October 2017 – Page 27 – TrueFreeThinker

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Disambiguating the serpent seedline of Satan theory in Genesis 3, part 1 of 2

Titus 1:10-16 notes that:

…many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers…Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake…Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.

The serpent seed of Satan certainly qualifies as being such a fable.

Bertrand L. Comparet wrote the following in his book The Cain / Satanic Seed Line (San Diego, CA; Your Heritage, 1976 AD) regarding reactions to the serpent seed of Satan theory:

The reply of the churchianity preachers is usually to quote Genesis 4:1. “And Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain.” Notice that what is not said is more significant that what is said, the Bible nowhere says Adam begat Cain.

It is literally beyond reason to quote a text which states that “Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain” and conclude from it that “the Bible nowhere says Adam begat Cain.” Sadly, is a typical great example of how the serpent seedline of Satan theory is concocted and promulgated.

In part, this is a specific reply to serpent seed theorist Zen Garcia who has asserted:

…in regard to the Hebrew words for fruit, tree, eat of, touch, and seed, that all of these words have specific association with children, descendants, progeny or are in some way associated to a sexual act.

Thus, he proposes a radical interpretation of Genesis 3. To begin with, even if we grant that all of these words have specific association with a sexual act (which is granting a lot, as we shall see) this only denotes the low level of pop-research in which such personages are engaged.
Most words, in any language, have more than one meaning and the meaning in any given case is determined by the context. Thus, one cannot look at the words listed by Zen and chose meaning #5 for this one, meaning #2 for that one and meaning #7 for the other and claim to have determined the true meaning of a text. This is particularly the case when one sets off with a presupposition to combine alternate meanings into a predetermined conclusion.

Let us go relevant word by relevant word and disambiguate Genesis 3’s key portions with single bracket within which will be the serpent seedline theorists’ rewriting and double brackets within which will be my additions based on if the theorists were contextually consistent which they, of course, are not:

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat [[have sex with]] of every tree [[beings or some sort thus, multiple sex partners]] of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat [[have sex with]] of the fruit [[sex organ?]] of the trees [[beings or some sort thus, multiple sexual partners]] of the garden: But of the fruit [[sex organ?]] of the tree [Satan] which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye [[sexually]] touch it, lest ye die…

And when the woman saw that the tree [Satan] was good [[another reference to sex?]] for food [[sexual pleasure?]], and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree [Satan] to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit [[sex organ?]] thereof, and did eat [[have sex]], and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat [[thus, Adam also had sex with Satan]]. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons…I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed [Satan’s seedline via Cain] and her seed [Adam’s seedline via Seth]; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel…

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten [[had sex]] of the tree [[Satan]], of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of [[have sex with]] it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [[Adam has to have sex with the ground]] of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles [[OUCH!!!]] shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat [[Adam has to have sex with]] the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat [[Adam has to have sex with]] bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Also, keep in mind that in Genesis 2, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree [[various beings]] of the garden thou mayest freely eat [[have multiple sex partners]]: But of the tree [Satan] of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat [have sex] of it: for in the day that thou eatest [has sex with] thereof thou shalt surely die.”

Moreover, Genesis 4:3 notes that apparently Cain wanted to have sex with God as “Cain brought of the fruit [[sexual organs?]] of the ground an offering unto the LORD” with verses 5-7 noting:

But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. nd the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Note that God is interacting with Cain with regards to his actions and not his genetics as God focuses on that which Cain “doest.”

In the next segment we will go word by word through fruit, tree, eat, touch, seed in order to see if they have specific association with a sexual act.

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Demons in Augustine of Hippo, part 10

Herein we conclude, from part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, considering info on Demons in Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD). The fuller complete result consists of quotations of those sections within the text that refer to Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, Devil, Satan, demons, serpent and dragon. The point is not to elucidate these references but to provide relevant partial quotations and citations. See my section on Angels here, Cherubim and Seraphim here, Satan here and Demons here.

Demons in Augustine of Hippo’s The City of God, Books XIX-XX, XXII and On Christian Doctrine.

Book XIX
Chapter 4 And what shall I say of those who suffer from demoniacal possession?

