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Then God allowed Satan to con–
front Adam. Satan got to Adam
through his wife. Satan subtly de–
ceived Eve into DISBELIEVlNG what
God had taught them. Adam fol–
lowed her in choosing rebellion and
rejecting God's rule and govern–
ment over them. They took
to them–
selves
the knowledge ofwhat is good
and what is evil - deciding for
themselves right from wrong.
Th~n,
something happened to the
minds of Adam and Eve - the eyes
of both of them were opened (Gen–
esis 3:7). The spirit and attitude of
rebellion had entered their minds.
Their minds (hearts) now had be–
come perverted - deceitful and des–
perately wicked.
And THAT EVIL
IN
THEM
CAME
FROM SATAN,
NOT
FROM Goo!
They were NOT created with this evil
nature.
But how did human.ity, today,
come to have this evil attitude we
call "HUMAN NATURE"? Did the chil–
dren of Adam and Eve inherit it
from them? Or, was it passed on by
heredity?
Let me give you an example of
heredity. God put Adam to sleep
and removed one of bis ribs, out of
which He made Eve. Do all roen
today find themselves short one rib
by heredity? Of course not.
A cquired
characteristics
are not passed on by
heredity.
Adam and Eve chose
and ac–
quired
the "nature" or attitude of sin
from Satan. lt was not passed on by
heredity. Jesus Christ called their
second son "righteous Abe!."
Then how
do
we humans cometo
have (universally) this evil attitude
we can human nature today?
It's partly explained in the apostle
Paul's second letter to the Corin–
thian church. He said be desired to
present that church "as a chaste vir–
gin to Christ. BuT I fear , lest by any
means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve
through his subtilty,
so
your minds
should be corrupted from the sim–
plicity that
is
in Christ"
(IJ
Corinthi–
ans 11 :2-3).
Satan was still around when Paul
wrote. (The reason is explained else–
where.) Tbe people at Corinth had
not received this evil nature
by he–
redity.
Rather, the apostle feared
lest they (in this NEw Testament
time) sbould be beguiled into evil
The
PLAIN TRUTH Aprii -May 1976
attitudes
in the same manner
as was
the original mother Eve - directly
by Satan.
Eve did not have a mind that was
evil
before
Satan carne along and
confronted her. But Satan, by sub–
tlety, deceived Eve. Eve's children
were not born with this evil nature.
Nor were the people of the Corin–
thian church. But Paul feared lest
Satan, still around after sorne 4,000
years, pervert Corinthian minds di–
rectly,
as
he had done to Eve.
Satan was still around when
Christ was born. He tried to destroy
the Christ child by having Him
murdered. Satan was still around
when Jesus was thirty and baptized.
And he tried to destroy Jesus spiri–
tually then, in the temptation. As
Satan destroyed (spiritually) Adam,
be tried to destroy the "second
Adam. " Satan is still around
TODA Y!
But the wily Satan has succeeded
in deluding many, ifnot most, ofthe
best minds into believing he is a
nonexistent myth. The best minds,
unsuspecting, are deceived (Rev.
12:9).
Here is a TRUTH you, the reader,
NEED TO KNOW!
To the church at Epbesus, God
said through the apostle Paul (Eph–
esians 2: 1-2): "And you [who] ... in
time past ... walked according to
the course of this world,
according to
the prince of the
power of the air, tbe
spirit
that now worketh in
the chil–
dren of disobedience ...."
GRASP IT! Satan is here called
"the prince ofthe power ofthe AlR!"
1
could not have understood that 60
years ago. 1 did not tben reali ze how
communication by sound and by
picture can be broadcast instanta–
neously
through the air.
In past installments of this series I
have stressed the point that Satan,
the former great archangel cherub
Lucifer, was the most perfect and
powerful being that God could ere–
ate as an individual being. He was
perfect as originally created. But he
is composed of spirit, and thus he is
invisible to human eyes.
This great and powerfuJ being,
even though evil, has power literaUy
to surcharge the air around this
earth. HE BROADCASTS!
Wherever you are as you read
these words, chances are there are
voices and perhaps music
in the air
around you. A radio or TV set tuned
to the right wavelength would make
them audible to you.
The spirit in every human being
is automatically tuned in on Satan's
wavelengtb. You don't hear any–
tbing because he does not broadcast
in words - nor in sounds, whether
music or otherwise. He broadcasts
in ATTITUDES. He broadcasts in alti–
tudes of SELF-centeredness, lust,
greed, vanity, jealousy, envy, resent–
ment, competition, strife, bitterness,
and hate.
In a word, the selfisbness, hostil–
ity, deceitfulness, wickedness, rebel–
lion, etc. tbat we call " HUMAN
NATURE" is actually SATAN'S NA–
TURE. It is Satan's ATIITUDE. And
broadcasting it, surcharging the air
with it, Satan actually NOW WORKS
1N
the unsuspecting aH over the
world today! That is
HOW
Satan
deceives the whole world today
(Rev. 12:9 and 20:3). Being invis–
ible, people do not see or hear hirn.
This prince of the power of the air
- this god of this world - IS THE
REAL SOURCE OF WHAT
WE
HAVE
COMETO CALL "HUMAN NATURE"!
Here is the real CAUSE of all the
world's evils!
But it seems
nobody
understands
it, and therefore the world does
notbing about it - except to go
along with it blaming human nature
and supposing it was Goo who cre–
ated us with an evil nature. Ac–
tually, it is Satan's nature.
Let me give you an illustration of
how we can be swayed, influenced,
and driven Satan's wrong way by
bis broadcasting through the air.
When God wanted to cause captive
Jews in ancient Babylon to return to
Jerusalem to build the second
temple, He put it in tbe mind of
Cyrus, king of Persia. The Persian
Empire had taken over the rule of
empire from Babylon. Following is
the explanation of bow God moved
Cyrus todo what God wanted.
"Now in the first year of Cyrus
king of Persia ... the Eternal stirred
up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia,
that he made a proclamation
throughout all his kingdom ..."
(Ezra 1: 1) that a contingent of Jews
retum to Jerusalem.
God did not speak to Cyrus in
(Continued on page 24)
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