Genesis 2: The Beauty Humans Have Lost (the real meaning of Genesis 2)

PLEASE PIN - The meaning of Genesis 2

Is Genesis 2 an analogy or myth, or a historical account? As with Genesis 1, there is some debate as to whether the continuing story of how God created the world should be taken literally or not. Most scholars think not, because of the writing style.

Yet, no one can argue the beauty of the passage. No one can deny that reading the words conjures up a longing, perhaps even a vague sense of déjà vu, as if deep within our souls we know that such a state of bliss and perfection once existed, and can exist again, if only…

Could that point to a truth hidden within the depths of this famous Bible chapter?

In this blog post, I’m going to look at what various scholars have to say on the various aspects of, and messages tucked inside, the second chapter of Genesis. By the end, I hope to convince my readers that we can come to a consensus about its meaning.

A summary of Genesis 2.

In case your memory falters, the chapter opens by stating that after working for six days to create the universe, God rested. After, it tells of how God formed a man from the dust of the earth and planted a garden for him.

There, Adam received his first command from his Creator: “…you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die [Genesis 2:17].”

After God presents each animal that He creates to Adam, God finally forms a woman out of Adam’s rib.

Adam and Eve live a perfect life, living in happy union with their Creator.

Why are there two creation stories in genesis?

Upon reading the first two chapters of Genesis, you’ll note that there is some repetition between the two. While that simply could have arisen from the author of the first chapter wanting to explain Adam’s existence from a different perspective, many scholars believe that Genesis 2 was written by a different person than the one who authored Genesis 1.

There are two main reasons for this. First, the second chapter is seems to have emerged from the Yahwist source, since in the original Hebrew it uses the divine name of Yahweh (translated into English as “Lord God”). Second, the chapter has a more anthropomorphic portrayal of God; that is, He is described as acting more human as He is in the first chapter.

This was news to me as I began researching for this article, as I’d been led to believe that the authorship of Genesis belonged to Moses, and Moses only. No one ever answered my internal question about the differences between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.

If I’d found a Hebrew scholar long ago, I would have known: the two chapters represent two distinct theological viewpoints and not a strictly chronological and unified account.

The literary genre of Genesis 2.

While I believe there is historical basis for this marvelous passage, to insist that its author intended for every word to be taken literally is to ignore the literature and culture of the ancient Israelites.

Most scholars take one of two interpretations. it is either a narrative that had begun to be passed down via storytelling, just before the Israelites began to put their history in writing, with the intention of teaching about God’s character and involvement with His creation rather than to give a literal account.

Still other scholars see it as a mythic or symbolic story that conveys such truth, with no history behind it.

So while the jury is still out regarding precise literary genre of Genesis – history- based narrative, or pure myth? – most theologians agree that the story is a carefully crafted, artistic rendering to reveal certain truths.

How God’s character differs between the first two chapters of Genesis.

The Immanent Creator.

If you spend more than six months in a church fellowship where the leaders insist upon a literal interpretation of the entire Bible, eventually you’re told that “God spoke the world into existence.”

Because that’s what happens in Genesis 1.

There, God is transcendent and seems aloof from everything He is creating.

But get to the next chapter, and it’s a whole different ballgame.

God literally gets His hands dirty.

• He forms Adam from the dust.
• He plants the Garden of Eden.
• He sedates Adam, takes a rib from Adam’s side, and somehow turns the rib into the first woman.

He is intimately involved with His creation.

And did not speak the first humans into existence.

A literal interpretation of Genesis becomes more problematic the deeper you dig into it.

The Relational God.

God realizes that, like Himself, humans need companionship. His creating of Eve highlights His desire for humans to experience relationship and community.

It also reveals how God created people to find union in marriage, one man with one woman. There are several arguments a person can take against it, not the least of which that many more people than not have practiced polyamory and/or polygamy than not.

But isn’t it strange that study after study has shown that the most contented people are those who remain in healthy, long-term, heterosexual, monogamous relationships? It’s as though God knew that one day not far from His perfect creation, humanity would fall and lust and greed would overtake us. So He inspired the biblical writer to show His ideal for us.