Chapter 9 …there is great need of God’s mercy to preserve us from making friends of demons in disguise, while we fancy we have good Angels for our friends; for the astuteness and deceitfulness of these wicked spirits is equalled by their hurtfulness. And is this not a great misery of human life, that we are involved in such ignorance as, but for God’s mercy, makes us a prey to these demons? And it is very certain that the philosophers of the godless city, who have maintained that the gods were their friends, had fallen a prey to the malignant demons who rule that city, and whose eternal punishment is to be shared by it.

Chapter 10 But not even the saints and faithful worshippers of the one true and most high God are safe from the manifold temptations and deceits of the demons.

Chapter 17 But, as the Earthly city has had some philosophers whose doctrine is condemned by the divine teaching, and who, being deceived either by their own conjectures or by demons, supposed that many gods must be invited to take an interest in human affairs.

Chapter 21 Where, then, is the justice of man, when he deserts the true God and yields himself to impure demons?…For although, if you choose to regard the matter attentively, you will see that there is nothing advantageous to those who live godlessly, as every one lives who does not serve God but demons, whose wickedness you may measure by their desire to receive the worship of men though they are most impure spirits, yet what I have said of the common acknowledgment of right is enough to demonstrate that, according to the above definition, there can be no people, and therefore no republic, where there is no justice…He must be an uncommonly stupid, or a shamelessly contentious person, who has read through the foregoing books to this point, and can yet question whether the Romans served wicked and impure demons.

Chapter 23 Who is so foolish as not to see that these oracles were either composed by a clever man with a strong animus against the Christians, or were uttered as responses by impure demons with a similar design—that is to say, in order that their praise of Christ may win credence for their vituperation of Christians; and that thus they may, if possible, close the way of eternal salvation, which is identical with Christianity?…And even if they succeeded in this, we for our part would notwithstanding repudiate the testimony of demons, whether favorable or adverse to Christ…“There are,” he says, in a certain place very small Earthly spirits, subject to the power of evil demons. The wise men of the Hebrews, among whom was this Jesus, as you have heard from the oracles of Apollo cited above, turned religious persons from these very wicked demons and minor spirits, and taught them rather to worship the celestial gods, and especially to adore God the Father. This, he said, “the gods enjoin; and we have already shown how they admonish the soul to turn to God, and command it to worship Him. But the ignorant and the ungodly, who are not destined to receive favors from the gods, nor to know the immortal Jupiter, not listening to the gods and their messages, have turned away from all gods, and have not only refused to hate, but have venerated the prohibited demons. Professing to worship God, they refuse to do those things by which alone God is worshipped. For God, indeed, being the Father of all, is in need of nothing; but for us it is good to adore Him by means of justice, chastity, and other virtues, and thus to make life itself a prayer to Him, by inquiring into and imitating His nature. For inquiry,” says he, “purifies and imitation deifies us, by moving us nearer to Him”…

But in speaking of the Christians he is in error, and caluminates them as much as is desired by the demons whom he takes for gods, as if it were difficult for any man to recollect the disgraceful and shameful actions which used to be done in the theatres and temples to please the gods, and to compare with these things what is heard in our churches, and what is offered to the true God, and from this comparison to conclude where character is edified, and where it is ruined. But who but a diabolical spirit has told or suggested to this man so manifest and vain a lie, as that the Christians reverenced rather than hated the demons, whose worship the Hebrews prohibited?…And that no one might suppose that this prohibition extends only to the very wicked demons and Earthly spirits, whom this philosopher calls very small and inferior—for even these are in the Scripture called gods, not of the Hebrews, but of the nations, as the Septuagint translators have shown in the psalm where it is said, “For all the gods of the nations are demons,” — that no one might suppose, I say, that sacrifice to these demons was prohibited, but that sacrifice might be offered to all or some of the celestials, it was immediately added, “save unto the Lord alone.”

Chapter 25 For what kind of mistress of the body and the vices can that mind be which is ignorant of the true God, and which, instead of being subject to His authority, is prostituted to the corrupting influences of the most vicious demons?

