Chapter 2 

THE INVASION OF PLANET
EARTH

IN THE FIRST CHAPTER we saw that the rebellion which fills the world today did not actually originate in this world. 

When we read Genesis I, we see no sign or hint of rebel lion. Instead, in the closing verse, we read this: “And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” There is no opposition present.

As we go on into Genesis 2, again there is nothing contrary to the will of God. There is a lovely picture of fellowship between God and His creatures. We read that God provided the perfect setting for man, that God and man worked together in happy communion: the whole scene is a blessed picture of peace. The One we see here is the God of love, providing for His loved ones, fellowshipping with His loved ones.

One point is worthy of mention here: what was the basis of this fellowship? We know that God is love; this is ever so, ever will be so. But there is only one thing that will truly satisfy love. Ask any true sweetheart of any age. Only love in return can satisfy a heart that loves.

We can command obedience and force our will on others, but we can never demand love in return. If it came that way, it would not be true love. Love must be freely given without any sense of coercion.

In order to express love there must be a choice possible, a choice to love or not to love. This choice allowed the blessed fellowship in the Garden.

Verses 16 and 17 tell of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was a tree of choice—the first tree of choice. (A second tree of choice appears later on in history.)

God gave to His loved ones the fruits of every tree in the Garden. Of these there were many, and the selection was varied and satisfying. But God used the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for a special purpose as a unique challenge. God said they should not eat of this tree, the only tree
on which He put an embargo. As they abstained from this tree’s fruit, they would be demonstrating not only their obedience to God but their love to Him. So simple to understand, so easy to fulfill. Just as we read from the lips of Christ in John 14:15: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

This obedience was the basis of the wonderful fellowship that existed in the Garden. Love was seen and known and enjoyed. How long this blessed fellowship existed we do not know. All we do know is that the heart of God found a unique joy with those whom He had created. And thus it was
until the events recorded in Genesis 3.

These opening chapters of Genesis are precious words. In a sense we are treading on holy ground as we follow the footsteps of God in relation to His loved ones. But these opening chapters are also persecuted words. These chapters are mocked and derided. No supposedly educated person can believe the events really happened. These words are written off as folklore—pleasant stories, but utterly worthless in historical value. Even many Christians do not know where they stand in their acceptance of the early Genesis chapters.

The theory of evolution—it really is only a theory—has been accepted as fact. As a result, all that develops from the creation story is treated as mythical. There is a good reason for this accepted attitude of unbelief. We will understand it more as this chapter continues. The real person behind the attack on the truth of God’s Word is not the atheistic scholar or scientist but Satan himself. Jesus called him the father of lies: “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44b). Satan has developed and encouraged this attitude toward the opening chapters of Genesis for a good reason. By preparing people’s
hearts before they approach the teaching, he is laying a smoke screen to cover his own tracks. Satan would love to get Genesis 3 removed from the Bible for one special reason. In this chapter we see the plan and purpose of Satan in his attack in the Garden and the unique pattern he follows in all
his assaults on men.

When a person accepts the story as pure myth, then he doesn’t trouble to profit from it in his daily living. Who would want to live his life instructed by a fairy story? And so, no one pauses in chapter 3 to apply it to living. Men begin their purposeful Bible study with Abram; at least there did exist a place called Ur of the Chaldees. They can feel their feet on solid ground with Abram and Ur; who wants the old legends?

Thus Satan fulfills his plan. If people must have a Bible, then let them have a carefully expurgated edition.

As we look now into the teaching of Genesis 3, we will experience insights opposite to what Satan would promote. This is not a legend handed down by generations of imaginative enthusiasts, but it is as up-to-date in its teaching and applicability as tomorrow is. The events described have their
counterparts happening day by day in every country. The temptations and the choices we meet in our daily lives, we view for ourselves in this tragic story.

Understand that this is the story of the first invasion of planet earth by a hostile power. Satan was in open opposition to God, but he had no power or capacity to hurt God personally. What he did was to strike at God through the ones whom God loved and created. There was a sweet fellowship existing in the Garden. If Satan could only break the bonds of that fellowship and cause these two in the Garden to step out into independence, just as he had done on that fateful day in heaven, then God would lose something which was precious to Him. Satan cared nothing for the suffering that would follow; all he wished to accomplish was a breakdown in the holy communion between God and man.

Now we can see how the battle is set up and study the techniques of this master spirit. This is how he moves against us.

The first six verses teach three things concerning Satan - his tactics, his teaching, his temptation.

Notice the clever tactics of the enemy as he approached the woman. He came in beauty and wonderful attraction, qualities we saw about him in chapter 1. This was no being to be feared, but one whose very manner was full of earnest concern and solicitude.

