Eternal Enmity

The purpose of this paper is to provide a rough outline of the enmity that existed between the seed of the serpent and the people of Israel. In the beginning in the Garden of Eden, everything was just fine until Adam and Eve decided to break the one rule that God had given them. So, God cursed the serpent, and in Genesis 3:15 God laid out the protoevangelium: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’” From that point onward enmity has existed between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. There are many examples of how the enmity between the “spiritual seed” of the serpent and the seed of the woman, but in this paper only a handful will be presented in detail

The first example of hostility is Cain’s murder of Abel in Genesis chapter 4. Cain chose not to bring the correct sacrifice to God, and God rejected it. Abel, on the other hand, brought a sacrifice that was pleasing to God. This made Cain jealous, and he murdered his brother. However, the seed line persisted through Adam and Eve’s next son, Seth.

One of the biggest attempts on or the biggest displays of enmity against the seed line was probably the Nephilim. The Nephilim were the sons of fallen angels and human women. By having the fallen angels commit these heinous acts, Satan was attempting to pollute the human race with “angelic genetics,” if you will. And as the Bible makes it clear that angels cannot be redeemed, if the seed of the woman was polluted with the blood/genetics of the Nephilim, it might be possible that they could not be redeemed. God ended up sending a worldwide flood to annihilate the entire world, and it took care of the Nephilim.

The enmity did not stop there. It continued throughout the entire book of Genesis. One of the next significant examples of hostility is Ishmael and Isaac. While Ishmael was Abraham’s first born son, that was not the son that God had chosen to have the seed line go through. It was Isaac. But Isaac ended up getting the blessing, so all was well. Isaac’s sons were not immune to this either, and Esau’s murderous feelings toward Jacob caused a great deal of ruckus. In the end, the seed line persevered. Joseph and his brothers were also in conflict, but this time around it was by means of jealousy. Joseph’s brothers did not murder him; they sold him into slavery. But through God’s providence, it all worked out for good.

Yet another monumental instance of enmity was the conflict between Israel and Egypt. As a part of that conflict, Pharaoh decided that in order to control the population of Israel, that all males born had to be thrown into the Nile. This happened, not so coincidentally, right about the time Moses was born. The seed of the serpent did not succeed in eliminating Moses. Moses was taken in and raised by none other than Pharaoh’s daughter! A second part of the conflict between Egypt and Israel was Pharaoh’s hardness of heart in refusing to let the people go. Finally, after the death of his firstborn son, he was compelled to release the nation of Israel to go their way. Even then Pharaoh changed his mind and decided to chase them down with chariots. However, God was still with the nation of Israel, and He sent the waters of the Red Sea crashing down upon them.

The enmity also continued on throughout Exodus, usually exhibited in the ways Israel grumbled against God or turned away from Him. One colossal example of this took place right after the Israelites came out of Egypt and Moses was on Mt. Sinai talking with God. The Israelites decided that it would be a good idea to make themselves a golden calf to worship. Well, it was not such a great idea, and they got in major trouble. Even though they got in major trouble, God’s people managed to come out the other side of the trial, and Satan did not really win.

Later on in the Pentateuch, Miriam and Aaron complained against Moses. Doubtless, the seed of the serpent was attempting to spread division throughout the camp. It was quickly quelled when Miriam contracted leprosy. Again, the Israelites (led by Korah) openly rebelled against Moses and Aaron. This was yet another attempt to spread division throughout the camp. God overcame it, and struck dead all who were in the rebellion. Moses and Aaron received the blame for the deaths of all of those people, and God killed another 14,700 Israelites because of it. A little while later, the people rebelled yet again. God sent snakes into the camp, and they bit people and many people died. But because of the bronze serpent on a staff that Moses was instructed to make, many people survived. These are all examples of how the seed of the serpent tried to divide the nation of Israel, but it never really seemed to work.

There is also evidence of enmity in the gospels. In John 8, the Pharisees continuously try to bring Jesus down, to throw a figurative stick in his bicycle spokes. Again and again they attacked him, but Jesus would have none of it. They could not succeed in ruining Jesus testimony or finding a flaw in his teaching. No matter how hard the seed of the serpent tried, it could not bring down the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning the seed of the woman. Perhaps Satan thought that when Jesus was crucified that the seed of the woman had been defeated, but in all actuality Jesus “crushed his head.” In the end, the seed of the woman stands victorious!

In conclusion, I think the biggest thing that we in 2007 can draw for this is how God is truly in control of everything. God has a plan already laid out, and nothing that Satan can do will ever be big enough to mess with the plan. He is ultimately in control, and we can rest safe in that knowledge. We do not need to worry about anything; He will take care of us!

Letter to an Evolutionist

Note: the premise for this essay is that it was to be written in the form of a letter to an evolutionist friend of ours.

What up Ben!

