- Most of us like to think that for the most part, 00:00:01.40\00:00:04.43 we have our lives under perfect control, 00:00:04.43\00:00:06.70 but the older you get, the more you start to realize 00:00:06.70\00:00:10.64 that might not be as true as you hoped. 00:00:10.64\00:00:12.57 Today on "Authentic," 00:00:12.57\00:00:14.74 we're gonna talk unintended consequences. 00:00:14.74\00:00:16.78 [upbeat music] 00:00:18.25\00:00:20.92 Back in 2003, 00:00:37.53\00:00:39.17 photographer Kenneth Adelman was posting pictures 00:00:39.17\00:00:41.80 of the eroding California coastline 00:00:41.80\00:00:44.04 on the now defunct website Pictopedia.com. 00:00:45.24\00:00:47.98 Unfortunately, one of the photos featured 00:00:49.18\00:00:51.21 Barbara Streisand's multimillion dollar 00:00:51.21\00:00:53.42 Malibu property, and she didn't like that, 00:00:53.42\00:00:56.55 so she launched a $50 million lawsuit 00:00:56.55\00:01:00.39 in an effort to get rid of the picture. 00:01:00.39\00:01:02.72 Up to that point, 00:01:02.72\00:01:04.16 only six people had actually downloaded the photo, 00:01:04.16\00:01:07.20 and two of those were downloaded by Streisand's lawyers. 00:01:07.20\00:01:11.47 Her intent, of course, was to protect her privacy, 00:01:11.47\00:01:13.84 but then when word of the lawsuit hit the newspaper, 00:01:13.84\00:01:17.21 suddenly everybody wanted to see the photo. 00:01:17.21\00:01:19.47 And over the next 30 days, 00:01:19.47\00:01:21.44 more than 420,000 people visited that website. 00:01:21.44\00:01:26.21 Streisand's effort to stay private misfired, 00:01:26.21\00:01:29.75 and it misfired on a spectacular level, in fact, 00:01:29.75\00:01:33.49 the lawsuit was dismissed and the judge ordered Streisand 00:01:33.49\00:01:37.26 to pay the photographer's legal fees. 00:01:37.26\00:01:40.40 It was such a notorious case 00:01:40.40\00:01:42.53 that today when people try to hide sensitive information, 00:01:42.53\00:01:45.97 but inadvertently draw more attention 00:01:45.97\00:01:48.60 to it, they call it the Streisand effect, I mean, 00:01:48.60\00:01:52.21 her intention was to make the problem go away, 00:01:52.21\00:01:55.34 but here I am nearly two decades later 00:01:55.34\00:01:57.61 and we're still talking about it, 00:01:57.61\00:01:59.48 and I'm guessing that some of you are probably 00:01:59.48\00:02:01.88 gonna Google streisand and today, 00:02:01.88\00:02:03.42 and you're still going to find that photo online 00:02:03.42\00:02:06.65 for the whole world to see. 00:02:06.65\00:02:08.39 It's a really good example of unintended consequence, 00:02:09.86\00:02:12.99 which is a regular feature in the average human life 00:02:12.99\00:02:17.10 we seem to be born with this desire to tweak our 00:02:17.10\00:02:19.80 surroundings and make our lives more comfortable, 00:02:19.80\00:02:23.07 but unfortunately we just aren't omniscient enough 00:02:23.07\00:02:26.27 to anticipate all of the fallout. 00:02:26.27\00:02:29.21 We might think we're smart enough to engineer a perfect 00:02:29.21\00:02:32.38 existence, I mean, just even a little bit. 00:02:32.38\00:02:35.38 But at the end of the day, things always happen 00:02:35.38\00:02:38.39 that we couldn't possibly have predicted. 00:02:38.39\00:02:41.49 Take for example the CIA strategy for helping 00:02:41.49\00:02:44.03 the Afghans fight the Soviet Union back in the 1980s. 00:02:44.03\00:02:48.73 We thought it would be a good idea to provide money 00:02:48.73\00:02:51.70 in arms to the Mujahideen because well, hey, 00:02:51.70\00:02:54.60 they're fighting communists and we didn't like communists. 00:02:54.60\00:02:57.87 But wouldn't you know it? 00:02:57.87\00:02:59.41 Some of those same people ended up joining the Taliban 00:02:59.41\00:03:02.01 or Al-Qaeda where they used the support we provided 00:03:02.01\00:03:05.91 to fight against us. 00:03:05.91\00:03:07.68 And nobody of any real consequence saw that coming. 00:03:07.68\00:03:11.99 It's something that happens almost every time we try 00:03:11.99\00:03:14.82 to tweak the world we live in to some degree or other. 00:03:14.82\00:03:18.66 Sometimes our plans produce rather happy accidents like 00:03:18.66\00:03:22.86 the discovery that sinking old boats 00:03:22.86\00:03:25.77 in the ocean provided artificial reefs, 00:03:25.77\00:03:27.40 which provided homes for all kinds of life forms, 00:03:27.40\00:03:30.47 and the practice proved to be a net positive. 00:03:30.47\00:03:34.11 But more times than we'd care to admit, 00:03:34.11\00:03:36.34 our very best planning seems to go awry, 00:03:36.34\00:03:39.88 which is why people show understandable concern 00:03:39.88\00:03:42.45 when governments launch hyper ambitious plans 00:03:42.45\00:03:45.42 to tweak the world on a global scale. 