The Christ Centred Cosmic Civilisation
Rod Dreher wrote “to order the world rightly as Christians requires regarding all things as pointing to Christ”
Christ is the One in Whom in all things consist and humanity is not the measure of all things. If a defining characteristic of the modern world is disorder then the most fundamental act of resistance is to discover and life according to the deep, divine order of the heavens and the earth.
In this series we want to look at the big model of the universe that the Bible and Christian history provides.
It is a mind and heart expanding vision of reality.
It is not confined to the limits of our bodily senses - but tries to embrace levels fo reality that are not normally accessible or tangible to our exiled life on earth.
We live on this side of the cosmic curtain - and therefore the highest and greatest dimensions of reality are hidden to us… yet these dimensions exist and are the most fundamental framework for the whole of the heavens and the earth.
Throughout this series we want to pick away at all the threads of reality to see how they all join together - how they all find common meaning and reason in the great divine logic - the One who is the Logos, the LORD Jesus Christ - the greatest that both heaven and earth has to offer.
Colossians 1:15-23
The Christ Centred Cosmic Civilisation
Episode 61 - The Serpent's Tongue: Divine Commands, Temptation, and the Power of Speech
Can the simple act of speaking shape our understanding of good and evil? Prepare to uncover how the Bible's first recorded conversation between the serpent and Eve in Genesis 3:1-5 holds the key to this profound question. This episode of Christ-Centered Cosmic Civilization examines the crucial role of Christ's verbal instructions to Adam and Eve, illustrating how God's spoken word is essential for interpreting divine commands and comprehending the universe. Our discussion reveals that human reasoning falls short without the foundation of God's revelations, setting the stage for a deeper understanding of the necessity of divine communication.
In exploring the nuanced strategies Satan used to tempt Eve, we highlight the dangers of reinterpreting divine commands outside their intended context. Adam's willful disobedience and Eve's deception underscore the importance of clear and sincere speech in maintaining alignment with God's definitions of good and evil. By reflecting on Ephesians 4:11-25, we emphasize the transformative power of words and the need for faithful communication within the church community. This episode serves as a compelling reminder to treasure and use language with care, fostering spiritual harmony and staying true to God's teachings. Join us for an enlightening journey that underscores the indispensable nature of Christ's guidance in our lives.
The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore
Well, welcome to the Christ-Centered Cosmic Civilization. And we're continuing to think about language and we might do perhaps two more episodes about language before we move on to another theme. I want to talk about the first properly recorded conversation by creatures on Earth. We've spoken about how language and even books existed before the universe, but when we get into the history of the universe, what is the first example of creaturely language use? Use and unfortunately it is the first properly recorded conversation by creatures on earth is that between the serpent Satan and Eve. It's when Satan is questioning the words of the living God in Genesis 3, verses 1 to 5. So before we have any recorded conversations between Adam and Eve, we have this terrible conversation that uses language to undermine the foundational word who made and defined and explained all things. I mean that has to sink in for us that this incredible gift of language, the first like real example of its use that's given to us in the Bible, is using it to attack the source of language.
Speaker 1:Now notice that it is the specific verbal instructions from the Lord God to Adam and Eve that are called into question. So we need to appreciate the character of those words from God in Genesis 2, 16 to 17. From God in Genesis, 2, 16 to 17. It's really God, the Son, who comes down to give verbal instruction and explanation. Let's ask this question Could Adam and Eve have figured out what the Lord, god, told them about that tree of the knowledge of good and evil without those verbal instructions from Christ? This is really important, like is it that they? How important is, how important is the verbal explanation given by Christ to the world that he has created? So could Adam and Eve have concluded that that tree in the middle of the garden was a tree of life? Garden was, there was a tree of life. But could they have concluded that this other tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and that eating of it would bring death? No, they could not, as far as I can see. They could not have deduced that merely by analysis of the world around them. They could not have understood the purpose and nature of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil unless Christ spoke to them. He told them in words that eating of that one tree was deadly, and their own minds could not arrive at that alone. In other words, then, from that, right at the beginning of the Bible, right at the beginning of the universe is not self-interpreting, nor does it depend on us alone for its truth and reality. Adam and Eve depended on listening and agreeing to spoken words from God from the very beginning. So that's hugely important, that the universe cannot be understood without the verbal explanation of Christ that's given at the very beginning.
