I’ve heard people say God lied.
In Genesis 2:17, God said, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
And the serpent told Eve in Gen 3:4-5 “But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
And yes, they didn’t die…or did they? Let’s get into this study.
Hebrews 6:18 says it is impossible for God to lie, so what happened in Genesis 2?
Let me start by saying the book of Genesis had 2 time tables but entirely operated on only one; you need to understand what “a day” is from the scriptures. It is wrong theology to take the word "day" in God's context and assume it's meaning based on man's reality. The book of Genesis clearly shows us the calendar of God and the creation of the calendar of that governs the earth.
We’ll begin by shattering a very popular narrative: the earth was built in six days and God rested on the seventh day. To shatter this narrative, let’s look into the timetable of Genesis.
Day and night as we know it came about in Genesis 1:16.
Day 1 – God created light and darkness – and there was evening and morning (verse 5)
Day 2 – God created the Heavens – and there was evening and morning (verses 6- 8)
Day 3 – God created the Earth, seas, & vegetation – and there was evening and morning (verses 9 – 13)
Day 4 – God made another light here, essentially defining day and night as we know it. Verse 16 says God made 2 great lights; day and night were created on the fourth day for the earth's times and seasons. This suggests that when the bible says in verse 5 through to verse 13 that there was evening and morning, it wasn't referring to the system of calculation that was created when God separated the greater light from the lesser light.
So it is erroneous teaching to say that creation happened in 7 earthly days; that is the circling of the sun round the earth every 24 hours. Yes, you are about to quote Exodus 20:11 “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy”.
Again, the timing in the book of Genesis wasn’t the human calendar timing which was introduced in verse 16 of Genesis 1. Yes, God created the heavens and the earth in six days, but it was certainly not referring to the great and lesser light that God created on the fourth day. Now that we’ve gotten past that, let's progress
Did God lie in Genesis 2:7?
God does not lie. Apologetics and Bible teachers have often said the death of Adam was a spiritual death and some people believe there is nothing like a spiritual death, leaning towards the fact that since Adam did not die that very day, it means God lied - so I'll try to explain this in an easy way you can relate with.
Adam and Eve had a body in the Garden of Eden, it was a glorified body, it was the same type of glorified body Jesus had in Luke 24:39 after He had risen and it's the same body we will carry according to Phil 3:20-21.
Now going forward, 2 Pet 3:8 says one day is like a thousand years with the Lord. Keeping this scripture at the back of our minds, let us re-examine Genesis 2.
Genesis 2:17; “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die”.
When God told Adam he would die that very day, he died. Man never lived up to 1,000 years. The “day” in this context was the same day that had been used in Genesis 1 and 2 in the creation account. There was a “day” that was instituted in Gen 1: 16 but this wasn’t the day God was referring to. Contextual study of the scriptures is important! God had been creating in days, the timing did not automatically switch to the human 24 hour calendar when God introduced the concept of the greater and lesser light in Genesis 1:16...because, remember, 3 days had already passed. Context, folks, context!
What is the human calendar day?
“Day and night” is only applicable in the realm of humans and this was instituted in verse 16 of Genesis 1. God cannot lie, Hebrews 6:18 says it is impossible for God to lie. The only way to make this make sense is to understand that everything that God speaks becomes...instantly. Take a moment to reflect over the lyrics of this song:
As He speaks, a hundred billion galaxies are born
And as He speaks
A hundred billion creatures catch His breath
Evolving in pursuit of what He said.
Let's first agree, that whatever God says becomes, it cannot "not be" because His word is the creative power that brings about existence.
So did Adam die that very day?
Adam indeed died that day, he lost his glorified body and his flesh became susceptible to decay and aging...man essentially transited from flesh and bones to flesh and blood, losing the ability to live up to a day! The longest-living man was Methuselah. Methuselah didn't live up to a thousand years, he lived the closest to the interpretation of a single day according to Hebrews 6:18. Man did die that same day, yes. Man lost the ability to live for up to a day from the moment God made that pronouncement.
Adam lived 930 years, methuselah did 970. The book of Genesis records 2 time tables, there cannot be a day unless the earth is rotating around the sun which did not begin until the 4th day. So scriptures like "teach us to number our days" refers to “day and night” as humans can observe, but we know that there is no night in God's day. Adam’s death meant man can't live forever anymore in the current form of bodies we possess. God did not lie, man died in a day; which is less than one thousand years.
But hey, this all seems very carnal and brainy. Let's not explain spiritual things with very physical things. Let spiritual things be explained with spiritual things.
So then, let's get spiritual.
Understanding the Spiritual Day
So what day was God referring to during the creation account before he created the human day? We must understand this because when you approach the bible from a history book perspective, you get things wrong. The day God was operating in, and was in the account of Genesis is not defined by 24 hours, governed by our human understanding because, as we have established, days existed before the 4th day when God created light and separated it from darkness.
