6.1 Seven Perversions
© 2019 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
We are continuing our investigation of the source of the false words that rule inside the minds of our brethren in opposition to the Jesus alive in their hearts whom they know and love. And I am continuing to use J.R.R. Tolkien’s metaphor of the “rings of power,” with “verses” or ruling ideas instead of rings.
And so we begin with the “one verse to rule them all,” that is, the words of the serpent in the garden. Along with this verse, I used nine opposing verses or ideas in Lesson 3.3 Sing of Good Things. Then, in this lesson I want to lay out seven perversions of truth found in the serpent’s words, and in the next lesson, I will reduce all of this down to three ruling ideas.
Limited Use of a Metaphor. I am using Tolkien's metaphor only because it gives us a convenient way to take apart and thus to understand the breadth of fake meanings found in Christian’s mind coming out of these seemingly brief words of the serpent. You see, I am a literature teacher, and God often speaks to me through story and through literary patterns. I have no other purpose in making use of such literature.
Here again is the “one verse to rule them all and in the darkness bind them.” – “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’? – You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1b & 4b-5).
To Turn Away. I want to present out from these words seven perversions as seven action points that define the thinking of Nicene Christianity, a history that I will explain more fully in the next chapter, “Falling into Roman Darkness.”
The word “to pervert,” in its literal definition, means “to turn away.” That is, the Latin root, “vert,” means “to turn.” “Convert” means to turn with and “pervert” means to turn away from. I use this word, “perversions,” then to refer specifically to the fact that the serpent cannot create anything, neither does he invent any ways of thinking. All he is able to do is to take words that are Christ and turn their meaning away from Christ inside the story going on in the minds of humans.
Double-Minded. Let’s create a model in order to see what this “perverting” of Christ word in Christian’s mind might look like.
As you can see, the double-minded Christian lives only by Jesus’ words, but he hears them wrong. He hears them through “You should be” instead of through “I am.” Christian has one eye and ear turned towards the Jesus of his heart, but the other eye and ear listens to the twisting of those words by the serpent through the preachers, “You should be.”
The Purposes of the Serpent. Although Adam understood clearly all the issues set before him, there was one major thing Adam knew nothing about. Adam did not know the meaning and experience of the Lord Jesus Christ living inside of His heart, sharing his life with him.
The immediate overwhelming purpose of the serpent, then, was to get Adam away from Jesus and Jesus away from Adam, that is, in the imagination of Adam’s mind. The second and larger purpose of the serpent was to get Adam’s eyes upon an image of superiority and to awaken in his ambition a desire for superiority. Other purposes, then, proceeded out from these two, including altering Adam’s definitions of God and of man.
Re-Writing the Definitions. You see, every purpose of the serpent coming through his words could be accomplished in Adam only by altering his mental definitions of everything. Because Jesus was not yet living in Adam’s heart, he did not KNOW God’s heart definitions of everything, even though he did perceive those true definitions in his innocence.
Whenever anyone hears a word, especially a word representing a very large concept such as “Christ,” each individual person draws from a large assembly of perceptions and ideas as they “define” that word coming into their hearing. If you change the definitions of the critical concepts in the human imagination, then it makes no difference what God means by those words, at least in the present moment.
Four Defining Questions. The four critical concepts in all human thinking are – What is God? – What is man? – What is the relationship between God and man, that is, what is Christ? And – What is the purpose of God for man, that is, what is salvation?
Altering these definitions, not just in Adam’s mind, but in the minds of Christians, takes an immense amount of complicated psychological trickery, all of which is accomplished in the serpent’s words. And the success of all that trickery is dependent on one thing only – driving Jesus far, far away from our knowing of ourselves, blocking out the obvious fact that we are coming out from and being sustained every moment by the good speaking that is Jesus.
What Is Christ? The first definition the serpent altered for Adam was the definition of the word God speaks, that is, the Bible.
1. Did God indeed say? The Bible is mental ideas for your intellect, ideas for you to figure out, to analyze, and to debate. [The Bible is NOT Jesus written upon your heart as every word God speaks.]
What is Christ? – Jesus did something back then and will do something “someday,” but right now He is far away “in heaven.” To take His place, God has given you the Bible and the ministry. The Bible is God’s instructions to you that you must obey. The ministry will tell you what the Bible means and correct you when you fail to obey.
Be Confused about Life. The next words of the serpent altered the words God had spoken with specific intent. “Did God indeed say, ‘You shall not eat of every tree in the garden?’”