00:03:46.62\00:03:49.09 We all know that none of us is smart enough 00:03:49.09\00:03:52.49 to anticipate every possible outcome. 00:03:52.49\00:03:55.33 I'll give you another example, 00:03:56.30\00:03:58.03 and this is one that I personally find a little 00:03:58.03\00:04:00.87 disturbing. There's this growing concern that we need 00:04:00.87\00:04:03.61 to slow down or stop the warming of our planet, 00:04:03.61\00:04:06.88 and in recent years, a rather novel idea has emerged. 00:04:06.88\00:04:10.51 Maybe we could actually block the sun 00:04:10.51\00:04:13.48 to cool down the earth. 00:04:13.48\00:04:15.52 Back in 1991 when Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines, 00:04:15.52\00:04:19.99 it released something like 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide 00:04:19.99\00:04:23.79 into the stratosphere, that in turn created a high altitude 00:04:23.79\00:04:28.60 haze made of particles that some observers noticed cooled 00:04:28.60\00:04:32.57 the planet by about half a degree Celsius. 00:04:32.57\00:04:35.47 And the effect lasted for roughly a year and a half. 00:04:35.47\00:04:39.51 So the thinking kind of goes like this. 00:04:39.51\00:04:42.11 What if we artificially released particulates 00:04:42.11\00:04:45.58 into the atmosphere? 00:04:45.58\00:04:47.08 Could that possibly reverse the current warming trend? 00:04:47.08\00:04:50.79 Now, it wouldn't be sulfur dioxide, 00:04:50.79\00:04:53.02 it would be calcium carbonate 00:04:53.02\00:04:54.79 or some other hopefully innocuous substance. 00:04:54.79\00:04:58.43 And some people are suggesting probably to the delight 00:04:58.43\00:05:01.63 of the chem trail conspiracy people that airplanes 00:05:01.63\00:05:05.23 could continually release particles until the earth 00:05:05.23\00:05:08.07 had been adequately cooled, so that was the big picture. 00:05:08.07\00:05:12.24 But then we discovered another favorite of the conspiracy 00:05:12.24\00:05:15.14 crowd, Bill Gates was financially backing the project, 00:05:15.14\00:05:19.35 hoping to get this idea off the ground. 00:05:19.35\00:05:21.88 Now, I'm really not a conspiracy theorist 00:05:21.88\00:05:23.99 and I'm not a chem trail guy, 00:05:23.99\00:05:26.09 but the project still bothers me because 00:05:26.09\00:05:28.29 of our long history of unintended consequences. 00:05:29.46\00:05:31.83 I mean, here we are thinking about engineering the planet 00:05:31.83\00:05:34.86 on a massive scale, 00:05:34.86\00:05:36.36 and the truth is we have no way of knowing what else might 00:05:36.36\00:05:40.27 happen if we start to tinker with the atmosphere. 00:05:40.27\00:05:43.61 How do we really know we're 00:05:43.61\00:05:45.57 not gonna cause a climate disaster? 00:05:45.57\00:05:48.74 And by the time we find out, 00:05:48.74\00:05:50.21 we will have already tinkered with the whole planet. 00:05:50.21\00:05:52.81 So all of us are gonna have to live with the consequences. 00:05:52.81\00:05:57.29 Now I've got to say I'm not exactly a Luddite, 00:05:57.29\00:05:59.95 or at least I like to think I'm not a Luddite. 00:05:59.95\00:06:02.39 Human beings are incredibly inventive. 00:06:02.39\00:06:05.19 Something I believe we can attribute to the fact 00:06:05.19\00:06:07.50 that we were made in the image 00:06:07.50\00:06:08.96 of an infinite creator, a very creative God. 00:06:10.23\00:06:13.40 And we really have solved all kinds of big problems 00:06:13.40\00:06:16.34 by applying a little bit of human ingenuity, for example, 00:06:16.34\00:06:20.28 I'm a big fan of the fact that I can swim in a river 00:06:20.28\00:06:23.04 and not have to worry about getting polio or ending up 00:06:23.04\00:06:26.05 in an iron lung. 00:06:26.05\00:06:27.35 And I love the fact that the surgeon knows 00:06:27.35\00:06:29.78 how to knock me out before he opens up my chest cavity. 00:06:29.78\00:06:32.85 Those are really good developments. 00:06:32.85\00:06:35.89 I love the fact that I can get to work when it's 30 degrees 00:06:35.89\00:06:39.03 below zero without freezing to death 00:06:39.03\00:06:41.43 because I have a car with a heater. 00:06:41.43\00:06:44.07 A little human ingenuity 00:06:44.07\00:06:45.50 really has made our lives a lot better, 00:06:45.50\00:06:49.20 but when we start to tinker with things 00:06:49.20\00:06:51.27 that are clearly bigger and clearly more complex, 00:06:51.27\00:06:54.44 bigger than our capacity to understand, 00:06:54.44\00:06:58.18 well then I start to worry. 00:06:58.18\00:07:00.38 Some of you might remember the way that Australian farmers 00:07:00.38\00:07:03.28 tried to protect their crops from beetles back in the 1930s. 00:07:03.28\00:07:07.96 They were growing sugar cane, 00:07:07.96\00:07:09.86 a species that the settlers introduced to the continent back 00:07:09.86\00:07:13.03 in the 19th century and beetles were destroying 00:07:13.03\00:07:16.73 their livelihood, so in 1935, 00:07:16.73\00:07:19.97 they got reports from Hawaii that can toads, 00:07:19.97\00:07:23.71 the ones the Hawaiians were importing from Puerto Rico, 00:07:25.17\00:07:26.94 they were really beneficial for pest control. 