Book XX
Chapter 1 Neither is it without God’s profound and just judgment that the life of demons and men, the one in the air, the other on Earth, is filled with misery, calamities, and mistakes.

Chapter 19 But it is uncertain in what temple he shall sit, whether in that ruin of the temple which was built by Solomon, or in the Church; for the apostle would not call the temple of any idol or demon the temple of God.

Book XXII
Chapter 8 This Earth he had hung up in his bedroom to preserve himself from harm. But when his house was purged of that demoniacal invasion, he began to consider what should be done with the Earth; for his reverence for it made him unwilling to have it any longer in his bedroom…I know also that a bishop once prayed for a demoniac young man whom he never saw, and that he was cured on the spot.

Chapter 10 In reality, the demons wrought these marvels with the same impure pride with which they aspired to be the gods of the nations; but the martyrs do these wonders, or rather God does them while they pray and assist, in order that an impulse may be given to the faith by which we believe that they are not our gods, but have, together with ourselves, one God.

Chapter 11They will answer, Some god or some demon. If a god, is he greater than the God who made the world? If a demon, is he mightier than an Angel who serves the God by whom the world was made? If, then, a lesser god, Angel, or demon could so sustain the weight of this liquid element that the water might seem to have changed its nature, shall not Almighty God, who Himself created all the elements, be able to eliminate from the Earthly body its heaviness, so that the quickened body shall dwell in whatever element the quickening spirit pleases?

Chapter 22 Is innocence a sufficient protection against the various assaults of demons?

On Christian Doctrine Book II

Chapter 23:36 Accordingly, in regard to all these branches of knowledge, we must fear and shun the fellowship of demons, who, with the Devil their prince, strive only to shut and bar the door against our return.

Book IV
Chapter 19:38 But if He be not worshipped, or if idols, whether they be demons or any created being whatever, be worshipped with Him or in preference to Him, then we ought to speak out with power and impressiveness, show how great a wickedness this is, and urge men to flee from it.

In the next segment, we will consider the Devil in Augustine of Hippo.

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Apocrypha

Free audio book: Flavius Josephus “The Antiquities of the Jews”

Is the Bible Skeptical About Miracles? – The Fleece

In Judges chapter 6 we encounter Gideon and his son Joash who lived during a period of Israelite history during which they were conquered by the Midianites and also accosted by the Amalekites “and the people of the East.”

In verse 14 God tells Gideon “you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”What transpires next is interesting; Gideon asks for a sign that he is indeed being sent by God. He is not blindly acting but is seeking confirmation.

“So Gideon said to God, ‘If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said-look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.’ And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water” (v. 36-38)

His experiment was set up to seek confirmation and he set the parameters: if dew only on the fleece but not on the ground. Moreover, he confirmed the results by ringing out the fleece.

Yet, he was not done. He set us another experiment

“Then Gideon said to God, ‘Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.’ And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground” (v. 39-40).

Thus, Gideon set up two experiments which were to produce precisely opposite results. Having had each experiment succeed he was convinced. Keep our premise in mind; it is not what we think about whether this really happened but rather, how it is handled. It was handled skeptically and scientifically-this is the biblical pattern.

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imo Pigliucci

Is the Bible Skeptical About Miracles? – Jesus' Baptism

In Matthew 3:13-17 (also Mark 1:9-11 and Luke 3:21-22) we find Jesus being baptized along with some astonishing events.

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him.When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'”

This public revelation is interesting in counter distinction to other claims to revelation:Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha after receiving revelation inwardly and while alone (or was born knowing, depending on the story).Muhammad who was alone in a cave for his first revelation and received subsequent revelation which where tantamount to seizure like fits.

Joseph Smith was alone in the woods when he received his first vision.

Moses received his first revelation whilst alone yet subsequently had very public revelations.

Et al.

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Fred Hoyle

miracles

In John chapter 11 we learn of the death of Lazarus of Bethany.

Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, had sent for Jesus with a message stating, “Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.”
Jesus offers an odd response, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Odder still he stayed put two more days. Afterward, upon leaving for Lazarus’s home he stated, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up” to which the disciples responded, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.”