By REV. CARL G. RALSTON

Church of the Lord Jesus Christ

“Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord had made. And he said unto the woman, yea hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1).

There are some people that may have trouble with a serpent being able to talk. They are not able to take it as a literal statement, because they have never seen a serpent talk or communicate with a person. One must remember none of us were there; we can’t be sure whether or not communication before the fall of man into sin was possible. The Bible does not tell us.

Should one think that this is absurd, consider this; our government has spent many millions of dollars on research trying to communicate with animals such as gorillas, chimpanzees and dolphins. Let us remember the apostle Paul said, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his sublimity, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2nd Corinthians 11:3).

Also, Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2nd Peter 2:16) confirms another incident in Gods word in which an animal, this time a donkey, literally spoke “with its voice of man, it forbade the madness of the prophet” Balaam.

For them that are still in doubt, they need to search the pagan religions of the world and see what they reveal. India has the hooded cobra of Hinduism. Scandinavia has the Midgard Serpent; the Greeks have the god, Python. The Egyptians have Uraeus, the Aztecs have their savior-god, Haitians worship the Great Serpent, American Hopi Indians perform the ceremony of the snake dance, and there are multitudes of others. Even our medical profession has paid homage to Aesculapius (the image of a snake wrapped around a staff).

In all of the pagan religions above and many more, the lies that the serpent fed to Eve are accepted as truth. But for who those believe the Bible, its certainly consistent for one who is called “the God of this world.”

As it says in the Bible, “that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world” (2nd Corinthians 4:4 and Revelation 12:9). Satan’s ultimate goal is not serpent worship, nor is his master strategy for deceiving the world. His intent is to destroy the communication between God and the people that God has created.

God gave man a command that was an absolute command. He told him that he could eat of any tree in the garden, except one. It was a test of obedience to see if he and Eve loved God. Remember, Jesus said in the Gospel of John, Chapter 14, that if a man loves him (Jesus), he will do what he days. The consequence of disobeying God’s absolute command was death, physical death and separation from God forever.

We must remember, that when we get into a dialogue over something that we believe to be absolute truth, an adversary’s goal is simply to get us to move from our position — in just any direction. Once we’ve moved away from our steadfast position, the slide begins that ultimately ends in destruction.

This tactic, which began in the Garden of Eden has been used throughout history to get people to change their views — most of all, their fixed views.

We can trace the serpent’s lies from Genesis 3 all through the history of mankind and also find them in nearly all religions. Its Satan’s strategy to nullify God’s communication to mankind. We can say this about Satan and his process — it always is the three “d’s” — doubt, denial and deceit. He plants doubt and goes from there.

The Apostle Peter, in his first Epistle, gives those of us who would fight the fight of faith our marching orders. “Be sober; be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in (experienced by) your brethren that are in the world” (1st Peter 5:8-9).

Ephesians 6 tells us that we are to take up the “sword of the spirit (God’s Word).” It’s the defensive posture that we “may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand.”

The Apostle Paul wrote, in 2nd Timothy 2:15, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth.” The group of onlookers, on the day of Pentecost, in the second chapter of Acts, asked Peter, “Men and brethren what shall we do?” They were brethren that asked Peter. Peter responded by saying, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off …” (Acts 2:38-39).

Have you received the Holy Ghost?