00:07:26.94\00:07:30.58 So somebody brought them to Australia and released 00:07:30.58\00:07:33.42 2,400 of them into the wild before anybody even tested 00:07:34.85\00:07:37.45 to see if they would eat the beetles. 00:07:37.45\00:07:39.79 The problem was that the toads proved 00:07:39.79\00:07:42.52 to be very destructive, 00:07:42.52\00:07:44.09 and today they are still spreading across the top half 00:07:44.09\00:07:47.10 of Australia and nobody can stop it. 00:07:47.10\00:07:50.73 It turns out that once you've cut a pillow open in a 00:07:50.73\00:07:53.07 windstorm, you will never, ever pick up all the feathers. 00:07:53.07\00:07:58.07 Most of you know the story the Greeks told 00:07:59.67\00:08:02.68 about a woman named Pandora. 00:08:02.68\00:08:04.58 She was created by Zeus and placed on this earth 00:08:04.58\00:08:07.48 to punish the human race because Prometheus had stolen fire 00:08:07.48\00:08:11.69 and given it to us. 00:08:11.69\00:08:13.82 Pandora was given a jar by the gods 00:08:13.82\00:08:16.22 or in later editions of the story of box. 00:08:16.22\00:08:19.39 And she was told never ever open it, but of course, 00:08:19.39\00:08:22.76 like most of us being told no was a serious problem. 00:08:22.76\00:08:26.20 It only made her more curious. 00:08:26.20\00:08:28.34 So she opened the forbidden box and all the evils 00:08:28.34\00:08:32.34 that plague us today started to pour out 00:08:32.34\00:08:34.48 of the box uncontrollably. 00:08:34.48\00:08:36.78 At the very last moment, she managed to slam the lid shut, 00:08:36.78\00:08:41.28 but in the process, the story goes, 00:08:41.28\00:08:43.42 she trapped the gift of hope inside the box, 00:08:43.42\00:08:45.99 which made us even more miserable. 00:08:45.99\00:08:48.52 It was a huge mess that nobody could fix, and to this day, 00:08:48.52\00:08:52.26 we still talk about opening Pandora's box when we're afraid 00:08:52.26\00:08:56.20 that somebody is going to generate unintended 00:08:56.20\00:08:59.60 consequences, stuff that everybody's gonna have to live 00:08:59.60\00:09:02.64 with. And what the Greeks were trying to do is illustrate 00:09:02.64\00:09:05.07 the dangers of human pride. 00:09:05.07\00:09:07.58 You and I are not nearly as smart as we think we are. 00:09:07.58\00:09:11.91 I'll be right back after this. 00:09:11.91\00:09:14.32 - [Narrator] Here at The Voice Of Prophecy, 00:09:17.69\00:09:19.15 we're committed to creating top quality programming 00:09:19.15\00:09:21.66 for the whole family, like our audio adventure series, 00:09:21.66\00:09:24.56 Discovery Mountain. 00:09:24.56\00:09:25.96 Discovery Mountain is a bible based program 00:09:25.96\00:09:28.73 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 00:09:28.73\00:09:30.70 Your family will enjoy the faith building stories from this 00:09:30.70\00:09:34.20 small mountain summer camp and town with 24 seasonal 00:09:34.20\00:09:37.81 episodes every year and fresh content every week, 00:09:37.81\00:09:41.34 there's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 00:09:41.34\00:09:44.51 - Paul actually at one point describes the devil in it comes 00:09:47.22\00:09:50.69 as a surprise to a lot of people that the devil is not a man 00:09:50.69\00:09:53.92 with horns wearing red pajamas. 00:09:53.92\00:09:57.13 He doesn't have a pitch for it. 00:09:57.13\00:09:59.03 That's an image that came from European pagan mythology more 00:09:59.03\00:10:02.26 than anything else, 00:10:02.26\00:10:03.53 and you won't find it in the pages of the Bible. 00:10:03.53\00:10:05.93 Here's the way that Paul describes the devil 00:10:05.93\00:10:08.47 in a passage where he's warning a church about listening 00:10:08.47\00:10:11.14 to false teachers, he writes "For such our false apostles, 00:10:11.14\00:10:15.98 deceitful workers transforming themselves 00:10:15.98\00:10:18.38 into apostles of Christ. 00:10:18.38\00:10:20.38 And no wonder for Satan himself transforms himself 00:10:20.38\00:10:24.25 into an angel of light, therefore, 00:10:24.25\00:10:26.82 it is no great thing if his ministers also transform 00:10:26.82\00:10:30.26 themselves into ministers of righteousness 00:10:30.26\00:10:32.86 whose end will be according to their works." 00:10:32.86\00:10:36.70 In Paul's description, evil appears beautiful, 00:10:37.90\00:10:41.40 which makes you wonder why in the Genesis account the devil 00:10:41.40\00:10:44.37 would appear as a snake. 