Hi all,
Before Adam and Eve sinned they believed a lie: “You will not die.” (Genesis 3: 4, Satan rejecting Eve’s claim God said if they ate of that tree they would die.)
Every sin traces back to a lie that person believed, no matter how distant in the past that person believed the lie. A child may be mol*ested and believe the lie it was their fault or they deserved it or they made it happen – all lies – but it often forms a person’s relationships all their lives. I’ve never found a sin yet that didn’t have a root lie – I suppose it is because the first sin in the earth was rooted in believing a lie, so all later sins can be traced to that root lie.
In my generation long before the Internet there were ‘girly magazines’. Many boys and girls were taught s*xuality by them and the pop culture of the day of how men and women relate to one another – which are lies and not how God designed men and women to interact in life, love, s*x and marriage. They believed a lie. Girls grow into women who hate their bodies because they believed the lie they should have a certain body type or look.
I’ve known several women who after many years of marriage and having kids, decided they were l*sbian and left their husbands for another woman. In the cases I know personally, their husbands didn’t connect with their wives emotionally, being on the very logical side of things, so the wife believed the lie they could connect emotionally with another woman in that l*sbian way.
A boy may have been abused or is by nature softer than some men, and maybe they get bulled because of that, and believe a lie that safe love can be found with other men, seeking that emotional connection and love – having believed a lie. There are women who are very feminine and some that have more masculine traits, and men who are more feminine and some who are all masculinity – Satan speaks lies and gets people off into sin.
There are also lies told about God the Father, and when people believe them they often relate to Jesus but not to the Father, fearing Him as a Great Unknown. Jesus’ statement in John 14: 9: ‘If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father’, doesn’t make sense to them. When lies about God are taught Christians may doubt their salvation, doubt they are ‘good enough’, or think they have committed the unpardonable sin even though they believe in and love Jesus.
A person may be overweight because somewhere in their past they believed food brought them comfort – they believed a lie. A person may think the next sale or the next promotion or more money will bring them happiness – they believed a lie. Knowing the Father and His love – the love of Christ – is the cure for all lies.
Jesus taught in the Parable of the Sower of Mark 4:17 that because a person who ‘has no root in themselves’, they can’t endure affliction (pressure of circumstances) or persecution (a person’s opinion about them) and stumble. Ephesians 4: 17 reveals that rooting and grounding is found in the (agape’) love of Christ that is known in our spirit for it is beyond head knowledge. IF a person can get to know the Father’s love – Christ’s love – unconditional love perhaps for the first time in their life, they can more easily un-believe the root lie.
Satan is on the outside looking in
Jesus said in John 8: 44 when Satan speaks a lie he does so by himself. In other words, he has no one to agree with him. He is on the outside looking in we could say. He is in the realm of darkness, in that kingdom prepared for him completely lacking anything of God because that is what he wanted – but he wants to enlarge his kingdom and its influence. He speaks a lie, seeing who will believe him.
Amos 3: 3 is when God is contending with idolatrous Israel, asking: “Can two walk together except they be in agreement?”
When a person believes one of Satan’s lies, they come into agreement with that lie, and to them it becomes truth. Think of Eve standing there with that fruit. We won’t die? Okay, I’ll try it….she agreed with the lie and to her it became a truth, ‘her truth’, and she acted on it. Today, when a person believes a lie it is ‘their truth’, and they can become angry at anyone who doesn’t also believe ‘their truth’. But they are telling the truth – to them that lie has become true.
So if a person doesn’t feel saved, to them it is truth. Their friends know they love God, have had Him communicate to them, has shown Himself faithful to them, but if they don’t feel saved then to them, it is true. They have believed a lie. In the examples above they believed a lie and to them it becomes truth, as reflected in their relationships, perhaps living arrangements, and overall lifestyle.
Lies always seek confirmation they are actually the truth. That is why a person having believed a lie, like though they love God they fear He may reject them on judgement day, seeks scripture to support the lie they will be rejected. They ignore all the verses that confirm believers are citizens of heaven in favor of seeking verses that support the lie they have believed.
The process of getting a person to make an emotional decision/belief is an act of seduction
Believing a lie is an emotional decision. Genesis 3: 6 reveals Eve’s emotional thinking: “When she saw the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes, and could make one wise, she took the fruit from the tree and ate, and gave to her husband….”
The 3 underlined words are more clear in the Hebrew. The word ‘good’ is literally ‘beautiful’, and is the same word used of each day of creation when God said: It is good (beautiful). The next word, ‘pleasant’ is ‘desirable’ or ‘desire’, as in Psalm 38: 9: “O Lord, my desire is laid open before you, my sighing is not hidden from you.” This speaks deeply of emotional longing, for we see it in the sentence of Eve: “…and beautiful (desire/longing) to the eyes…”
The last word, ‘to make one wise’ compliments the emotional reasoning Eve was using as she believed the lie. It is more of a seduction process, for this phrase in Hebrew is the word ‘sakal’, meaning ‘to be prudent, to be successful, expert and to be considered.’ She combined the emotional elements of it sounded good, looked good, and she calculated the effect in her mind as she considered the lie presented. Paul agrees with the fact Eve was seduced and thus deceived, as stated in I Timothy 2: 14: “Adam was not deceived in the transgression, but the woman having been deceived…” The Greek word Paul used translated ‘deceived’ is ‘exapateo’, or ‘seduce by deception.’ Eve was seduced into making an emotional decision.
This is the process a person goes through when reasoning by emotion, when making an emotion based decision. The lie comes first, and it is strongly considered. It sounds right, looks beautiful maybe it is a teaching from God, and it is considered and confirmed by seeking others who say the same thing.
Next week we’ll close with very practical steps to take by which to measure if you are being emotionally manipulated, and how to balance reasoning with emotions.
Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