Although Adam’s heart longed for life, and although God’s invitation was there to eat freely of life, God had not actually directed Adam to eat of life specifically. By raising the question of which trees to eat from and which trees not to eat, the serpent was turning, first Eve’s and then Adam’s eyes to the possibility of superiority.
The serpent’s second definition of “Christ,” then, began in the sight of Adam’s eyes, that “Christ,” God’s “real” image, was a superior heavenly appearance. The words connecting Adam to this superior image will come later.
Worship Superiority. Since the serpent is using psychology trickery, we will number his seven perverted definitions in an order slightly different from the layout of his words.
2 & 3. Your eyes will be opened. [The serpent did NOT know God, he knew only himself, and thus his statement “God knows” was 100% made up.]
In these words, the serpent re-defines “Christ” even further as well as beginning his altered definition of man. “Open your eyes,” joined with the sight of the serpent’s appearance, redefines “Christ” as superior heavenly perfections, external from man. But “open your eyes” redefines man as well. – You are your own source; you are sufficient in yourself; you have your own “human nature”; you are your own ‘god.’”
You Are NOT Like God! 4. You shall be. BUT – right now you are NOT! You are low and despicable. You are a worm. You do not measure up.
5. God knows good and evil. God is like ME – I am the image through which you must know God. God is transcendent and superior. God thinks more highly of himself than he does of everyone else. God is arrogant. God controls everything. If you lust after being like me (I mean “like God”), you also will be arrogant. You will also be able to control everything in your own life.
BUT – God KNOWS evil, and when he looks at you, he sees how low and despicable you are, worm. Grovel when you see “God,” know just how evil you really are.
Do God Yourself. 6. Eat of it – eat of the knowledge of good and evil.
Do you want to be like me? Here’s how. You are so low, you are so incapable, you make mistakes all the time. If you want to be superior like me, you have to do better. “Christ” is far above you; you are far beneath of “Christ.” BUT – you are your own source, your own “god.” You are responsible for yourself. Take the words God speaks as mental ideas in your mind and do them out from yourself. God is all about external performance. You will live by doing what God says.
If you want to be “godly,” then “do God” – yourself. Or at least try. And when you fail, lie about “doing God,” and when that doesn’t work, then cry, you weak and miserable loser.
Death Is Salvation. “In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die” – spoken by God to Adam in Genesis 2, words of deepest compassion foreshadowing God’s immense grief.
7. “You shall not surely die,” the serpent’s in-your-face rebuttal of God’s grief. “Death isn’t so bad. Death will be your ‘savior,’ and being dead is where you will attain to your new-found lust of being like your image of the ‘super-Christ.’ Being dead is salvation, or not, because the end of everything is like your new definition of ‘God,’ split forever between ALL good and ALL evil.”
We will find this contradiction of the serpent to have so altered the definition of Jesus in the Christian mind that an entire lesson, “6.3 Death as Salvation,” must be devoted to it.
Seven Action Points. Let’s reduce these seven perversions down to seven points of human action, actions of believing, desiring, or doing.
1. Interpret the Bible with your human intellect. Put ideas in your mind, and call your mental ideas, “God.” Agree or disagree with one another about what God means.
2. Desire and worship superiority. Aspire to something “higher.” Call “Christ” by outward heavenly perfections.
3. Be responsible for yourself. See that you know everything. Be your own source; have a human nature designed by yourself.
4. Grovel in the dirt, worm, for you are low. See “God” and know that you are not like God at all. Do not ever presume that God is speaking of here or of now or of you.
5. See “God” as a moral being, knowing good and knowing evil. Define “God” by me, that is, by arrogant superiority. Use “God” as your own power to control other people. Know that “God” hates your weakness and inferiority more than you do.
6. Make yourself better, like the superior “Christ,” by your own human performance. Live by doing what you think God means by what He says. Lie when you fail; pretend to everyone that you are a “keeper” of God’s word. Cry when even lying fails, loser. Know that “Christ” is always just beyond your reach.
7. Die. Die and see death as the “one” who “takes you to God.” Die and imagine that being dead will make you “like” the superior “Christ.” Die and know that “God” has made the universe just like himself, split between good and evil at war with each other forever.
Today. These definitions rule in the minds and thinking of every human descended from Adam. More than that, these definitions rule in the minds of almost all Christians, always opposing the Jesus of their hearts, the Jesus they know and love. In the next chapter we will see how these serpent definitions became the ruling definitions of “Christian theology.”
You see, one thing the serpent said was, in fact, the same as God’s reality, and that is the meaning of “today.” Today is always right now, this moment, the only today anyone has or will ever have. Today you are in the presence of God. Today is the day of death or of life. In this moment we live either inside of Jesus or inside of our fantasy.