00:10:44.37\00:10:46.47 Well, he's trying to get 00:10:46.47\00:10:47.68 the mother of humanity to disobey God. 00:10:47.68\00:10:49.88 And so you'd think he'd appear in the most attractive form 00:10:49.88\00:10:53.08 possible, maybe even as an angel, but he doesn't, 00:10:53.08\00:10:56.65 he's a snake. 00:10:56.65\00:10:58.32 And quite literally the temptation he presents is 00:10:58.32\00:11:03.19 curiosity, knowledge, which is something that most of us want. 00:11:03.19\00:11:06.80 Julian the apostate made a huge point out 00:11:07.96\00:11:10.60 of this when he ridiculed the faith of the Bible. 00:11:10.60\00:11:13.17 Julian was a fourth century pagan emperor 00:11:13.17\00:11:16.17 who tried to reverse Constantine's efforts 00:11:16.17\00:11:19.37 to Christianize the Roman Empire. 00:11:19.37\00:11:20.91 And Julian demanded to know why would there be a problem 00:11:20.91\00:11:24.75 with human beings wanting to know more? 00:11:24.75\00:11:26.85 What exactly was wrong with the devil's offer? 00:11:26.85\00:11:29.38 Isn't knowledge something we should want? 00:11:29.38\00:11:31.79 Here's what he actually wrote, he said, 00:11:31.79\00:11:34.22 "Is it not also excessively absurd that God 00:11:34.22\00:11:37.36 should forbid men fashion by himself 00:11:37.36\00:11:40.23 the knowledge of good and evil? 00:11:40.23\00:11:41.76 For what can be more foolish than 00:11:42.96\00:11:44.30 one who is not able to know 00:11:44.30\00:11:46.03 what is good and what is depraved 00:11:46.03\00:11:47.70 for it is evident that such a one will 00:11:47.70\00:11:49.60 not avoid some things, I mean evils, 00:11:49.60\00:11:51.51 that he will not pursue others such as our good, 00:11:51.51\00:11:55.08 But as the summit of all, 00:11:55.08\00:11:56.64 god forbade man to taste of wisdom that then, 00:11:59.28\00:12:01.55 which nothing is more honorable to man 00:12:01.55\00:12:04.62 for that the knowledge of good and evil is the proper work 00:12:04.62\00:12:07.02 of wisdom is evident even to this stupid." 00:12:07.02\00:12:11.53 Julian, why don't you tell me how you really feel, the whole 00:12:11.53\00:12:16.06 account in the Garden of Eden seems stupid to Julian, 00:12:16.06\00:12:20.97 and I suspect a lot of modern critics would agree, 00:12:20.97\00:12:25.14 yet it's hard to deny the staying power of the Bible. 00:12:25.14\00:12:29.01 Quite literally, billions of people find the story 00:12:29.01\00:12:31.55 of Eden absolutely fascinating, not stupid at all. 00:12:32.91\00:12:36.58 There's something about this story that arrests 00:12:36.58\00:12:38.99 our attention because we suspect there's more 00:12:38.99\00:12:41.46 going on here than first meets the eye. 00:12:42.62\00:12:44.13 There's something really quite primordial about the story. 00:12:44.13\00:12:48.36 And I guess the question I want you to think about today 00:12:48.36\00:12:51.00 is why the devil would appear as a snake. 00:12:51.00\00:12:54.97 Over the long and many centuries since 00:12:54.97\00:12:57.07 the story was first written down, 00:12:57.07\00:12:59.11 there have been all kinds of allegorical explanations 00:12:59.11\00:13:02.08 for the devil's serpentine appearance. 00:13:02.08\00:13:04.98 But as Rabbi David Foreman points out, 00:13:04.98\00:13:07.22 the narrative of Genesis itself prevents a really practical 00:13:07.22\00:13:10.52 reason for a snake. 00:13:10.52\00:13:12.62 It's a snake because his snake is an animal. 00:13:12.62\00:13:16.39 Pay careful attention to the way the story unfolds, 00:13:17.83\00:13:20.03 and I think you'll see a very important pattern. 00:13:20.03\00:13:22.63 And I really am indebted to Rabbi Foreman 00:13:22.63\00:13:24.77 for starting me down this path. 00:13:24.77\00:13:28.04 In Genesis chapter two, 00:13:28.04\00:13:29.57 we get the introduction of the tree of the knowledge of good 00:13:29.57\00:13:32.54 and evil, where it says this, 00:13:32.54\00:13:34.24 "The Lord God planted a garden, eastward in Eden, 00:13:36.08\00:13:38.38 and there put the man whom he had formed 00:13:38.38\00:13:40.72 and out of the ground, 00:13:40.72\00:13:42.65 the Lord God made every tree that is pleasant 00:13:42.65\00:13:44.42 to the site and good for food, 00:13:44.42\00:13:46.72 the Tree Of Life was also in the midst of the garden 00:13:46.72\00:13:50.39 and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." 00:13:50.39\00:13:53.19 The story continues in verse 15, it says, 00:13:54.36\00:13:57.03 "Then the Lord God took the man and put him 00:13:57.03\00:13:59.10 in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 00:13:59.10\00:14:01.54 And the Lord God commanded the man saying, 00:14:01.54\00:14:03.27 of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat, 00:14:03.27\00:14:06.17 but if the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall 00:14:06.17\00:14:08.51 not eat for in the day that you eat 00:14:08.51\00:14:10.65 of it, you shall surely die." 00:14:10.65\00:14:13.31 Now, there's a curious fact that emerges later 00:14:14.48\00:14:17.02 on over in chapter three of this story. 