You need to understand what a day is from the scriptures. It is wrong theology to take the word "day" in God's context and assume its meaning in man's calendar. Every once in a while, God creates a lesser version of His reality so man can gain an understanding of spiritual things. When God said in Revelations that I am Alpha and Omega, it was God developing a mechanism to help man understand that He is the beginning and the end but He needed to use terms we can relate with – in reality, God exists outside of time, the term Alpha and Omega suggests that God has a beginning! Whereas God is not bound by time or space - God lives as God and lives in God. When Moses asked God who should I say sent me? God's answer was so powerful, He said I AM, He was saying the question of 'who' does not make sense, so He simply said “I AM” - I am Who I Am means I am prior to thought, logic, and language. I existed before the concept of existence came into being. Whatever created time and space lives outside of time itself so GOD IS!
So you'll find that I am the Alpha and Omega is just one expression of God to help our minds comprehend his infinite vastness which human language cannot capture. Beginning and End are manifestations of matter and matter is subject to logic and explanation - but God needed to cope with the deficiency of the human intellect. God is the Prius Light, absolute existence, the I Am That I Am. Our minds cannot understand absolute existence or nothingness because the nature and character of nothingness is that it is nothing and the nature of existence is that it exists!
I said all that to say DAY in God’s books is not the 24-hour cycle of the sun circling the earth, day and night was introduced ONLY for the natural order of things here on earth. Keep this in mind as we'd soon progress into the errors of the doctrine of eternal torment. It is an erroneous mindset to think that God said Adam would die and he didn’t die in man’s calendar so God lied.
A little physics
To understand God’s idea of timing, I’d love to introduce you to the concept of time and speed as shared by Mr Leke Alder once. Some physics here – We know that God is light (1 John 1:5-7). Now, the fastest thing in the universe is light, it travels at 186 miles per second, you can't go faster than light because the energy you need to propel yourself becomes impossible. Travel and time are weird, the faster you go, the younger you become. Physics proves it - The faster you travel, the slower time will pass for you. The effect is small but when you compound things, they get enormous – take a transatlantic flight from London to New York and your watch will be a ten-millionth of a second behind one left on the ground – but nonetheless, you'll have aged a fraction more slowly than if you'd stayed at home. This is Einstein's theory of relativity, which is that time is not universal. There is nothing called absolute time. The faster you go, the closer you get to the speed of light and consequently, the younger you become - now imagine that you dwell in light, this is why God can never age. because God is light and dwells in light…and there is no aging when you travel at the same speed as light… when you dwell in God, you have access to eternity and this was what man lost when man died in the garden.
We’ve done physics, let’s do core exegesis
Smoke ascended day and night forever
When we fail to understand basic concepts in the bible, it gives room for very wrong interpretations. So not understanding the concept of a day in Genesis means you cannot also grasp the concept of eternity. So then, let’s demystify hellfire, because why not? It’s eternal, right?
The judgment of the righteous is not forever. Scriptures say we cannot find day and night in eternity so it is wrong theology to teach that the lake of fire is forever. Rev 22:3-5 tells us that what you find in eternity is all light, no darkness. The bible says there shall be no night in eternity, a place where you don't need the sun. Day and night can only be found in the natural order as seen in Gen 1:14-16 and gen 8:22. Day and night are factors that relate to the natural, not eternity.
So when the bible says smoke of their painful suffering will ascend day and night (Rev 14:11), it means hellfire is something that can only take place in the natural earth realm, hell cannot exist in eternity because there is no night in eternity and the scriptures suggest that hell exists in a place where there is night...because according to Rev 14:11, "And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
Hellfire has an expiry date ladies and gentlemen. Hellfire is useful to burn the works of sin from a man so the man might be saved at the end – 1 Cor 3:15.
Yole
When men go through purging and judgment, it is so they come out on the other side refined. Psalm 67:4 says “Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth”.
Righteousness comes after judgment! And judgment or the concept of hell is only for a while because it exists in the realm of the physical - temporary. Eternity consists of light only, we learn from Rev 22:3-5 that there is no night in eternity, just light.
The only thing in eternity is God - and God is light, and there is no night in God.
So for atonement, and lake and fire cannot be forever.
What we see here is how a basic understanding of Genesis can solve the wrong theologies that have permeated the body of Christ for centuries. The concept of eternity, Forever and ever is in Psalm 67:4; the Hebrew word for it is Olam and Olam; it is translated as “unto the ages of the ages”: This is eternal, God’s throne is eternal.
However, forever and ever in Revelation 14:11 is something that occurs where day and night exist; suggesting it is not an eternal thing!
Let my people think!
