In the beginning, Yahweh said that Adam and Eve could eat from any tree in the garden, except for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He said that if they ate from that tree, they would die. Essentially, Yahweh gave Adam and Eve revelation, which told them how to relate to Him, and live the Abundant Life.
One day, the Serpent got Eve to question the revelation that Yahweh had given concerning the nature of the fruit that was on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Yahweh had revealed that the illicit fruit would kill, but the Serpent got Eve to question Yahweh’s revelation and evaluate the forbidden fruit for herself.
This was a trick. Yahweh did not give Eve the ability to define ultimate reality, that is, He did not give Eve the ability to define good and evil. Eve fell for the Serpent’s trick, and used her senses and logic to evaluate the illicit fruit. In essence, Eve put her understanding above Yahweh’s revelation, and decided to eat the illicit fruit. Then, Adam chose to follow Eve, instead of obeying Yahweh. Consequently, Eve was deceived, but Adam rebelled.
Here is the bottom line: Yahweh revealed how Adam and Eve were to have a relationship with Him, but they disregarded His revelation, and tried to have a relationship with Him that was based on their own understanding of Him.
This was a tragic error!
Adam and Eve’s spirits disconnected from Yahweh’s Spirit, and His Spirit lifted from their bodies, and they knew that they were naked. Adam and Eve figured that they could cover themselves in fig leaves and fellowship with Yahweh, but their understanding of His Holiness was sorely lacking. When Yahweh came to fellowship with them, they realized that their solution was lacking, and hid.
Yahweh cursed the Serpent, and said He would put enmity between him and the woman and between his seed and her seed. Yahweh said the woman’s seed would bruise the Serpent’s head, and the Serpent would bruise the heel of the woman’s seed. Then, Yahweh killed an animal and clothed Adam and Eve in its fur.
Adam and Eve believed Yahweh’s new revelation, and took off their fig leaves. In other words, Adam and Eve believed Yahweh’s new revelation and put their trust in it, and repented for what they had done. So Yahweh clothed them in fur coats.
Adam and Eve had tried to serve Yahweh according to their own understanding, and had eaten the forbidden fruit and covered themselves in fig leaves. Adam and Eve’s reliance upon their own understanding of Yahweh, rather than trusting in the revelation that He had given about Himself, is what caused their spiritual death.
Yahweh revealed how He was going to solve this problem. Yahweh said that He was going to put hostility between the Serpent and the woman, and between the Serpent’s children and the woman’s children and He would give the woman a child, who was going to defeat the Serpent, and the Serpent would wound him.
After Yahweh gave this revelation, Adam and Eve looked for the promised Seed (the promised Child). Adam and Eve thought Cain was the Promised Seed, until he proved otherwise. How did Cain prove that he was not the Promised Seed?
Adam and Eve taught their children how to worship Yahweh, by teaching them what Yahweh had revealed about worship. Abel believed Yahweh’s revelation of worship and killed a lamb to approach Him. Cain rejected Yahweh’s revelation of worship and relied on his own understanding to approach Him. Yahweh accepted Abel’s worship, but rejected Cain’s. So Cain got angry and murdered Abel.
We tend to think that Cain’s murder of Abel is what identified him as the Serpent’s seed. It is not. Cain proved that he was the Serpent’s seed when he rejected Yahweh’s revelation of worship, and chose to worship Yahweh according to his own understanding. When Cain rejected Yahweh’s revelation of worship, and tried to worship Yahweh according to his own understanding of Him, he bowed to the Serpent, and the Serpent brought death into the world through Cain’s hands.
The hallmark of the woman’s seed (Yahweh’s children) is that they put their trust in, and live by, the revelation that Yahweh gives during their dispensation. The hallmark of the Serpent’s seed (Satan’s children) is they put their trust in, and live by, their own understanding. The Scriptures are very clear about this principle.
Here, is another example of this principle. The Hebrews lived in Egypt for 400 years. During this time, the Hebrews began to worship Egyptian gods. At the appointed time, Yahweh delivered the Hebrews from Egypt and took them to Mt. Sinai, where He revealed, Who He was, and how they were to worship Him.
Right after the Hebrews received Yahweh’s revelation of worship, they built a golden calf, and worshiped it! Why? They thought they could worship Yahweh by worshiping the golden calf. So, the Hebrews disregarded Yahweh’s revelation of worship, and attempted to worship Yahweh according to their own understanding.
See, the Egyptians thought that “the gods” rode on sacred animals. Whenever the Egyptians wanted to worship a god, they worshiped the animal that the god rode on, so that the animal would come near to them, and bring the god near to them. This is why the Hebrews, who came out of Egypt, built the golden calf and said that these were the gods who brought them out of Egypt. (Exodus 32:4)
Clearly, the Hebrews were worshiping “a god of their own understanding”.
Did Yahweh overlook the fact that they disregarded His revelation, and tried to worship Him according to their own understanding? No! Yahweh got angry and thought about destroying them, and ended up plaguing them for their rebellion. Why did Yahweh get so angry? He was angry because He had given the Hebrews a lot of revelation, but still they chose to follow in the footsteps of Adam and Eve.