00:14:17.02\00:14:19.79 When the devil asks Eve if God really told her that she 00:14:19.79\00:14:23.63 couldn't eat from every tree in the garden, she tells him, 00:14:23.63\00:14:27.13 I'm not allowed to eat from the tree in the midst 00:14:27.13\00:14:29.63 of the garden, in other words, 00:14:29.63\00:14:31.43 the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 00:14:31.43\00:14:33.80 But in Genesis chapter two, 00:14:33.80\00:14:35.40 it's the Tree Of Life that you find in the midst 00:14:35.40\00:14:37.61 of the garden, not the tree of knowledge. 00:14:37.61\00:14:40.24 So either both those trees were in the middle 00:14:40.24\00:14:42.98 of the garden or the focal point of the story is shifting 00:14:42.98\00:14:47.25 from one tree to the other. 00:14:47.25\00:14:49.45 It's describing the moment when the human race 00:14:49.45\00:14:52.02 changed its mode of existence. 00:14:52.92\00:14:55.12 What Rabbi Foreman points out is that between these 00:14:55.12\00:14:58.06 two references to the trees, we find another story, 00:14:58.06\00:15:01.60 really an insertion where God asks Adam to name the animals 00:15:01.60\00:15:06.03 and search among them for a suitable mate. 00:15:06.03\00:15:08.74 And he suggests that interlude, 00:15:08.74\00:15:11.61 that extra story is very deliberate. 00:15:11.61\00:15:14.11 Here's how the Bible tells the story again 00:15:14.11\00:15:16.34 from Genesis chapter two, it says, 00:15:16.34\00:15:18.88 "Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the 00:15:18.88\00:15:21.45 field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam 00:15:21.45\00:15:24.09 to see what he would call them and whatever Adam called 00:15:24.09\00:15:27.39 each living creature that was its name. 00:15:27.39\00:15:29.99 So Adam gave names to all cattle, 00:15:29.99\00:15:32.26 to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field. 00:15:32.26\00:15:35.70 But for Adam, 00:15:35.70\00:15:37.13 there was not found a helper comparable to him. " 00:15:37.13\00:15:40.07 And the very next thing that happens is the creation of Eve. 00:15:41.60\00:15:44.97 This comes in verse 21, it says, 00:15:44.97\00:15:47.44 "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and he 00:15:47.44\00:15:50.88 slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh 00:15:50.88\00:15:54.02 in its place. 00:15:54.02\00:15:55.48 Then the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, 00:15:55.48\00:15:57.89 he made into a woman and he brought her to the man. 00:15:57.89\00:16:00.59 And Adam said, 00:16:00.59\00:16:02.02 This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. 00:16:02.02\00:16:04.49 She shall be called woman because she was taken out of 00:16:04.49\00:16:09.46 man." So here's what's happening. 00:16:10.73\00:16:12.87 When God presents the animals, 00:16:12.87\00:16:14.77 he isn't really trying to convince Adam to adopt one 00:16:14.77\00:16:17.91 of them as a wife. 00:16:17.91\00:16:19.24 What he's trying to do is show Adam 00:16:19.24\00:16:21.24 that he's different from the animals. 00:16:21.24\00:16:23.65 There's something that sets you and I apart from the 00:16:25.05\00:16:26.85 animal kingdom, animals appear to live by instinct 00:16:26.85\00:16:30.55 and human beings ostensibly try to live by our reason. 00:16:30.55\00:16:34.99 So what happens next in the story? 00:16:34.99\00:16:37.56 A member of the animal kingdom suddenly tempts the human 00:16:37.56\00:16:40.50 race to pivot away from their God-given authentic human 00:16:40.50\00:16:43.90 existence, did God really say you can't eat from that tree? 00:16:43.90\00:16:48.27 Well, what the devil is doing 00:16:48.27\00:16:49.94 is trying to convince human beings that there urges, 00:16:49.94\00:16:52.77 their instincts are more reliable than the word of God. 00:16:52.77\00:16:57.78 And what you'll notice is that he appeals directly 00:16:59.21\00:17:01.55 to our senses, when he tries to persuade us. 00:17:01.55\00:17:04.05 The story says "So when the woman saw that the tree was good 00:17:04.05\00:17:08.16 for food and it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree 00:17:08.16\00:17:10.96 desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, 00:17:10.96\00:17:14.93 she also gave to her husband with her and he ate." 00:17:14.93\00:17:18.43 This is a push for human beings to live like animals. 00:17:19.83\00:17:24.21 Now it's a lot more complicated than that, 00:17:24.21\00:17:26.07 and I'm not at all convinced by all of Rabbi Foreman's 00:17:26.07\00:17:29.21 observations, but at the same time, I have 00:17:29.21\00:17:32.35 to admit, the animal element does appear in this story. 