You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).
Whoever this "devil" is was said to be both a murderer from the beginning and a liar. Let's go back to the beginning to identify who murdered from the beginning and is a liar and father of lies.
It is generally thought by most that the serpent in the Garden of Eden story in Genesis is the devil and/or Satan. It is thought that he deceived Eve into eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil:
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate" (Gen. 3:13).
But let's investigate to see how it all really went down. The Elohim supposedly created the garden, mankind, and all the trees and such, and then what happened?
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:16-17).
Now enter the serpent. Let's see what he said:
[The serpent] said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:1b-5).
Okay, so we've got the Elohim saying if the two humans eat from that tree, they'll die in the day they eat it. Then we've got the serpent saying they won't die but rather they'll be as gods, knowing good and evil.
So now we need to see what really happened to see which was telling the truth and which was lying:
They ate of the tree, they didn't die, and:
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever (Gen. 3:22).
Well, it's pretty clear-cut as to who told the truth and who lied. The serpent told the truth. God had simply lied to them, told them they'd die in hopes that it would make them afraid to eat from the tree. He really knew that they'd become like gods like the Elohim and know good and evil.
The Elohim is like those lying parents out there who say some monster is going to get them if they don't stay in bed or say other lying threats, because they're not mature enough to tell their kids the truth and deal with having to explain why they really want them in the bed.
The serpent is like another adult, who upon asking whether the kid's parents really told her that monsters would get her if she got out of bed, informed the child of the truth, that really the child's parents didn't want the child to be up knowing what adults like to talk about or do after the children are in bed.
The Elohim is the furious parent(s) who curses the other adult for daring to tell his/their children the truth because they weren't good enough parents to tell the truth themselves. They weren't mature and honest enough to simply say, "You are a child and need to get some sleep. We like to spend time alone as adults for awhile, because that is our right. We love you and will see you in the morning for another wonderful day together." It's sad that there are parents out there who frighten their poor children by making up stories of monsters that could get them. It's even more sad—sick actually— that a parent would tell a child if he finds out something, he or she will die for it.
If it wasn't a good time for Adam and Eve to know certain things (like what their sexual organs are for and that they should be covered, as Adam and Eve certainly seemed to immediately know upon eating the knowledge fruit), then the Elohim should have simply told the truth and said that he would lovingly teach them things when the right times came.
Of course the whole nakedness thing and what their sexual organs are for and that they might ought to cover them in front of the Elohim (lest he get a hard-on for Eve like he did for Mary) is nonsense, anyway, because he/they had already told them to be fruitful and multiply. Duh... Surely they knew how to do it, and if they didn't, I'm sure they'd clue in real quickly by seeing the animals do it. It doesn't take eating fruit from a tree. All of my children have gathered the knowledge on sex and reproduction from early ages. My firstborn was five and laughing about our rooster "making sex" with the hens and calling beetles that were seen everywhere "sex beetles," because they were seen everywhere mating. He'd seen things like that for years. He'd seen baby animals. He'd had baby brothers and had listened to me read a children's book on how babies are made. When my children ask questions, they get honest answers. The answers at the age of three are different than that of seven or those of ten or eleven, but they get honest answers.
If the story in Genesis is true, then the Elohim are pathetic parental figures. There are plenty of human beings who soar high above their competence levels.
Eve must have been frightened standing in front of the god. The tone of voice from the god must have been horrible and frightening for Eve to have responded the way she did, that the serpent deceived her, because the fact bears out that he wasn't the one who deceived anyone.
It's stupid on the Elohim's part for Adam and Eve to not know they were naked, if he/they expected them to reproduce as he'd commanded. What an incompetent idiot!
Who put this story together, anyway??? It's really sad that we're brainwashed from childhood to believe one way so that we don't see what's really written there. If we toss away the lies that we're told we must believe, it becomes clear when we read the bible that there is a lot wrong.
There are some apologists out there who say the death curse the god(s) warned of didn't really mean they'd drop dead that day but rather that they'd eventually die, but of course that argument really falls apart for two reasons:
1. By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return (Gen. 3:19).
They were made with flesh bodies from the beginning, so from the beginning it was planned that they would eventually die.
2. The only way to live "forever" was to eat from the tree of life:
Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever (Gen. 3:22b).
If by eating from the knowledge tree they'd lost eternal life, then what was the point of the life tree, if they were designed to live forever in the first place? And also if they lost the chance for eternal life simply by eating the knowledge tree, then why should Elohim also not die, since the Elohim know good and evil? If that's a sin, who are they to say it's not a sin for them but is for us? Parents are to set examples for their children. It would also be very unjust since many other people who have lived have deliberately chosen evil, which is actually something bad, whereas learning what is good from evil is not and are supposedly given a choice to live eternally. Why would that be withheld from Adam and Eve?
It's all very asinine.
It doesn't get any better as you go through the bible. There are big problems throughout.
I will continue to write all about these topics.
For a fun bonus, I will leave you with a couple other things:
And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel (1 Chron. 1:21).
And again the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah (2 Sam. 24:1).
Was it Satan, or was it Yahweh? Or is Satan and Yahweh one and the same? Or do they work together? No matter how you slice it, there is a problem. Then citizens of Israel were killed as a punishment by Yahweh for David taking a census. This is like what Yahweh did to Pharoah. He worked on the pharoah's mind so that he'd refuse to let Israel go, but then Yahweh punished the citizens of Egypt for what he himself forced pharoah to do.
There went up a smoke out of [God's] nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it (2 Sam. 22:9).
Out of [leviathan's] nostrils goes smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron. His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth (Job 41:20-21). (See Isa. 27:1 to see the leviathan described as a serpent).
Whatever the bible god is and whatever the leviathan serpent dragon thing is, they sound the same. They both have smoke coming out of their nostrils, fire coming out of their mouths, their breaths kindling coals.
