(Thomas Watson, “The Lord’s Prayer“)

If we would be kept from actual sins–let us be careful to avoid all the inlets and occasions of sin.

Do not run into evil company. He who would not catch the plague–must not go into an infected house.

Guard your senses, which may be the inlets to sin. Keep the two portals–the eye and the ear. Especially guard your eyes. Much sin comes in by the eye; the eye is often an inlet to sin; sin takes fire at the eye.

The first sin in the world, began at the eye. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye–she took some and ate it.” Genesis 3:6

Intemperance begins at the eye, “Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup. In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper!” Pr. 23:31-32

Covetousness begins at the eye. “When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and a wedge of gold, I coveted them and took them.” Joshua 7:21

The fire of lust begins to kindle at the eye. David walking upon the roof of his house, saw a woman washing herself, and she was, says the text, “beautiful to look upon,” and he sent messengers and took her, and defiled himself with her. 2 Samuel 11:2. Looking begat lusting!

Therefore watch your eyes! Job made a covenant with his eyes. Job 31:1. If the eye is once inflamed, it will be hard to stand out long against sin. If the outworks are captured by the enemy, there is great danger of the whole castle being captured!

(Daily Devotional from Grace Gems)

The adage, “the eyes are the windows to the soul” is mostly true, although I would go so far as to call them the doorways to the soul. As Watson points out, sin often begins with what we see and, having seen, our minds take over and lead us into the sins of covetousness and lust. As James says, “¹⁴ But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. ¹⁵ Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (James 1:14-15, ESV)

The more I become convicted of my own sins, the more I realize the importance of the exhortation to watch my eyes and the more I come to realize that, as Paul says, “¹³ No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.” (1 Corinthians 10:13a, ESV). In other words, despite the best efforts of the accuser, it is becoming clearer to me that I am not alone in my struggles and that the battle generally is won or lost at the gates (eyes and ears). Once the enemy has advanced past the gates it is easy for spies to hide within the castle and attack when our inner defenses are at their weakest. It is easier to keep the enemy out in the first place than to wage guerrilla warfare within my own borders

So, once our outer defenses have been breached (or, as is more often the case, the gates left wide open and unguarded), is there no hope? Of course there is hope. As Paul goes on to say “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. ¹⁴ Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” (1 Corinthians 10:13b-14, ESV). God will always be there to help us endure the temptation, but, and this is a very important “but”, we must flee the idols we have built. It does me no good to expect God to deliver me from a sin I am willfully committing. There have been times when I was ready to act in direct opposition to God’s will when He has intervened and saved me, but ,for the most part, once I have turned my back on Him I am on my own. However, if I feel the pull of temptation and turn to God rather than my idols, He is faithful to deliver me safely through.

There has been considerable conversation in the comments of this post on the blog of our Pastor and his brother regarding death before sin. Not content to let sleeping dogs lie, David has tried to draw the controversy into a new post, but so far no one has taken the bait.

Yesterday I received the devotional below from The Institute for Creation Research which illustrates perfectly the problems with reinterpreting Genesis to fit an evolutionist worldview. If you reject the notion that only sin leads to death then, eventually, the entire message of the Gospel becomes irrelevant. Now this may not come immediately nor may it affect the faith of the one who believes in such things, but think of those they are passing those beliefs on to — why should they believe the message of the Gospel when the foundation of the Gospel is seen as being mere myth.

I encourage you to read the original posts and comments for a bit more background.

Death by Sin January 13, 2006

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

This very important verse conveys several vital truths. First of all, death came into the world only when sin came into the world. Suffering and death of conscious life, whether animal or human, were not a part of God’s “finished” and “very good” creation (Genesis 1:31, 2:1-3). There was an abundance of food and all other provisions for both people and animals. There was certainly no “struggle for existence” or “survival of the fittest,” for every creature was created “fit” for its own environment.

When Adam sinned, however, it became necessary for God to bring the curse of decay and death not only upon Adam but also upon all his dominion (Genesis 3:17-20; see also Romans 8:20-22; I Corinthians 15:21-22).

Furthermore, there remains no warrant fo r the notion that “Adam” is simply a generic term representing the human race. He was “one man.” In fact, he was “the first man” (I Corinthians 15:45), and Eve was “the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20). There was certainly no population of evolving hominids becoming “Adam.” In fact, Christ Himself made it clear that Adam and Eve were there “from the beginning of the creation” (Mark 10:6, quoting Genesis 1:27).

The entire argument here in Romans 5:12-21 becomes irrelevant if the Genesis record of the Creation and Fall of Adam did not happen precisely as recorded in Genesis 1-3, and this would mean that there is no reality in the saving work of Christ, either.

Such a rejection of the Christian faith is hardly warranted by the fragmentary fossils that have been alleged to support the notion of human evolution. No one should stake his eternal soul on such a will-o’-the-wisp as that! HMM

As you may have noticed there’s been a bit of change here. For a couple of reasons which I will soon go into, I have decided to change the name of my blog from “gods.geek” to “Foolish Things”. You can still access the blog at the same address and nothing else will change, just the name.

As I said, I have a couple of reasons for making this change. The first is basically an administrative reason more than anything. There are a few different projects that I have wanted to start for a while now, and I decided that the “gods.geek” name would better serve as an overarching theme for them all. I hope to fill you in on at least one of these projects in the coming weeks.

The second reason is related to recent events and discussions in which I have taken part that have cemented something that I have long believed to be true. I am a fool — at least in the eyes of the world. People look at my beliefs and can’t fathom why or how I could possible hold to them. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 is one of my favorite sections of the Bible and one that I have vowed to live my life by. This hasn’t always been the case. There was a time when I subscribed more to the beliefs of this world than the ones I now hold and I looked for approval of others. The transformation has been a long, gradual and hard one, but however difficult it has been at times, it has been well worth the trip so far.

So, it is with joy that I now wear the label of “fool” and re-name this blog “Foolish Things”, of which I am one.