Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers…I thoroughly enjoyed preparing and presenting the last two blogs entitled “The Power of Prophecy.” I felt strongly drawn to that topic, especially since we are living is such crazy times when so many signs of The Tribulation are lining up. Jesus told us to be mindful of the signs, and to watch and listen. The presumption was that people would know what to watch and listen for. Unfortunately, today we are living in a culture that has not only drifted far away from Bible reading and study, but rather, out of sheer ignorance, mocks and ridicules such teaching. Therefore, my intent with those two blogs was to present end time signs, using Jesus’ own words, to hopefully provide fodder for what to watch and listen for.
But now it’s time to move on, and this seems like the perfect topic. I borrowed my title today from a book by Rick Joyner entitled, “There Were Two Trees In The Garden”, because I’m sure I could not have come up with a better title. I read this book a couple of years ago, and was very impressed with his presentation. He began by stating, “The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life” are symbolic of two spiritual lineages, or “family trees.” The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is a history of these two lineages. Understanding this can help us understand the most common errors besetting the entire human race, including erroneous teachings that have misled the Church. The trees are metaphoric for the dichotomy between Truth (God’s Word), and worldly teaching and philosophy.
Genesis 2:8-9, 3:1-5 presents this scenario. “Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and there He put man (and woman). The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. But in the middle of the garden was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the other wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die.’ ‘You will certainly not die’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”
Now bear in mind, Satan did not tempt Eve with the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil just because the Lord prohibited it. He tempted her because the source of his power was rooted in that tree. And furthermore, the Lord did not restrict Eve and Adam from eating from that particular tree just to test them; He prohibited the eating of its fruit because He knew it was poison. It was not just Man’s disobedience that brought death to the world; it was also the poison (the lies, deception and accusations) contained in the fruit that destroys Man from the inside out.
So you might be asking yourself, “What relevance does the story of the two trees have to do with the state of our world today? And I would say, “Absolutely everything!” In the Genesis scenario above, there were choices to be made. There was deception, accusation and temptation, the irresistible seeds that satan loves to plant. “You will be like God, knowing both good and evil”. (In other words, you can be your own god) The offer to participate in sin was introduced, and the result of all of this ended with Adam and Eve being banished from Paradise. Sin had now entered the world in the form of disobedience, and from this point on, Man had to take responsibility for his choices (ie. free will.) The first Paradise had ended!
Life is a series of choices. The Tree of Life IS Jesus Christ, who “came to give us life and life to the fullest.” (John 10:10) 2 Peter 1:3-4 gives us this truth: “The more we grow in our relationship with Jesus, His divine power gives us everything we need for living a Godly life through our knowledge of Him, who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them we may participate in His divine nature, having escaped the decadence of the world around us caused by evil desires.” Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and to set the captives free! (Us) “And how did He do this”, you ask? By arming His followers with the Truth of God’s Word! To choose Jesus is to choose life…eternal life.
The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is wordly teaching, or teaching that is contrary to the Word of God. Unfortunately, this teaching has made its way into our schools, our colleges and universities, and our churches. Today, God and His Word are mocked while the secular teachings of man, and philosophies of the world, are exalted.
The most challenging proposition to the intellectual mind is to surrender to something greater than “self”, especially when it is beyond our five senses. Apostle Paul nails this in I Corinthians 1:18-21: “I know how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognize this same message as the very power of God. As the Scriptures say, ‘I will destroy human wisdom and discard their most brilliant ideas.” (Isaiah 29:14) So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made them all look foolish and has shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense. Since God in His wisdom saw to it that the world would never find Him through human wisdom, He has used our foolish preaching to save all who will believe.” The world says, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Christ-followers say, “I see it (through revelation), therefore I believe it.”
When we are born into this world, we are born into an eternal morality play of “Good” vs “Evil”. Granted, we don’t know that we’re actors in a play, but we certainly are. The role we play depends on the choices we make. Ephesians 1 tells us that God had a plan even before this world was created, and Revelation tells us that after this world ends, His plan will continue to be carried out in the world to come. As we have learned from past blogs, those who are in Christ experience eternal life, and those who remain unbelievers experience eternal separation from God.
I will close with this Scriptural truth found in Romans 6:23. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The choice is yours to make.
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May God bless you abundantly,
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
I choose life!!! Thankyou pastorDAN!!!