The Write Place

It may seem overly simplistic, but the same thread flows through every heresy and all evil in human history. Understanding this single lie gets at the heart of every wrong idea in the world.

Look with me at the first appearance of the Devil, identified as the serpent and deceiver of the whole world (Revelation 12:9,Revelation 20:2) in the deception of Genesis 3:1-7.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.”

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

Let us take a moment to examining the Devil’s claims, because they are superficially appealing, but obviously wrong. He certainly does not claim to be a devil, he couches his words with double meaning, and he simply lies about his position.

First he starts off with a question. As we can see he clearly knows the answer, but this tactic gets Eve to question what God has said. She doesn’t answer the question accurately either. We see God tells Adam to not eat of the tree (Genesis 2:16-17), whereas Eve says they can’t even touch it. Eve makes the mistake of setting up stricter rules, why she does we don’t know, though the fall is yet to happen. One way or another in her mistaken understanding of God’s law, she is already making God more restricting than he actually is (Genesis 3:2-3).

The Devil raises questions concerning not simply what God has said, but ultimately who God is. That is why he pivots to denying what God said in order to attack who God is.

The Devil then to tells them not just that what God said isn’t so, he calls God a liar and their oppressor. The first lie the devil tells them, is that they have an external oppressor, and it is their creator. The Devil with the first lie tells them God is holding out on them. The lie is that the world God has constructed, withholds from them their ability to be what God is. In short, he is saying, God has made your world as a prison. You could decide good and evil for yourselves, you could be just like him, and he is being unfair in keeping you from it by setting limits on you. The devil claims to have a hidden knowledge God kept from them, a hidden knowledge that makes them Gods of their own.

Of course, the devil knows better, but for him to be the good guy, God has to be the bad guy. To sell the lie the devil has to be the rescuer, otherwise nobody bites. The Devil never comes as a Devil, he comes as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). If the Serpent had told Adam and Eve his idea won’t work and God is right, but do it anyway, how compliant do you think they would be?

Do you expect different today?

Doesn’t add up, does it? Neither does anything else in the lie.
In fact, the whole scene kind of stinks by the way.

Stop and ask yourselves, why is this creature “helping” them? Has the serpent eaten of the fruit of the tree? If he did it sure hasn’t made him God’s equal, he’s still a serpent. If he sure believes the lie that he can determine good and evil for himself, believing it clearly isn’t working either.

Further the humans were given authority over every creeping thing, and here is something they are to rule, telling them what they ought to do. The whole scene is frankly bizarre and should be obvious that this creature has an ulterior motive. In fact if they listen, this creature is now the one telling them what they ought to do so how independent are they really?

The whole thing should obviously not work.

Think of a few questions this raises.

How many most highs can there be? You would think only one.

Why would God create a means to his own defeat? That makes no sense, especially when you consider how God knows everything.

Why believe a creature that is intruding into the garden, a creature that God created?

Why listen to this finite creature that they rule over, rather than listen to it’s creator?

But they believed the lie, as we still do today (Romans 1:25).
The lie is simple. God has imprisoned you, and there is hidden knowledge to make you God.

Every heretic, every person who rejects Christ on some level and in some way, is doing what the devil said, to achieve what he has promised. We are all trying to create the world we would like to exist. To that end of self-creation, people will misrepresent themselves. and their arguments. Following the way of the devil they will believe the same lie, and act like the one who is their spiritual father.

2 Cor 11:14-15  “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.”

He did so from the beginning, and he has been a liar from the beginning. His followers will do the same, even offering the same lie.

John 8:44
“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

By nature, we are like the Pharisees, acting as Children of the Devil and liars like he was. We still believe the lie we want because our hearts are deceitful and wicked.
And the devil is always selling the same lie.

Someone or something created a world that’s holding you back from Godhood, perfection, and a counterfeit to the day of glory. For the ancient Gnostics it was the God who made the material world, for Rousseau it was society, Marx the Bourgeoisie, Hitler the Jews and subhumans (and the faithful church), “Whiteness” or “Heteronormativity,” or really Christianity itself today for the woke (lumped together with the intentionally nebulous Christian Nationalism), the list goes on and on,
and on…….

“We no longer feel ourselves to be guests in someone else’s home and therefore obliged to make our behavior conform with pre-existing rules.  We make the rules, We establish the parameters of reality.  We create the world and because we do, we no longer feel beholden to outside forces.  We no longer have to justify our behavior, for we are now the architects of the universe.  We are responsible for nothing outside ourselves, for we are the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”

Jeremy Rifkin, social theorist, influential in the World Economic Forum and the United Nations. His ideas are bad so of course they’re popular. His idea is also old, it was first uttered by a snake.

You’d best start believing in the bible, you’re living in it.

Either we will love and honor God and embrace the truth, or we will deny him and exchange the truth for the lie (Romans 1:25). And in the original language, it is “The Lie” not a Lie (τῷ ψεύδει). There is one lie that produced all the evil in the world, and the devil is a one trick pony. He has to keep using it. The lie may look different in every age because of how the devil dresses it up, but it is the same when you take a real look at it.

Understanding this simple lie will help you identify the liar, whatever mask he is wearing today.

The solution is always the same, and that’s to listen to what God has said. What God has said is true, it is enough, and it always conquers. Whatever the era, however the lie is told God has equipped us with everything we need to confront it and win in his word.