Motive Is Murder, Method is Lying
We know that Satan is a liar and murderer from the beginning. We only have to read the first three chapters of Genesis to see his lying murderous ways. His motive is murder and his method is lying. His chief tool to destroy is deception. He's a master liar; very subtle. He makes the lie sound so much like the truth.
When he wants to destroy someone, he begins by deceiving them. He lies to get his work done. He wants nothing better than to change your thought processes to deceive and destroy you.
Of course he lies about the biggest subject of all. God. He lies primarily about God. If he can put deceptions into our hearts and minds about our creator, he has us in everything else. There are three basic ways he does this.
The first thing is he wants us to do is think badly about God. He doesn't primarily go after the existence of God, although he does that too, because that's too self evident. No, he's too clever for that. He admits God but he wants us to think of God as cruel, harsh and severe. He wants our minds to be filled with negative thoughts of God. He doesn't want us to think positively of God.
In Genesis 3:1 he said to Eve: Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?
But in reality God really said back in 2:17: And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17“but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Did you spot the lie? God never said not to eat of "every tree" did he? That was a lie. What was Satan doing here? He was trying to get Eve to think negatively about God. He wanted Eve to think of God as some cosmic killjoy. He wanted Eve to think of God badly and severely. He's saying to Eve that God is so cruel he has forbidden his creatures any legitimate joy; any pleasure.
Isn't that the same today? Isn't Satan filling heads with these same thoughts? Thoughts like serving God is painful and being a Christian is negative; something that is to be endured. That's not the idea of God. That's negativity being planted in our minds. If Satan can get you to think negatively of God, he has you.
In all reality God said, "help yourself to all the trees but one." He wanted them to understand good and evil from what God said to them about it, not what they experienced. Of course for man to have a choice, he made a choice possible. Nobody can be loyal unless he has opportunity to be disloyal. Neither can one love until he has an opportunity to dislove. This tree was a test. It wasn't a threat but a warning. God is good and the devil doesn't want you to know this.
The second thing the devil lies to us about God is this: he wants us to think skeptically about God. Look at Genesis 3:2-4. it says:
2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3“but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
He makes God out to be cruel now saying to her, "you can't trust this God."
God spoke and what he said to them was absolute correct truth and reliable. Modern man has all sorts of substitutes for the word of God today. Just a few of these would be....relativism, subjectivism, rationalism, pragmatism, etc.
The law without penalty is only advice. God was not giving Adam and Eve advice. He gave them truth. He told them upfront what would happen if they disobeyed his law. They would die. That was the penalty. No surprises here. Now Satan wants to undermine all this and twist and turn words to his own advantage.
The third thing Satan lies to us about is that he wants us to think suspiciously about God. Gen 3:5 says:
For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
He's implying that God is unfair. God doesn't want you to reach your full potential. You can be independent, autonomous. Satan is telling her he's going to liberate her. A preacher I listened to said the story goes......Adam's Rib, Satan's Fib, Woman's Lib.
God said to them "don't do it." But all they had was his word, and Satan reminded them of this.
He's saying to her, "how do you know if you haven't tried it for yourself? Are you going to trust in HIS WORD? Don't you know that God has cornered the market on God? Make up your own mind, and you'll be just like God. You can be your own god."
This is the beginning of the New Age movement, Eastern Religion, Eastern Mysticism that has come to the West as ancient Hinduism. All is God and we are gods. We become gods. Panthism is rooted in Hinduism. "Pan" meaning "all," "theism" meaning God. All is in God. God is in all. God to the New Ager is energy; an impersonal force. Everything is God. God is everything.
This is so subtle. We are to be Godly, not God, but as God. God is love (correct), love is God (wrong). Sounds almost correct. Wisdom is God (wrong). God is wisdom, (correct).
This is what all the animal activists are so uptight over. The sacred cows. Everything is God, even the cows. The sky, the trees and even dirt. Now if God is dirt, then dirt is God. And if you're God.....you're dirt!!! WRONG!!!
This is rubbish. Whole generations have been brought up into this deception. Satan has almost deceived the whole world.
A man's religion will rise no higher than his concept of God. Remember Satan had lied to Eve about God blocking her potential? We read in 1 Cor 2:9:
But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Satan forgot to tell her about this didn't he? Why take Satan's substitute when you can have God's truth? We need not to let that devil deceive us, to destroy us, to damn us.
Jesus said Satan's a liar and a murderer. Don't think of God negatively. He loves us. The cross is a + sign not a - sign.
Don't feel sorry for me because I'm a Christian. Don't let that devil deceive you. Don't listen to him.