Like Adam and Eve, the Hebrews shunned the Tree of Life, and embraced the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Like Adam and Eve, the Hebrews disregarded Yahweh’s revelation of worship, and worshiped Him according to their own understanding. Like Adam and Eve, the Hebrews worshiped the Serpent by worshiping Yahweh according to their own understanding.
Fifteen-hundred years later, Yahweh clothed Himself in flesh and walked on the earth with us. Yahweh reveled Himself in the person of Yeshua, and summed up everything when He said that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth, that is, we are to live by what He reveals.
A few years later, Paul traveled to Athens. When Paul entered Athens, his spirit was troubled because the city was full of idols. Every god that the people of the nations (the gentiles) worshiped could be found in Athens. Paul came to a place in Athens called Mars Hill, where a lot of pious people worshiped an unknown god.
On Mars Hill, there was an altar to an unknown god. The people who came to this altar were seeking “God,” but they were not sure who he was or what he expected. Consequently, these people worshiped the unknown god according to what they thought he was like, and what they thought he expected. In other words, these people assembled on Mars Hill to worship “a god of their own understanding.”
Who did Paul find on Mar’s Hill? He found the Epicureans and the Stoics worshiping on Mars Hill. Who were the Epicureans and Stoics?
Around 307 B.C., a philosopher named Epicurus said the gods lived in a remote part of the universe, and did not intervene in our affairs, so there was no need to pray to them or offer them sacrifices. He coined the phrase “higher powers” to describe the gods. Epicurus said the goal of life was to reach a state of godhood in which we experience tranquility and freedom from fear by living a moral life and pursuing peace with all men. For Epicurus, ethics was a means to an end, and the end was a good life. Epicurus hated religion and said it was a form of ignorance.
Around 300 B.C., Zeno of Citium began teaching a philosophy called Stoicism. In Stoicism, the Cosmos, Logos or Universal Mind, was “God”. The Stoics believed that they could still their mind and meditate, and the Universal Mind would give them knowledge and the power to rule over their lower emotional nature. For stoics, virtue consisted of a will that was surrendered to, and, in agreement with, the Universal Mind (“God”). And it also consisted of moral relationships that were free of envy, anger, hatred, jealousy, bitterness, resentment and un-forgiveness.
Therefore, on Mars Hill, the Apostle Paul was dealing with a group of individuals, who believed in “a God of their own understanding”, and meditated to hear from this God, while cleansing themselves of resentment and other negative emotions so that they could control themselves and live a virtuous and moral life. On Mars Hill, the Apostle Paul was also dealing with a group of individuals who acknowledged a “higher power” but did not think that this higher power would change their lives, so they adhered to a set of moral principles that enabled them to attain peace.
The objective of the people on Mars Hill was not so much to worship the unknown god, as it was to “do the right thing” by acknowledging the unknown god, and in doing so, live a moral life, so that they could arise above the forces in their lower natures that threatened to enslave them and destroy their lives. In other words, acknowledging the unknown god was a means to an end, and the end was to rise above the addictions of the flesh (lust, greed, gluttony, alcoholism, etc).
So, in essence, Paul visited the Mars Hill Group of Alcoholics Anonymous!
What did the Apostle Paul say to the Mars Hill Group when he visited it? Did Paul approve of their philosophies and tell them they would find Yahweh by worshiping a god of their own understanding? Did Paul say that Yahweh would meet them where they were, and it didn’t matter if they called Him a higher power? No!
Paul told the members of the Mars Hill Group of A.A. that in times past Yahweh overlooked some of the things that they were doing because He had not given man a full revelation of Himself, but now that He has fully revealed Himself in Yeshua, and resurrected Him from the dead to prove His identity, they must repent. Paul told the members of the Mars Hill Group of A.A. that Yeshua would judge them one day, and so they had better repent and get right with Him! (Acts 17:30-31)
Essentially, Paul told the members of the Mars Hill Group of A.A. that since Yeshua has come to the earth and showed us who Yahweh is, it is unacceptable to worship an unknown God, because God has made Himself known to all men.
Consequently, it is wrong for the people in A.A. to worship a higher power or a god of their own understanding because Yahweh fully revealed Himself in the person of Yeshua, and Yeshua has been preached for the last 2,000 years.
Notice also that Paul did not tell these people they could call Yeshua their “higher power”, and continue to live and worship the way they had been living and worshiping. No, Paul told them to repent. Paul expected the people, who named the name of Yeshua, to come down from Mars Hill, and enter the Assembly to learn His Word, fellowship with the saints, and worship Him in Spirit and Truth.
It is beyond dispute that Yahweh has told us not to worship a “higher power” or a “god of our own understanding” and mistakenly think that we are worshiping Him. It is beyond dispute that Yahweh has told everyone, who has worshiped a “higher power” or a “god of their own understanding”, to repent. It is beyond dispute that we cannot call Yeshua a “higher power” and worship Him on Mars Hill right along with the pagans who are worshiping their higher powers.
With this in mind, why would anyone take the 3rd Step?
Here is A.A.’s 3rd Step: “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”
Yahweh says that when we bow to an unknown god (a higher power, or a god of our own understanding), we are not bowing to Him. So who are we surrendering our will, and our life to when we bow to a god of our own understanding? We are surrendering our will, and our life, to the Serpent, and joining the Mars Hill Group!
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