SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #79 ---- 7/19/99
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
As We fight The Good Fight
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #79 ---- 7/19/99
TITLE: "Comparing The Fruit" (Part Two of "Two Trees In The Garden")
My Dear Fellow Servant:
I greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I pray that you are
prospering and are in good health in all things as your soul prospers
(III John 1:2).
This past week has been, in the words of my grandfather, a real
"humdinger". Two events stand out in unusual significance.
1. Thursday evening we were privileged to see our oldest daughter, her
husband and son commissioned by their denomination to International
missionary work and probably assigned to Latin America. Kevin had done
missionary work as a builder and preacher in Germany prior to their
marriage.
Since that time they have ministered short-term in Pnong Phen, Cambodia
and Bogota, Colombia. It looks like their next assignment, following
language school, will probably take them to Medellin, the center of the
Colombian Drug Cartel. It fascinates me that God has thus far led them
to three of the ten most dangerous cities in the world.
That not withstanding, we are honored that God has chosen three of our
four daughters to serve for a time both in vocational ministry and to
serve as missionaries. Perhaps someday I will share with you the
missionary journey on which our Heavenly Father has led us, accompanying
us all the way. It's a very long way from a seminary chapel service in
1963 to today.
2. Yesterday was a very special day in the church where I am currently
serving as interim pastor. I find it hard to believe that, in the middle
of summer (here in the Northern Hemisphere, winter for the rest of you)
with temperatures in the 90's fahrenheit, attendance increases. The main
auditorium was nearly packed with probably the largest single crowd to
attend since Jo Ann and I began ministering there.
A week ago I began a series of messages on the "One Anothers" of the New
Testament, designed to bring encouragement, healing, and growth to this
battered and bruised congregation. The first message, "Part of One
Another" identified five key operative principles that are a living
reality because we are part of one another, and they require our obedient
response. There are no options.
Yesterday I spoke on "Building Up (Edify) One Another" where we tried to
find the answers to three simple questions: 1) "What Does Edify Mean?",
2) "How Can We Edify One Another?", and 3) "How Can I Be An
'Edifier'?" Apparently, praise His Name, God has me preaching right
where the people are ---- and I'm having a "preaching fit" doing it. God
is so good!
I hope to share some of that with you in the future. When you realize
there are at least 94 times in the New Testament when the phrase "one
another" or something similar is used relating to over 60 different
subjects, you suddenly realize that one of the keys to healthy church
life is to identify, understand, and practice the "one anothers" of the
Bible.
So, you see ---- this has been a good week indeed.
THE TWO TREES ISSUE:
Few letters have received the comments I got from last week's letter. I
wish I could share some of them with you, but will refer to just one ----
from a friend.
I struggled considerably with writing on this subject for a couple
reasons. First, It is a vast and comprehensive subject in which one
could get deeply bogged down in theological muck and mire, and take
forever to claw your way out.
Second, my sole purpose of this letter is to encourage and lift you, and
not turn it into some exegetical treatise ---- I would rather leave the
debate and exegesis to others and just spend my time walking along side
you with my partnership of encouragement and commitment to your ministry.
My scripture reference at the end holds true today.
However, at the request of this friend and because of comments and
questions from others, I will dig into this area a little deeper today.
Here's what was written and my comments, part of which I already sent to
my friend:
>Dear Bob,
>
>I really enjoyed your latest Shoulders newsletter. It said something I
had never thought about before. . . . I am >wondering if you can (perhaps
next newsletter?) elaborate on how a person knows the difference [between
the >trees] in their day to day life?
>
>SO then what exactly is the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil in this world today and how do we see it
>for what it is?
>
This is really the difficult one of your questions ---- not because it's
hard to define, but because it's difficult to explain. That's one reason
I've hesitated for so long to write about it in my weekly letters.
You really have to study the events of the creation account and the
consequences therein to grasp the basic principle ---- which is that God
gave man a choice to live either by His grace from the Tree of Life
(which, of course, is a typological representation of Jesus Christ), or
live by the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
In reading Genesis 2:4 through 3:24, the event is based on God's
provision of mankind in that most perfect and utopic setting called the
Garden of Eden. Absolutely everything man needed was provided. Verse
nine indicates that God caused every tree that would benefit them by
either its beauty or its food value was there ---- along with the Tree of
Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Most importantly, however ---- God was there. And that made all the
difference. At least it should have.
God longed for, offered, and enjoyed intimate fellowship with mankind.
