Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
You said:

This could not be the case if Adam ‘was’ like that before the fall. What Adam ‘has become’ is new from the fall (and continues i agree).

Sorry, that isn’t true. The serpent lied. Adam and Eve would not “become” like God. They already were like Him in His image.

I see what you are saying about the Satan being a liar, but the best liars or decievers or false teachers are those who tell ‘half truths’. The ones who openly deny true teaching are easy to spot. It’s the ones who sound biblical that you need to watch out for.

That may be true of false teachers but satan is not a “false teacher”. He is the father of lies and he has “no truth in him”. Therefore Jesus did not say that there is “half-truth” in him. There is “no truth” in Him. Nothing. Nada.

I believe that what the Serpent said was a half truth.

This is why you are deceived. You believed half of what the serpent said when it is all a lie.

They did become like God knowing good and evil, but not in the way that Eve expected- a ‘desire’ to become ‘wise’< ,/blockquote>

As I said before Adam already knew the difference between good and evil. He was not deceived. He did not become more like God when he ate the fruit. He became tainted and thus still in the image of God but actually less than God as he now experienced and lived out evil in the way that he dealt treacherously with God.

Mark, you will never come to know the truth until you realize that it is God’s word that is true an satan’s word that is fully a lie.

The irony is that rather than becoming ‘wise’ when they ate, they became ashamed of their nakedness.

Another of satan’s lies, eh?

I think there is more to knowing good and evil than just experiencing it, but i am well aware that this issue has been unresolved for centuries, and people never seem to agre on it.

The problem is that until people understand that there is no truth in satan, many will continue to be deceived.

When I was first studying to witness to Jehovah’s Witnesses I came across a quote from the founder of the Watchtower. He stated that a truth told by satan is just as true as a truth told by God. He said that we need to accept truth wherever we find it. Now to many this sounded correct but it is not right. Jesus said that there is no truth in satan and so we do not accept anything that satan says as truth. Jesus said in John 18:

John 18:37 (NASB) Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

Jesus said that He came to testify to the truth. If He then says that there is no truth in satan how can we believe Jesus and yet say that satan taught a half truth? Truth is a very important matter and this issue is a key. For if we do not have a measure for truth, we will fall for anything. Trust the Lord Jesus who testified about satan. My friend, there is no truth in satan.