Is it True That Sin Begins in Secret?

Is it True That Sin Begins in Secret? Sin begins in the heart, a place seeming so private and secluded. It all begins inwardly in places where it is thought to be secret since man cannot see it. But not even sin conceived there can escape God’s knowledge. Dawn Hill Author Nothing is hidden from God. Though sin would like to remain hidden and though impure motives operate in darkness, nothing escapes God and His omniscience. Though the intent is for sin to begin in secret and to continue in secret by those who do not wantto have their sin brought to light, it is impossible to have a secret unknown to God. Sin conceived in the heart and brought to fruition behind closed doors or in the confines of our mind cannot escape the God who created each of us and who calls His children to be holy as He is holy. When reading Jeremiah 23, it becomes apparent that God brought much-needed correction to those who were shepherds over the people of Israel and those who were prophets not sent or directed by God. The Lord prophesied through Jeremiah of the coming Messiah, the RighteousBranch who would come from the line of David (Jeremiah 23:1-8). Jeremiah continued to speak for the Lord to the people of Israel, instructing them not to listen to the words of the prophets who filled them with vain hopes and who despised the word of the Lord (Jeremiah23:16,17). He made it clear to the people that He did not send those prophets, nor did He speak to them as they were not proclaiming what God would have them to hear, which was a call to repentance and to return to God (Jeremiah23:21,22). We then come to the verse in Jeremiah 23:24, “‘Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ declares the LORD.” The words of the prophets, according to God, were in their hearts before they were ever spoken. They were prophesying the deceit of their own hearts (Jeremiah 23:26), and this was not hiddenfrom God. We know that God knows what is in men, and we see this revealed to us in the Gospel of John (2:25). We know that from the beginning, nothing can be hidden from God and that even sin done in secret is known by God. The Origin of Sin It all started in the garden with Adam, Eve, and the serpent. In Genesis 3, we read of the fall in the garden with Adam and Eve eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by listening to the serpent and his deception. The actions of Eve showed that sin began in the heart and mind by looking upon the tree and seeing it as a delight to the eyes and a desire to bring wisdom (Genesis3:6). But this desire and this sin could not be hidden. Genesis 3:8 says that after this took place, the Lord God was walking in the garden, and when Adam andEve heard Him, they hid themselves. After answering God as to where he was, Adam said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself” (Genesis3:10, ESV). God responded by asking Adam, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (Genesis3:11, ESV). The sin of Adam was not hidden from God. We could say that Adam and Even attempted to keep it hidden from God by hiding themselves in the trees from the presence of God, but it could not be concealed from Him. He is all-knowing, and even things done in the darkness are exposed by the light. We know from the Word of God that sin entered the world by one man, and death came through sin, spreading to all mankind (Romans5:12). That sin tried to hide, but it could not. Praise God that though condemnation came to all men through one man’s sin, one act of righteousness leading to justification and life for all men came through Jesus Christ (Romans 5:18). Sin Begins in the Heart When we think about those like the false prophets in Jeremiah 23 who were saying things not received in the counsel of God, speaking in such a way that they were proclaiming the deceit of their own hearts, we begin to understand that sin begins in the heart and mind of each of us. Jesus Christ spoke of the state of sin in correlation to the heart in Mark 7:21-23, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come — sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” According to this author, “Jesus is teaching us a simple, yet profound truth: things from withinhave a direct correlation with things that take place on the outside. Thoughts come before acts.” James speaks along these lines in individuals being tempted by their own evil desires, and once desire is conceived, sin is birthed. Once sin is full-grown, it gives birth to death (James1:15). It all begins inwardly in places where it is thought to be secret since man cannot see it. But God sees it. 1 Samuel 16:7 says that men look upon the outward appearance while God looks at the heart. JohnMacArthur makes a sobering observation in light of this passage, “If we realized that God himself is the only audience for such secret sins, we might be less inclined to write them off so lightly.” Romans 2:16 assures us that God will one day judge people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, and 1 Corinthians 4:5 says He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness while exposing the motives of the heart. Sin begins in the heart, a place seeming so private and secluded. But not even sin conceived there can escape God’s knowledge. What a Merciful Savior For those of us in Christ Jesus, we reverence God in His omniscience, and we understand that repentance is a beautiful gift we have been given even after salvation in our walk of progressive sanctification. The Word encourages us as His children not to sin, but if we do sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ (1John 2:1). This is not a license to sin. This helps us to understand our need for our Savior and His righteousness and the fallenness of our flesh in a fallen world. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” As children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, we need not be fearful to come before the throne of grace in humility and repentance, asking God to forgive us and to help us in being led by the Spirit and not by our flesh. He is faithful to create a clean heartwithin us and to renew a right spirit within us (Psalm 51:10). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Did Evil Exist Before Adam and Eve Sinned? Did evil always exist since God is the Creator? If God creates creatures with free wills, this allows for the possibility for evil, for the possibility that they will choose to enthrone something other than God in the center of their lives. Hope BolingerSEO Editor Christians are familiar with Genesis 3 when humanity first sinned. Adam and Eve get tempted by Satan in the garden of Eden and succumb to the effects of evil and sin. As the story goes, God allowed Adam and Eve to eat of every tree in the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve eat from the tree and sin. Many will argue that they even sinned prior to eating the fruit when Eve doesn’t give a totally true statement (saying that even if they touch the fruit they’ll die, even though God explicitly stated eat) and Adam stands idlyby and passively allows his wife to partake of the fruit. And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever” (Genesis3:22). But did this evil exist before this moment? Many of us will point at Satan and say that evil existed with him long before Adam and Eve sinned, but do we have Scripture to back this up? Has evil always existed or did it have a starting point? We’ll dive into these questions and more in this article. Did Evil Exist Before Adam and Eve? To answer this question, we have to dig into a few Old Testament passages to uncover the first sin. The first sin actually happens with Satan, and we do have verses to back this up. Let’s analyze the following passages. How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sitenthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon (Isaiah 14:12-13). This passage refers to Satan. Some versions of the Bible explicitly say his name instead of “morning star.” We can see, from these verses, that Satan’s pride led to his downfall. He disliked that the angels worshipped God and deemed himself a being worthy of praise. Ezekiel 28 describes Satan as a cherub, who used to live in heaven until: “You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.” From here Satan is cast out of heaven to earth, where he tempts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling — these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day (Jude6). Therefore, evil existed before humanity sinned. Has Evil Always Existed? This of course brings up this question: Did evil always exist since God is the Creator or did it form once Satan gave into pride? This Focus on the Family article warns against thinking of evilas a noun or thing. According to the article, “Biblically speaking, evil is an aspect of relationship.” In other words, if God creates creatures with free wills, this allows for the possibility for evil, for the possibility that they will choose to enthrone something other than God in the center of their lives. Meaning, this includesangels. When God created heaven and the angels, beings who worshipped him, this allowed for the possibility of the angels choosing not to worship God — to instead, worship themselves. Satan opts for this choice and with him leads astray one-third of the angels. The Bible doesn’t give us a timeline of when God created the angels and heaven, but we do know he created all things. In short, scholars have fiercely debated about the origin of evil, and this article will not be able to flesh out a direct answer to thequestion. But we can know evil did exist before the creation of man. Why Does This Matter? Why does it matter that we should know evil started before the creation of the world? It matters because we should know as much about the enemy as possible, including his origin story. The first sin ever committed appears to be pride. Scripture makes it clear that pride goeth before a fall. Any time pride overtakes our lives, we can rememberthe first sin and avoid going down the path of destruction. Secondly, it matters because evil shows the existence of God’s love. God allows us to have free will and to use that free will to have a relationship with him. Evil comes when we choose to use that free will and dedicate our worship to something else. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Hope Bolinger is an editor at Salem, a multi-published novelist, and a graduate of Taylor University's professional writing program. More than 1,100 of her works have been featured in various publications ranging from Writer's Digest to Keys for Kids. She has worked for various publishing companies, magazines, newspapers, and literary agencies and has edited the work of authors such as Jerry B. Jenkins and Michelle Medlock Adams. Her modern-day Daniel trilogyreleased its first two installments with IlluminateYA, and the final one, Vision, releases in August of 2021. She is also the co-author of the Dear Hero duology, which was published by INtense Publications. And her inspirational adult romance Picture Imperfect releases in November of 2021. Find out more about her at her website. VISIT: PROPHECY WATCHER WEEKLY NEWS: HTTP://PROPHECY-WATCHER-WEEKLY-NEWS.BLOGSPOT.COM