In verse six, we see Eve staring at the fruit and desiring the fruit. It is not wrong in and of it itself to experience temptation. Where the crossing of right and wrong occurs is when we go from experiencing the temptation to participating in a willful act of sin to partake of and fulfill sinful pleasure. We now see the external forces and desires making an impact on the internal choices Eve has to make. Eve could have chosen to not believe the snake and refuse to partake of the forbidden fruit but Eve did not. Instead, Eve allowed the external forces of desire and lust for Godship to influence her internal choice to eat the fruit. Later on in verse six, We see Adam, now motivated by the external force of his wife eat the fruit make the internal choice to join Eve in partaking of the forbidden fruit in an attempt to obtain Godship. Therefore, the external force of sin disguised as the voice from the serpent encouraged Adam and Eve to satisfy their quest for Godship in a self-serving perverted way. Both Adam and Eve made the internal choice to allow themselves to be deceived by justifying what they wanted to do even when God (in Genesis 2:4-17) told them it was wrong to partake of the fruit.

We have seen many psychologists try to rationalize this story and twist the story in demented ways. In the book Keys of Enoch, we see the author actually try to convince people by stating that a God who would put a forbidden object in a man's path, and tell man not to partake of it and force man to see it everyday is a "sick God". Another reference in this book states that "If this fruit would have made Adam and Eve God, then was God so scared that Adam and Eve could become God and overtake God?" The point here is not in the humanistic perception to become gods, the point is to show submission to God. If one reads the rest of this chapter, one will find out that God deals with the sinful nature of Adam and Eve by casting them out of the Garden of Eden and forcing them to work the soil. The serpent had no voice and had it's legs removed. The woman would now experience pain in childbirth. Now, the nature of sin had now entered in and now they were short of the Glory of God. When Adam had sexual intercourse with Eve and Cain was born, the sin nature passed on down throughout every generation and today continues to be passed down. We are born with the nature to sin, but through the atonement of Jesus at Calvary, we can be set free to not live by the flesh, but instead live by the spirit.

Throughout the scriptures, we see people who knew right from wrong. However, these people allowed external forces appealing to their flesh influence internal choices that wounded their spirit man. We see Sampson give out the secret of his strength to Delilah. We see Achan take the spoils of Jericho when he was specifically instructed not to. We see David have sexual relations with another man's wife and attempt to cover the sin up like it never happened. We see Annanias and Sapphira lie to the Holy Ghost. However, we see consequences to their actions. Achan and his entire family were stoned. Sampson was in bondage for the rest of his life even though his greatest miracle of strength cost him his life. David lost any discipline he had within his family. Annanias and Sapphira were struck dead by the Holy Spirit. We can clearly see that the poor internal choices made by these individuals influenced by deceptive external forces ultimately led to death. This choice to succumb to influences of temptation driving people to make poor choices to trangress by performing an act God said is taboo led these people (some cases instantly and in some cases slowly) into the state of totemic death.

Remember in Genesis 2:5, after God had rested on the Sabbath, the Scriptures state that there was no plants nor herbs at this time and no rain had appeared on the earth. The earth, therefore was a land of dust and dirt with no signs of vegetation. We later see in the scriptures that God formed Adam and placed him in Eden. In verse nine, we see how God made to grow every tree pleasant and good for food and also in the middle of the garden, two tress. The first tree was the tree of life. The second tree was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In verses sixteen and seventeen. God tells Adam that he could eat the fruits from every tree except for the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Here, we see God providing all trees in the garden and their nurturing. We also see God establishing boundaries of what trees are acceptable to partake of their fruit and what tree is declaired as unacceptable to partake of their fruit. You see, God allowed this to happen in his garden to test man's obedience to him. Like I said in an earlier paragraph, the temptation in itself is not wrong, but it's what you do with the temptation. It is what we do with the temptation that makes our moral fiber and determines our strength and character. Either we can choose to allow those external forces to influence our internal choices to sin leading us to death. Or we can choose not to sin and become more dead to sin and alive to Christ to further enact the state of Holy Temple dwelled within by the Holy Spirit.

As you may now see, the way to deal with the temptation is by the choices you make. Today, there are many who feel like the only way to promote a state of purity is to eliminate the temptation. The humanist perspective is to state that all things are good and therefore, if all things are good, there is no such thing as evil and Satan. Anybody with a clear rational mind will surely realize that total anarchy reaps more destruction than it saves. The other extreme is that we will eliminate temptation (and some go as far as stating the elimination of Satan) by legislating righetousness (and in some cases self-righetousness). The logic of this mode of thought is that "We can find a political candidate that will see things according to out morals, elect him in office, and that candidate now made elected official, will outlaw everything bad based on our righetousness (and self-righetousness) to the point where we will have no temptation to deal with." In fact, some within the church who have dictated themselves as the "official Christian perspective" have added a extra deception of legalism by stating "If you vote for our candidate, you will see heaven and have an extra jewel in your crown. If you vote against our candidate, you have blasphemed the Holy Spirit and you will spend eternal torment in Hell with no forgiveness of your sin". This logic is flawed and will not work. The scriptures clearly dictate people who were faced with the temptations to do wrong in God's eyes. Some men chose instead to worship God. Some men chose to fulfill the temptation. The temptation is not the root problem here, our ability to make good choices is the root problem. When our candidate fails in our eyes nor does he fulfill our desires, we get disappointed and mad at God. American Christians today have now expected that our righetousness is now found in politics and not in Christ. We now expect politicians to enact laws to where there will be no more temptations to deal with. Therefore, in the eyes of the "official Christian perspective", to regain a spiritual kingdom in America is to enact a political kingdom in America. By legislating righetousness (or self-righetousness) based on the thinking of the "official Christian perspective", we will open up the floodgates of heaven to where revival can finally pour out on this land. In otherwords, we will do God's job to pave the pathway for him instead of doing what he commands us to do, repent.

Click here for part three of Temptation to Temple.