He offered them total freedom, and an intimacy with Him which was beyond
their comprehension. There was only one stipulation ---- "eat all you
want of anything you want, except ---- from the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil."
He made the command clear ---- and the consequences even more clear:
"From the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you shall Not eat. If
you do, ---- you're a dead man the day you do."
It was a very simple test which should be easy to pass ---- one single
command which should be easy to obey.
And, as long as they walked in fellowship with God, it was. And they
passed ---- and they obeyed.
Until that fateful day.
CHOOSING THE FRUIT:
You remember the story, but let me point out two things ---- Satan's
strategy and man's erroneous conclusions.
My friend, Jeff Floyd, says Satan used a progressive three-step strategy
that led to man's fateful decision. He uses that same strategy yet
today, and millions of Christians continue being robbed of spiritual life
because they fall for the same trickery.
Here's what Satan did:
1) He got them to Doubt the Word of God by raising the question,
"Hath God said . . . ?" It is apparent that he succeeded in the effort.
2) Secondly, he created Confusion over what God had said. When Eve
responded, she, in confusion, misquoted what God had actually said, and
replied, "God has said 'you shall not eat from it OR Touch it . . . "
---- which God had not said.
Once you are brought to doubt the Word of God, you will soon become
confused as to what He actually did and did not say, and will become
confused between the truth and the not true ---- between good and evil,
for example.
3) Finally, the logical end result is Deception. Once confusion and
uncertainty had captured her mind, Eve was a sitting duck for Satan's
deception: "You really won't die! God just said that because He wants
to keep you in your place. In actuality, you will be like God ----
Knowing good and evil! Wouldn't that be cool??? Just what you've wanted
---- and most certainly what you deserve!"
TAKING KNOWLEDGE OVER REVELATION:
At this point, many people focus on the "good" vs "evil" thing, assuming
this is what created the fall of man ---- the fact that they chose evil.
But the Bible doesn't say that. They chose "good" as well as "evil".
So, if they chose good, how can good cause death?
You see, my friend, if you focus on the "good" and "evil" of the story, I
believe you're missing the point.
The real issue was not the fruit ---- "good" and "evil", though they
certainly do play a part. The real issue was the source of the fruit.
It's not so much "acts" or "sins" as it is an attitude or disposition.
When man chose to rebel against God and disobey Him, he essentially chose
to live his life based on human reason instead of divine revelation.
Living by the Tree of Life is to live by divine revelation ---- where
your understanding and comprehension come from God through His Holy
Spirit. Living by the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is to live
by human reason alone ---- which, because of the fall of man, is always
limited and corrupted.
Here's where it starts to get heavy. I believe that prior to the fall,
man had full knowledge and comprehension because He was in total
connection with God through personal fellowship.
However, when man rebelled against God, man became dead toward God in
his inner spirit. And, because that was where the Holy Spirit dwelt, and
the role of the Holy Spirit was, among other things, to give man a
conscience whereby he could divinely know right from wrong, to give him
an intuitive ability to discern, and to give him the capacity for
intimate worship with God, when the Holy Spirit departed, all those
abilities were removed as well.
Now that they are removed, man can only rely on the residual effect of a
conscience that is seared, an intuition that is carnally driven, and a
worship capacity that now can only worship creation or itself.
Therefore, man turns to what resources he has left ---- inward on himself
and begins to cultivate and depend on his own intellect, emotions, and
will, all of which reside within his human personality (or soul).
And ---- this is pure opinion on my part ---- I believe that when man
fell, his mind also fell, resulting in the sub conscious and the
conscious. So, with man being as brilliant as he is with less than five
percent of his brain power operating, just imagine how incredible he
must have been when he had no "sub" conscious, but only full
consciousness operating by divine revelation.
The rub comes, though, when man continues to try to act like, look like,
and live like what he used to be before the fall, ---- but without God.
That's the essence of secular humanism ---- trying to be like God (or
even be God) without God. ---- or, even worse, without acknowledging that
God even exists.
Paul was actually dealing with the contrast between the two trees in
several of his epistles (namely Galatians, Ephesians, and Colossians)
when he addressed the contrasts between the law and grace, between faith
and works, between human knowledge (gnosis ---- from which "gnosticism"
comes) and divinely revealed and comprehended knowledge (epignosis ----
from which revelation, wisdom, and understanding come).
The key, in my opinion, is to look at the word "Knowledge". The problem
was not so much discerning between good and evil as much as it was that
man chose to live by knowledge rather than by revelation.
