SABBATH

God's Gift to Us

Commentary: In the Wake of An Unnatural Disaster (Part Four)

#1304c

Given 16-Jan-16; 12 minutes

listen:

download:

description: Jimmy Carter left the Southern Baptist Church based on its teaching that Eve was responsible for original sin. The erroneous understanding cited that women are inferior to men is nowhere stated in the Bible. When God presented Eve to Adam in the Garden of Eden, Adam immediately recognized that she was the perfect complement to him. God gave man authority, not superiority. Satan attacked Adam and Eve together, but when he detected that Eve desired to eat of the tree, he attacked the woman first. Both Adam and Eve caved in to Satan's subtle strategy. The failure to do righteousness in the time of need is sin. Adam obeyed Eve rather than God and therefore violated the First and Second Commandments. He knew Eve was wrong, and yet he remained quiet.


transcript:

This commentary follows the same subject line as my previous commentary, given before traveling to Atlanta. I am going to show you another example of how greatly misinformed people have become regarding morality because of a constant barrage of misinformation.

The misinformation I speak of is regarding basic issues of everyday life. That is, what we call right and wrong concerning daily conduct. The ultimate source of the misinformation is the one the Bible names—the invisible spirit Satan, but he works in and through men he guides.

In my previous commentary, I gave you an example of the death of a teenager who lost his life because of a clearly wrong choice. He didn’t respond to a police officer’s clear command to drop his gun. He didn’t, and he died before witnesses of one gunshot in the blink of an eye.

Today’s example is drawn from a post written by a very famous person. It is dated April 27, 2015. The post was written to explain why this famous person resigned from the Baptist church. This famous person is former president Jimmy Carter. I will quote from the first paragraph of his post to serve as the introduction to his error. It is misinformation shared by many others. He says,

I have been a practicing Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult.

It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention’s leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be “subservient” to their husband and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief.

Jimmy Carter’s erroneous thinking in this post exposes a spiritual weakness that is going to be critical to all of us as the pressure mounts as Satan is permitted to ratchet up his persecution of true believers. The critical issue each of us must face up to is, Do we really believe God?

In the first place, Mr. Carter is at a definite disadvantage first because he is challenging a church very conservative by modern standards. Second, he is challenging people much more knowledgeable regarding biblical details on doctrinal issues. In other words, I am saying here that he should have kept his mouth shut.

He has one advantage: He is far better known than any single individual in the church. Thus, he speaks with a built-in greater authority through people's recognition of his name and he becomes more persuasive. However, on this issue Mr. Carter does not believe God as clearly as he needs to.

His first mistake is he infers blame upon God with no valid reason. Jimmy Carter is a typical humanist. God nowhere states or even implies that women as a creation of His are inferior to men. When she was created, Adam immediately recognized she was the perfect complement of him. I mean perfect! That’s why he said, “she is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” He meant, "She is exactly like me; she is my equal."

God as Creator is sovereign over what He has made and given life to. He, on this doctrine as He has done with others, has assigned certain levels of responsibility and authority. Eve shared co-dominion of the earth with her husband. That is no inferior position! She shared dominion of the earth with her husband, but in the matter of family authority, He gave the man authority over her, not superiority. There is a huge difference between the two terms. The Southern Baptist Convention is not incorrect regarding this doctrine.

Like all humanists, Jimmy Carter has established his own level of authority, and pointed the finger of scorn at the Baptist church and, in this doctrinal issue, at God, too. It was carnal men who used their headship and superior physical strength to abuse women. Women became the victim of men’s sins, not God’s purposeful assignment of responsibility.

Mr. Carter was also at least partly wrong on another aspect of this issue. He stated that Eve was responsible for original sin. However, he should have clarified that remark.

Each and every person is responsible for his own sins. That is clearly stated in Ezekiel 18:20. Adam and Eve were no exception. Satan attacked Adam and Eve together. Adam was present. Satan aimed his attack directly at the woman because he perceived she was the more vulnerable of the two. There was a reason for that. He detected that she really desired to eat of that tree. Adam did not show that. That is why he attacked the woman.

You can be sure he was aware of Adam’s feelings about Eve as well. And indeed, both of them caved in to his cunning insight. Both of them caved in to his subtle strategy. Adam was witness to what was going on and he did not exercise his God-given authority to help her out.

And here comes something you may not know. Are you aware that the failure to do righteousness in a time of need is also sin? Adam, because of his feelings toward her, listened to his wife rather than listening to God and was then directly guilty of breaking the very first commandment "You shall have no other gods before Me" is what that commandment says. He obeyed her rather than God—that's idolatry.

Thus, when God judged, He judged Eve’s sin as one of weakness. It was still sin but far less deliberate than Adam’s. Adam’s sin was greater. He knew Eve was wrong in her choice committed through weakness, and he still deliberately remained quiet. The judgment against him was far, far greater. In other words, God held Adam more responsible because he failed to rightly use the gifts given for family headship properly.

Jimmy Carter’s humanistic problem in this is that his lack of faith and understanding led him to indirectly accuse God when his entire diatribe should have been leveled at sinful men who, like Jimmy Carter, also do not believe in the purity of God’s creative purposes and directives.

In the bulk of his post, Mr. Carter rightly came down on mankind for the mistreatment of women but he should not have dragged God into it at all. Rather, he should have defended God, as I did here in this commentary.

Instead, he further misled the unconverted and misinformed into yet more misunderstanding of God and the Bible by reinforcing the carnality of mankind that already thinks of God as an enemy. And that, brethren, is just one way Satan continues to hold his grip on mankind’s mind.

JWR/aws/dcg