Religious Lies

Genesis 3:1‑7

Religious Lies

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’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman.  “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.  Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

erhaps we are fortunate that here in Dawson Creek we are relatively isolated and do not have access to “Christian” radio or television.  Discounting the Vision Channel (which though religious is certainly not Christian), was “Christian” radio available to us we would participate in the modern phenomenon of finding ourselves inundated with the latest heresies parading under the guise of the Faith.  Mass media of this day has become the great forum in which every deviant voice clamours for acceptance among a gullible populace.  Among modern heresies which have found acceptance in the minds of surprising numbers of Christians (even within evangelical churches) is one grave error which is at least as old as the serpent in the Garden—Word Faith.

Word Faith was first promoted in modern time by E. W. Kenyon.  Kenneth Hagin of Tulsa, Oklahoma plagiarised Kenyon extensively and in turn influenced a generation of younger advocates of this strange religion including his son, Kenneth Hagin, Jr.  Today we have Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Charles Capps, Robert Tilton, Paul and Jan Crouch and Frederick K. C. Price advancing the movement known as Word Faith.  Others advance the concept without directly aligning themselves with the movement, including such media luminaries as Oral and Richard Roberts, Paul Yonggi Cho, Benny Hinn, and Pat Robertson.

At its heart this movement advocates that man can be god.  Ultimately, following the tenets of this perversion of the Faith, adherents arrive at a position that they believe that they have the power of God.  They become convinced that what they say they receive.  This peculiar belief account for the descriptive name which many have applied to this movement of Name it and Claim it.  Some, speaking derisively, have said that the movement is best described as Spit it and Get it or Blab it and Grab it.  In this movement God is reduced to a servant of the man who is supposed to have discovered the secret of power through the spoken word.  The individual who has faith in faith can command the Living God to do his bidding, and the Lord God is powerless to do other than what the man wills.  The perceptive among us will recognise that this is essentially Gnosticism redivivus, which was in turn nothing less than a recrudescence of the revolt against God which the serpent initiated in the Garden when he seduced Mother Eve.

God knows that … you will be like God, knowing good and evil.  This was, of course, the subtle lie that Mother Eve accepted when it was presented by the serpent.  You will be like God.  All that the serpent had said to this point only served to incite open rebellion when this bold-faced lie was seized upon as something desirable.  To this day the essence of sin is the desire of man to replace God with “self” on the throne of life.  If God can be reduced to a set of rules and Himself be controlled through knowledge of those rules, then man becomes powerful beyond all imagination.  To think that I am master of my own life is the ultimate act of rebellion against the rule of the Living God.  Examine with me the satanic lies presented by the serpent, especially as they are dressed in modern garb in the damning movement of Word Faith.

You Will Not Surely Die.   We don’t know how the serpent obtained access to Eve without generating a response from Adam, though we have previously considered the impact of his failure to speak despite being present.  What is apparent from the divine account is that Satan did not address the man.  This should not be taken as meaning that men are not susceptible to temptation nor that men are divinely preserved.  We do know that God has said that woman is the weaker vessel [1 Peter 3:7, nasv].  This statement is not designed to insult women, but it exists to provide a warning.  Women appear more spiritually perceptive, more spiritually sensitive and even more astute in spiritual matters.  This heightened sensitivity brings with it a liability to deception.  Because of woman’s greater spiritual sensitivity she is also more readily deceived.  Thus, just as the tendency of man is to be silent and to invite ever-greater chaos, so woman’s tendency is to hearken to the voice of the spiritual seducer.

In what must be an abbreviated précis the Word of God notes that Satan raised the issue of God’s sole commandment issued to the couple in the Garden.  With this opening question Satan questioned God’s goodness.  Surrounding the couple were all sorts of fruit trees and Satan implied that God had said they could not eat from any of His fruit trees.  If God indeed had issued such a proscription He could not be good.  Of course we saw earlier that God had said quite the opposite from what Satan implied.  God blessed them [Genesis 1:28], and part of that blessing was the gracious permission which is recorded in Genesis 1:29,30. Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.  And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Were this gracious provision somehow insufficient, God had later said to the man you are free to eat from any tree in the garden [Genesis 2:16b].  The beauty of the Garden was man’s to enjoy.  Just so, the bounty of the Garden was likewise man’s for his enjoyment.  God is not stinting in His provision.  God is good and gracious and gives richly to all who will receive His goodness. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous [Matthew 5:45b].