The Provident God.

By His planting of and placing Adam into a garden flourishing with all the food the man could ever want, we learn God’s desire to provide.

At the same time, God instructs Adam to maintain the Garden. So we learn that God’s providence has a flip side: we are to be good stewards over what He has given us so that it will continue to flourish and provide for our needs.

How Genesis 2 reveals humanity’s unique place and purpose.

**1. The way in which God creates humans in this chapter emphasizes two things.

First, we have a close connection to the physical world (science has proven that). Along with that, our bodies having been created from the very elements of which dirt consists is a clear message for us to remain humble.

We are not God and can never be God.

On the other hand, God breathed His spirit into Adam. This second point of emphasis sets us apart from the rest of creation. Humans and only humans were created in the image of God, having received a spirit like His.

**2. We are to steward the planet well.

Being God’s specially chosen spiritual beings, we are to be caretakers and managers over the rest of creation. The “dominion” we have is to be not one of exploitation, but of responsible oversight.

It is one purpose of humanity that you will never hear or read from a self-help guru!

**3. We need relationships.

I already touched on this, and will take a deep dive into it in a future post.

**4. We have the freedom to choose.

In Genesis 2, the serpentine being has not yet tempted Eve. Still, that God sets the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden and warns Adam against eating from it implies that humans have both the ability to make moral choices and the potential to turn away from them.

The salvation story begins.

The most poignant aspect of Genesis 2 isn’t how God formed Adam out of the dust, or created a companion for him, or gave him a home smack dab in the middle of nature in its perfection.

Rather, the most poignant part is its depiction of the unspoiled harmony among God, humanity, and creation. It is the ideal life for which we all yearn, the state of being that God, much later in the Bible, promises to return us back to.

It is a hint of where salvation – righteousness with God through faith in His Son – will ultimately lead us. Many scholars see the Garden of Eden as a type of restored creation, what the “new heavens and a new earth [2 Peter 3:13]” will look like.

Genesis 2: Much more than a myth, much deeper than its face value.

Given everything I’ve touched on above, I hope you can see that the rich symbolism permeating Genesis 2 goes far beyond a mere myth. If you’re inclined to take a literal interpretation of the passage, I hope that you can see that there are deeply ensconced messages that belie a superficial reading.

The second chapter of Genesis is full of nuance and beauty, revealing the character of God and the significance of humanity in His perfect plan.

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When Your Suffering Seems to Go On Forever

 

PLEASE PIN - What to do when suffering seems to last forever.

Sometimes, your suffering seems to go on forever.

Like ocean waves that never cease their pounding against the shore, a constant and steady motion, sometimes pain feels as though it’s determined to be your eternal companion.

In the post where I discuss Christian trials and suffering, I explain how I’ve been going through my own time of suffering. It’s now been over a month since I sustained multiple strains in my buttocks and lower back, but it still feels in the early stages of recovery (even though it’s not). It feels like it will be months before I can sit in a chair for any length of time, that I am destined to spend most of the rest of my life reclined on my bed (even though I know that’s not true).

It feels like this irritation will never end.

Emotional pain, I know from experience, is even worse, tearing at the fibers of your heart, crushing the last vestiges of hope and snuffing out all joy. Life looks bleak, and you can’t see a way out of the dark, miry pit you’ve fallen into.

Even for mature believers, the emotional pain of loss, betrayal, and wounds to the ego can turn chronic, sometimes feeling as acute and sharp as it did the day the incident that hurt us first happened.

It can feel like the pain will never end.

I wish I could give you a five- or ten-step program guaranteeing complete healing – whether in body or soul – within the next week. But I don’t want to join the crowds of so many mammon-loving preachers or self-help writers who offer false hope in exchange for monetary gain or small fame.

Usually both.

What I will do instead is offer you a few tools that can shore up your hope, determination, and courage as you walk through this tough time. Some might sound cliché, but the most oft-repeated words of wisdom are widespread because they work.

