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The Great Exchange

Part X

In our last chapter of The Great Exchange, we looked at the role of the mediator, and applied it to Moses, as he established the Old Covenant.

After Moses had instructed Israel concerning how God had chosen them to be His people (and what He expected of them), all Israel acquiesced to the words of Moses:

“And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8).

In the New Testament, where we learn that JESUS is the mediator of the New Covenant, the writer of Hebrews explains the importance of blood, in dedicating a testament. Most people understand that in a contemporary example, the last will and testament of someone is only put into effect after the death of the person leaving the will.

“For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead” (Hebrews 9:16, 17).

Hebrews goes on to tell us the Old Testament was dedicated with blood, signifying the death of the animal, which was sacrificed as a substitute to atone for the people’s sins.

“For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the [Old Testament] law, he took the blood of calves and of goats….and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, Saying This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you” (Hebrews 9:19, 20).

It’s instructive to remember that when the LORD cautioned Adam and Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit back in the Garden of Eden, He told them that if they were to disobey His commandment, they would die.

“Of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” (Genesis 3:3).

This is confirmed in the book of Hebrews, which tells us that because the sin was committed in the earthly realm, without the shedding of blood (which was specified to be the penalty of eating the forbidden fruit), the stain of sin remains on our souls.

“Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22).

Because this earthly life is the shadow of the substance found in the Spirit, the Death which arrived in the Spiritual realm through the sin of disobedience, also produced the shadow of Death in this world.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).

The Apostle Paul elaborated on how this horrific change occurred:

“Wherefore, as by one man sin [read Hell] entered into the world, and death [entered] by sin; and so death passed upon all men” (Romans 5:12)

Because the twin terminals of Death and Hell are still so poorly understood, believers universally fail to perceive the details of how “death [entered the world] by sin” – in spite of the fact the Scriptures categorically state crucial details concerning the fall.

We’ve already addressed the duality of Death and Hell, and I’ve repeatedly shown how the two impulses are symbiotic – and since this work is going to track the onslaught of Death and Hell that is documented throughout the historical panorama found in the Holy Bible, we should start at the very beginning.

Earlier, I noted that Adam and Eve were both warned of the consequences of eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but adjacent Scriptural details enlarge our understanding of the dynamic found in the fall.

Fortunately, an abundance of Bible teachers have recognized the two statements served up to Eve by the serpent in the Garden are found in almost every aberrant doctrinal system in the world; yet hardly anyone recognizes these two statements also express the spiritual substance of Death and Hell.

After the serpent sought to inaugurate a dialogue with Eve, and she recited the LORD’s instruction set, the serpent’s words are laced with the characteristics of the Perdition Engine created by the two components of Death and Hell.

“Ye shall not surely die: 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” (Genesis 3:4,5).

The first phrase, indicating the first couple will not die, is obviously associated with the subject of Death – and it is the equivalent of choosing to obey Death (read Antichrist) instead of God. In fact, this statement is the precise opposite of the truth as it indirectly promises life, when the serpent says “ye shall not surely die.”

“And [the False Prophet] causeth the earth…to worship the first beast” (Revelation 13:12).

As stated earlier, the “first beast” – the Antichrist beast -- who is the recipient of the worship, equivocates with Death.

The second lie from the serpent, the idea that Adam and Eve will be as gods, simply reeks of the Spirit of the False Prophet.

Clearly the suggestion that one is about to be “like gods,” was brought forth as an inducement to follow the serpent’s suggested course of action – e.g. the urging that Eve should eat the forbidden fruit. We should also mention the inclusion of the plural tense of the Devil’s deception, in that the serpent asserted that “ye shall be as gods” – a statement indicative of the knowledge that her fall will also impact Adam. 

It’s apparent that the characteristic of manipulation, through the process of dialogue, is attributed to the False Prophet, for it is the False Prophet who speaks “as a dragon” (Revelation 13:11), a capability that enables the entity to cause those which dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast.

Further, it is the False Prophet who “causes” all the world to receive the mark of the beast; and since we’ve already shown that Hell inhabits the principality of the False Prophet, and Death inhabits the Antichrist domain, the two statements of the serpent in the Garden definitively manifest both Death and Hell.

In other words, the devastating march of Death and Hell were unleashed in the Garden that day.

Moreover, the attributes of the two principalities are also immediately apparent in the aftermath of the entrance of sin and death (Romans 5:12), which were initialized through the fall.

Another fascinating aspect of the fall is related to the differential between Adam and Eve. While there is a relatively lengthy narrative wherein the serpent interacts with the woman, there is very little detail concerning Adam’s participation.

The snake starts with a question, which the woman answers. He then challenges her statements, and the Dialectic ensues. We then see a period of reflection, where she reasons out the wisdom of the commandment of the LORD, to abstain from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

Eve proceeds to evaluate her environment and, seeing the similarity of the forbidden tree to the other trees she was allowed to eat from, she considered disobeying the LORD’s directive. She saw the forbidden fruit was “pleasant to the eyes,” and concluded the knowledge tree was “a tree to be desired to make one wise” (Genesis 3:6), so she ate of the fruit.

Conversely, we only have a brief part of a single verse detailing how Adam came to eat of the forbidden fruit.

“…she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Genesis 3:6).

After the LORD confronts the couple over their infraction, God questions Adam, who becomes the first in a long line of men who indirectly blame God for their sinful behavior:

“[God said] hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (Genesis 3:11,12).

Not only is it significant that the LORD does not respond to Adam’s slanted assertion, the statement itself is an attempt to begin a dialogue with the LORD on the subject. This is a point blank indicator the spiritual phenomena we call Dragonspeak had already begun to emerge in Adam, at that point in time.

The LORD then turned to Eve with the obvious question.

“What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat” (Genesis 3:13).

The term beguiled is just another euphemism for Hell, as it is one of hundreds of words that express the characteristics of the spirit of “Hell” that inhabits the False Prophet. Words such as betray, captivity, torment, conspire, deceive (and hundreds more) speak of the spirit of the False Prophet.

In short, the Spirit which was present revealed itself in her words.

Further details of Adam’s participation do not become evident until we reach the New Testament, where the Word of God tells us that Adam was not “beguiled.”

“And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (I Timothy 2:14).

To put it another way, Adam was not deceived, but knowingly disobeyed the LORD’s direct commandment.

Since the Scripture also tells us the “wages of sin is Death” (Romans 6:23) (clearly an expression of Antichrist), and the primary characteristic of the False Prophet is deception, the fall of Adam and Eve precisely manifests the two principalities of Death and Hell.

Obviously, the LORD was present as Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden, so the eternal “third part” of Life was present (Zechariah 13:9) as the “two parts” became finite, and the architecture of the Triuniverse was transformed, as Death and Hell entered the world.

We also see the shadow of the substance of Spiritual death, in the slaughter of innocent animals, when the LORD made garments of animal skins -- prefiguring the righteous sacrifice of Christ, which would one day cover the people’s sins.

“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21).  

-- James Lloyd

To Be Continued

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