’s
Word from “the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die,” to “lest [maybe, perhaps] ye die.”
She questioned the integrity of God’s Word.
In following the pattern, the first thing the Devil
induced Eve to do was question God’s Word. Eve
made the second mistake by considering the
question that the Devil had propounded. Thirdly,
Eve omitted from God’s Word; fourthly, she added
to God’s Word; and fifthly, she changed the Word
of God from an absolute to a perhaps. Here is the
spiraling road downward. To this day, whenever
Satan wants to attack men and women of God, he
always leads them to question the integrity of The
Word and then to change it so The Word no longer
exists.
The third chapter of Genesis is as timely today
and tomorrow as it was the day it happened many
thousands of years ago when Adam and Eve went
through the experience. When men and women
throughout history have listened to Satan they
began by questioning the integrity of God’s Word.
People say, “Oh, it isn’t God’s Word anyway,” or
“It has a lot of myths in it, a lot of interpolations, a
lot of error. After all, you can’t believe all that
because it was just written by human beings.” Thus
people begin to question the integrity of The Word;
they begin to doubt it. The next thing that happens
is that these people speak to us. We start
considering their doubts. “Well, now, maybe you
are right. Maybe man did come from a one-celled
animal.” Before we know it, we think it is a good
idea that man came from an amoeba so we begin
changing the Bible. We omit a word or we add a
word or we change a few words. We arrange The
Word to suit ourselves and, therefore, we do not
have the true Word.
After the woman, Eve, responded to the Devil, he
carried on the conversation.
Genesis 3:4:
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall
not surely die.
The Devil eased Eve into questioning The Word
by omitting a word, by adding a word, by changing
a word. When he finally got Eve in a pliable state of
mind, he came out and showed his true colors. The
Devil boldly and bluntly said, “Ye shall not surely
die.” That statement is not an omission, an addition
or a change. It is a straight-forward contradiction of
what God had said in Genesis 2:17. The true Word
of God said, “Thou shalt surely die,” and the Devil
said, “Ye shall not surely die.”
The same devilish things happen today. When a
man is dead, we go to the funeral home and look at
his corpse. He’s dead. But some sweet person
comes and says, “Oh, he’s not dead, he is flying up
there in the sky because I heard from him last night
in a seance.” The same kind of lie the Devil
propounded back in Genesis 3 is still propounded
by churches today. The Devil said, “Ye shall not
surely die.” The mourners of the dead say, “He is
not really dead; he just moved out from this world
into something better.” These are out-and-out contradictions
of God’s Word.
The Devil’s primary target is The Word because
if he can get rid of The Word, there is nothing left.
There is little of The Word left in today’s churches.
Satan is always causing factions on extraneous
matters so that people won’t care or have time to
study The Word. The great tragedy is that he has
pretty well succeeded. Today people just talk about
The Word; they do not believe it. Furthermore, they
cannot put The Word together so that it fits with
exactness and precision. A person can attend most
Bible colleges in the world and still not know the
Word of God. One may gain an impressive
knowledge around The Word, but he will not know
The Word. Otherwise, we would not be falling into
the same pitfalls as Adam and Eve if our teachers
and preachers knew The Word.
When God said, “Thou shalt surely die” and the
Devil said, “Ye shall not surely die,” one of them
had to be lying. Follow the Devil’s speech in
Genesis 3.
Genesis 3:4, 5:
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall
not surely die:
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.
The Devil cajoles, “You are going to be as smart
as God. You are going to know everything.”
What ensues is recorded in Genesis 3:6. “And
when the woman saw....” Is “saw” in the world of
the spirit or the senses? It is in the category of the
senses. As long as Adam and Eve lived by God’s
revelation, life was perfect; but the moment the
senses were allowed to dominate over the spirit,
calamity resulted.
Genesis 3:6:
And when the woman saw that the tree was
good for food, and that it was pleasant to the
eyes [the senses], and a tree to be desired to
make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband
with her; and he did eat.
Thus man fell because man was disobedient to
God’s Word. God’s Word said, “You can do this,
but not this.” The Devil said, “You just go ahead
and do it because you will be just as smart as God.”
Eve, as the record said, walked definitely by her
senses; then Adam willingly followed her into the
catastrophe. It says in the Bible that Eve was
deceived by the Devil. Adam was never deceived;
he just followed along.
Adam’s mistake was cataclysmic for God had
said, “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die.” What died on the day Adam and
Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil?