The serpent questioned God’s fairness.  The tenor of the question is incredulity.  Did God really say…?  The implication is that it is unjust for God to make such bounty and then keep man from enjoying His bounty.  Of course, God did not such thing.  Had God proscribed eating of the fruit of the trees, however, it would have been just since He is Creator.  Nevertheless, God is gracious to all He has made.  In the Psalms is a beautiful Psalm which speaks particularly of God’s grace and goodness.

The LORD is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and rich in love.

The LORD is good to all;

he has compassion on all he has made.

The eyes of all look to you,

and you give them their food at the proper time.

You open your hand

and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

[Psalm 145:8,9,15,16]

The woman responded to these opening remarks by supplying her own, unique assessment of God’s command.  We cannot know what was in her mind when she interpolated what God had said.  Perhaps she was trying to strengthen the Word of God, but she should have known that the Word of God cannot be broken.  God’s Word stands secure forever, and we can neither add to it nor subtract from it.  Thus Eve made a tragic and basic blunder when she tried to make the Word of God stronger still.

The woman’s attempt to strengthen God’s Word provided just the opening the serpent sought and he took skilful advantage of her error. Don’t move through the account so fast that you fail to note the danger of adding to the Word of God.  That was the primary error of Mother Eve.  She agreed that they were not to eat of the tree, but she added the prohibition that neither could they touch the fruit.  Of course, God had said no such thing.  Touching or not touching was a neutral issue, but it provided the serpent with opportunity to question God’s truthfulness and accuracy.

I must pause for a moment to caution that we are each prone to do this very thing.  God condemns drunkenness, and we censure anyone who drinks alcoholic beverage.  Frankly, I think that alcohol is an exceptionally poor beverage.  Clearly it is the source of multiplied heartaches in this fallen world.  The one providing alcohol is condemned in Scripture [see Habakkuk 2:15], and that in itself should be enough to give Christians pause before purchasing liquor or beer. 

According to the Wise Man,

Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler;

whoever is led astray by them is not wise. 

[Proverbs 20:1]

The intent of a passage such as Proverbs 31:4-7 seems clearly to serve as a cautionary note for those who bear responsibility over others to avoid wine and beer.  I would assume that likewise liquor should also be avoided if we wish to exercise wisdom in any oversight with which we may be charged, whether secular or sacred.

It is not for kings, O Lemuel—

not for kings to drink wine,

not for rulers to crave beer,

lest they drink and forget what the law decrees,

and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.

Give beer to those who are perishing,

wine to those who are in anguish;

let them drink and forget their poverty

and remember their misery no more. 

Certainly Christians should respect those who are weak in the Faith and those who hold high ideals concerning the Faith of Christ.  If drinking alcohol offends such people we should restrain from consumption of alcoholic beverage in public or even from ardently defending our freedoms.  Despite the lack of support in the Scriptures for using alcohol as a beverage, there is no ground for prohibition of all alcohol.  Thus, Christians are unwise if they think they can impose such a proscription on Scriptural grounds.  The Word of God is sufficiently strong that we really do not need to add to God’s Word.

In response to the woman’s interpolation the serpent questioned God’s veracity and the validity of His Word.  You will not surely die…  At this point the evil one opened the door to doubt.  You will recall that God graciously gave permission to eat from any tree, yet there was one caveat.  But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die [Genesis 2:17].  Were I to give a literal translation of that warning it would read, dying you shall die.  The thrust of the divine warning was that whereas life had been the ruling process, should man eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that process would be replaced by something foreign to the creation to that point—death.  Death would reign over all creation should man violate God’s sole command.  The serpent questioned whether God spoke the truth and he questioned whether God’s Word was trustworthy.

