Reality is reliable. We can depend on the reality of his love for us. His love for us is the rock on which the wise build their lives. Whom shall we fear? Of whom shall we be afraid? Will our almighty lover ever let us down? Will he ever disappoint?
To neutralize the the serpent’s anti-God propaganda, Jesus commandeered a cross - the instrument of our woe - and repurposed it to offer us a contradiction.
Armageddon is here and now. We are not fighting for something in the hereafter. The battle is now. Now is the time to join Jesus in the scrum at the line of scrimmage in the Valley of Tears facing off against Evil toe to toe, cheek to jowl. Christianity is not a sport for spectators. Christians partake in the fray.
Adam and Eve were privileged. They only knew good. They did not know evil. God did not want them to know evil. He made them innocent. The serpent offered to Eve the full spectrum of knowledge - both the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil. The serpent sugarcoated the knowledge of evil with the testimony that possessing the full spectrum of knowledge would deify them. Yet, the serpent failed to reveal the cost of acquiring the knowledge of evil. The rest you know.
The serpent is a dynamic but malign force who propels himself through human history repeatedly trying to extinguish God's love for us. The serpent tries time and time again to persuade God that God has made a mistake in loving us. History, therefore, consists of a series of failed attempts by the serpent to extinguish God’s love for us. Furthermore, God exploits these episodes to demonstrate to us the indestructibility of His love for us.