Did Adam and Eve still have bodies and souls?
Certainly. What they no longer had was their connection
with God, spirit. This is why God said,
“The day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die.” Many times clergy, theologians or commentaries
have said, “Well, they didn’t really die. It
was just the seeds of spiritual death that were
planted in them because the Word of God says that
Adam lived some 800 years after that.” The Word
does not agree with this explanation. The Word
says, “the day [the very day] that thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely [absolutely] die.” One must
understand the man of body, soul and spirit to be
aware of exactly what happened on the day that
Adam defied God’s one rule.
The spirit disappeared. The reason the spirit was
called dead is that it was no longer there. Their
entire spiritual connection with God was lost. From
that very day Adam and Eve were just body and
soul – as any other animal.
Man, being body and soul, had to rely solely on
his five senses. From the day Adam ate of the tree
of knowledge of good and evil until the day of
Pentecost thousands of years later, God came into
concretion whenever He wanted to talk to man. He
had to come into some form for the man’s senses to
perceive and thereby understand. Moses, traveling
along in the wilderness, saw a burning bush; and
from the midst of the burning bush, he heard a
voice. Moses’ senses perceived God. The children
of Israel could see the Ten Commandments. This
was the means by which God came into concrete
form to tell them what to do. Annually, on the Day
of Atonement, the high priest entered into the Holy
of Holies to make sacrifices. He laid his hands on
the goat and then sent it into the wilderness to die.
God had said that as surely as the Israelites saw the
goat go into the wilderness, their sins went with it.
They could see the goat, they could see the stone
tablet, they could see the burning bush.
God had to come into concrete form because
men had no means by which to understand spiritual
things. But since man still did have the five senses,
he could believe. This explains why Jesus Christ
was born. Jesus Christ was born so that people
could see Him; He had to be manifested in physical
form. Jesus said, “...He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father....” God was in Christ reconciling the
world unto Himself. Jesus was the concretion.
When a man of body and soul can say to me, “I
don’t believe in your God.” I say, “I know.” He
may look around stunned because he expected to
fight for his position, but he gets no fight because I
know the accuracy of The Word – he can’t know
God for he is a natural man who understands only
the world of the five senses.
I Corinthians 2:14:
But the natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto
him: neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned.
Natural man cannot know spiritual matters because
they are spiritually discerned. Having summed
up the situation in one verse of Scripture, God
couldn’t have stated Himself more clearly. Because
the things of God are spiritual, they must be known
by the spirit. That is why The Word says that
spiritual things are foolishness to the natural, scientific
man. The natural man goes by his reason – by
what he can see, hear, smell, taste and touch – and
not by the revealed Word of God.
I Corinthians 1:21:
For after that in the wisdom of God [spiritual
wisdom] the world by wisdom [sense-knowledge
wisdom] knew not God....
After once understanding body, soul and spirit,
this entire section of the Word of God unfolds itself.
Romans 8 becomes readily understandable.
Romans 8:1–8:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh [by the five senses], but who walk after the
Spirit [by revelation from God’s Word or by
direct revelation from God].
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
hath made me free from the law of sin and
death.
For what the law could not do, in that it was
weak through the flesh [by way of the senses],
God sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh:
That the righteousness of the law might be
fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh
[according to the five senses], but [who walk]
after the Spirit.
For they that are after the flesh do mind [are
obedient to] the things of the flesh; but they
that after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded [sense-knowledge
minded] is death; but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God:
[The brain of many is in conflict with God –
senses versus revelation.] for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh [who live by
their five senses] cannot please God.
The flesh cannot please God because God is
Spirit.
Previously we looked at the origin of the Word
of God. Man did not write The Word by using his
five senses. Galatians 1 bears further witness to this.
Galatians 1:11, 12:
But I certify [guarantee] you, brethren, that the
gospel which was preached of me is not after
man.
For I neither received it of man, neither was I
taught it....
If man didn’t receive the Gospel from man, he
didn’t receive it by way of the five senses. Paul
continues,
...but by the revelation of [from] Jesus Christ.
Paul received the Gospel by revelation.
Jeremiah 17 also points out the natural man’s
inability to know God and matters associated with
Him.
Jeremiah 17:5–8:
Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that
trusteth in man, and [who] maketh flesh [the
five senses] his arm, and whose heart departeth
from the Lord.
For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and
shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit
the parched places in the wilderness, in a
salt land and not inhabited.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and
whose hope the Lord is.