To this day man questions God’s goodness and sees the Lord as prohibitive.  How often have you heard someone reject the Faith with dismissive words about all those prohibitions … thou shalt nots.  Instead of being a God of grace and goodness, fallen man casts God as a sort of cosmic killjoy.  Instead of giving man freedom to master his own life, fallen man thinks of God as One who destroys man’s happiness.

Man is not free in his fallen state.  He is a slave to fear and subject to death.  The wicked one blinds his eyes and keeps him in darkness.  It is only in Christ that man is free.  I revel in the freedom promised through the Apostle’s words in the Galatian letter. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery…  You, my brothers, were called to be free [Galatians 5:1,13].  In Christ the veil is removed and we can see clearly for only then do we begin to walk in the light of God’s grace.  What a powerful statement is given in Hebrews 2:14,15. Since the children have flesh and blood, [Christ] too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Of course, in their rebellion our first parents did die.  Though Adam did not die for 930 years [see Genesis 5:5], he did die.  What was more terrible still, death began immediately.  Animals were immediately slain to provide a means by which their nakedness would be covered and also to provide atonement for the man and the woman [see Genesis 3:21].  Whereas before the rebellion all creation was in harmony, the new rule of entropy was introduced and the condition which Paul describes in Romans 8:19-25 prevailed.  Then God’s perfect creation existed in glorious harmony; now the creation waits for God’s glory to be revealed.  Then the creation was vibrant and alive; now it continues in bondage to decay.  Then the creation was free; now it is a slave to death.  Then the creation sang in joyful chorus to the Creator who had given life; now the creation groans as in the pains of childbirth.  Life was exchanged for death.  Liberty was exchanged for slavery.  Joy was exchanged for sorrow.  Thus did our first parents discover to their eternal horror that God’s Word was true and accurate—death reigned [Romans 5:14,17].

God Knows that Your Eyes will be Opened.  Hastening to broaden the breech in the woman’s crumbling defences the serpent followed up his advantage with another lie.  There is no lie so dastardly as a half-truth and the serpent issued precisely such a cowardly lie in the statement which followed.  God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened.  There is an element of truth in the serpent’s statement.  Later, after the rebellion was complete and the divine sentence was pronounced, the Triune God said, The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil [Genesis 3:22].  The great curse of our present condition is that we do know good from evil, but we are powerless to choose the good and thus evil prevails.

In light of this statement you will no doubt recall the words of the Apostle in Romans 3:10-18.  Drawing together attestations from various passages of Scripture we are horrified to discover of mankind.

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

there is no one who understands,

no one who seeks God.

All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good, not even one.”

“Their throats are open graves;

their tongues practice deceit.”

“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”

“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

ruin and misery mark their ways,

and the way of peace they do not know.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Paul’s statement about his own condition, a condition which is a direct result of the Fall, is equally applicable to every human and also equally horrifying.  We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.  I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death [Romans 7:14-24]?

Thus we know what is right, we know good and evil, but we are unable to do what is good.  Were that statement itself the sum of our fallen condition it would be offensive enough, but the other side of the coin is that we find ourselves actively pursuing evil in place of good.  We are unrighteous and not righteous.  Involuntarily we embrace that which is in rebellion against God and without thought oppose His will and His way.  Sin stands in opposition to God’s Word and God’s will.  Sin is unbelief, refusal to recognise the goodness of God and willingness to doubt His Word.

Notice that when the serpent had placed doubt in Eve’s mind she saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye.  With her gaze now firmly focused on the fruit of the tree, doubting all that God had said, Eve also saw that the fruit was desirable for gaining wisdom.  Up to this point we must assume that Eve had known that obedience was preferable to rebellion.  The knowledge of displeasing God was sufficient motive to keep her from disobeying His command.  Once rebellion entered the scene, death would of necessity follow.

What an awful sentence God pronounced.  Samuel, speaking the mind of God to Saul said of disobedience and rebellion:

Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD?