And maybe you need to hear them one more time to really and truly absorb them.

This, too, shall pass.

Well, since I mentioned clichés, why not start with the most relevant one?

Pain, both physical and emotional, is a temporary state. Even sufferers of chronic pain don’t generally experience unbearable levels constantly. And most physical pain only lasts as long as it takes the body to heal from trauma. In the case of surgery and serious injuries, that might be a lot longer than you like, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s only a small fraction of your life.

As for emotions, they are as fleeting as the bite of an irritable fly, as changeable as March weather. They are also one of the few things in life you can take full control over and manipulate to your liking.

Which is a great segue into the next tool for when suffering seems to last forever.

Learn to live in the moment.

I explain how to do just that in this article about awareness. Here, I want to touch on how it can not only alleviate pain, but also facilitate healing.

Before I do that, I want to speak to my fellow believers in Christ: no, this is NOT “New Age.” Though the idea of conscious awareness may have precipitated in the lands we Westerners call “the East,” and though the Easterners incorporated the concept in their respective religions, that does not make it a dangerous practice for Christians. Nor does it make it “demonic.”

I explain why in the article linked above.

To focus on the present moment, the here and now, is to keep your mind on the senses and reality that is right in front of you. It is to feast your eyes on the wonderful variety of colors and textures of the objects around you, to concentrate on the sounds happening right now, to be fully aware of the physical sensations in and around your body.

It is to be in complete control of your conscious mind, choosing to allow only a single, positive thought to dwell there. It might be “thank you,” or “I am resilient and valued,” or “praise be to God.”

If you are dealing with a long-lasting emotional wound, living in the moment pushes the past back where it belongs, thus pushing away the pain of the past. Even better, this acute awareness allows you to “hear” your inner voice, whether it be of your body or of God’s Spirit, gently nudging you to let go, or repent, or believe in your innate strength, or talk to a friend or therapist.

In other words, wisdom comes in the quiet moments when we are not steeped in the regrets of the past, or fretting over the future.

If you are dealing with physical pain, the immediate effect of immersing yourself in the present is that you see that you can handle the pain for just one moment. See, the frustration and agony brought on by physical ailments comes from worry. Will I always feel like this, will this ever go away, will I never be able to do X activity again.

And so, instead of experiencing blips of pain, one per moment, we experience weeks, months, even years of it within the span of a few moments of overactive imagination.

Imagination is a good thing, unless you’re imagining a forever full of pain and the limitations it brings.

Trust in God’s goodness.

If you’ve never accepted the sacrifice of the Son of God on behalf of your sins, there’s no better time than now.

If you have, most of the reason you feel that your suffering will last forever is that you are not fully trusting in God’s goodness. You can only see that the evil of the fallen world has turned your own world upside down, threatening to destroy it.

If you are trusting God fully, however, you can say along with the apostle Paul that you find contentment in whatever state of life you are walking through. You can know that whatever happens, God will eventually bring you into blessing.

Knowing that, your joy will be restored, your stress will fall away. Both of those things are two of the top medicines for receiving healing of any kind.

I might mention that it’s a lot easier to trust fully in God when you’re living in the moment. Because when you are, you’re not worrying over the future.

Worry is the antithesis and fatal enemy of trust.

Related closely to that…

Pray.

Our Lord understands suffering. He knows the sting of betrayal. He knows the horrors of abuse.

Before the Roman soldiers crucified Him, He experienced the agony of His body being physically ripped apart.

So, talk to Him about your pain. He’s always listening. Ask for help. Ask for guidance. Ask for comfort.

Cuss Him out if you need to. I know that sounds heretical, but it works for me.

How?

When I’m done with my hissy fit, I realize that God didn’t do anything to me.

I did it to myself.

Or, in the case of abuse or death, the imperfectness of people and the world did it.

When it’s all on you, taking responsibility for the choices that led to your pain is a huge step toward healing.

And a huge step to not making the same mistake again.

Create and repeat a nurturing mantra.

If ever there is a time a person is vulnerable to the negative darts of the enemy, it’s when they are experiencing any kind of pain.

