Our present world order was started on bad faith right from the very first husband and wife. The breaking of trust is the building of distrust. Let me elaborate how this very first incident of bad faith set the stage for the world social order of today.
In the Genesis account of the Christian Bible, after creating Adam (literally the word means man), GOD placed Adam in a paradise garden, the Garden of Eden where Adam would have everything he could ever need to sustain his physical, temporary life that was sustained by the in-drawing of breath.
Yet much more than that, Adam (and also Eve, who was later created in the very Garden of Eden itself) also had access to life, forever life in that the Tree Of Life was available to them. There was only one tree from which they were forbidden, specifically commanded not to eat.
As with all things in life there were conditions, in this case just two. Firstly, Adam and Eve were required to take care of the Garden (Genesis 2:15 last part) that was to be their home. There was to be their responsibility. When you leave out responsibility from your actions, all you will get are decay, chaos and destruction. Responsibility is intrinsic to building a life of peaceful coexistence in all interpersonal relationships.
Yet much more than that, Adam (and also Eve, who was later created in the very Garden of Eden itself) also had access to life, forever life in that the Tree Of Life was available to them. There was only one tree from which they were forbidden, specifically commanded not to eat.
As with all things in life there were conditions, in this case just two. Firstly, Adam and Eve were required to take care of the Garden (Genesis 2:15 last part) that was to be their home. There was to be their responsibility. When you leave out responsibility from your actions, all you will get are decay, chaos and destruction. Responsibility is intrinsic to building a life of peaceful coexistence in all interpersonal relationships.
There was another condition. Many were the trees in the Garden of Eden, most, if not all, had beautiful, delicious, nourishing and health giving fruits. All except one, the forbidden one, which if eaten would bring eventual death through being denied access to the Tree of Life, the fruit of which imparts or gives everlasting immortal life. Adam was specifically commanded not to eat the fruits from just that one tree. Adam needed to know that there were limits and boundary that he and Eve were not allowed at that point of time to cross. Limits are part and parcel of responsibility. Does that sound unreasonable to you?
Apparently today many are the “rocket scientists” who think so, that it was unreasonable for GOD to forbid Adam and Eve from eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. To all those who think so, here's an allegory:
If you were granted citizenship in a country blessed with an abundance of blessing in all things good. Of food and recreation and comfort of habitation. Of ease of travel and security of livelihood. In short a comfortable, distressed free danger free life. Would it be unreasonable to expect you to obey the law of that country that you do not kick others around, cheat, steal, rob, plunder, rape and murder?
In life some things are good and some are bad. Sometimes those that are good for you in the long run may not be good for you in the short run. Sometimes things that are good for you later may not be good for you right now. That is why caterpillars consume leaves and butterflies nectar. If caterpillars were to consume nectar, none of them will grow and change into butterflies. A boy or girl of nine should not be allowed to drive motorized vehicle on public roads. Neither should toddlers be allowed to handle dangerous tools such as power saw and electric drills, let alone dangerous weapons.
It should not be hard to understand why Adam and Eve were forbidden from the taking of a knowledge they had not being successfully trained to handle. The world order of today is the consequence. That is one of the many lessons of the Christian Bible message. But religious experts and self proclaimed authorities on religion and the social sciences just can't seem to see that. Amazing!
Did Adam and Eve need to eat the fruit from the Tree Of Knowledge Of Good And Evil to sustain their life or their health and well being? No!
Were they deprived or in dire need? Were they in danger of harm or sickness or death? In hunger? In discomfort? In ill health? What was it that they lack, really lack? Nothing! Except the discipline and commitment to not act in bad faith, not to take to the path of evil to get whatever they needed, wanted, craved for and lusted after.
So what got them into trouble? Covetousness or in other words, lust and greed! Which one of the Ten Commandments did they break? All ten of them.
So what got them into trouble? Covetousness or in other words, lust and greed! Which one of the Ten Commandments did they break? All ten of them.
Was GOD being dishonest with them when HE told them not eat of the fruit of the Tree Of Knowledge Of Good And Evil, as the serpent had explicitly implied? Did GOD have a hidden agenda as the serpent implied?
Did GOD not tell them what the tree was (Genesis 2:17)? Did HE not tell them why they shouldn't eat the fruit from that tree? Were any of these untrue (Genesis 3:19; 5:5)?
Did GOD not tell them what the tree was (Genesis 2:17)? Did HE not tell them why they shouldn't eat the fruit from that tree? Were any of these untrue (Genesis 3:19; 5:5)?