To obey is better than sacrifice,

and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is like the sin of divination,

and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.

[1 Samuel 15:22,23a]

Do not think that God will overlook disobedience, rebellion and arrogance.  They are a wicked trinity of characteristics which infect and infest the whole of the race to this day.  One of the members of this evil triad will never be present alone, but rather all three contaminate the lives of rebellious people.

Yes, God knew that the eyes of Adam and Eve would be opened if they rebelled, but He also knew that they would unleash a plague on the earth which would stain the whole of the race and ultimately cost the life of His only Son.  God knew and warned the first couple that their disobedience would result in death for the race.  Since that first rebellion all are born in sinful state and under sentence of death.  God did not create the first man and woman to be automatons, but rather He gave them freedom to obey or to disobey, knowing that they would choose to rebel and thus inflict ruin on His creation.

I am always humbled by the knowledge provided in 1 Peter 1:18-21. Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.  For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.  He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.  Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

In Ephesians 1:3-14 we read a similar glorious statement of God’s eternal plan and purpose. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.  And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.  And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

God Knows that you will be Like God.  The heart of the message lies with this final lie.  You will be like God.  How is God different from man?  Well, clearly He possesses all power.  He is righteous.  God is eternal.  God is truthful.  God is all wise and all knowing.  This final attribute is the primary distinction.  God’s power flows from His perfect knowledge and His absolute wisdom so that He cannot error.  His power will never be misapplied or abused.  He speaks truth because He knows all truth.  His righteousness is the result of His power and His knowledge which cannot permit Him to tolerate sin.  Thus, were we to know absolutely as God knows we would be as God.

I said a bit ago that Satan spoke a half-truth, and we witness the terrible impact of accepting that half-truth in this lie.  The man and the woman did know good and evil, and in this they were like God, but they did not have the power to embrace the good and to reject the evil.  Thus the knowledge possessed served only to condemn instead of giving them power.  Nevertheless, since the time of that rebellion there has been within man a longing to be as God.  Certainly man seeks to replace God on the throne of life by exalting “self” to a position of primary importance.  The desire for ease of life, for promotion of “self”, for adulation, leads the purveyors of the self-centred message of Word Faith to teach their half-truths as though they were gospel.

I will not invest a great amount of time speaking of their wicked assertion that faith in your faith will keep you from death. It is sufficient to know that some have even gone so far as to state that infants who die before birth had parents who wanted them to die.[1]  Others have stated of the sick, “You’re suffering because you’re stupid”[2] Ponder this thought.  If the Word Faith movement is godly, why have they not produced a single chaplain or provided for a theology of comfort in the face of death, which is the ultimate human reality?

The heart of the movement is the assertion that man is a god.  That man can harness the power of God through the power of words.  The desire to control one’s private world is the essence of sin.  Satan’s offer to Eve was power to become her own god, a metaphysical power over her environment, not the ethical power over her own life which is offered in Christ and which she had before her rebellion in her innocence.  Charles Capps says, “The Word of God … spoken out of the mouth releases the ability of God…  With words you bind things, or you loose other things.”[3]  Robert Tilton is even more brazen.  “You can tell God on the authority of His Word what we would like Him to do.  That’s right!  You can actually tell God what you would like His part of the covenant to be!”[4]

If you consider such statements to be blasphemous, then what will you say about other statements such as these?

The believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth.[5]

You are … a god kind of creature.[6]

When God looks in the mirror, He sees me!  When I look in the mirror, I see God![7]

You don’t have a god living in you; you are one! … You know, sometimes people say to me… “You just think you’re a little god!”  Thank you!  Hallelujah!  You got that right!  “Who d’you think you are, Jesus?”  Yep![8]

We are the Word made flesh, just as Jesus was.[9]

[God] doesn’t even draw a distinction between Himself and us.[10]

Adam was the god of this world.[11]

Word Faith exalts man and relegates the Living God to kind of a celestial genie who is compelled to do what the modern Gnostic has learned to make Him do.  Word Faith practitioners do not believe God is sovereign.  Jesus, according to Word Faith, has no authority on earth, because He has delegated all His authority to those in the know.[12]  Furthermore, this strange theology teaches that God is bound by spiritual laws which govern health and prosperity.  If we say that right words, or believe without wavering, God is forced to respond in whatever way we determine.  In this system God is not Lord at all.  He is unable to work until we release Him.  He is dependent upon human instruments, human faith, and above all human words to accomplish His work.