00:17:32.35\00:17:35.98 Adam has decided to get a human made 00:17:35.98\00:17:39.12 because he is not like the animals. 00:17:39.12\00:17:40.96 And now the devil in some ways 00:17:40.96\00:17:42.66 tries to get that decision reversed. 00:17:44.13\00:17:46.83 I mean, look at that fruit. 00:17:46.83\00:17:48.60 I know what God said, 00:17:48.60\00:17:50.07 but didn't he also create you with instinct? 00:17:50.07\00:17:52.77 I know God gave you reason, 00:17:52.77\00:17:54.34 but didn't he also give you passion? 00:17:54.34\00:17:56.27 Why can't you be like the animal 00:17:56.27\00:17:58.94 and just follow your instincts? 00:17:58.94\00:18:00.91 And so begins the sad saga of unintended consequences. 00:18:02.34\00:18:06.58 We believed that we could out guess God and engineer 00:18:06.58\00:18:10.02 a better existence for ourselves all on our own. 00:18:10.02\00:18:14.26 And personally, 00:18:14.26\00:18:15.62 I think the story of Pandora's box is just a memory 00:18:15.62\00:18:19.59 of this story, I'll be right back after this. 00:18:19.59\00:18:23.23 - [Narrator] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues, 00:18:26.84\00:18:31.14 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 00:18:31.14\00:18:35.71 If you've ever read Daniel or Revelation 00:18:35.71\00:18:37.88 and come away scratching your head, you are not alone. 00:18:37.88\00:18:40.95 Our free focus on prophecy guides are designed to help you 00:18:40.95\00:18:44.42 unlock the mysteries of the Bible and deepen your 00:18:44.42\00:18:46.99 understanding of God's plan for you and our world. 00:18:46.99\00:18:50.19 Study online or request them 00:18:50.19\00:18:52.09 by mail and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 00:18:52.09\00:18:55.50 - The story of Eden ends with the human race being kicked 00:18:56.93\00:18:59.57 out of its original home so that the now changed human race 00:18:59.57\00:19:02.87 cannot eat from the Tree Of Life. 00:19:02.87\00:19:05.17 Human beings developed an experiential knowledge 00:19:05.17\00:19:08.18 of evil, the ability to do wicked things, 00:19:08.18\00:19:11.28 and we would be capable of producing untold wickedness 00:19:11.28\00:19:15.12 if there wasn't a time limit. 00:19:15.12\00:19:17.42 And so today we think that we're rational beings 00:19:17.42\00:19:20.62 entirely governed by our reason, 00:19:20.62\00:19:23.09 but we are also driven by untamed passions 00:19:23.09\00:19:25.89 that cloud our ability to think clearly. 00:19:25.89\00:19:29.60 The Bible describes that condition as sin, 00:19:29.60\00:19:32.90 which is an English translation of a word that literally 00:19:32.90\00:19:35.64 means missing the mark, like a marksman who misses a target. 00:19:35.64\00:19:40.58 Our perception of the universe has been skewed. 00:19:40.58\00:19:43.68 And so people who were made in the image of God find 00:19:43.68\00:19:46.48 themselves in a condition where they think they're doing 00:19:46.48\00:19:49.58 the right thing, 00:19:49.58\00:19:51.09 but they may well be moving away from God's design. 00:19:51.09\00:19:54.89 The book of Proverbs famously says, 00:19:54.89\00:19:56.89 "There is a way that seems right 00:19:56.89\00:19:58.69 to a man, but it's end is the way of death." 00:19:58.69\00:20:01.86 It's a really bad case 00:20:01.86\00:20:04.23 of unattended consequences, a condition which dooms us all. 00:20:04.23\00:20:09.24 So it comes as no surprise to students of the Bible 00:20:10.67\00:20:12.64 that the human race misses the mark again and again 00:20:12.64\00:20:15.48 and again and again, and often with disastrous side effects 00:20:15.48\00:20:19.78 that nobody predicted. 00:20:19.78\00:20:22.15 And yet we continue to delude ourselves into thinking 00:20:22.15\00:20:24.89 that we're mostly right most of the time, I mean, 00:20:24.89\00:20:27.36 just listen to something that Jesus said. 00:20:27.36\00:20:29.89 He said "These things I have spoken 00:20:29.89\00:20:32.56 to you that you should not be made to stumble," 00:20:32.56\00:20:35.13 in other words, just like it was 00:20:35.13\00:20:37.07 in Eden, God is asking us to listen to what he says, 00:20:37.07\00:20:40.90 and then he contrasts his advice with the way that we think 00:20:40.90\00:20:43.91 He continues, "They will put you out of the synagogues. 00:20:43.91\00:20:47.14 Yes, the time is coming that whosoever kills you." 00:20:47.14\00:20:50.25 Now listen to this. 00:20:50.25\00:20:51.85 "We'll think that he offers God's service and these things 00:20:51.85\00:20:55.42 they will do to you because they have not known 00:20:55.42\00:20:58.15 the Father nor me." 00:20:58.15\00:20:59.12 It's a description of unaided human reason. 