The Christian Journey

The Same Old Lie

By Bernard Capello

“You see, I told you so”, she said, as she thumbed through the book. “He is a brilliant mind; he is a physicist of the greatest character”. “He states that God does not exist”. “I am therefore the god of my life”. The more she spoke the more intently to at least try and understand where this came from. I listened until (Psalm 14:1) came to mind; “The fool has said in his heart, “there is not God””. After much thought, I came to the only conclusion I could muster. She wanted to believe that message due to preconceived thought or experience. That physicist’s words only helped confirm her made up mind. After all these thousands of years, man is not much different in the way in which he can so easily be deceived. There are no new tricks, just new packages, ribbons and bows for the old ones.

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Since the day of man’s very first act toward deception, the issue has raged. While God knew exactly what would happen, still He continued in creating man. Would we ever understand that kind of love? He knew man would defy, disobey, worship other gods, and yet He continued.

So here we are. Thousands of years removed from the garden and the deception continues with feverish vengeance. Far too often the words of God are so twisted, so far out of context, to now some are left believing they are no more than a glandular being with spiritual tendencies. If emotions and heightened feelings are satisfied with a stamp of spiritual approval from someone, who is believed to represent the authority of God, whatever that may look like, then there we have it. All is good. Or is it?

Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden, shall we. The beginning of God’s crown creation was set, and specifically selected by God, as the place in which man would tend to. So incredibly filled with sound and visual beauty that I am certain any feeble attempt on the part of this writer to imagine and thus describe would prove woefully inadequate. Surrounded by rivers of cool life-giving water and buttressed with the vibrant sounds of creation singing praises to their Creator. It is there that man would walk with God. It was there in the midst of this garden that a symbol of conscience and obedience was placed. What was it? A tree, whose produce was not necessarily for physical nourishment, but a symbol, or as it were a test. A test of trust or lack thereof toward their Creator. It was there in the midst of this garden, before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that man would fail. He would deny the command of God, break trust and allegiance with Him, and climb aboard the back of a lie mixed with a tonic of truth. From generation to generation going forward, we too fell in that day. We too are still open to that same lie.

It is now, as it was then. We also listen and give credence to that same temptation. A lie always rides on the back of truth. How pleasurable and familiar this Garden was. How pleasurable and comfortable man felt with his Creator. In the world of today, given the right surrounding when the music is just right, when the words flow like honey, when the emotions are high, man will barely question what he is told.

What is at the root of this lie, this deception, in which Satan has utilized his masterful trickery? How is this deception powerful enough to have in the past and continue in the future, to drag multiplied millions away from their Creator? More dangerously and serious is that some are being dragged through the eternal gates of the damned. How does man fall for this? It could not have simply been that this was a one-time instance. Why was the first couple not alarmed at the approach of this serpent being? Is it likely they were approached before with “smooth words” just as many are today? We were created as inquisitive beings which in turn allows us to freely love God or deny Him. (Genesis 3:4-5) ”You will not surely die,” the serpent told her. 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.”

Through masterful trickery, the twist of words brought to the first parents, rendered a reasoning that they could be “like God”. Nothing changed. Mankind continues the notion that they can be like God. Man did indeed engage the process of dying in the day he took that forbidden taste. He no longer could have full access to eat of the Tree of Life.

Man is still being fed the same old lie. Man is still being tempted and pulled by the same old serpent. Sometimes the old lie does its work and convinces one that they can

See SAME OLD LIE on Page 38

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