Destructive Doubt That Leads To Life-Altering Perversion And Blame

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The past two years have been full of challenging moments for all of us, regardless of what political party you vote for, or what you believe about vaccines. Most of you are probably thinking—like me—the number of lies and contradicts that you have heard made your head spin. There has been a lot of blame-shifting going around for everybody. We have watched big tech companies lie and try to silence the dissenting voice, and government overreach continues. I ask, what is the cause of all of this, and can we put our finger on the origin of the problem of all this greed, lie, and lust for power?

I think we can. It all started with the fall of Adam and Eve. However, although this is true, I want to challenge the reader to look at one aspect of the fall with application here in the 21st century. I was reading through Genesis three in my yearly Bible reading plan. I noticed three truths that help us make sense of what we see going on around us, and they bring assurance that God can be trusted. He shares prophetically what would happen after Adam doubted God.

Go back and reread Genesis chapters one to three. Hold your finger in place when you get to chapter three, verse 4. This is where it all starts to go downhill for humankind. Genesis 3:4: “The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die!” I wrote an article from this text last year on truth must influence belief, not the opposite. 

Nevertheless, this article will focus on the effect of Satan’s lie and what it did to Adam and Eve.

1.      Lies will make you doubt God.

Look at the tactics of Satan; he did promise anything to them. He made them doubt the truth that had been revealed to them by God himself. Satan: “You will not surely die.” These are the most destructive words in all human history. Once doubt came into the picture, Eve questioned the source and sustainer of all life. Life in the heavens, on the earth, and in the seas. Is it wrong to question? No. However, it was terrible to doubt in this case, because they doubted the truth. Eve and Adam should’ve gone to God and asked, “you said we would die, but this serpent said the opposite. We want to confirm the truth. Will we die?” But it did not go that way.

Eve doubted God and believed a lie; she brought that same doubt to Adam; he doubted and sinned against God in his disobedience. He affected all creation with the plague of sin. His doubt in God automatically affected his relationship with God, his intimate helpmate, and God’s created order. What did Adam do?

He began to blame! There are two types of blame we see from the text. The first is narrow blame. The second is broad blame. I will take the rest of the article to explain the subtle but significant difference between the two.

2.      Narrow blame will destroy intimate relationships.

Genesis 3:12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me some of the fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Notice what takes place here. He kicks the can further down the road. How? He never takes responsibility for leading the woman. It was not the woman who made him eat the fruit. He ate the fruit. This was a part of God’s decreed will, but Adam and Eve were culpable for their action like all of us are. If you want to study that more read my article from last year. Adam was responsible for the truth that God gave to him, and he chose to doubt God and sin.

Look at what it caused. He began to blame in two aspects: a narrow aspect and a broad aspect. The narrow aspect is that he was unwilling to take responsibility for his part. This is the main destruction of marriages and families. The finger is always pointed at the other person, never focusing on ourselves. The same thing with sibling relationships, the other will try to blame the other person without ever evaluating their actions that caused the issue. The garden, simply put, plays itself out in every family on the planet to some degree. If the family does not have the truth of God’s word, it would prop itself up with self-help and other things but never solve the real issue. Repenting of and confessing individual sins and asking for forgiveness from the offended party is the answer—the next aspect of blame is broad blame that will destroy entire nations. 

3.      Broad blame will destroy entire Nations.

The reality that took place Adam blamed God for giving him the woman. The truth was God was gracious in providing Adam a helpmate and a garden to work and live in. All of his provisions were supplied to him, like food and clothing. Adam could’ve said, “Eve, God has been so good to us to give all these other trees. Let’s trust him and what He has said. Put the fruit down.” However, this did not take place. He blames Eve and does not even mention Satan. Checkmate for our enemy. Eve brings exposure to the lying serpent of old and praise God Jesus defeats him on the cross. Want to observe something sobering and starling? Look at the help I laid out and how it destroys our society.

·                  Step 1 Doubt God

·                  Step 2 Blame those closes to you

·                  Step 3 Blame all the other people who do not support your sin

Look at this taking place in our communities and culture. “God does not exist; there is no such thing. We make our morals as a society. You follow your own heart. If you don’t believe what we believe, we will label you the problem.” It is taking place in our broader areas in our Nation.

“If you are not vaccinated, you are to blame for the spread of COVID.” Look at how many blame others in this way and the media feeding this fear frenzy. Another is “if you don’t wear a mask, you are to blame for the spread of COVID.” Rinse and repeat this idea of doubting God and blaming others with anything: gender identity, homosexuality, January 6th, etc..  

In a culture without God, all that is left is for your view to be the dominant view; if not, you must lie, deceive, and manipulate until your opinion reaches the top of the heap. Same thing with power and the love of money. You can take these helps and run any cultural hot button issue through it and see the situation rightly. Who has the most to gain from doubting God’s revelation to us, creation, and the Bible? Who has the most to gain from blaming others? What is the answer out of this tangled web of doubting God and blaming people near and far? Can we reverse the damage to our families and Nation? Yes. 

4.      We can reverse the destruction by believing God and being changed. 

We must quit doubting God and believe and trust what He has spoken to us in His word. We must take responsibility in our relationships and be honest about the problem. Confess our sins, repent of them, and work on our closes relationships. Don’t be so quick to blame the other side of the aisle before looking at what our social group needs to change. When lies are prevalent, we must stand on the truth and lovingly, respectfully, and gently expose them, so people can see the truth.

We must be willing to do the hard work of listening and get to the bottom of the issue as best we can to find the truth, even if it makes people mad. We can no longer be lazy and sit by while people doubt universal truth and the God that gave it. The only way someone can confess their sin is to see that they are a sinner. That will only happen if the truth of God is shared with them.

Your neighbor and co-worker and your fellow man depend on you all over your city. They need to process their doubt of God and blame-shifting to come to one conclusion. They need Jesus and the truth that He gives. Love them enough to ask the questions that will expose their sin. Until next month, go out and proclaim the Gospel to see a life transformed because the truth worth proclaiming is the truth that transforms.