Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
The discourse between Eve and the snake in Eden I believe is Eve's conscience. She engaged in self-deception by imagining a discourse with one of the animals in the garden, the snake, by which she justified herself to eat of the tree of knowledge. I can imagine all of this taking place in her mind as she walked through the garden.
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This I also disagree with. I do not believe that God created Eve as a person full of inner turmoil. The story of Adam and Eve is as simple as them being seduced by a serpent. The seduction happened externally through a serpent. I wonder if Eve would have ever thought to disobey God if it had not been for the serpent. Before her interaction with the serpent, there is no indication that neither she nor Adam had any intention to disobey God.
The Bible makes it clear that Satan does have real power, and the ability to do things that would normally only be within God's power to do.
Consider the story of Job. Job was an upstanding man. God allowed Satan to test him. Satan administered the test through external things, including the loss of his property and family and health. It demonstrates that what Satan can do is allow more serious than just instigating some kind of "self-deception." So I'm not saying that Satan doesn't also do that as well, but I think to be dismissive of what he is capable of is to not understand the enemy that we are up against.