Speaker 1:The notion and this is the great remember, the great kind of lie of the Enlightenment was the search for a religion that did not depend upon revelation, the kind of the great religious thinkers of the Enlightenment were trying to formulate, a religion that would be equally accessible to all people everywhere, based on the power of human deduction only, only. And yet at the very beginning of the world, the foot, the right, at the, at the heart of everything, were being told no, that was never possible, never possible. Not even in eden, not even in the unfallen world was it possible to uh, arrive at true, a true understanding of the universe without listening to the personal, verbal instructions of Christ, without the Word of God preached to us. So, whereas the whole creation is filled with the glory of God and preaches all kinds of truth about the Trinity and the gospel, nevertheless there are some instructions that he gives to us, in language, both spoken and written, instructions that we could not know without his words of revelation and instruction. So we want to get this nuanced. We know the Trinity and the gospel are revealed in creation and that we are capable of listening to that sermon of creation in that respect. But not all possible information or instructions from God are deducible merely by listening to the Sermon of Creation.
Speaker 1:In other words, then Satan addressed this one specific area of life in Eden, the one area that depended so completely on the verbal instruction of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son. Can you see that the point being is all this knowledge of the Trinity and life from him and all seeds, this knowledge of the Trinity and life from him and all seeds, all these things, light and darkness, all of that is preached in creation. But Satan doesn't attack that truth, all that truth, the vast amount of truth that is preached in the Sermon of Creation. Satan, as he is about to become this evil rebel and join with humanity in this rebellion, it is not the Sermon of Creation that is chosen as the point of attack, or even that we might say, the point of vulnerability At this stage, satan. Anyway, I think there are other times when Satan does attack the unspoken language of creation and he literally will, throughout Scripture and still today, provoke us and tempt us to even go against the language of creation itself and defy the very way that we are made and to behave unnaturally. Yeah, that is something he likes to do. But now he does.
Speaker 1:But at that stage, before the fall happens, before sin begins, satan did not question the unspoken language of the creation, but rather he attacked the specific spoken words of instruction that gave the meaning and explanation of the tree in the center of the garden. So let's think about that. How he did it? Satan wanted Eve to simply look at the tree and to forget or set to one side the specific words that Christ had spoken to Adam. So actually, let's just take a moment to just hear what happened before we analyze it.
Speaker 1:So Genesis 3, from verse 1, the serpent was more crafty or more naked, as it literally is more intimate, more relational. It's always hard to understand how that word should be translated. It literally is more naked than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. And that's important because just prior to that it says Adam and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame. But the serpent was more naked than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made, and the idea is not so much just obvious unclotheness, but it's that kind of Adam and Eve are naked to each other, open to each other, relational to each other, good, good in personal relationship with each other, relational to each other, good in personal relationship with each other. But the serpent is better at that kind of thing personal relationship and clever in relationship, successful in relationship than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. So that's setting us up to realize that his ability to get people and understand what they're thinking and relate to them is very, very good at that.
Speaker 1:He said to the woman. 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 from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat from the tree that's in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it or you will die. You will not certainly 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 good, knowing 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.
Speaker 1:Okay, so Satan? So he wants Eve to just look at the tree and try to see it, without any context, without any explanation, just sort of look at the thing we might say objectively like, without any personal explanation or personal view of it, without any historical context. We might say, just look at the thing in itself, like what is it, what's it made of, what does it taste like? Things like that, rather than giving any meaning to it. It's as if that's what Satan is trying to do, saying forget any words that have been spoken about this tree, let's just think about the tree. Words that have been spoken about this tree, let's just think about the tree. So, in a way, he's opening up the possibility for Eve to weave her own explanation of this tree, an explanation that contradicts the words spoken by Christ. So the strategy is clever, isn't it? To say let's imagine we don't know anything about this tree. Now what should we think about it. Or let's imagine that Christ hasn't said anything about this. Now, what should we think about it? In a way, that is the great danger of all the time of saying let's imagine that God has not spoken about money, sex power, life, relationships, everything. What do I think about these things now?
