Page 53 - Prophetic Word Newsletters Archive 2006 by Pastor Randy Shupe

“…THE TREE OF LIFE WAS ALSO IN THE MIDST OF THE GARDEN,
AND THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL…
OF EVERY TREE OF THE GARDEN YOU MAY FREELY EAT;

BUT OF THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL YOU SHALL
NOT EAT, FOR IN THE DAY THAT YOU EAT OF IT
YOU SHALL SURELY DIE.” Gen. 2:9,16,17

THE Why does Solomon tell us that there is nothing new under THE LIE
TRUTH the sun? It is because God is an unchanging God and the
devil remains an unchanging devil. It is true because man

still has a God-given free will to continually choose
between all the “good and evil, blessing and cursing,

life and death,” that God sets before him.
It was true in the paradise setting of the Garden of Eden
(Gen. 2,9,16,17 above), and it was still true two thousand
years later (Deut. 30:15,19 below) that God continued to set

before His people, even in the promised land,
two sources of choice. God is pro-choice!

“SEE, I HAVE SET BEFORE YOU TODAY LIFE AND GOOD, DEATH AND EVIL…
I HAVE SET BEFORE YOU LIFE AND DEATH, BLESSING AND CURSING; THEREFORE CHOOSE LIFE…” Deut. 30:15,19

We are not God’s people living in the Garden of Eden as were Adam and Eve (Gen. 2:9,16,17), nor are we
among the Children of Israel as they were about to enter into the promised land (Deut. 30:15,19).
However we, like they, are a people who have set before us by the same unchanging God, choices
between “good and evil, blessing and cursing, and life and death.”

The two sources of knowledge that exist today have
their roots either in

THE WORD or THE WORLD.
God calls us,

as He did Adam and Eve,
as He did the Children of Israel, to choose between

what He allows to be set before us.
Why did God allow Satan to be in paradise along with
Adam and Eve? Because he is the alternative choice.

Why is the devil still around today?
Because he remains the alternative choice to God!

I would suggest to you that the Tree of Life typifies

THE TRUTH while the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and

Evil represents THE LIE.

THE Consider Paul’s prophetic contrast of the truth and the lie:

TRUTH THE LIE

“THE COMING OF THE LAWLESS ONE IS ACCORDING TO THE
WORKING OF SATAN…WITH ALL UNRIGHTEOUS DECEPTION
AMONG THOSE WHO PERISH, BECAUSE THEY DID NOT
RECEIVE THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH, THAT THEY MIGHT BE
SAVED. AND FOR THIS REASON, GOD WILL SEND THEM A
STRONG DELUSION, THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE THE LIE,
THAT THEY ALL MAY BE CONDEMNED WHO DID NOT BELIEVE
THE TRUTH BUT HAD PLEASURE IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS….

BUT WE ARE BOUND TO GIVE THANKS TO GOD ALWAYS FOR YOU, BRETHREN BELOVED BY THE LORD,
BECAUSE GOD FROM THE BEGINNING CHOSE YOU FOR SALVATION THROUGH SANCTIFICATION BY
THE SPIRIT AND BELIEF IN THE TRUTH…” 2 Thess. 2:9-13

Although God is the author of the truth and Satan of the lie, it is God who will eventually allow the lie to
replace the truth. It is God Almighty, the righteous Judge, who will allow Antichrist’s “unrighteous
deception” to permeate the earth in the last days. It is imperative for us as members of the church which
bears the title “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15), that we be found walking in the truth rather
than being seduced by the lie of Satan.