From the Garden to Today The Lies Have Not Changed
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 has nothing to do with 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.
The world believes in shades of grey. Almost nothing is black and white anymore. The truth has been assaulted for decades now and year by year, it has become more and more blurred. Spin is accepted as fact and the truth has become the first casualty in the values war we see going on in this country. This is of course the scheme of the enemy; to create a world where lies are embraced as truth. Where the lines become so vague that people create their own personal truth. The concept of universal truth; or absolute truth, is almost mocked by society at this point.
Our key verses reveal that it is in fact the enemy who is the father of lies. His very character is deceit. He has nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in him. God on the other hand is always about truth:
Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: "So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge." Romans 3:4
There is black and there is white beloved. The world is not shades of grey. The devil wants us to believe that so we feel less convicted about our sin and thus we can be further away from God. But the enemy is a liar; as noted the father of lies. He uses all sorts of lies to derail us in our walks. Big lies and small lies. Lies that seem inconsequential and lies that seem too great to tell. There are some general tendencies the enemy uses in his lies and we can learn these from his first interaction with humankind, found in the third chapter of Genesis; in the Garden of Eden.
Prior to the arrival of the enemy in the garden, life was perfect. God walked with His creation. There would be no sorrow and death. No pain and suffering. But Adam and Eve would disobey God; leading to the fall of man. The trail of that fall starts with a simple lie:
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'?" Genesis 3:1
Where is the lie? The enemy knew full well that God never said they couldn't eat from any tree in the garden, just the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So he mixes a little truth with a little poison and the chain of events is underway which would lead to the fall of man.