Yet until today, almost all those professing belief in this same GOD continued on to disbelieve what HE had said. They still believed the serpent that they would surely never die (Genesis 3:4), they are immortals - that they have an immortal soul.
And they still would not, they still refused to understand that knowledge brings death only because of bad faith.
What bad faith? When you deal deceitfully with one another. When you try to gain an advantage over another in your dealings. When you, without being forced, made promises that you only intended to not keep, searching for a way out of performing your obligations. Whether this is through neglect, laziness or any other reasons. It is still bad faith.
Knowledge of good and evil, itself does not bring death. What brings death is having that knowledge and acting contrary to it. Knowing what is evil and doing it. Knowing what is good and omitting to perform it. Sins of commission and sins of omission. That is what brought death to the first family, and to all mankind ever since. That has been what brought death to Adam and all his descendants until this very day. Yet the disciples of the Christmas religion would have you believe that the very commandment that defines the foundation of good faith in relationships has been done away, nailed to the cross so we don't have to obey and perform it anymore.
Let me make it simple. You know that jumping into a hot fiery furnace would burn you to ashes. But if you still insist on jumping into the furnace, don't expect to be anything but ashes (2 Peter 2:16; Malachi 4:3).
Knowledge itself doesn't kill. It is acting contrary to knowledge that does. The commandments of GOD do not bring the death sentence contrary to the lies of the evil Christmas religion and the ego supergorging Apostle Paul. It is acting against or disobeying these commandments, that brings the death sentence upon all of mankind. Because all have sinned against these commandments and consequently against the CREATOR of all things.
When we make agreements and covenants only to get what we want without honoring or intending to honor our end of the bargain; when we buy and sell with the sole intend to benefit ourselves at the expense of the other party in the transaction.
When you marry to: escape poverty, or to gain wealth, or fame, or comfort, or to get sex, or to secure your life, or to show off. In short to obtain what you wanted or needed, but without really, truly and equally caring about the well being of the other party. All these are act of bad faith. Marriage is instituted by GOD according to HIS purpose, will and good pleasure. And it is a direct commandment of GOD to man and woman as the basis for them to have a sexual relationship (Genesis 2:24 - 25).
When you are in a position of power to gain an advantage over another unfairly or unjustly and you do so, you are acting in bad faith. When we make agreements for our sole benefit without considering the well fare and well being of the other party in the agreement, that is acting in bad faith. Simply put — fairness to all parties in all our dealings and transaction. That in essence is what the sixth to the tenth commandments of Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 are about. That is why the Apostle Paul wrote:
When you marry to: escape poverty, or to gain wealth, or fame, or comfort, or to get sex, or to secure your life, or to show off. In short to obtain what you wanted or needed, but without really, truly and equally caring about the well being of the other party. All these are act of bad faith. Marriage is instituted by GOD according to HIS purpose, will and good pleasure. And it is a direct commandment of GOD to man and woman as the basis for them to have a sexual relationship (Genesis 2:24 - 25).
When you are in a position of power to gain an advantage over another unfairly or unjustly and you do so, you are acting in bad faith. When we make agreements for our sole benefit without considering the well fare and well being of the other party in the agreement, that is acting in bad faith. Simply put — fairness to all parties in all our dealings and transaction. That in essence is what the sixth to the tenth commandments of Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 are about. That is why the Apostle Paul wrote:
Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law
Romans 13:10
The same bad faith of Adam and Eve when they disobeyed and took what they were forbidden just because a mysterious talking serpent sounded convincing. It shouldn't even matter whether the serpent was telling the truth or not. When you break an agreement you have acted in bad faith. When you take what belongs to another without their agreement or consent, you are stealing. When you take what you are expressly forbidden that is robbery.
They did not love GOD and therefore did not trust him. What was desirable to them was of more important than honoring their obligation to obey HIS commandments. That essentially is self expediency, pure and simple. Putting yourself and what you want over and above everything and everyone else. When self centeredness or selfishness rules in you, you will always act in bad faith whenever it becomes expedient for you to do so.
Today almost everyone who claimed to believe in the Christian Bible have their own twist to the Words of the Scripture of Truth. Their own distortion and spin of the message, tailored to their lives' orientation or philosophy, their self expediencies.
The relationship that the Bible deals with is not that as defined by science. It is about a relationship of mutual nurturing and caring for each other, built on a foundation of trust and good faith. And bonded by the love of the parties for each other. Take out the trust and the love is destroyed. Without trust love will die.