He opened his conversation by referring to the God known to both of them: “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” Notice the carefully planned attack on the word of God. He began by casting a doubt on God’s word: “Hath God said.” There was no open denial; that would come later on. First, doubt was quietly raised.

Because there was no resistance to the doubt, he quickly followed up with an outright denial: “Ye shall not surely die.” These words were a deliberate attack on the person and authority of God. Here we have the strange situation of the father of lies denouncing the God of all truth and accusing
Him of giving wrong information to the two He created. But the woman made no effort to give God His rightful place.

This simple incident teaches us much about the tactics of Satan. First, that he begins with casting doubts on the Word of God; then, if the doubts are not dealt with, he goes on to a deliberate denial of the Word of God. We can see the same approach in the story of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Matthew tells it this way in chapter 4, verse 3: “And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God.” Here again is the initial approach, “If thou be.” Our Lord went on to deal with this doubt by simply using the Word of God: “It is written.” The Word of God is its own sure defence.

We can see Satan’s original tactics brought to perfection in many churches and seminaries today. Satan has no need to go around personally bringing first a doubt and then a denial of the Bible, the Word of God. He has men and women who do his work for him everyday. There are many places where a man will stand up with a Bible in his hand, but not to read or expound it. He says words like these: “Does the Bible really mean this? Is this what it is teaching?” First he sows a field full of doubts, then he goes on to water the seed. He says, ‘No! The Bible doesn’t mean this; it means this.” In saying so he cancels out the true teaching and substitutes a denial of God’s Word. He sows the seeds of doubt, waters and fertilizes them by denial, and then leaves his listeners to harvest a crop of empty words from which no bread of life can be made. Some teachers will have much to answer for when they stand before the Lord in the day of judgment.

Having used these tactics to exalt himself at the expense of the honor of God, Satan then goes on to spell out his own perfidious teaching. We love to refer to John 3:16 as the gospel in a nutshell. We can now turn our attention to Genesis 3:5, the devil’s gospel, which he proclaimed in the
Garden with such remarkable success. This is the same program he uses today, has used throughout the years, with the same continuing success. It is sad that, in the world as a whole, the devil is seeing greater response to his gospel than that seen by faithful preachers of God’s truth.

Over the past ten years I have had much opportunity to work with young people on the West Coast of the United States, especially in the state of California. I have worked with them in church meetings, in youth conferences, in individual speaking and counselling sessions. I have come to understand something of the tensions and temptations that these young people face. I have spoken with many Christians of high school and college age, and they have shared with me the relentless and insidious attacks made on them to draw them away from their faith.

All that they have told me is simply an expanded version of Genesis 3:5. The same satanic thrust is there with the same careless concern for what happens to the victims of his lie. Let me show you the final result of Satan’s attack in  figures that speak for themselves. Here is a quotation from a film strip produced by a nonreligious group, Constructive Action, Inc. It is from a message called Pot, Rock, and Revolution. It is dealing, as the title implies, with the tremendous attack on youth through the medium of drugs. These figures are for five years ending in 1969: “In the
United States alone, 100,000 young people (two and one-half times the United States’ Vietnam war deaths) have been killed by drugs, and far more have been converted into mental cripples.”

Since 1969 there has been a merciful decrease in the Vietnam deaths but an increase in death by drugs among young people. This is all joy for Satan—the heartache, the shame, the utter uselessness of it all. What a price for a nation to pay, all for the thrill of an act of rebellion in the name of freedom and independence!

As I share with you the devil’s gospel, let me do so in terms of the experiences of these Christian young people, as it is presented to them.

Here is the gospel of Satan in verse 5: “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

There are three exciting experiences offered here by Satan, but notice first the way he introduces his teaching. He says:

“For God doth know.” See the satanic subtlety in these four words. “Here is something God knows, but you don’t know. God is keeping something back from you. Why hasn’t He told you? Here is something you ought to know.” See how Satan uses the name and authority of God to back up the
temptation he is now about to present. In a way it comes with all the authority of God, but it comes through the lips of Satan, and the main point in the introduction is, “You are missing something that could be yours!”

Then he produces his first temptation: “Your eye shall be opened.” And the young people say to me, “This is what our friends say, ‘You Christian kids, you go around with your eyes closed. You haven’t seen anything yet. You’re like day- old kittens. Come with us and we’ll really open your eyes.
We’ll show you things you never thought existed. Come with us and get your eyes opened.’”

I have also spoken with young men this last summer who had been hooked on hard drugs. In wonderful ways they had met Christ as their Saviour and had been delivered from the bondage of drugs. Speaking to me they said, “The exciting thing about drugs is what you see when you are turned on. You move into a new world of sight and seeing. Psychedelic colors twist and weave, flow and undulate; and you can see sounds.” Satan is truly consistent in his temptation; his first appeal is to get your eyes open. Remember always, his aim is to entice them to want to have this experience. -All- they have to do is to take the fruit of the tree.

