did the serpent wink?

Proverbs 16:24-26

²⁴ Pleasant words are like a honeycomb,
Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.
²⁵ There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
²⁶ The person who labors, labors for himself,
For his hungry mouth drives him on.

“The Good Book: A Humanist Bible,” subtitled “A Secular Bible” in the United Kingdom, was published this month (Source article and video from CNN, partly quoted below)

The question arose early in British academic A.C. Grayling’s career: What if those ancient compilers who’d made Bibles, the collected religious texts that were translated, edited, arranged and published en masse, had focused instead on assembling the non-religious teachings of civilization’s greatest thinkers?

What if the book that billions have turned to for ethical guidance wasn’t tied to commandments from God or any one particular tradition but instead included the writings of Aristotle, the reflections of Confucius, the poetry of Baudelaire? What would that book look like, and what would it mean?

“Humanist ethics didn’t claim to be derived from a deity,” he says. “(They) tended to start from a sympathetic understanding of human nature…”

Had he considered instead Jesus Christ who is God incarnate, our High Priest who suffered the death of the cross for our sin, and can sympathize with  our weakness, being tempted as we so are, he would have found the true meaning of human sympathizers! Hebrews 3:14-15 What better form of sympathy could there found be if not in Him? Have these so-called great thinkers of mankind gone as far as that? Have they come even close? I think not.

And I am reminded again to not be cheated or deceived through philosophy and the traditions of men which have nothing in Christ (Colossians 2:8), yet is a high thing set to exalt itself against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Such is the way of humanistic thinking and to ask “what if?” as though mankind has found a better way.

It is also found in the thinking of Eugene Peterson (The Message) who believes the best way to understand God is through “lectio divina”.

Or as we have come to understand the Charismatic Movement is to experience God through supernatural dreams and visions, trances, ecstatic dance and song, soaking prayer and prophetic words.

As William P Young has written The Shack, “Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity” whose story is as make-believe as his universalism three-part goddess-man thing.

Christianity has become a sort of free for all where anything goes, not anymore so far removed from the world it was told to guard itself from. When self-reason replaces the clear teaching of scripture, what else is left for us but a deeper deception? Will a man outthink God?

We as a civilized society can no longer accept the fact that our sin will condemn us and in our finite thinking and limited wisdom we have thrown out the only one who can save for a seemed better way to satisfy our empty souls, until the moment comes and those souls will be required of us.

Mr. Grayling stated  “No intention to offend -”

I wonder, did the serpent wink as he shared the forbidden fruit?