The solution? Build a fortress around yourself. A fortress consisting of positive words.

Consider your situation, then form a brief, easy-to-remember sentence that will counter the negativity that is bound to bombard you.

If you’re grieving the loss of a loved one, it might be, “I honor [NAME’S] memory by encouraging and helping others.”

If you’re like me and dealing with a physical problem, it might be, “I’m healing a little more with every passing day.”

If you’ve been betrayed or belittled by a friend or close relative, you might try, “I choose love and forgiveness over bitterness and resentment.”

But however inspiring and uplifting your mantra may be, it will have little effect unless you put the next tool to good use.

Ditch all negative media.

That means…

• Stop reading, watching, or listening to the news.
• Don’t consume any doom-and-gloom or anger- or fear-based social media. Not even from your best friend. Not even from your beloved grandmother.
• Your life in general will get a lot better if you walk away from social media, period, and never return.
• Don’t watch scary or upsetting movies, T.V. shows, or videos.
• Same for books.
• Watch clean comedy and faith-based movies instead.
• Read inspirational stories and books.
• Get involved with an online group whose sole purpose is encouragement among the members.
• Distance yourself from negative friends or family members. That especially includes those who enjoy hocking their conspiracy theory of the month.

Your suffering will not last forever.

Most likely, the pain you’re experiencing now will have faded, if not vanished completely, within the next few weeks or months. Possibly sooner.

If it’s a physical pain that precludes healing, your earthly body will one day give up its life, and you will receive a completely new body that will never cause pain.

Not to mention a completely new mind which will be impervious to anything negative.

You can do this.

You are resilient.

You are not alone.

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Biblical Truth Vs. Hollywood Hype: Discerning Fact from Fiction in Depictions of Demonic Activity

PIN THIS, PLEASE - Are demons real?

 

Are demons real? From late-night paranormal shows to blockbuster horror films, demonic activity holds a captivating, often terrifying, grip on our culture. But is there scientific evidence for their existence? Or are they simply a figment of overly-zealous religious imaginations?

And if they are real, how do believers navigate the landscape around evil spirits? How can we discern the whispers of spiritual truth from the amplified screams of fictional narratives that depict spinning heads, gore, and violent physical attacks?

The beginning, for believers, is to look into Scripture to see what it says about the spiritual world. Of course, the Bible doesn’t give every possible manifestation of the work of the devil, just like it doesn’t give you every single scenario you might face where you will have to struggle to choose to act in love. But it gives us enough of a picture to act as a springboard.

In this article, I am going to explore the biblical understanding of demonic activity and contrast it with common Hollywood portrayals in order to help you discern fact from fiction on this issue, as well as develop a more biblically sound perspective on it.

The reality of demons: a biblical foundation.

There is a lot of skepticism about demons. Understandable, because they usually remain hidden behind the wall that separates the spiritual realm from the natural. Skeptics provide various explanations for demonic experiences, explanations that aren’t always totally off base (more on that in a future post). And while it’s easy for me to say, “But the Bible has lots of examples about demonic possession and demonic attacks,” those same skeptics don’t believe most of the Bible is based in reality, either.

The fact is, you can't find scientific evidence for the existence of demons.

Not any more than you can find scientific evidence for God becoming man and living among us.

Because, guess what? Science can only study the natural world. Not the spiritual world.

So I’m not talking to those demanding scientific evidence. I’m talking to fellow Christians, those who aren’t sure about demonic influence, as well as those who are, but need to be talked down the extremist ledge of believing that a demon awaits around every corner.

That said, let’s look at some of the biblical accounts of demonic encounters.

