ManageYourEmotionsBook8.5x5.5_RevJULY.indd

entered the picture, leading to mankind’s fall. As we work our way through the central text for this chapter, Genesis 3:1-7, note first the source of doubt – the devil himself. A victim of pride and ambition, Lucifer usurped God’s au- thority and was kicked out of heaven, along with millions of lesser angels who bought into his way of thinking and wound up serving as his henchmen.Taking up residence in the garden and morphing into a crafty serpent, Satan preyed upon Eve and then posed upon her the question, “Did God really say,‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1, NIV). God had indeed commanded Adam previously, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Realizing the effectiveness of creating doubt in a person’s mind, the serpent followed up his question to her with a lie, telling Eve, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (3:4-5). Such a tactic should come as no surprise, since Jesus later called Satan “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).Also note that the devil sold Eve on the same desire that got him kicked out of heaven – that she would be “like God.” One of the main reasons so many in our society, believers in- cluded, function in such a deluge of doubt is because they’ve bought into the devil’s lies. Many feel as though God is holding out on them, or that they can live as they please without paying the consequences. Carl Rogers, the famed American psychologist, entered UnionTheological Seminary in 1924.While there he joined a semi- nar designed to explore religious doubts. Rogers, later commenting concerning the group, stated, “The majority of members . . . in thinking their way through questions they had raised, thought them- selves right out of religious work. I was one.” 2 Sadly, millions upon millions of people will spend eternity in hell because they continue to question God’s free gift of salvation through Christ instead of

2