Speaker 1:Eve then had to think different statements about the tree, think different words to describe it. She described it as good to look at and useful to eat. That's her way of saying. It is attractive to look at and the fruit looks very tasty. It would be good to eat that fruit. So she's now speaking about it in a way, in a different way than Christ has given her to speak about it how it looks and how it tastes and the nutritious value of it. In a different way than Christ has given her to speak about it how it looks and how it tastes and the nutritious value of it. The nutritional value of it is of absolutely no relevance whatsoever, but yet there's so much can be said about this that if we talk about something that is sinful, but talk about it in irrelevant ways, oh, this is pleasurable, this is relationship building. This is, you know, describe it in terms that are irrelevant to what is the most important thing about it, to what is the most important thing about it already, that we are reinventing good and evil. But she does that. And then Satan asserted in words that the consequence of death was not attached to eating the fruit. So he now, so she is describing it. She's not necessarily defying in her words, she's not necessarily defying the words of Christ, she's kind of ignoring them. But Satan takes the extra step, possibly spurred on by Adam and Eve's attitude, but certainly Satan is ready to take that next extra step of directly disagreeing with Christ's explanation of the tree and he says no, you've been told that you will die if you eat it. That will not happen. That is not true. And so the new ways of thinking and speaking open up new and dangerous ways of acting and living, ways that are cut off from the word of God. So what we're trying to understand or appreciate is the stages, a behavior, the eating of the fruit, and Adam just eats it with no temptation or persuasion at all. He seems most evil, really.
Speaker 1:You can argue that Eve is deceived. Well, that's what the Apostle Paul says that Eve is deceived. It's as if there's an element of excuse about her. She's deceived by Satan. She is led into a position where she isn't thinking clearly and does something wrong. Adam is not deceived. He knows exactly what he's doing. He's not in any way deceived, he just acts willfully, evilly. So, in a way, the point at which this becomes true evil, the fall is Adam. Eve has an excuse. There's mitigation for her, but not for Adam. He is not deceived.
Speaker 1:But the point is this what ends up with that behavior by him is this pathway of speaking about the world first of all, ignoring Christ's explanation of the world and then defying it, rejecting Christ's explanation of the world, rejecting Christ's explanation of the world and then the possibility of behaving in a sinful, rebellious way is opened up. So this gets right down to the nature of eating. Greatest enemy of clear language is insincerity. So if we're not being sincere, when we are up to something, we don't like clear and precise language, language when we are being completely honest and open, simple, clear language is easy to use and it comes easily to us. When we're not being open and straightforward, we find it difficult to use simple, clear language, and that's what goes on here. But this problem, like what's going on with the way the world is described, first of all describing it in a way that ignores the language of Christ, then defies the language of Christ, the language of Christ then defies the language of Christ. See, this business about what is good and evil is being unraveled in all of this.
Speaker 1:The Father had spoken what was good by his breath, through his word, in the whole process of creation, and he repeatedly affirmed that this was good Genesis 1, verse 10, genesis 1, verse 12, genesis 1, verse 18, genesis 1, verse 21,. Verse 25, verse 31. Like that's on six occasions he says this is good, this is good, this is good. Do you see? So what is good? It was not something ill-defined, but very well-defined. Look, here is the creation with all its boundaries and structure and meaning and purpose. It's good, structure and meaning and purpose.
Speaker 1:It's good and evil is also verbally defined by the word of God. They are told verbally, clearly, to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil is wrong and will lead to death. And in fact, the creation itself, as we've noted, gave presentations of the nature of good and evil in the cycle of night and day, in the chaos of the sea and the stability of the land. All of that is teaching something about good and evil all around them and they are told this presentation is good. Pay attention to it. In other words, adam and Eve had a true and comprehensive knowledge of good and evil. Through trusting that word, who had made and defined everything in heaven and earth, satan wanted them to have a different knowledge of good and evil, to have a different knowledge of good and evil, a knowledge you know, knowledge here defined as the way you think, because knowledge, we might say knowledge is what is true. But I think we need to just make a subtle distinction here, like it's what we think is true.
Speaker 1:Knowledge is what we think is true. We know things. We'll say we know things and we'll say here's something I know I don't know you know. Here's something I know I don't know, you know, I know that at my local supermarket, oranges are being sold for 50 pence each. I know that, I'll say, but we may in fact drive there now and find that they're 60 pence. Did I know it or not? Well, I didn't know it. I was absolutely confident that, because perhaps I'd gone yesterday and seen that. But it was not true. But I knew it. It was part of what I called my knowledge. It's what I believed to be true and that's important.