Hey dude, it was totally awesome to run into you at the mall the other day! I had no idea that you had transferred to Montana State! We have got to get together and Halo over Thanksgiving vacation. I would definitely be stoked to come down and check out Bozeman.

So yeah, I’ve been thinking about the whole evolution versus creation deal a lot since we talked, and there’s just some stuff that I’m pretty sure you should know. I just want you to have all the facts on the matter, and not just some of them.

Ben, most of what I want to talk to you about has to do with fossils. The fossil record just does not line up with the theory of evolution, no matter how hard the so-called “scientists” make it try to. (I put scientists in quotations because they are not letting the scientific method lead them where the evidence points. They are basing their conclusion on their hypothesis, not on the evidence and data that is out there, totally visible for everyone to see.)

As you very well know, evolutionists state that fossils took millions of years to form. Well, the evidence does not really support that at all. In fact, it supports just the opposite: a rapid burial of the organisms that were fossilized. The fossils of jellyfish show the fleshy parts of the organism, which indicates the jellyfish must have fossilized before it could decay. Now, how would that have happened over millions of years? You know that the flesh of creatures and plants and etc. decays rapidly. So how do you get the jellyfish fossil?

On top of that, what do you do with fossils that depict one animal swallowing another, or one animal inside a larger one’s stomach? Those most definitely could not have happened over several million years. It must have taken place very rapidly. And what is more, all of the sediments that these fossils were deposited in were sorted out by water.

Now how do evolutionists explain this away? They don’t. They ignore the evidence. So what is the real explanation? What could possibly explain these extraordinary phenomena? About the only thing that makes sense is a massive, worldwide flood… a flood such as the one detailed in Genesis chapters 6-8. As it says in Genesis 7:11-12, 17-23

“¹¹ …on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. ¹² And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. … ¹⁷ For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. ¹⁸ The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. ¹⁹ They rose greatly on the earth and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. ²⁰ The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. ²¹ Every living thing that moved on the earth perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. ²² Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. ²³ Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.”

So you can see that there was a lot of moving and shaking going down all over the earth. And in Genesis 6:24 it says “The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.” Think about how that changed stuff around, and laid down the sedimentary layers, and how the fossils were made so quickly.

I know this might all be a bit to digest dude, but bear with me, and hear me out. You know, I do deserve a hearing, as we were such good friends all the way through school. So hang with me, and please, don’t get all “up in arms” or anything. Just think about this stuff.

The sedimentary layers bit brings me to another point. Have you ever looked at how they are laid out? They’re laid out in parallel layers. Go to the Grand Canyon and check it out. Parallel layers straight across. Now, if these layers had been deposited at a slow rater over many thousands/millions of years, what would an evolutionist expect to see? The answer: uneven layers. He would expect the rivers of the time to have eroded chasms into the rock (which they believed caused the fossils: river deltas) causing uneven layers. But dude, is that what’s out there? No way! I mean think about it, the whole evolutionary side of the discussion does not seem to add up at all!

Hey, by the way, if you have any good answers from the evolutionary side of things to throw back at me, I would love to hear them. So yeah, just right down ideas as you go along. I seriously would like to know where you stand with all of this.

Another good bit of info popped into my mind about sedimentary layers: what about things that are fossilized across several layers? According to evolution, that shouldn’t be possible due to the thousands/millions of years between the depositization of each layer. For instance, check out this old school tree:

You can see the one meter marker dealio, and all the layers that that this fossil tree crosses. Now, how can evolution explain this? It should have rotted off, and only been in one layer, not the whole bunch of layers that it crossed. In addition to that, some of these trees that cross all of these layers are fossilized upside down. This could occur in a large flood. After Mt. St. Helens erupted, scientists discovered trees that were buried in pretty much the same way in Spirit Lake in pretty much the same way that scientists have found them fossilized all over the world.

Seriously man, all of this stuff with the sedimentary layers… I’m not quite sure how it can be refuted! Now if you’ve got anything, be sure to email me back and tell me. I’m serious. Because really, maybe it is just me being stuck in my ways, but I am just not believing the evolutionists on this! I’m thinking that it is the evolutionists that are stuck in their ways! If they cannot see, or choose not to see the compelling evidence in front of them… I don’t know. To me, it is just staggering how so many people can take this stuff and believe it as fact. Ben, I know that you are a really smart guy. Please tell me that you see what I’m seeing!

There is the possibility that you are totally against everything I’m saying to you, and that I’ve offended you with every single word that I have written, even the bits were I was like “I’m trying not to offend you.” Ben, I seriously am not attacking you. I just want you to get an idea that there is another side to the issue, that evolution is hardly a proven fact. Ben, I really do care for you, and I really do hope that this stuff sinks in.

And remember, we seriously have to play some Halo some time very soon! Everyone that I’ve been playing around here has pretty much sucked and not been a challenge at all, so yeah, I want to Halo! And maybe we can discuss evolution while we are slaughtering each other.

So right me back!

-Ehud