The second temptation he offered was, “Ye shall be as gods.” Remember that this was the very cause of Satan’s downfall as recorded in Isaiah 14:14: “I will be like the most High.” Here he was getting down to the real business of being independent. If only they would take the fruit, they
suddenly would become free. As it was, they were tied to God, and in bondage to Him. Fellowship was just another word for bondage. If only they would step out, they would be free to live their own lives, free to be gods in their own right.

The effectiveness of this message can be verified from the experiences of thousands of young people. They say the one clear call is to throw off all authority. “Why should the police tell you what to do? You are big enough to decide for yourself!” “Why should the school or college tell you what
to do? You are old enough to choose for yourself!” “Why should your father tell you what to do? I don’t let my parents dictate to me. Why should they tell you what time you have to be in? I don’t tell my father.” “You Christian kids, you’re spineless. You just do what you are told. Stand up for your rights. Be a man. Run your own life your own way.”

These are the constant pressures on Christian young people. If only they understood who is behind it, that this call to rebellion is a deliberate move on the part of Satan to hurt God. Once he has destroyed their witness and their love for God, he is utterly indifferent to what happens to them. Satan dangled before the eyes of these two in the Garden the glamour of freedom, but he never told them the price they would pay—they and all who would follow down through the years of time. To youth the act of defiance can-seem brave and up-to-date; but it can lead on to a shambles of shame and horror, until one more name is added to the number of those
who died for no cause at all and a fine boy or girl ends up as a statistic on a drug report.

Satan kept the most alluring temptation to the very last: “You will know good and evil.” There never was an age in all the world’s history like the present time, when this offer is so manifestly proclaimed.

These young people report, “This is exactly what they say to us. They speak of the glory of evil. They say ‘You Christian kids are just a bunch of goody-goodies. All you know is good. There’s nothing exciting in being good. Why good is a dirty, four-letter word. Come with us and we’ll show you evil. Man, evil is so exciting, so thrilling. There is the thrill of the unknown, of doing wrong, of avoiding being caught. It makes life worthwhile. Who wants to be stuck with being good when the whole world of evil is awaiting you?’”

How real and up-to-date is this gospel of Satan! Its appeal is so demanding. Everybody goes this way. Coupled with the temptation within is the brainwashing that continues day by day through every means of mass communication. Amazing to me is not how many youngsters fall into the pit of failure but that there are not many more. Thank God for His in
finite grace and the quiet working of His Holy Spirit resisting the evil and strengthening the child of God.

The result of this attack by Satan is known to all. The two in the Garden responded to the challenge by taking the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In doing so they demonstrated their own will, they disobeyed the command of the Lord God, and they deliberately chose to step into independence. This act of rebellion began the activity
of rebellion all around us today.

Taking the fruit was not the cause; the basis of rebellion was the deliberate willfulness that led to such a step. Satan had said in heaven, “I will be like the most High, I will be like God.” He had said to the two in the Garden, “You will be like gods.” This became their choice: “We will be like gods.” Satan’s initial act in heaven was reproduced in the lives of these two on earth. And so it has continued down the ages, even to such words as we read in Luke 19:14: “We will not have this man to reign over us.”

Remember the real purpose of Satan in launching this at tack was to hurt God, especially to destroy the sweet fellow ship in the Garden. He achieved immediate success, for we read in verse 8 that the Lord God came to the Garden in the cool of the day, but those whom He loved were gone. Notice that God did not forsake man. God was where man left Him,
alone in the Garden. This gives us a beautiful picture of the seeking God. This is how God began and is yet today, always seeking the lost. This is what Jesus said in Luke 19:10. “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Thank God for His amazing love that seeks and continues to seek.

The bitter end of this tragedy is seen in the events following verse 8. The Lord God came, but no one was there. Then He called to Adam and said to him, “Where art thou?” Back came the reply of the rebel from his hiding place among the trees in the Garden. See the beginning of bitterness and sorrow in these first recorded words of man: “I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid . . . and I hid myself” (Gen 3:10).

Here is the first mention of fear in the Bible. There was no fear in chapter 1; everything was very good. There was no fear in chapter 2; everything was fellowship. It is in chapter 3 following the act of rebellion, that there creeps into the human vocabulary the word for the emotion which has the
whole world in bondage. Fear is uppermost in the world to day. Whichever country I visit, fear is written across the economy of the country, the relationship of the people, and the daily experience of the individual.

The price of rebellion and independence is bitterness and humiliation.

The invasion of the planet Earth was a great success. The devil could truly write “mission accomplished” across his record book. Fellowship was destroyed, man was driven out into the agony of existence, God was lonely, and all hell rejoiced.

But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
That is the next part of our story.