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters,
and that spreadeth out her roots by the river,
and shall not see when heat cometh, but her
leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in
the year of drought; neither shall cease from
yielding fruit.
The one man trusts in the arm of the flesh and the
other trusts in God. The contrast is obvious.
Look at the instruction in Proverbs 3.
Proverbs 3:5, 6
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean
not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall
direct thy paths.
Do you see the two divisions? Leaning to one’s
own understanding is going by the five senses while
acknowledging God is to go by the revealed Word
of God or by revelation.
Because Adam chose to walk by his senses rather
than by God’s Word, the position of Adam and the
productivity of the earth drastically changed.
Genesis 3:17:
And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast
hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast
eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee,
saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the
ground for thy sake; in sorrow [labor] shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
In chapters one and two of Genesis there was no
curse. Before sin came, before Adam and Eve acted
contrary to the will of God, there was no cursing of
the ground. Adam was in absolute control of all
earthly matters; but immediately after the fall, the
record in The Word says that the ground was
cursed. God said, “In sorrow [labor] shalt thou eat
of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles
shall it bring forth.” There were no thorns and
thistles in paradise. Where there was no sin, there
could be no disruption like this. There was no
sickness, there was no disease, there was no death.
Why? Because there was no sin. Sin, whose
originator is the Devil, produces sickness, disease,
death; it produces every negative that is recorded
after the third chapter of Genesis.
Genesis 3:19:
In the sweat of they face shalt thou eat bread,
till thou return unto the ground; for out of it
wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return.
When Adam disobeyed the condition set by God,
something occurred to establish physical death
within man. Whenever we break the spiritual laws
of God, we bring to ourselves physical calamities.
Genesis 3:22, 23:
And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is
become as one of us, to know good and evil:
and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take
also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for
ever:
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the
garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence
he was taken.
The true God and His archenemy the Devil were
involved in an all-out battle. If Adam and Eve had
been allowed to stay in paradise after the fall, the
Devil could have defeated God. The Devil could
then have kept man in that unredeemable state of
sin forever if man had eaten of the tree of life after
once sinning. So that this would not happen, God
drove Adam and Eve out of the garden or paradise.
The question arises as to the rulership of this
world after Adam listened to the Devil and disobeyed
God. Jesus spoke of the rulership of this
world while He was here upon earth.
John 14:30:
Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the
prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing
in me.
In Chapters one and two of Genesis the prince of
this world was Adam. In John 14, however, Jesus
Christ declares that the prince of this world has
nothing in Him. Who then is the prince of this
world? It is the Devil. Observe Luke 4.
Luke 4:5, 6:
And the devil, taking him [Jesus] up into an
high mountain, shewed unto him all the
kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him [Jesus], All this
power will I give thee, and the glory of them:
for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever
I will I give it.
The Devil said to Jesus, “All this power will I
give thee.” Can a person give something away if he
does not have it? Yet Luke 4:5 says that the Devil
was offering all the kingdoms, all the glory, all the
power to Jesus Christ.
If at one time Adam had all power, dominion and
authority, how then did the Devil come to have it?
The Devil said, “that is delivered unto me.” Who
delivered it to him? Adam did. Adam transferred
that which God had conferred upon him to God’s
archenemy the Devil. This made the original sin, in
legal terms, high treason against God. Adam gave
the power which God had given to him to God’s
archenemy.
In the beginning God had conferred the right of
rulership, dominion, authority and power over all
God’s creation to Adam. Having freedom of will,
Adam could choose how he wished to utilize what
God had given him. The original sin was Adam’s
choosing to transfer his conferred power to God’s
archenemy, the Devil. The Devil then became the
god of this world.
II Corinthians 4:4:
In whom the God of this world [Satan] hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto
them.
So there are two gods. One is the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ and the other is the god of
this world, the Devil. If a man says, “I believe in
God,” I always ask him which one. The Word says
there are two.
The Devil now has the rulership, the dominion,
the authority, the power which Adam originally
possessed over God’s creation. Whenever the Devil
wants to flood a territory, he floods it out. When he
wants to kill people, he kills them. All evil and
disease are the opposite of what the true God would
do. To read a classic example of human suffering,
follow the biography of Job. It was the Devil who
killed Job’s children; it was the Devil who turned
Job’s wife against him; it was the Devil who sent
the storm. Why? Because he has the power, the
rulership, the dominion, the authority over this
earth.