On Truth and Falsity

          Knowledge of Good and Evil continued

When the serpent formulated his lie to Eve, he used the word "not," which means nothing, to exclude the reality of death from his systematic lie. The serpent did not mean that death did not exist. He simply meant that if Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, the reality of death would be excluded from her system which was her life. This fact illustrates one of the real uses of the real idea of nothing. Whenever a person uses words or ideas to formulate a system, that person will always use the idea of nothing to exclude any real ideas that will not work in his system. All excluded ideas and words still exist and are real and can be used in the formulation of other systems, but the use of the idea of nothing excludes all unneeded ideas or words from use in a particular system formed from exact, chosen ideas and words. The materialists claim that any immaterial idea happens to be quite useless because only that which is material can exist. Yet, the idea of nothing has proven to be quite useful even though it is an idea of a completely immaterial substance. Genesis 3:4 (KJB).

The next lie that the serpent told Eve was actually a half-truth. Eve would gain the intelligence needed to know the difference between good and evil. She would gain useful and real ideas and experiences that she could use to formulate beneficial systems. She would also be able to use those same real ideas and experiences to formulate false and destructive systems called sin and evil. She would no longer know goodness as a state of innocence which was blissful, but she did not know any ideas about its goodness. If she ate of the forbidden tree, she would be able to formulate any feelings and experiences that she might have into real ideas and words that she could use in creative or destructive ways. Genesis 3:5 (KJB).

But the serpent's half-truth was actually a total lie because he also told Eve that she would gain the state of being a god which gave her the feeling that she would be in a state of being even better than the one she now lived. Genesis 3:5 (KJB). Eve was able to gain this feeling because Adam and Eve had probably seen angels, and they had been impressed by their power and majesty. Adam and Eve were already gods because God had created them in His image. Even though Adam and Eve sinned, they could never lose their state of being in the image of God because God never loses anything that He creates. Ecclesiastes 3:14 (KJB). For this reason, Jesus told some evil Jews that God had created them to be gods who could be righteous and good. John 10:33-35; Psalm 82:1-8 (KJB). Jesus also told some evil Pharisees that "the kingdom of God is within you," by which He reminded them that God had created them in His image which meant that they could use God's goodness to do good. Luke 17:20-21 (KJB). God promised Eve that she would be "the mother of all living." Genesis 3:20 (KJB). God also told Luke that "all live unto Him." Luke 20:38 (KJB). All humans live in a state of spiritual life and spiritual death. God never cursed Adam and Eve. God cursed only the Devil and the ground that holds the regions of death. Genesis 3:14-19 (KJB). All of this put together means that God will, in the end of the world, recover and recreate every living human that He ever created who are confined to the regions of death, and He will cast only the Devil and all evil, including the separated, spiritual deaths of all those humans, into the eternal lake of fire. Psalm 82:8; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 20:11-15; John 5:28-29; John 11:25-26. (KJB).