You Shall Surely Die
Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
(Genesis 2:15-17) NKJV
“In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Adam didn’t drop dead the moment that he ate the fruit, a possible meaning of the text. He lived for 900+ years. Is this a contradiction?
On March 2 we (that’s me and the Holy spirit) discussed the claim that Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 contradict each other with conflicting accounts of creation. The conclusion which we deduced was that Genesis 1 is chronological and systematic, while Genesis 2 is topical and adds layers of detail to Genesis 1. Genesis 1 and 2 aren’t contradictory, they have different narrative styles.
We all have the same evidence. Our choice of paradigm determines what we think it’s evidence of.
– Matty’s Razor
There’s another issue with Genesis 2, several in fact, and we’ll resolve them. The one we’ll look at today is God’s command to Adam regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. First of all, the reason why there was a tree of knowledge was addressed on March 11. The fall of mankind wasn’t an accident that could’ve been avoided, it was an essential part of the purpose of creation.
Today we’re doing some apologetics with the goal of equipping Christians to be able to handle the issue of evolution without coming across as ignorant home-schooled knuckle-dragging morons. Evolution on the scale needed by mainstream science requires death, but there was no death before sin.
God Can’t Lie
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
(Titus 1:2) KJV
What are the logical implications of “God can’t lie?” Total destruction of the mainstream science paradigm (SciPop). Figuratively speaking we’re going to do to SciPop what Samson did in Lehi with the donkey’s jawbone.
Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.
(Psalms 119:160) KJV
Logical Implications of “God Can’t Lie”
- IF God can’t lie
- AND he promised that His Word is true (Psalms 119:160),
- AND that not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law (Matthew 5:18),
- THEN the Bible is true.
- IF the Bible is true
- BUT mainstream science (SciPop) has a narrative for human origins which is different,
- THEN SciPop is wrong.
- BUT mainstream science (SciPop) has a narrative for human origins which is different,
- IF SciPop is wrong
- THEN how is it wrong?
- The errors in SciPop reasoning must be identified and accounted for.
For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
(Matthew 5:18) ESV
Faith is believing in something that you can’t see, because of evidence.
– Faith, definition
Proving that God Can’t Lie
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
(Genesis 2:8-9) KJV
We can prove that God can’t lie with a simple example. The universe was created in a corrupted state in order to manifest free will. Free will means that we can choose to be evil if we want to. Evil had to exist, and so the universe had to be created in such a way that evil is possible. God can’t lie, he has no reason to, so the tree of knowledge was God’s righteousness, it was God being honest about the state of creation.
In a sense, the command: do not eat of the fruit of the tree, was the first law. Sin isn’t imputed when there’s no law.
The universe was corrupted but, on the sixth day of creation, humanity wasn’t. Adam and Eve were pure. They also had to fall in order for the universe to complete its purpose. The thing is, the Lord God couldn’t make them fall, that would defeat his purpose. Humanity had to fall by itself, as a consequence of having free will and making a wrong choice.
When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge they didn’t corrupt creation, their eyes were opened and they saw that it was already corrupted. We were condemned and could now be redeemed, the ultimate goal.
Dying You Shall Die – Navigation
| Section | Title | Scripture |
| 1 | Introduction | Genesis 2:15-17 |
| 2 | God Can’t Lie | Titus 1:2 |
| 3 | Death Through Sin | Romans 5:12 |
| 4 | Dying You Shall Die | Genesis 2:17 |
| 5 | The Wages of Sin is Death | Romans 6:23 |
| 6 | Evolution is Death | Jeremiah 21:8 |
| 7 | Devolution | Romans 8:10 |
| Salvation | Romans 10:9-10 |
Salvation
- Call upon the name of Jesus Christ,
- believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
- confess your sin.
Read through the Bible in a year
| Reading plan | June 25 | |
| Linear | Psalms 103-105 | |
| Chronological | 1 King 15:1-24 2 Chronicles 13-16 |
Matty's Paradigm 