Expert: Pastor Don Carpenter - 12/27/2007

Question
QUESTION: God told Adam not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge "for in the day you eat of it you shall die". Gen 2:17
The serpent then tells Eve that she will not die. Gen 3:5

As the serpent told the truth and God lied (Adam and Eve did not die on that day, but gained the knowledge of good and evil as the serpent said they would) is it ok to lie?  Also, if God lied to Adam, and admits it right in the beginning of the Bible,  should we believe anything else He says?

ANSWER: Hi Pennie

Thanks for this very interesting question.  God did not lie.  On the very day that they ate the fruit, they died spiritually, and began to die physically.

Romans 5:12
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:  
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.


Ephesians 2:1-2


And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

You can trust what God says, he has never lied.

Titus 1:2
2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;  
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

I hope that this helps you.

In Christ
Pastor Don


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Pastor Don,

It seems to me that the distinction between the "death of the soul" and "death" as we understand it are quite clear elsewhere in the Bible.  If the words can be distorted to the point of becoming meaningless, there is no way to trust what is said.  If Jesus did not "die" on the cross - but simply "died spiritually, and began to die physically",  there is no point in making a big deal of his "resurrection". Where in the Bible does it say that the meaning of "die/death" in Genesis is different from the meaning of "die/death" when it comes to the "death" of Jesus?

God does not seem to have a problem with falsehood (2Chron. 18:19-22) and I do not see how (except, as I say,  by contorting God's words to the point of them being meaningless) it is possible to avoid the assumption that the serpent was the honest one in the Garden of Eden.

ANSWER: Hi Pinnie,

Thanks for that follow up.  Adam and Eve did die as promised.  The day they ate the fruit they died spiritually, and as we see in Genesis 5 EVERYONE dies physically, as a result of what Adam and Eve did.  God did not lie.

In Christ,
Pastor Don

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello Pastor Don,

I am sorry to press you on this, but I am still confused by your answer.  I do not understand, if in Genesis the promise of death does not mean physical death but spiritual death, that it could not be interpreted that Jesus (who was seen alive after his "death") also merely died "spiritually".   Surely, this is completely open to interpretation... unless it is assumed that God lied to Adam.  If God DID lie to Adam (and please don't forget 2 Chron 18: 19-22 which makes it clear that God was perfectly happy to sanction lying) then the resurrection can be accepted as being the raising of Jesus after his physical death.  If God did not lie and the correct interpretation is that someone can die spiritually or physically and the Bible does not differentiate, then this makes a nonsense of the resurrection.

Answer
Hello again,

The death spoken of in Genesis was both physical death and spiritual death.  God is in charge of everything.  If demons do wicked things, like being a lying spirit, God can still work it so that those demons will accomplish his perfect will.  That does not mean that God is lying himself.  This is the best that I can do when it comes to explaining these things.

In Christ
Pastor Don