• 1 Samuel 16:14-23: An evil spirit tormented King Saul, the demon apparently only brought into submission by David playing on the harp.
• Judges 9:23: After Abimelech killed his seventy brothers so he could become king, God sent an evil spirit to cause division and conflict among the people.
• 1 Kings 22:20-23: The prophet Micaiah tells King Ahab that God had sent a lying spirit to deceive Ahab’s prophets to get the king and his army into trouble.
• Mark 1:23-27: Yeshua delivers a man from a demon when the man cries out to Him.
• Matthew 8:28-34: Yeshua confronts two men possessed by a horde of demons. He casts them out, and at their bidding, commands them to enter into a herd of pigs.
• Matthew 12:22-32: Yeshua casts out a demon that caused a man to be mute and blind.
• Acts 16:16-18: Paul casts a spirit of divination out of a slave girl as the spirit repeatedly harasses him.

Skeptics argue that none of those events involved evil spiritual beings, but that the accounts were either using hyperbole or explained events using the superstition of the time. However, unlike the Creation story in Genesis, all of the above accounts were written as historical narratives. And in relation to the authors of the early Old Testament, the authors of the history of the Israelite kings and of the New Testament had authoritative accounts to draw from.

The New Testament accounts of demonic deliverance in particular were based on witnesses who were there, witnesses who had reason to believe that Yeshua wasn’t simply healing people mentally or physically. His disciples saw, and subsequent to Yeshua’s death and resurrection, recounted the conversation between their Lord and the legion of demons, saw how the pigs went wild after Yeshua told the demons to possess them.

If you don’t believe any of these biblical accounts of demons are true, number one, don’t call yourself a Christian, and number two, the satan has you exactly where it wants you.

Why are there demons in the first place?

Akin to the question of Christian suffering, this is one of the questions of faith whose answer is hard to swallow. The traditional answer is that a worshiping angel turned against God, wanting to become God himself, and so God cast him out of heaven, along with a bunch of other angels who had joined him in the rebellion (Isaiah 14:12-15, Ezekiel 26:12-17). As two prophets known to have predicted almost impossibly accurate future events, it’s more than likely that God had actually given them a true vision of how evil came into being on the Earth.

Though that interpretation is debatable, and those visions may have been figurative, it gives us a starting point.

If the prophets’ respective revelations were literal, the next question is, why did God allow it to happen? The answer would be that He gives angels free will, just as He does to humans. But whatever the origin of these evil beings, there is some proof of their existence, though not exactly scientific. I’ll be delving more into that in the rest of this series on Christians and demons.

The purpose of demonic activity

Yeshua Himself stated that the “thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy,” most scholars interpreting “thief” in that verse as another name for the enemy of our souls.

If that’s not clear enough for you, there’s 1 Peter 5:8. “…the devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

For Christians, the devil’s ultimate purpose is to make them feel worthless or to deceive them so that they won’t live out their own divine purpose.

For non-Christians, its purpose is to hinder them from accepting truth.

Where Hollywood gets it wrong (hint: pretty much everywhere).

First of all, we must assume that Hollywood writers and producers are by and large skeptical of anything supernatural, especially when it comes to Christian tradition. Whatever their beliefs, they are paid to create movies that will make as much money as possible, which means that when it comes to supernatural encounters and events, sensationalism and exaggeration rule the day. They likely also take much of what they portray in movies from ancient superstitions or extremist beliefs on the subject.

They portray seemingly benign beings – even characters believed to be human – that transform into grotesque figures in a heartbeat. These beings tend to have superhuman strength, and can levitate and have powers such as telekinesis.

In the cases of possession, evil spirits do freaky things with their hosts’ bodies such as spinning their head around, causing projectile vomiting, and channeling an evil voice through them.

In the book of Acts (chapter 19), there’s a story of how a demon-possessed man was able to beat up seven non-believing men who were trying to cast out the demon. So it’s not far-fetched to believe that demons can do scary things.

However, most demonic activity is much more subtle, and in its subtlety, dangerous.

It consists of whispering negative and/or untrue thoughts into our heads, in such a way that we believe the thoughts come from our own minds. It often consists of whispering temptations. On occasion, giving into sinful temptation on a regular basis or opening yourself up to untruths can invite further demonic attack on your life.

