“Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17)
They worshiped God together for eons of time. Then suddenly they stood opposed to one another. I’m talking about angels. Ministers of God. Worshippers of God. One-third of them, infected by Satan’s slanderous allegations against God. So, out of heaven they went with their lying leader. Even in heaven, the Devil had the unique ability to create confusion. That should tell us how clever the adversary is at stirring up discord and strife. Jesus said of the Devil – “There is no truth in him……he is a liar and the father lies.” (John 8:44)
Today in our society, we are watching and hearing a web of deceit that is unparalleled with anything we have ever seen or heard before. Lies bombard us from the news, social media, Hollywood, music, videos. Lies that distort truth, confuse gender, and tear apart values and morals. A mass deception that is trapping thousands to forsake truth. Even many who were raised in the church.
How did all this happen? Have you ever taken note of the progression one lie took that entrapped Adam and Eve, and sent the entire human race tumbling down a path of treachery and deceit? I believe what happened to Adam and Eve explains how Satan uses lies to draw people into a web of deceit.
It all began with Eve listening to the lie. “You will not certainly die” were the serpent’s poisonous words. (Genesis 3:4). Clearly, the first thing that brought all of humanity down was an appeal to the physical senses God had given the humans. Eve saw with her eyes how good the fruit looked, and at the same time listened with her ears to the lie. The next mistake both Adam and Eve made was that they “took the fruit” (Genesis 3:6). To take what the serpent offered them, they both had to make the choice to believe something about the fruit that was a lie. The lie that eating it would make them wise. They had to accept the deception from the serpent and reject the truth from their Creator. Otherwise, they would have rejected the “gift”. Their third mistake was that “They ate it.” (Genesis 3:6). They swallowed what they clearly knew was forbidden by God for them to swallow.
That, my friends, is the progression of the downfall of humanity in the Garden, and in our world today. We humans watch, listen, and believe the lies that are being fed us. We listen to lies about our sexuality, our health, our finances, our future, even our humanity. We think if these falsehoods come from people in authority, educated individuals – well, it must be true, right? So, we then accept and swallow the lies. We allow our minds to be filled with them. Then we start to rethink that maybe the truth we learned in the bible or in church was not the only truth out there. Maybe there’s more truth that we just haven’t discovered yet.
So, how do we protect ourselves from these lies? The first thing I believe we must do is stop watching and listening to the lies. You may think your strong enough to discredit the lies; but let me warn you that if you listen to them long enough, you will begin to wonder just how valid they might possible be. Second, compare what you are hearing to the word of God. If God says it is sin – it is sin! Sin cannot be good and bad at the same time. There are no grey areas with God. There is good and there is evil. There is right and there is wrong. There is light and there is dark. However, there is no grey.
To avoid lies. Don’t listen to them. Don’t embrace them. And certainly, do not swallow them as truth. The serpent is still slithering around out there, trying to get us to eat his deceitful fruit.
Darlene