Even as good as it is, knowledge is always incomplete. That's why the
Bible says that in the last days before Christ's return, man will
continue to be always learning but never come to the knowledge of the
truth. It's the continued presence of having chosen to eat from the
wrong tree. God's plan through Christ was to provide "epignosis" ----
full knowledge that contains wisdom and understand, and all provided by
divine revelation through the Holy Spirit.
THE MAKE UP OF THE TWO TREES:
A tree is made up of three things ---- Root, Character or Makeup, and
Fruit.
1. The real question for those two trees is ---- "Where were they
rooted?" You see, that's the "root" issue, if you'll pardon the pun.
A second question is "What is in the root?", because it is the root that
determines the fruit.
The dwelling place of the root determines the content of the fruit.
The Tree of Life was rooted in the Heart and Purposes of God. The Tree
of the knowledge of Good and Evil was rooted outside of the heart and
Purposes of God ---- in the world.
The only way to know and understand the heart and purposes of God was to
eat from the Tree of Life. To do otherwise would bring a person to a
place of total ignorance about His heart and purposes for man.
2. Depending on where the tree is rooted, it will develop a certain
substance or character. On the part of the first tree, because it was
rooted in the heart and purposes of God, its character was Divine Life.
Because the second tree was rooted and grounded in the world system, all
it was capable of containing was Human Knowledge.
True, it was not only the knowledge of evil, but also the knowledge of
good. But, as long as Divine Life is absent, such conclusions are always
suspect ---- it depends on opinion ---- on preference.
Proverbs 3:5-8 illustrates this point: "Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways
acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own
eyes; Fear the Lord and turn away from evil, and it will be healing to
thy body, and refreshing to thy bones."
3. Finally ---- depending on the tree's root and character or substance,
certain fruit will come out ---- giving true evidence to the real nature
and character of the tree. Jesus illustrated that when, in describing
the religious leaders of His day, He said, "by their fruits you shall
know them."
COMPARING THE FRUIT:
So, then ---- in order to understand the evidences of the fruit of the
trees, we must understand first their basic origins and character.
The Tree of Life is rooted in the heart and purposes of God and is
characterized by Divine Life. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
is rooted in the world and is characterized by limited human knowledge.
Now the difference is not clearly revealed in the lives of Adam and Eve,
but it does begin to surface in their children. Interesting how that
often happens.
You remember the story in Genesis chapter 4 ---- Cain and Abel were
brothers. There was a God-given hunger in both men to live in right
relationship with God. They both longed to have that intimate fellowship
with God which they had heard their parents reminisce about ---- a time
of innocence, of joy, of fullness ---- of completeness ---- and peace.
Though both longing for the same thing, they turned to different sources
for the answer ---- Cain to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,
and Abel to the Tree of Life.
They both brought offerings to God ---- Cain brought grain, Abel brought
an animal sacrifice.
Now ---- let's compare the fruit of the two trees.
One is earthy, the other is spiritual. One is an act of works, the other
an act of faith. One is given out of sweat, the other out of obedience.
One tries to balance good and evil, the other acknowledges a singleness
of heart.
One is rooted in insecurity, the other is rooted in identification. One
resists God's standard, the other submits. One is self-justifying, the
other is self-acknowledgement. One is self-preserving, the other is
servant like.
One is jealous, the other is open and transparent. One is reactionary,
the other is non-reactionary. One is unstable (James 1:18), the other is
stable.
One worshipped creation, the other worshipped the Creator. One was just
a creation, the other became a New Creation. One originated in religious
effort, the other originated in relationship.
One was of the "new world order", the other in the New Jerusalem. One
ultimately gave birth to Babylon, the other gave birth to the Body of
Christ. One was intellectual, the other was revelational. One came from
dust and ended up dust, the other came from Death to newness of life.
One generated institutionalism, the other generated relationships. One
fostered organization, the other produced organism. One resulted in the
mark of the beast, the other the mark of the Cross.
One was based on both good and evil, the other was based on forgiveness
and righteousness. One worships itself, the other worships God.
One didn't bring death; it was death. The other didn't bring life, it
was life. One was based on human skills, the other was based on
spiritual giftings. One was materialistic, the other fostered
stewardship.
One imitated Christ, the other was conformed to Christ. One acts like
Jesus, the other lets Jesus act like Himself.
Galatians 5, in describing the fruit of the Spirit vs the works of the
flesh, draws a pretty clear picture for starters. In a nutshell,
anything and everything that demonstrates or manifests spiritual life is
from the Tree of Life; anything and everything that demonstrates death is
from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
John described the one, I believe, in I John 2 as "the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life" ---- or in other
words, the craving drive to Do something, Have something, and Be
something apart from God. He says that's all that is in the world, and
that we are not to love the world nor the things that are in the world.