What about playing with Ouija boards? Or playing video games that involve gaining supernatural powers? Reading the Harry Potter books? I’ve known of Christians who were convinced that such activities were guaranteed to cause demonic possession. Though the devil can certainly use ungodly modes of entertainment of all kinds to pull people’s focus away from God, the Bible shows us that generally, repeated sin and lack of spiritual vigilance are what invite demonic influence into one’s life.

Discerning fact from fiction: a biblical lens.

Let's lay most everyone's fear around the topic to rest, shall we?

The primary spiritual battleground.

Scripture as a whole indicates that spiritual warfare is primarily mental. In fact, I’m writing this post because the enemy attacked my mind the day prior, and kept working on me all through the night. 

I’ve had suicidal thoughts before. But none as strong and vivid as the ones I had last night, after I experienced a setback in what is turning out to be a difficult physical recovery. I won’t give details. Suffice to say that by the middle of the night, I had fallen into deep despair and couldn't see any way out of my pain other than to leave this life.

But through the despair came a faint glimmer of light. A memory. I remembered other times when I felt oppressed, or was experiencing a downward spiral of negative thoughts, and I made a command.

“I call those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ,” I would say, according to 2 Corinthians 10:5; or, “Shut up, devil, in Yeshua’s name.”

Last night, not feeling at all bold or authoritative, weariness bleeding through my voice, I whispered into the dark, “Shut up…in Yeshua’s name…Go away…and don’t come back…in Yeshua’s name.”

The thoughts instantly vanished.

Though my physical situation hadn’t changed, I no longer felt that life wasn’t worth living. I no longer felt like my physical situation would never end.

I was in a good mood within a couple of hours of getting out of bed.

Some would say that the enemy attacked because I’d begun teaching and encouraging my fellow believers in earnest. I am inclined to agree.

Twice in my life, I have heard first-hand accounts from non-flaky, mature Christians about how the devil physically attacked them with the intent of harming or even killing (one of the demons was a former spirit guide of a former New Age follower). But that’s not the typical M.O. of demons.

It is, however, an excellent reason to be in a state of constant prayer, as well as alert to your surroundings.

My experience last night leads me to another critical point regarding the Bible and the belief in demons.

Believers have authority over the devil.

James 4:7 admonishes us that if we resist the devil, he must flee. Why?

Because you have authority over evil by the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of you, as well as through the shed blood of our Savior.

While there are a number of ways a person can “resist” the devil, telling it to get away from you, to stop lying or tempting you, is the simplest, and it works. Keeping the lines of communication open with God, studying the Bible, and learning to be sensitive to the leading of God’s spirit ensure that you maintain the “whole armor of God” [Ephesians 6:8-10] so that the enemy's arrows aimed your way will continue to fall short

The importance of discernment.

In order to separate fiction from fact when it comes to demonic encounters and the Christian view on demons, we need to withdraw from Hollywood sensationalism and fear-mongering – by Hollywood and ignorant Christians alike! Most of the problems we have in our lives have nothing to do with evil forces, and everything to do with our own poor choices. The vast majority of accidents are just that – accidents. And most of the time when someone gets sick, it’s because they’ve made themselves vulnerable to the illness or disease.

A Christian who is grounded in both Scripture and a relationship with the living Word, and who is dedicated to living out a life of faith, will know internally, without words, whether or not a story about someone’s experience with the dark realm is true. Those same qualifications, as I hinted earlier, will also grant you a measure of protection from demonic attacks or temptation. They will definitely ensure that you recognize the working of the enemy, if not immediately, then soon after it begins happening.

As recently occurred to me.

Be not afraid. Be very not afraid.

If you are a Christian, you have authority over demons. No need to get obsessed with things like exorcisms, demonic infestations, or demon rulers over various regions of the world.

Read the Bible. Ask for wisdom and revelation regarding the spirit world. Above all, keep talking to Yeshua, keep remembering that everything will eventually all work out according to our Father’s plan, and keep living life in His power and love.

Because we’re not supposed to worry about evil spirits and the satan any more than we’re supposed to worry about anything else.

(For more inspiring content like this, you can follow this blog if you have a Google account, bookmark this blog, follow my blog on Goodreads, and/or check out the books in the sidebar.)