It Was Never an Issue of Authoirty

Recently, Rob Webb of Answers in Genesis posted a video entitled “Christians Please Watch This Before October 31st, 2025.” In that video at about time code 15:26, he stated, "...and deceives Eve, gets her to doubt God's authority, to be like God, to elevate man's authority above God's." 

Rob Webb, and I suspect many of AiG’s teaching staff have got the cart before the horse again. Eve did not doubt God's authority prior to the fall. She tried to quote God. That QUOTE was Eve's attempt to stand upon God's authority. Where the serpent deceived Eve is not a matter of authority. It was a matter of unity with God. Please, allow me to explain.

I have seen a limit to all perfection; Thy commandment is exceedingly broad. New American Standard Bible. Electronic edition., The Lockman Foundation, 1986, p. Ps 119:96.

The "all perfection" in verse 96 is God. The limit to God is God's words. God will never violate His words for any reason even to His own detriment. The broad commandments are literally all the individual boundary lines that define the bits and pieces of creation from the tiniest creatures that live in the soil and water to the largest bodies in all the galaxies. God will never violate or break His commands that:

1. brought all those beings into existence, 
2. holds them together, 
3. allows them to move and have their beings in God, or even 
4. defines each of their own roles and purposes in creation, 

Please read John 10:35 and Matthew 5:18 for what Jesus said on the subject of how breakable God’s words are. 

With that said, God gave all authority of the earth and the things in the earth to Adam. Since, God does not go back on His words, Man still has that authority even to today. However, things have happened to cause that authority to become more difficult to administer. Eve’s issue was never doubt in God's authority because sin had not yet entered into the world. So, Eve would have had no desire to contend with God’s authority since she and Adam still had that authority to its fullest measure.
Now, for the issue of unity. Remember, God walked with Adam in the cool of the day. God did not walk with the serpent or any other creature. God shared that walk with Adam as a UNION between father and son, Luke 3:38. Thus, the precedent had been set that God gave Adam authority which Adam then delegated over the rest of the creatures, for example: their names. IN OTHER WORDS, God did not share the same unity with the animals that God shared with Adam. The only knowledge any of the critters ever had came to them via 1) that which was given to them from Adam and Eve, and 2) that which they observed in creation through their own senses. Remember, Satan had not yet entered into the earth because sin had not yet been committed at the time of the conversation between Eve and the serpent.

Now remember, the serpent never spoke lies to Eve which is more proof it was never an issue of God's authority since authority comes from God's SPOKEN word THAT CANNOT BE BROKEN. Every truth the serpent spoke was summarily true. In other words, the serpent left out the details. That is to say, the serpent did not fully quote God. (How could he really? He was just a serpent, mind you. All he could do was talk and jump around the ground by bouncing on his long tail like Tigger in Winnie the Poo. I don't excuse his behavior, rather I am making the point that he wasn't much of a critter compared to Adam.) 

Considering that union was between God and Adam and that the serpent never lied to Eve, how did the serpent actually deceive Eve? To answer this question, we have to ponder what went through Eve's mind RIGHT BEFORE she ate the forbidden fruit. She thought she had to GAIN something she did not already have, wisdom. This implies the belief in one's own lack. But, in God's presence, there is no lack. 

...until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

New American Standard Bible. Electronic edition., The Lockman Foundation, 1986, p. Eph 4:13.

Adam and Eve had complete unity with God before the fall. They did not lack anything. They both stood upon God's authority in their own ways. When Eve wrongly thought she lacked wisdom, she chose to gain it for herself through her own means i.e. to not rest in God. "Becoming like God" was already true and not an issue for Eve because she had been made in God’s image. Elevating man's authority over God's own authority was already done by God on Day Seven so Eve was never tempted by that either. 

Thus, Mr. Webb has put the cart before the horse because he did not consider the sequence of events in Genesis 3. Contention with God's authority came after the deception of perceived lack. Satan's goals over mankind have always been about perceived lack or mankind could not be tempted in any way. Usurping God's authority has always been an arrogant by-product of the fall and not the actual cause of the fall. Moses gave us the actual cause of the fall.

Copyright (c) 2024 by Diane Pebley All rights reserved, no use granted without the express written permission of the author, Diane Pebley