Speaker 1:Knowledge is what we believe to be true, convinced is true. It may not correspond to reality, because knowledge, human knowledge, changes over time, because we discover things or change the way we think about things, and then we might once have known humans once knew that the sun orbits around the earth. Now we know that the earth orbits around the sun. We know that the earth orbits around the sun, and then future generations may know something else like it. But the point being, um, I'm not saying that I'm not wanting to create a total radical relativism, that there is nothing. That's true. There is that truth, but we have to make a distinction between what really is true, which we have limited access to, what is timelessly true, what is timelessly absolutely true. We have some access to that in Jesus, through the scriptures. Jesus through the scriptures, outside of him, outside of the scriptures, outside of God speaking, we have limited access to saying what I know is equivalent to the timeless knowledge of God himself. Look, I don't want to get too distracted by this.
Speaker 1:What the point being is that, when it's the knowledge of good and evil, it's really, we should hear that as what we believe to be true about good and evil, even if that is mistaken. So Satan wanted them to have a different knowledge of good and evil, to believe something different to be true about good and evil, and he wanted that knowledge of good and evil to come from their own words, with his deceptive and manipulative words. So the knowledge of good and evil they had was from the word of Christ and he wanted to replace that knowledge of good and evil with a different knowledge of good and evil from their own words and from his words. Satan says Jesus was a liar from the beginning, and when Jesus said that he must be referring to this, that happened in the garden of eden. That's the beginning, uh, and he lied. Satan lied right there at the beginning of the bible. The eternal god is the source of the knowledge of good and evil.
Speaker 1:But satan wanted humanity to grasp that kind of knowledge of good and evil. He wanted human beings to speak in the way that only christ, the lord, can speak, as as he is appointed by the father and empowered by the spirit. And he wanted human beings to grasp a way of speaking, a way of knowing good and evil that was based on their own words, a knowledge that we could define in our own words, in our own way, with Satan's own words, quote, you know, guiding us, and what we're learning is the power of words, isn't it? Words have this deep power. The words we speak, whether to others or within our own hearts and minds, shape our lives. Words define what we believe. Words define our experiences. Words shape the way we look at the world. They filter what we see and then they create what we do.
Speaker 1:When our words are under the discipleship of the word, then our words shape us and the way we see the world in a way that is in harmony with life, the universe and everything. When our words are spoken in the church community, in service to Jesus, then our words help us to live in harmony with each other, with all things, and in harmony with the very life of God all things and in harmony with the very life of God. Words shape the way we think, the way we feel, the way we act. It's important how we speak, and even if we speak in a way that ignores the words of Christ, even if we say, well, I'm not contradicting the words of God, but I'm ignoring them, even that is a massive step on the way to destruction. We cannot even afford to speak ignoring the word of Christ, let alone defying the words of Christ, listening to the words of Christ, wanting our words to be shaped, empowered, harmonized by the word of Christ.
Speaker 1:So when we want to change the way we feel and act, we we do change the way we feel and act if we change the words we use to describe our feelings and actions. So ephesians 4, 11 to 25 is a massive meditation on this, an explanation of this. The words we use and the words that we're thinking, our understanding, the way we talk, the way we think, changes the way we feel and the way we act. We can't unravel all of Ephesians 4, 11 to 25. Ephesians 4, verses 11 to 25. But all of this is contained in that, In our church family, we speak the truth to one another because we are members together, speak the truth to one another because we are members together and in this way we build each other up in the truth as it is in Jesus, the truth as it is in Jesus.
Speaker 1:But when our words are corrupt and deceitful, when our patterns of thinking are shaped by the world and our deceitful desires and the devil, when, when that happens when our words become influenced in that way and we listen to our deceitful desires and we say, well, that looks good, that's gonna taste good, that's gonna give me benefits. That's listening to our deceitful desires or just overtly listening to the devil. Then what happens is, once our words do that and we start to speak about the world and our feelings and our experiences in that way, speaking about them either ignore initially ignoring the explanation given by Christ and then eventually defying that then our hearts and minds and lives fall out of harmony with the living God and his world, and then there is no depth to which we will not go once we do that. There is no depth to which we will not go once we do that. So human speech is a gift from the Trinitarian God who has used language for infinite ages, and therefore our language must be treasured and used with care and faithfulness Faithfulness.