A Tale of Two Peachies

The tree of knowledge of good and evil, useful for obtaining WISDOM? But what kind of wisdom?

"I hunger for mercy and forgiveness from you, not sacrifice..."

When the void was seen in the beginning, it wasn't JUDGED by knowledge of good and evil, like God just looks and says, "hey, that void is choas! It's soooo bad!"

He said, let light be!

The letter of the law is a heartless sacrifice. It is not like the Spirit who gives life to things.

The fleshly nature can feed on the vengeance of the law as much as any other natural, random desire because no discipline or compassion is needed. By executing a "righteous judgement", the true greed and self-indulgence is hidden behind "knowledge" of whether something or someone is "good enough". It is literally no better than a toddler who lashes out at someone for knocking over their blocks, just hitting them in blind rage. This is not real wisdom.

Being harsh against yourself is also no less evil than doing it to someone else. The same ugly spirit is behind it, even though it may be cloaked in "good intentions" to improve, there is no difference than a playground friend who is refusing to let go of something you did last year. Refusing to forgive yourself even, may bring about "sacrifice", you might work very hard, always trying to "put things right" about what mistakes you or others have made, but there is no spirit, no joy or life in it. It is just an empty race to give and give, but not actually making or creating anything new.

If this merciless attitude was applied to the darkness before creation, no earth would have been created. Instead the Spirit gave life to the void and new things sprang up all over.

So, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil bears the fruit of ACCUSATION, the accuser of the brethren, who might speak things that are holy and pure and good, but only to destroy and discourage people, and not out of any love or understanding of their situation, but only out of a instinctive hunger for vengeance that is no spiritual than someone's dog pigging out on pizzas that were left out on the table.

On the other hand, the Spirit has the patience and wisdom to work with people and cultivate what wasn't even there before. This takes true character and strength, to form someone instead of throwing them away for what they are, however true and totally reasonable that perception of who they are may be.

So the reason the tree of knowing good and evil was so deadly was because it caused people to hate each other and themselves by being more aware of their mistakes and evil, than of the hope and potential that could be if only mercy was found. It is a wisdom that knows a lot about a lot of very good things and can point it out in extreme detail, but doesn't have the courage to stand up and do something useful about it.

Many christians are extremely proud of how much they know, of how they used to do this and that and are now sanctified, of how they are appalled by all the horrid things around them. But this is not something to be proud of, if that is all they have to boast about, they are literally just Satan worshipers as much as any horns-wearing warlock, and are not doing anything more special than the Accuser himself does all day long, which is to look around with disgust and point out how rotten things are in detail.

But the Spirit gives life and grows upward, changing and restoring things with a wisdom that is humble and comes alongside the lowly and broken, as a friend and comforter. He doesn't place himself above the weak and stumbling, but really sees people and feels their own pain, however childish and foolish it might be.

"Sin speaks to an evil person inside their heart - in his own eyes, he flatters himself so much that he can't see and perceive his own deception and evil, because otherwise he might be horrified by it and turn away from it."

This verse is not talking about simple things like perhaps alcoholism or a thief, but someone who doesn't see their own heartless attitudes. This reason is "flattery", in other words, they congratulate themselves for what they KNOW and can SEE about things, but their actual attitude is proud and unforgiving towards the, shall we say, "less than perfect" things they see. So because their proud knowledge is actually helping and correcting the situation in some way, they don't see that their own face has turned ugly.

And what can someone be congratuled and honored more for, than to understand and promote the holy and pure laws of God, which was so glorious that Moses had to cover his face after looking at it so the Israelites wouldn't go blind?

Could it be that most christians are so blinded and in awe of this glory, and it is indeed beautiful and glorious, to the point that they don't realize they are greedily scarfing down the shiny fruit of good and evil, and not feeding from the tree of life?

"Do not become part of the pointless works of darkness (hidden things, unseen) but instead, expose them so that everyone can see what is really going on."

Even the promotion of wisdom and legitimately helpful things can be something that needs to be exposed, if it's being done with a bad attitude. Once the ugly face of pride is clearly unmasked, everyone will suddenly shrink back and jostle to get away from what is going on, even if they were all very comfortable to be right there just a minute before.

If I gain wisdom and knowledge of scripture, and now I have less compassion and think less of people around me than back when I was ignorant and just a "nobody", then unfortunately that is the wisdom tree that Adam should've stayed away from. It would be better to stay as I was when I was just a random idiot, because then at least I would care and not feel like I'm too good to get involved in my fellow idiots around me.

"If anyone is wise among you, they will show it by their good life, by things done with the humility that comes from really understanding what's important... the wisdom from above is considerate and submissive, full of mercy and good fruit."

Eaters of the tree of knowledge know great and wise things - eaters of the tree of life become examples of wisdom and great things, even if no one understands who they are.

It is enough for the student to become like the teacher. To really see what maked God and the Devil different, just look at their greatest, and you see a reflection of each master. In the beginning of the field, the weeds and wheat are so much completely the same that even the angels can't figure out who is who, and aren't allowed to pull up weeds.

But in the end, the real insides, the Motivation of each plant is exposed, because that's the only difference between them. That's the real difference between God and Satan. People think that God = holy, follows all possible rules, etc... but Satan is a drunk and a fun-seeking party animal who promotes all kinds of sin and chaos. Not really. Just like their greatest servants, in the beginning of something the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Accuser (who constantly imitates the real Spirit) are very hard to tell apart. In fact, in the beginning they seem to speak the exact same message. Someone might look at the Accuser, see him upset and concerned about some evil or sin of someone, and think, wow, he really cares about truth. What a great guy. He wants purity. Just look at Brother Satan, such a devoted and fervent member of our church, who won't put up with sin. He always tell it like it is and won't let someone get away with anything! But the real Spirit also seems very upset about evil and sin. In the end, the Accuser thirsts for the taste of blood and wants to get back at people, while the Spirit desires to repair and go upward. The though the outward appearance of holiness, glory, and wisdom is extremely identical, but the inner motivations are as different as can be.

Mercy requires lots of patience and careful wisdom that only the Spirit of God himself can teach, while declaring holy and wise judgement requires nothing but a momentary rage that any wicked person could supply from nothing but their own flesh.

We must have unity of purpose and bear with each other in love, each person making allowances for others and discussing anything with real care and respect. Knowledge puffs someone up, but love builds each other up.

Many "christians" are no more than common thugs and gangsters, even though they look with scorn on the evil and murder of actual gangs and rail about how evil they are. But the difference is that the thugs of course have at least some awareness that what they are doing is hurtful and doesn't have an excuse, while the "christians" are also being evil to not show self-control and feel totally justified and holy in wanting the destruction of certain others, while the truth is that unforgiveness and wrath is as evil as anything, and they are murderous in their hearts as much as any gangster in a drive-by. So, because the so called "christian" does not feel the tinges of knowing that their behavior is evil and could hurt people, they do not put any restraint on their natural mind's selfish hunger for feeling superiority and revenge. On the other hand, even a common criminal may put limits on his behavior at times because he still has some idea that it is destructive and so may feel a bit of remorse about the whole thing, even though he is driven by extreme hunger, a bad past etc.