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I will begin this with a supposition. It is only that, is not meant to be doctrine, or taken as absolute truth, for it is not given as one in scripture. At the same time, I do not present it without scripture. There are things in scripture that lead me to the supposition, not as teaching but as application of teaching we do have. I may be right or wrong concerning the hidden things, but it will apply to what I have to say about our loss of true wisdom in the garden of Eden, and how to find it again.
Suppose before God created the world we live in, and all that is in it, this was the beginning of a great contest, a war, between God and Satan, to see who would win control. An attempt iow of the devil to unseat God. We know that he existed and had fallen prior to our creation. We know from Job 1:6-12 that at least on one occasion Satan directly challenged God and God gave him permission to attempt to get Job to curse Him. Satan lost. In Revelation we get to peer into the heavenlies for a moment to see the actions of the evil one on earth and the great war that is going on there, and the final battle. At every point in redemption, we see this evil one attempting, through the actions of men, to stop the coming of Messiah, and we see him tempting Jesus to abandon His purpose and mission of purchasing redemption for many. We see also that Satan is a slow learner and that he is not omniscient. He is a creature. And we do know from scripture that there is a war going on in the heavenlies, between principalities and powers (Eph 6:12) and that it was waged against the coming of Christ first, and now is being waged against His people.
What is it that the Bible tells us Satan wants but to be God? And what better way to do that than to take all of creation, including all people, away from Him, so that He has no one, and the devil has them all as worshipers? He is said to be the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4) but of course that does not mean that God has turned His throne over to the devil or given up an ounce of His control. To think it is saying that is in an unintentional way, to agree with what Satan is attempting to do. It is he who has blinded the minds and caused us to lose the true wisdom that Adam was created with.
Back to the Garden. Adam was created with both natural and spiritual wisdom to walk with God. We see that he had full natural wisdom in his naming the creatures. He named them according to their created nature. We see that he had spiritual wisdom in that it is said He walked with God. To walk with God meant the same thing for him as it does for us. He walked according to the image of God with which He was created---good--- and willingly under the Headship of God. He fellowshipped in union with God, with nothing separating their communion. Perfect wisdom.
It was at this very thing, primarily the Headship of God over His creation, including man, the very problem he himself had with God, that the serpent tempted Adam and deceived Eve. And what is evil but this, and everything that follows this knowledge of good and evil? The desire in man to have autonomy, to answer to no one but himself, threw us into a state of losing both our natural and spiritual wisdom, and our fellowship with God in His very presence. Sin, and sinful man, cannot approach His holiness. Now, everything we know in the natural, we must first learn, and our spiritual wisdom is lost because it is tainted by what has now become enmity with. Our desire for autonomy, to not be under His control, along with desires for evil, the knowledge of which we now have. And though a great deal of this knowledge that we search for, if not all of it, is an attempt to find a way out of the curse of the law of God, which pronounces toil, and suffering and pain all arriving at the same place, death. Philosophers have been attempting this from ancient times. Religion tries and fails. Self-help, psychology, new age, meditation, a futile attempt to keep the law that we now have through scripture,---nothing will lead to spiritual understanding and wisdom. It arrives only at foolishness. Natural wisdom will never lead to spiritual wisdom.
But in this war for dominion, for the annihilation of any person belonging to God, God has always kept some for Himself, through faith. And we can argue till the cows come home whether the faith was inherent in them or given by God, but the way I see it is, it would require spiritual wisdom to seek the shelter of God as our Head. God can do this, give that Spiritual wisdom to those He chooses (speaking now of what is seen in the OT in the OT saints, and those said to have a heart after God). And it is not far-fetched to suppose that He would as His battle plan. The coming of the Redeemer was progressive, as God Himself began to teach about Himself, eventually through the Sinai covenant, and the covenant of promise of the Seed with Abraham, and through the prophets, (who in large part were the attorneys of the Sinai covenant.) Just as sin, and the loss of spiritual wisdom, is a progressive and fatal disease, (Satan's battle tactic), so is the unfolding of life for the dead, and light to the darkened world.
So how do we get back our lost spiritual wisdom? Where can it be found if reason and learning won't lead us there? It is found only in Christ. 1 Cor 1:26-31 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
Eph 1:17-23 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
God wins the war through Jesus who died, placing on Him the sins of those who put their trust in Him, paying their debt, and sealing them with His righteousness in the Holy Spirit. In Christ a people are kept for God who will inherit the earth. A new heaven and new earth Rev 22. The devil and his minions and all the wicked destroyed. Gone forever. Rev 20:10-15 He takes hold of a people who dwell in the kingdom of darkness and brings them into the kingdom of the Son He loves. (Col 1:13)
Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.