The same bad faith of Adam and Eve when they disobeyed and took what they were forbidden just because a mysterious talking serpent sounded convincing. It shouldn't even matter whether the serpent was telling the truth or not. When you break an agreement you have acted in bad faith. When you take what belongs to another without their agreement or consent, you are stealing. When you take what you are expressly forbidden that is robbery.
They did not love GOD and therefore did not trust him. What was desirable to them was of more important than honoring their obligation to obey HIS commandments. That essentially is self expediency, pure and simple. Putting yourself and what you want over and above everything and everyone else. When self centeredness or selfishness rules in you, you will always act in bad faith whenever it becomes expedient for you to do so.
Today almost everyone who claimed to believe in the Christian Bible have their own twist to the Words of the Scripture of Truth. Their own distortion and spin of the message, tailored to their lives' orientation or philosophy, their self expediencies.
The relationship that the Bible deals with is not that as defined by science. It is about a relationship of mutual nurturing and caring for each other, built on a foundation of trust and good faith. And bonded by the love of the parties for each other. Take out the trust and the love is destroyed. Without trust love will die.
And without love there is no basis for the relationship and what we are left with are individuals living within and sharing the same territory, sharing the same ‘earthspace’. When the expediency of the one becomes over riding, he or she will ultimately (to the degree of the self expediency) devour or destroy the other, even all others. That is the state of human relationship of our world today.
When trust is broken the relationship is for all intent and purpose, dead. What is left then are just the notions of a relationship (or inter-species relationship) as defined by our esteemed men and women of science. Symbiosis where two or more coexist together in close proximity without harming one another. Commensalism where one party receives some benefit and neither is harm. Mutualism where both party derived some benefits and neither is harmed.
And lastly parasitic which would include predatory. Unfortunately because of self expediency, that is how most inter human relationship will end up eventually as days turn into weeks, weeks into months, months into years and years into centuries. That was what the Antediluvian world proved, recorded in the lives of the men and women of that age.
That was why the life of an average man of the antediluvian world was almost a thousand years, to ‘test’ (i.e. to prove that they won't) if man would wise up and turned from this self expediency. To demonstrate that self centered man will never on his own volition turn from his evil self expediency.
At the end of it there were only corruption, wickedness and evil, such that GOD had to destroy that world because HE couldn't find even just ten men in it (Genesis 18:32) who were unpolluted by those prevailing evils. And this present age too is now nearing that same level of wickedness.
A time would soon be here when GOD will not be able to find ten men unpolluted by this decadence. But according to HIS will and purpose GOD will cut these spiraling events short, so the world would not reached that stage when GOD would have to stamp out all life as HE did then to the antediluvian world (Matthew 24:22; Mark 13:20).
All the crime and violence in our world are because of the proliferation of knowledge without the willingness to act in good faith. I hope you can understand now why the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil brings death, as it has been doing these almost six thousand years since Adam and Eve decided to distrust GOD and to trust a strange talking serpent just purely out of lust, lust for a power (of having knowledge) without even understanding what that meant. Because of the knowledge of good and evil and not having the discipline and commitment to act accordingly.
Please read the allegorical story of why the social order of mankind has been filled with all manner of evils causing horrendous suffering and violent carnage to all mankind ever since in the post 'Why Do Innocents Suffer If GOD Is Just' in the blog 'The Holy Bible Expounded'.
Knowledge is empowerment. Unfortunately for us, in our world built on the foundation of bad faith, that empowerment is only the empowerment to device ways and means to do evil and act in wickedness as and when we think we are able to get away with it without dire or undesired consequences to ourselves from immediately to any duration of time.
These all are not hypothesis but fully documented fact, lived out by men and women prior to, and right up to our present time. Just look at the world around us. All these the daily world news, the historical records as well as the advanced historical (or prophetic) records of the Scripture of Truth are testimony to.
■ Last Updated: 2019 07 17
Related Reads:
Relationship Basics Of Basics
The Missing Connection
Supportive Reads:
Perpetrators And Victims
Other Relevant Reads:
NEXT In Bad Faith Part II - Perpetrators And Victims.
In Bad Faith 1 2 3 4
Comments and questions on issues of doctrines, truths and facts raised here can be directed to this author through the contact form on the right side bar of this author's main blog.. Only sincere non malicious comments and questions seeking clarification and understanding will be entertained.
Note:
1. Words in italic referenced titles or proper names where this applies, otherwise these are personal notes to selected people who are familiar with them.
2. I have intentionally left out many scriptural references as anyone who wants to prove or disprove what is written here should read the Christian Bible thoroughly and extensively (from cover to cover at least three or more times).
