Your Enemy and Mine

     It seized him, throwing him to the ground. He foamed at the mouth ... gnashing his teeth and became rigid. When they brought him to Jesus, the spirit threw the boy into a convulsion.

    He fell and rolled around foaming at the mouth. His father told Jesus he had been like this since childhood. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him" Mark 9:20-22. 

     What is this about?

     To even pretend to understand God and his ways, our temporary life and future, we must start in the beginning. Otherwise, we're just making it up, believing what we want to believe. Maybe true. Maybe not.

In the beginning, God... It was all "good" until a serpent showed up. Adam and Eve, still naked, were familiar with animals God had introduced. Obviously, they were not shocked that a snake could talk. In Genesis 3, the snake easily convinced Eve she would not die if she ate the forbidden fruit of a certain tree, as God had warned them. 

     It looked to be "good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom." She ate, and Adam ate. 

     Who of us, not yet wise, wouldn't do the same? That's the point. Original sin. We're not responsible for their sin. We are responsible for our own. If eating forbidden fruit gets someone evicted from earth's most beautiful place, what penalty do we deserve for deeds far worse? 

     The "ancient serpent" in Genesis 3, "the devil, Satan," is "an enormous red dragon" in Revelation 12 and 20. The highest-ranking angel God created sought power for himself. When God threw him to earth, "his tail" dragged a third of the angels with him. That's what it says. 

     We can't truthfully explain our problems in 2024 without understanding the root of them, in Genesis 3.

Tomorrow: Like it or not