Suppose before God created the world we live in, and all that is in it, this was the beginning of a great contest, a war, between God and Satan, to see who would win control. An attempt iow of the devil to unseat God. We know that he existed and had fallen prior to our creation. We know from Job 1:6-12 that at least on one occasion Satan directly challenged God and God gave him permission to attempt to get Job to curse Him. Satan lost. In Revelation we get to peer into the heavenlies for a moment to see the actions of the evil one on earth and the great war that is going on there, and the final battle. At every point in redemption, we see this evil one attempting, through the actions of men, to stop the coming of Messiah, and we see him tempting Jesus to abandon His purpose and mission of purchasing redemption for many. We see also that Satan is a slow learner and that he is not omniscient. He is a creature. And we do know from scripture that there is a war going on in the heavenlies, between principalities and powers (Eph 6:12) and that it was waged against the coming of Christ first, and now is being waged against His people.
What is it that the Bible tells us Satan wants but to be God? And what better way to do that than to take all of creation, including all people, away from Him, so that He has no one, and the devil has them all as worshipers? He is said to be the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4) but of course that does not mean that God has turned His throne over to the devil or given up an ounce of His control. To think it is saying that is in an unintentional way, to agree with what Satan is attempting to do. It is he who has blinded the minds and caused us to lose the true wisdom that Adam was created with.
Back to the Garden. Adam was created with both natural and spiritual wisdom to walk with God. We see that he had full natural wisdom in his naming the creatures. He named them according to their created nature. We see that he had spiritual wisdom in that it is said He walked with God. To walk with God meant the same thing for him as it does for us. He walked according to the image of God with which He was created---good--- and willingly under the Headship of God. He fellowshipped in union with God, with nothing separating their communion. Perfect wisdom.
It was at this very thing, primarily the Headship of God over His creation, including man, the very problem he himself had with God, that the serpent tempted Adam and deceived Eve. And what is evil but this, and everything that follows this knowledge of good and evil? The desire in man to have autonomy, to answer to no one but himself, threw us into a state of losing both our natural and spiritual wisdom, and our fellowship with God in His very presence. Sin, and sinful man, cannot approach His holiness. Now, everything we know in the natural, we must first learn, and our spiritual wisdom is lost because it is tainted by what has now become enmity with. Our desire for autonomy, to not be under His control, along with desires for evil, the knowledge of which we now have. And though a great deal of this knowledge that we search for, if not all of it, is an attempt to find a way out of the curse of the law of God, which pronounces toil, and suffering and pain all arriving at the same place, death. Philosophers have been attempting this from ancient times. Religion tries and fails. Self-help, psychology, new age, meditation, a futile attempt to keep the law that we now have through scripture,---nothing will lead to spiritual understanding and wisdom. It arrives only at foolishness. Natural wisdom will never lead to spiritual wisdom.
But in this war for dominion, for the annihilation of any person belonging to God, God has always kept some for Himself, through faith. And we can argue till the cows come home whether the faith was inherent in them or given by God, but the way I see it is, it would require spiritual wisdom to seek the shelter of God as our Head. God can do this, give that Spiritual wisdom to those He chooses (speaking now of what is seen in the OT in the OT saints, and those said to have a heart after God). And it is not far-fetched to suppose that He would as His battle plan. The coming of the Redeemer was progressive, as God Himself began to teach about Himself, eventually through the Sinai covenant, and the covenant of promise of the Seed with Abraham, and through the prophets, (who in large part were the attorneys of the Sinai covenant.) Just as sin, and the loss of spiritual wisdom, is a progressive and fatal disease, (Satan's battle tactic), so is the unfolding of life for the dead, and light to the darkened world.
So how do we get back our lost spiritual wisdom? Where can it be found if reason and learning won't lead us there? It is found only in Christ. 1 Cor 1:26-31 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
Eph 1:17-23 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
God wins the war through Jesus who died, placing on Him the sins of those who put their trust in Him, paying their debt, and sealing them with His righteousness in the Holy Spirit. In Christ a people are kept for God who will inherit the earth. A new heaven and new earth Rev 22. The devil and his minions and all the wicked destroyed. Gone forever. Rev 20:10-15 He takes hold of a people who dwell in the kingdom of darkness and brings them into the kingdom of the Son He loves. (Col 1:13)
Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.