TRACING IT IN HISTORY:
The contrast of the two trees can be traced through history, beginning
with Cain and Abel. Next you see it contrasted between Babylon and the
Body of Christ.
It seen with Abram and Lot, Sarai and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and
Esau, Reuben and Joseph, Pharoah and Moses.
It is found with the Ten Commandments and the Golden Calf, the ten spies
and the two spies, the waters of Marah and the tree, Jericho and Ai,
Joshua and Amalek, David and Saul, Mary and Martha, Peter and Andrew, the
Fig Tree and "the vine".
It is seen in Mount Zion and Mount Sinai, the fruit of the Spirit and
the works of the flesh. It is found in contrasting the gold, silver, and
precious stones with the wood hay and stubble, or the wheat and the
tares, the Bride of Christ and the Great Harlot, the Holy Spirit and the
False Prophet.
And, dear friend ---- it is vividly seen today within the church. I am
compelled to believe that the two trees are still alive today ---- and
they are visible for all to see ---- and all to choose.
How tragic when an unbeliever chooses the Tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil. More tragic, though, is when a believer who should know
better, after he has come to Christ the Tree of Life through faith, now
falls into trying to live that life from the sources of the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Worse yet is to find a pastor or other person in ministry who continues
to suckle on the fruit of that diabolical tree and then tries to manifest
life to those in his charge.
THE DAY IS COMING:
When the writer of Hebrews tells us in chapter 12 that a day is coming
when God is going to shake everything that can be shaken and the outcome
will be the destruction of all that is of the flesh, no matter how
religious it may be, it brings great assurance to our hearts and can
generate extraordinary perseverance in our service.
While you and I continue to struggle with the co-existing forms of the
church and the co-habiting models of Christian living, we can know beyond
any doubt that all the works of the flesh will come to an end.
I have quoted Dr. Jack Deere before, and do so again ---- "There is a day
coming when in one generation God is going to change the way the Church
expresses and the world perceives the Gospel."
That day is near, my friend. With what little time you and I may have
left to serve the Lord, let us diligently choose the operate from the
Tree of Life. Let us abandon every vesture of the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil. Let us be done with it, once and for all time. Let us
devote ourselves and our ministries exclusively to the life of the Holy
Spirit.
It is going to take more than human reason to solve man's problems; it
will require Divine Revelation. It will take more than man made gimmicks
to reach and minister to people; it will necessitate the drawing and
convicting power of the Holy Spirit. It will take more than
hermeneutical exercises and exegetical skill; it will insist on the
teaching work of the Holy Spirit rightly dividing the Word of truth.
The world needs the Tree of Life ---- not the mumbo jumbo of the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil, out of which springs rationalization,
relativism, situational ethics, secular humanism, and all forms of
religions attempting to reach God through human efforts.
The Church needs to return to the Tree of Life and abandon the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil where it has too long feasted, attempting
to be relavent, "friendly", compatible, and hospitable to the world.
In every church where that choice is made, a new day will dawn, and the
church will be alive again. In every pastor's heart where that choice is
made, a new ministry will be born, and that pastor will no longer have to
resort to man made gimmicks and strategies in order to minister life to
his people.
Isn't that what you yearn for?
WHEW!
Well ---- I don't know if you've been blessed, or you're totally
confused, but at least I tried to answer the request of my friend. If
you have been, I'm thrilled. If you haven't been, be patient and wait
for next week's letter.
I love you and desire that you be filled with all the fullness of God to
such an extent that your joy is uncontainable, your energy is
inexhaustible, your commitment is unchangeable, and your drive is
unstoppable.
Have a wonderful week.
In Christ's Bond,
Bob Tolliver ---- (Rom 1:11-12)
Copyright July, 1999. All rights reserved.
If this letter has blessed you and you know of someone else who needs to
be encouraged, feel free to forward it in its entirety to all such people
you know.
If you would like a list of past issues which you could receive upon
request, just let us know.
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/ ^ ^
{ (O) (O) }
------oOOOo--------U-------oOOOo------
Hang in there! I'm with you!
-------.ooooO--------------- Ooooo--------
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Bob Tolliver ---- Rom 1:11-12
Life Unlimited Ministries
E-mail: [email protected]
Ph: 417-275-4854 Fax: 417-275-4855
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