The Encourager
“The Assault on God by Rick Boswell”
Over the last decade or so there seems to have been an explosion of talk about the liberal agenda in this country. In particular, the discussion ultimately revolves around where God fits in to the grand scheme of things. Does God belong in the classroom? Is it constitutional to have prayer in schools? Do women have more rights than their unborn child? God and His word appear to be under constant attack!
As frustrating as the current moral climate is we would be well served to realize that God has been under assault since the beginning of Creation! When we open our Bibles to Genesis 3 we see the account of man’s first encounter with Satan. In verse 1, Satan asks a question of Eve. “Has God indeed said ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” The first thing out of the Devil’s mouth is an accusation against God. It’s as though he was saying, “Is it true that God won’t let you have any of this good stuff in the garden”? Of course the answer was the exact opposite as Eve explained to Satan. “The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, God has said you shall not eat it nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” The Devil then responds by lying to Eve, “You will not surely die.”
When we take a closer look at this conversation, we need to see what it is that our enemy is doing. In his first words to Eve, he is accusing God of creating all these wonderful things and then forbidding mankind to partake of them. He is assaulting the goodness of God! Satan then proceeds to lie to Eve about the consequences of partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He is assaulting the holiness of God. In both of these instances the character of God is being called into question! Let’s break these two points down individually for a few moments.
The Goodness Of God. The Devil knows that God is perfectly good. He also knows that man is learning about God each and every day. By calling into question God’s goodness, Satan tempts us to believe something different from what the Lord has revealed about Himself (Psalm 34:8). When things are going well and we “feel” blessed, we probably don’t need to be convinced of God’s goodness. When things aren’t going so well, however, we are likely to be more vulnerable to the proposition that God isn’t always good.
This author struggles at times to remember that God’s goodness is not predicated on what happens or by mood. The Lord has demonstrated to all humanity through the gift of His Son that He is perfectly good! Yet, instead of focusing on the incalculable number of blessings God has showered on us, we sometimes let Satan convince us that what God has withheld is actually good for us.
Nothing could be further from the truth!
The Holiness Of God. The Devil knows that God is perfectly holy! Any and all sin is a violation of the holiness of God and must be punished. Therefore, Satan works very hard to deceive us into believing that our sins won’t require justice. “God might be upset with you for doing what He told you not to, but He won’t actually kill you for it.”
This is the lie that he told Eve. This is the lie that cost man his perfect fellowship with God. If we aren’t careful, this is the lie that will cost us eternity with God. As Christians, we know better than this. We know the Bible tells us that, “The wages of sin is death …” (Romans 6:23). We have seen God carry out His threats against people, nations, and even the entire earth in Noah’s flood! It isn’t a question of whether or not God is holy; it is a question of whether or not we will remember this when tempted by our enemy to believe otherwise!
Satan still comes at us the same way he did in the Garden of Eden. May the Lord help us to resist the temptation to forget His perfect goodness and unfathomable holiness!