00:21:00.39\00:21:03.26 You and I are perfectly capable of convincing ourselves 00:21:03.26\00:21:05.86 that almost anything is a good idea. 00:21:05.86\00:21:08.46 I mean most of us love to think 00:21:08.46\00:21:10.43 that we are intellectually immune 00:21:10.43\00:21:12.70 from doing terrible things, 00:21:12.70\00:21:14.57 and it horrifies us to think that there might be 00:21:14.57\00:21:16.77 a Charlie Manson lurking in every human heart. 00:21:16.77\00:21:20.58 But don't forget, 00:21:20.58\00:21:22.11 Hitler's mother didn't give birth to a immoral monster. 00:21:22.11\00:21:25.61 She gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. 00:21:25.61\00:21:28.58 Not that I know for sure that Hitler was a beautiful baby, 00:21:28.58\00:21:31.39 but you get my point. 00:21:31.39\00:21:32.95 Therefore, Paul wrote, "Let him who thinks he stands, 00:21:34.39\00:21:38.26 take heed lest he fall." 00:21:38.26\00:21:40.10 No temptation is overtaken you except such 00:21:40.10\00:21:42.76 as is common to man in other words, 00:21:42.76\00:21:46.13 never delude yourself into thinking that you can't do 00:21:46.13\00:21:48.90 what other people have done, we're all human after all, 00:21:48.90\00:21:52.24 and everybody's reason is clouded by passion. 00:21:52.24\00:21:55.81 Almost all of us, given the right circumstances, 00:21:55.81\00:21:58.51 are capable of just about anything. 00:21:58.51\00:22:01.58 And then Paul says, But God is faithful 00:22:03.02\00:22:05.82 who will not allow you 00:22:05.82\00:22:07.06 to be tempted beyond what you are able, 00:22:07.06\00:22:09.02 but with the temptation will also make the way 00:22:09.02\00:22:11.63 of escape that you may be able to bear it. 00:22:11.63\00:22:13.96 So where does Paul suggest that we find some moral clarity 00:22:15.30\00:22:19.43 so we can actually do the right thing? 00:22:19.43\00:22:21.70 Well by returning to the words that God has spoken. 00:22:21.70\00:22:24.87 Our baser instincts are not a reliable measure 00:22:26.04\00:22:29.28 of right and wrong. 00:22:29.28\00:22:30.45 What Adam and Eve did was choose 00:22:30.45\00:22:31.98 to live by the dictates of human passion. 00:22:31.98\00:22:34.92 They chose to become masters of their own destiny, 00:22:34.92\00:22:37.82 ignoring the council of God and forging their own future. 00:22:37.82\00:22:42.56 The result, a world riddled with unintended consequences, 00:22:42.56\00:22:46.80 many of which have caused untold pain and suffering, 00:22:46.80\00:22:51.13 including for you. 00:22:51.13\00:22:53.37 Which brings me to another observation 00:22:53.37\00:22:55.10 from the story of Eden, after Adam and Eve are expelled 00:22:55.10\00:22:58.81 from paradise, God places chars at the gates 00:22:58.81\00:23:02.08 of Eden, it says to guard the way to the Tree Of Life. 00:23:02.08\00:23:06.51 You'll notice God does not bar the way to the Tree Of Life. 00:23:06.51\00:23:10.25 He guards it as if it needs to be preserved. 00:23:10.25\00:23:13.46 In the Bible, chars are the angels who stand right next 00:23:14.92\00:23:17.33 to the throne of God. 00:23:17.33\00:23:18.76 Lucifer is described as a covering chair 00:23:18.76\00:23:21.43 before he sinned, in the Old Testament sanctuary, 00:23:21.43\00:23:24.87 the arc of the covenant had two golden chars on the lid, 00:23:24.87\00:23:27.80 and under the lid there was a copy of the 10 Commandments, 00:23:27.80\00:23:30.94 the moral law of God. 00:23:30.94\00:23:33.31 The presence of God, and the Moral Commandments 00:23:34.71\00:23:36.78 are figuratively speaking, 00:23:36.78\00:23:38.85 serving the same function as the Tree Of Life. 00:23:38.85\00:23:42.05 And it's here that Rabbi Foreman makes a 00:23:42.05\00:23:43.85 really good point, he writes, 00:23:43.85\00:23:46.25 "We noticed earlier that cherubs appear just twice 00:23:46.25\00:23:49.12 in the entire five books of Moses. 00:23:49.12\00:23:51.76 The only other time we find them is when their likeness 00:23:51.76\00:23:54.00 adorns the top of the holy arc and the tabernacle 00:23:54.00\00:23:56.97 where they guard the tablets of the law. 00:23:56.97\00:23:59.53 Aptly the Book of Proverbs describes these tablets 00:23:59.53\00:24:02.37 or the Torah, they represent as another Tree Of Life, 00:24:02.37\00:24:05.51 a Tree Of Life to all who grab hold of it." 00:24:05.51\00:24:08.98 Evidently the same chars who keep us away 00:24:08.98\00:24:11.41 from one Tree Of Life grant us access to another one, 00:24:11.41\00:24:14.68 in a sense, the Torah may be seen as a replacement Tree 00:24:14.68\00:24:18.59 Of Life, okay, I'll be right back after this quick break. 