The Knowledge of Good and Evil, Part 2 of 3

Daniel 12:4  But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

The Bible often refers to two different types of knowledge, the knowledge of God, which include wisdom as an active attribute, which was given to Solomon and the knowledge of good and evil. Proverbs 2:5  Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.   1 Corinthians 15:34  Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.  Then there is that type of knowledge described as the knowledge of good and evil.  The use of the term good an evil is a Merism.  A Merism invokes a statement of “polar extremes” as a way of embracing everything that lies between them.  Therefore the knowledge of good and evil encompass the knowledge of the universe.   Genesis 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:...  

At the close of Daniel’s prophecies he was instructed to, seal the book of prophecies until the time of the end.    The last part of Daniel 12:4 should make us think of the transportation age and the knowledge explosion that took place within the past century.  Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.   At least 6000 years have passed since God created Adam.  The destruction of the tower of Babel and the confusion of the languages was used to control the flow of knowledge until the time of the end.  Genesis 11:7  Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.  This control factor slowed the dispersion of the knowledge of good and evil so that God was able to maintained the timetable that he had established from the beginning of the world.  

The knowledge of good and evil or all the knowledge of the universe has increased exponentially within the last one hundred years.  All but the last hundred years of man's existence he has either walked or rode animals as a major mode of transportation.  The 20^th Century saw man invent automobiles, planes and spacecrafts and even travel to the moon.  Think about this, a couple of centuries ago, It took men 160 years to produce a steam engine that really worked,  from conception to completion.  The nuclear bomb was built in just 6 years a few decades ago, and today’s tech inventions fly from paper to prototype in just days, and is mass production in mere weeks!  As Daniel prophesied, many are traveling to and fro, and the knowledge of the universe  has increased.   There is a downside to this travel and knowledge that God in his infinitive wisdom was trying to protect man from.   The spread of diseases is one downside that quickly comes to mind.

Isaiah 5:20  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!  The knowledge of good and evil have overshadowed the knowledge of God and it is being used today to discredit or reshape the teachings of the Bible.   That which once was considered sacred is now considered to be wrong and evil is now considered good.  Our political and religious leaders are speedily embracing policies and doctrines that are contrary to the teaching of the Word of God, and it is being hailed as a good thing by the masses.

It began in the Garden of Eden, a flagrant attempt by the Devil to discredit the word of God by planting a subtle seed of doubt in the hearer's mind.   Once the doorway to the knowledge of good and evil, or all of the knowledge of the universe was open, God and the Devil knew that this knowledge would continue to grow and the seeds of doubt would flourish.   Playing loose with the interpretation of what God said is a tool that the Devil that has used down through the ages.  This seed of doubt manifested itself when God was dealing with Abraham and Sarah and it again reared its ugly head when the Angel announced the birth of John the Baptist.  The knowledge of the universe has allowed the 'created' to question the validity of the 'creator'. 

 There is an increased level of disbelief  in todays society and it is proportional to the spread of the knowledge of good and evil.   Many who came of age in a Christian environment are finding it hard to maintain their indoctrinated views in a changing world.   This level of disbelief is aided by those who casting aside the contextual nature of the scripture, misinterpret and misapply the scripture in favor of sermonizing events as if they were a separate entity.  This is done to produce messages that caters to the indoctrinated and emotional state of humanity, producing an emotional high that is often referred to as the 'Spirit of God.' This concept cannot be sustained through a deeper understanding of the Word of God, nor by common sense.  It is the root cause that many are walking away from the teachings of old.

An essential part of the knowledge of God was the fear of God.  Proverbs 1:7  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.  The fear of God has been cast aside and a more friendly and politically correct version of God has been created.  The church that Jesus ordained has been taken over by those who are skilled in turning the Church of God into a  business that caters to their own financial advancement. The sellable attributes or buzz words of Christianity is good health, prosperity, increase.  In the book of Revelation, Jesus spoke of his hatred for those who came into the church and set themselves up as leaders.  Revelation 2:15  So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

To continue the discussion of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we need to look closer at the reason God placed this tree in the midst of the garden.  Many have framed the question  that if it was God’s desire to eradicate sin, why place the temptation before man.  The question is based upon a false allegation that it was God’s intent to eradicate sin.  Let your mind focus on another question.  Did God create Lucifer as a sinful angel or did Lucifer choose to sin?  Did God create Adam to sin or did Adam choose to sin?   Now lets take a step backward, did God create the darkness that engulfed the earth when Lucifer rebelled or was it caused by the rebellion of Lucifer?  We must be careful that the knowledge of good and evil does not taint our answer.  God is looking for souls that is capable of standing up to the devil.  These souls will make up his new kingdom.  This is a test and the  Book of Genesis tells us how it all began, the Book of Revelation tells how all of this is going to end.

Genesis 3:5  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  It would be pointless to proceed in this discussion without addressing the  statement attributed to the Devil.  At this point to try to make the case that the Devil was a liar would be moot because he did not lie.   How can he be a liar when he is telling the truth?  The answer can be found in John 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.  Simply put, the last part of the verse tells us that if we speak the Word of God for our own benefit we lie.  The problem is in how do we acclimate the statement of God with what the Devil said when we know the rest of the story.  Many within the sphere of religious endearment find it hard to accept the statement of God when the man did not fall dead  the moment he took a bite of the fruit.  Our understanding of the event is based upon whether we use the knowledge and wisdom of God or the knowledge of good and evil. 

Based upon what we know about what happen the best interpretation is achieved when we look at what God said, “the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”, and what the Devil said, “the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened”.  From these two statements we should be able to see that this death, God spoke of was the separation of the soul from its creator.  A spiritual God addresses the spiritual aspects of humanity. This death was achieved when man fail the test and began to worship his natural and emotional self.  

When God created man, a timeline was implied by the use of the translated word, “subdue” rather than “occupy”.  To subdue means to bring into subjection and prepare for departure.  Genesis 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it…  The use of the word occupy would have been indicative of a force or people preparing to remaining for an extended and indefinite period of time. 

Once Adam and Eve disobeyed God and tasted the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a floodgate of knowledge and emotional experiences were  open up to them.  When they began to experience the fruit of their vast knowledge, the emotional conflict caused by the battle between good and evil was overpowering.  They looked upon themselves and they saw themselves different from what God had intended for them to see and were ashamed of what God had created.  What was it that changed when they partook of the fruit?  We know that when their eyes were open, they saw things differently.  Was it the sight of their naked bodies that unleashed a flurry of emotional or sexual highs that took control of their mind, causing them to fashion garments and trying to hide from God?

God had placed man in the garden in a protective state.  He gave man a clear knowledge of the things around him.  Using what we will call common sense Adam was able to name all of the animals.  Genesis 2:19  And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

 He provided for man all of the necessities of life, there was no need to explore that dark area of emotional confusion that existed in the knowledge of good and evil.   That forbidden knowledge manifested itself soon afterward and caused Cain to slay Abel, his brother.