Mother Eve was the first human to hear the dulcimer voice of the seducer enticing her with the promise that she could exalt herself above the Lord God.  Since that dreadful day when man rebelled against God multiplied millions have endeavoured to exalt themselves, only to learn, as did our first mother, that the serpent is a liar.  God makes His position abundantly clear when He establishes eternal truth through Isaiah:

I am the LORD; that is my name!

I will not give my glory to another

or my praise to idols.

[Isaiah 42:8]

The tragedy of man raising himself to be his own god is that there is no one to turn to when all comes crashing down, and all will come crashing down.  When an individual has declared that man’s good rather than God’s glory is the goal of salvation, it is not a large step from that to incipient hedonism.  I suggest that the lives of the Word Faith teachers gives evidence of the truth of this thought.

If I exalt myself as my own god, I will buy into the lie that I am to be victorious all the time.  Bruce Barron says of such an error

I may be in pain, physically or mentally, but I must keep up my positive confession at all costs.  This leads to superficial people with pious masks who cannot disclose to each other who they really are, and therefore cannot experience the grace of God where they hurt.  They present their ideal rather than their real self.  It’s … phoney.[13]

When I have exalted myself, making myself my own god, I am fully opposed to the Sovereign God.  Should I not heed His warning given through the Prophet Isaiah?

Does the axe raise itself above him who swings it,

or the saw boast against him who uses it?

As if a rod were to wield him who lifts it up,

or a club brandish him who is not wood!

[Isaiah 10:15,16]?

This, then, was the serpent’s lie … a lie continued to this day in the guise of the Word Faith movement.  I name these names because as a shepherd of the flock I am responsible to guard you against error.  I am responsible to warn you against heresy.  I am responsible to nourish you and equip you to defend yourselves.  You cannot play with the Word Faith movement, nor much of the charismatic movement, without treading perilously close to fully embracing the error which brought the race into our present condition of death.

We seek to be gracious to those of our friends who claim to seek power, but we are quick to say without equivocation that authority lies in Christ the Lord.  It is enough that we enjoy His presence and that we discover His grace.  Let Him be God, rebuking the serpent and keeping us from evil.  Amen.

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[1] Fred Price, quoted in D. R. McConnell, A Different Gospel, Hendrickson, Ó 1988, pg. 158

[2] Fred Price, quoted in Curtis I. Crenshaw, Man as God: The Word of Faith Movement, Footstool Publication, Memphis, Tennessee, Ó 1994, pg. 156

[3] Charles Capps, quoted in ibid., pg. 179

[4] Robert Tilton, quoted in ibid., pg. 179

[5] Kenneth Copeland, quoted in Michael Scott Horton, The Agony of Deceit, Moody Press, Ó 1990, pg. 82

[6] Robert Tilton, quoted in ibid., pg. 91

[7] Casey Treat, quoted in ibid., pg. 91

[8] Kenneth Copeland, quoted in Michael Scott Horton, Made in America, Baker Book House, Ó 1991, pg. 82

[9] Gloria Copeland, Walk in the Spirit, KCP Publications, Fort Worth, Ó 1984, pg. 9

[10] Paul Crouch, quoted in John F. MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos, Zondervan, Ó 1991, pg. 273

[11] Kenneth E. Hagin, The Believer’s Authority, Faith Library Publications, Tulsa, Ó 1992, pg. 19

[12] Kenneth E. Hagin develops this point in his book The Authority of the Believer, Faith Library, Tulsa, Ó 1979

[13] Bruce Barron, The Health and Wealth Gospel, InterVarsity, Ó 1987, pg. 131