The Attack on Truth

Scripture

1 Timothy 4:1–6 KJV 1900

1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. 4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. 6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

Juneteenth is a significant holiday for many people because it is a day set aside to recognize and celebrate the end of slavery in the United States. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863, to legally end the system of enslavement. But most people don’t realize that it took two more years for many slaves to find out they were free. Juneteenth occurred on June 19, 1865, when two thousand Union troops came to Galveston Bay and set free 250,000 slaves who were still operating under the old system of slavery.

Even though for two and a half years these individuals were legally free, they behaved as though they were enslaved because they didn’t know they were not. The Confederate soldiers were still holding territory there, and they refused to yield to the proclamation made by President Lincoln in 1863. It took another power backed by several thousand soldiers to bring to reality what had been established legally.

There exists another kind of slavery today that holds people hostage. It keeps them chained to an existence outside of their own spiritual desires. It is the slavery Jesus addresses in John 8:31-32

John 8:31–32 KJV 1900

31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Jesus was speaking to people who believed in Him. They wee already Christians, already His followers. Yet despite knowing Jesus, accepting Him, and loving Him, they still needed to be set free. See, you can know Jesus and even spend time with Jesus but still be bound in traps of the enemy.

To be set free means to be released from something that ought not to be shackling or limiting you anymore. To live free is to experience the full expression of your destiny in this life. But freedom is only accessed through faith, and truth has gone missing—as we have previously seen.

Because truth is often nowhere to be found, far too many people find themselves illegitimately confined as spiritual prisoners of war. They are locked behind enemy lines, unable to break the chains that bind them. The reason this happens so frequently on earth is because our freedom is opposed by a very powerful force. We face an enemy who would like nothing more than to keep each of us trapped in a sticky web of lies.

We gain a greater glimpse into this enemy as we read in John 8:43-45, where Jesus reveals him clearly.

John 8:43–45 KJV 1900

43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. 44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 45 And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

Jesus boldly states here that Satan is nothing but a liar. Everything about the devil is clothed in deception. What’s more, he’s been lying all through the ages. To help us understand Satan’s reasoning for twisting truth and telling lies, we look at his overarching agenda. In Isaiah 14:12-14

Isaiah 14:12–14 KJV 1900

12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Quickly we see that Satan’s goal is to build a kingdom that rivals God’s. His bottom-line agenda is to usurp God’s rightful rule and authority. We know this by what he said. Like

“I will ascend”

“I will raise”

“I will sit” and

“I will make myself like the Most High”

Satan was jealous of God from the start. So his motivation is to be like God himself. He wants the glory, the attention, and the control.

It appears to me, that Satan wanted his independence. He didn’t want to have to answer to a higher rule. He wanted to call the shots. To be the chief in charge. He also wanted to have all eyes on him, worshipping him as all of creation once worshipped God.

In order to achieve his aim, Satan set in motion a process of deception. As a result of his propaganda and lies, he got one-third of all the angels to follow him. Keep in mind, these were sinless angels. That’s an important point because if sinless angels could be deceived to follow the devil, we probably shouldn’t think for even a minute that you or I can outmaneuver him. He’s very good at his craft, and his lies often come half-baked in truths, making it difficult to discern what is true.

When God created humanity, He gave the well-known instruction to Adam that he was not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Genesis 2:17

Genesis 2:17 KJV 1900

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

It was the one forbidden action. God gave Adam a lush garden filled with all manner of delicious fruit, but He forbade him to eat off of what I like to call the “Google tree.” I refer to it as that because the tree was an information source that would open up a Pandora’s box of thoughts.

The tree had been put there to let Adam know he was not the one to determine what is good or what is evil, independently of God. God was to be Adam’s information center. God was to be his Google search engine. God was to be the definition of what is right and what is wrong. Truth must originate from the Source, or it becomes convoluted in iterations that send humanity down rabbit holes of hopelessness based on a plethora of lies.

The beginning of nearly all of these lies starts with Satan’s go-to line, “Has God said?” He begins his deception with Adam and Eve by raising a question about the integrity of God.

Does God really know what He is talking about?

Is God really informed?

Does God really understand you?

Does God really want what is best for you?

Can God really figure you out?

Does God really care?

The questions can change, but their root remains the same. Satan seeks to strip away any belief in the integrity of God that he can. He sought to do that with Adam and Eve, and he seeks to do the same to us today. He does this by making it look like God is gaming everyone. That God isn’t really telling the truth. He does this by trying to make us believe that we are being played. And no one wants to be played.

This isn’t just a scheme confined by the walls of a garden, though. This is a global scheme that has unfolded throughout history. 1 John 5:19

1 John 5:19 KJV 1900

19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

This is a large-scale global attach of deception.

Revelation 12:9

Revelation 12:9 KJV 1900

9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

The same way Satan successfully deceived Adam and Eve thousands of years ago is how he is seeking to do the same to us right now. He hasn’t changed his approach. Why would he? It still works.

In a football game, if one player commits a foul, the whole team is penalized. That’s just how it works. The whole team suffers. Similarly, when Adam sinned, the whole world fell into chaos. What’s true with Adam hold true today in many ways—sin has a way of affecting much more than those people and things in the immediate circle o the sinner. Satan knows the impact of sin and its far-reaching effects. That’s why he is so persistent at planting seeds to displace the root of truth in a person’s life.

The goal of deception is to keep you away from God. The longer you believe the lies, the longer you live apart from God’s abiding presence with you, as well as the divine assistance He makes available to you. This is because God cannot partner with or participate in a lie.

Because Satan and his minions have studied you and know you so well, they will be consistent in bringing to you the snares into which you are most apt to fall. Sometimes they are presented in the creation of false doctrines or false rules, at other times through someone who opposes true doctrine and truth-based virtues. We see in 1 Timothy 4

Closing

Deceitful spirits and demons prey on those who live inauthenic, hypocritical lives. They prey on those who have had their own conscience seared as with a branding iron. They prey on those who have lived far enough away from truth that they no longer even recognize it. And they way they get those who still discern the truth into a position where their conscience no longer works in through a subtle steering away in small increments, as Satan did to Eve when he questioned, “Has God said?”

Paul addresses this in 2 Corinthians 11:3

2 Corinthians 11:3 KJV 1900

3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Paul makes it clear that our key virtue as believers ought to be in this statement. We are to be purely devoted to Jesus Christ. This is why so much of what you witness in the world today works as a distraction from such devotion.

Satan’s strategy is simple: He wants to mess with your mind. And he doesn’t mind dressing up as an angel to light to do that. That’s how we wind up with so many people willing to give up their lives to cult leaders, from Waco to Guyana, or wherever. It’s because people’s minds have been hijacked by “deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.”

We have

public schools

television programs

movies

racial leader

all pulling us away from truth.

The only to identify a lie is to know the truth.

Jesus is our defense attorney. What’s more. He works pro bono (without a fee) because the price has already been paid on the cross.

When Satan takes you to court to accuse you, rather than bow before the reality of what you have done, know that Jesus Christ has already overcome sin.

As you bring up the truth of God’s Word before the many issues you may face, Satan will have to retreat. He holds no power or authority over God. In fact, Satan is allergic to Scripture because he’s allergic to truth. Like the Wicked Witch of the West, who was destroyed by water in the The Wizard of Oz, Satan dissolves in the presence of truth. He flees when you call on the blood of Jesus through the power of your testimony rooted in the basic building block of truth in God’s Word.