3. The various chapters and articles discussed here are by no means exhaustive of the doctrines, prophesies, subjects and answers to questions on the Christian Holy Scriptures.
4. Scriptures quoted are from New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.
5. Please bear in mind that this stuff here is for foundation understanding and some 'deeper' verses and advanced doctrines are skipped.
6. The word or term 'man' is used throughout as a reference to man specifically as well as to all mankind (male and female) according to the context in the same way as the Bible used the term.
7. For the complete listing of titles and discussions of this author on the Christian faith (or religion) please refer to the Start or Home page of 'The Holy Bible Expounded'. Also listed in this post page are the latest published posts of all the Christian topic blogs of this author.
© Quah 2009 – 2019. All rights reserved.
Disclaimer:
All reference to GOD (in caps or uppercase) in this site refers to the CREATOR GOD whose original inspired Words are the basis of the Christian Bible unless otherwise denoted.
All published information on this topic is targeted at the true disciples of the faith, the Elect, not the false professed believers. Those of other religious faith who are easily offended by simple. clear and obvious truth are advised not to read any of the blogs entries posted here.
All views, statements and discussions are the personal religious belief and conviction of this author and directed at persons of same faith, religious belief and conviction.
Nonetheless any truly sincere seeker of the CREATOR of all things should be able to related to and understand the topic, if seeking said CREATOR in truth and humility, seeking to understand and to learn.
All those who are not interested in, or not seeking to know the truth should not read materials and articles by this author in his books or blogs as the simple, clear and obvious truth will most probably offend their sensitivity and infuriate them..
The author is neither responsible for nor does he approve or endorse any advertisement for subscriptions, products or services advertised in this blog space.
Please note that all discussions by this author are based on a general non expert assessment of information gathered from material published in the public domain (i,e, readily available to members of the general public). All of this author's discussions are presented as material for any and all persons with no special expertise. Anyone twelve years of age and older, who is not mentally incapacitated in some ways, would (or should anyway) be able to understand any and all the discussions of this author. You do not need to be an expert or a genius to understand the simple and straight forward truths discussed by this author.
1. Words in italic referenced titles or proper names where this applies, otherwise these are personal notes to selected people who are familiar with them.
2. I have intentionally left out many scriptural references as anyone who wants to prove or disprove what is written here should read the Christian Bible thoroughly and extensively (from cover to cover at least three or more times).
3. The various chapters and articles discussed here are by no means exhaustive of the doctrines, prophesies, subjects and answers to questions on the Christian Holy Scriptures.
4. Scriptures quoted are from New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.
5. Please bear in mind that this stuff here is for foundation understanding and some 'deeper' verses and advanced doctrines are skipped.
6. The word or term 'man' is used throughout as a reference to man specifically as well as to all mankind (male and female) according to the context in the same way as the Bible used the term.
7. For the complete listing of titles and discussions of this author on the Christian faith (or religion) please refer to the Start or Home page of 'The Holy Bible Expounded'. Also listed in this post page are the latest published posts of all the Christian topic blogs of this author.
© Quah 2009 – 2019. All rights reserved.
Disclaimer:
All reference to GOD (in caps or uppercase) in this site refers to the CREATOR GOD whose original inspired Words are the basis of the Christian Bible unless otherwise denoted.
All published information on this topic is targeted at the true disciples of the faith, the Elect, not the false professed believers. Those of other religious faith who are easily offended by simple. clear and obvious truth are advised not to read any of the blogs entries posted here.
All views, statements and discussions are the personal religious belief and conviction of this author and directed at persons of same faith, religious belief and conviction.
Nonetheless any truly sincere seeker of the CREATOR of all things should be able to related to and understand the topic, if seeking said CREATOR in truth and humility, seeking to understand and to learn.
All those who are not interested in, or not seeking to know the truth should not read materials and articles by this author in his books or blogs as the simple, clear and obvious truth will most probably offend their sensitivity and infuriate them..
The author is neither responsible for nor does he approve or endorse any advertisement for subscriptions, products or services advertised in this blog space.
Please note that all discussions by this author are based on a general non expert assessment of information gathered from material published in the public domain (i,e, readily available to members of the general public). All of this author's discussions are presented as material for any and all persons with no special expertise. Anyone twelve years of age and older, who is not mentally incapacitated in some ways, would (or should anyway) be able to understand any and all the discussions of this author. You do not need to be an expert or a genius to understand the simple and straight forward truths discussed by this author.