00:24:18.59\00:24:22.72 - [Narrator] Life can throw a lot at us. 00:24:26.33\00:24:28.70 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 00:24:28.70\00:24:32.07 but that's where the Bible comes in. 00:24:32.07\00:24:34.50 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 00:24:34.50\00:24:37.61 Here at The Voice Of Prophecy, 00:24:37.61\00:24:39.14 we've created the Discover Bible guides to be your guide 00:24:39.14\00:24:41.98 to the Bible, they're designed to be simple, easy to use, 00:24:41.98\00:24:45.38 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions. 00:24:45.38\00:24:48.42 And they're absolutely free. 00:24:48.42\00:24:50.42 So jump online now or give us a call 00:24:50.42\00:24:52.79 and start your journey of discovery. 00:24:52.79\00:24:55.06 - When the Book of Proverbs brings up the idea of grabbing 00:24:56.49\00:24:58.39 hold of the Tree Of Life, it's talking about wisdom, 00:24:58.39\00:25:01.60 but it's not talking about my wisdom or yours because we 00:25:01.60\00:25:04.63 already know the results of just unaided raw human thinking. 00:25:04.63\00:25:08.94 It's talking about God's wisdom, 00:25:08.94\00:25:11.14 the kind that leads to an authentic human existence 00:25:11.14\00:25:14.08 where you and I actually reveal 00:25:14.08\00:25:16.58 the character of God in our lives. 00:25:16.58\00:25:18.98 Now, to be sure you are perfectly free 00:25:18.98\00:25:20.68 to keep living your own way, 00:25:20.68\00:25:22.52 We've had 2,500 years of written human philosophy to guide 00:25:22.52\00:25:26.55 us, but after all those centuries with all those 00:25:26.55\00:25:29.79 brilliant thinkers, the human condition hasn't improved one 00:25:29.79\00:25:33.26 bit. Ah sure, we've conquered smallpox and polio, 00:25:33.26\00:25:36.40 and we have the benefit of anesthetics 00:25:36.40\00:25:38.80 when we get our teeth drilled but overall, 00:25:38.80\00:25:42.24 try to convince me the human beings are actually better off 00:25:42.24\00:25:45.14 morally speaking than we used to be. 00:25:45.14\00:25:47.78 We entered the 20th century brimming with confidence because 00:25:47.78\00:25:50.98 the scientific revolution was gonna fix all our problems. 00:25:50.98\00:25:54.58 But we left the 20th century with more than 200 million dead 00:25:54.58\00:25:59.32 because we used our knowledge 00:25:59.32\00:26:00.62 to make killing more efficient. 00:26:00.62\00:26:02.69 And I know there are Christians who behave like the devil, 00:26:02.69\00:26:06.09 but then every once in a while you'll see the real thing. 00:26:06.09\00:26:09.56 A person who grabs hold of the Tree Of Life 00:26:09.56\00:26:12.07 and is restored to his rightful place as a human being 00:26:13.44\00:26:16.27 made in the image of God. 00:26:16.27\00:26:18.27 And we all stop and marvel when we see one of those people 00:26:18.27\00:26:21.34 because something tells us that's the right way to live. 00:26:21.34\00:26:25.61 And standing obviously at the top of that list 00:26:25.61\00:26:28.02 is the one man who changed human history 00:26:28.02\00:26:30.19 more than everybody else put together, 00:26:30.19\00:26:32.72 a humble carpenter from Nazareth whose life 00:26:32.72\00:26:35.29 and teachings continue to inspire even some 00:26:35.29\00:26:38.39 of the harshest skeptics. 00:26:38.39\00:26:40.46 Kurt Vanu even called himself a Christ loving atheist. 00:26:40.46\00:26:44.50 In the God delusion, Richard Dawkins said, Indeed, Jesus, 00:26:44.50\00:26:47.84 if he ever existed, 00:26:47.84\00:26:49.34 was surely one of the great ethical innovators of history. 00:26:49.34\00:26:52.37 The Sermon on the Mount is way ahead of its time. 00:26:52.37\00:26:55.91 High praise right from a man who appears to hate Christians, 00:26:55.91\00:26:59.88 an atheist I recently stumbled across on Reddit, 00:26:59.88\00:27:02.48 described Jesus as a great human being who is the perfect 00:27:02.48\00:27:06.62 role model for what we should all strive to achieve. 00:27:06.62\00:27:11.39 Jesus said this, I have come to do your willow God. 00:27:11.39\00:27:15.06 What we have in the life of Christ is a second Adam, 00:27:15.06\00:27:19.27 a redo a man who shows us what a real authentic human life 00:27:19.27\00:27:23.64 is supposed to look like 00:27:23.64\00:27:25.11 in his life, has altered human history for good. 00:27:25.11\00:27:29.28 I don't know about you, 00:27:29.28\00:27:30.78 but the last five decades of my life have been one long 00:27:30.78\00:27:32.68 string of unintended consequences. 00:27:32.68\00:27:35.98 But here's what I found when I went to this book. 00:27:35.98\00:27:39.52 If you live this way, if you grab hold of the Tree Of Life, 00:27:39.52\00:27:43.12 if you examine what God says is an authentic human life, 00:27:43.12\00:27:47.13 it really does start to go better. 00:27:47.13\00:27:49.26 So maybe it's time to have another look at this old book to 00:27:49.26\00:27:53.07 see what our human race lost when we chose 00:27:53.07\00:27:56.47 to forge our own destiny. 00:27:56.47\00:27:58.34 Until next time, I'm Shawn Boonstra, 00:27:58.34\00:28:01.18 and this has been "Authentic". 00:28:01.18\00:28:03.85 [upbeat music] 00:28:04.71\00:28:07.38