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Half Truthers - Masters of Deception

The Temptation and Fall of Mankind: "Now the serpent [Satan, the devil, disguised] 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?"' And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 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."' Then the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die. 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.'"¹

When God created man and woman— Adam and Eve—he placed them in the Garden of Eden—which, at the time, was a perfect world—and not wanting mankind to be puppets on a string, God gave them a free will so they could freely choose to follow and obey him and be greatly blessed, or go their own way and pay the natural consequences. Along came Satan who, wanting to take revenge against God because in his attempt to dethrone God when he was one of the most beautiful angels in Heaven, was cast out of Heaven, came to Eve to tempt her to turn from God and, in so doing, destroy the apex of God's creation.

To tempt Adam and Eve, Satan told Eve a part truth. Adam and Eve both knew that God had told them that if they ate of the forbidden fruit, they would surely die; that is, they would die spiritually and be eternally separated from God. So Satan said to Eve, "You will not die but be like God knowing both good and evil." This was partly true in that she would know both good and evil, but what Satan didn't tell Eve was that if she ate of the forbidden fruit, she would not only know good and evil but would be forever confirmed in a fallen state of evil.

Tragically, Adam and Eve bought into Satan's lie, ate of the forbidden fruit and fell into sin. In so doing, they introduced sin and evil into the entire human race.

Unfortunately, part-truths can be the most deceptive form of lies there are. For instance, every false cult claiming to be a bearer of God's Truth always has an element of truth in their teaching, as this is what makes them believable to those who are not aware of what God teaches in his Word, the Bible. The tragedy in this life is that if and when we turn from God and his ways to go our own way, we remove ourselves from God's blessings and bring the natural consequences of our sin and rebellion upon ourselves. This is why it is imperative that each of us reads and studies God's Word so we know exactly the ways of God and his truth, so that we will not be deceived by Satan and his evil demons, and ultimately be destroyed.

Fortunately, even though we inherited the sin nature when we were born, God loves us and made a way of escape by giving his Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sin by dying in our place on the cross at Calvary more than 2,000 years ago. All we need to do, is to confess our sins, ask God for his forgiveness, and accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you that you are not only a God of infinite holiness and justice, but also a God of unconditional love and that you gave your Son, Jesus, to die in my place on the cross of Calvary to pay the penalty for all my sins so that I can be fully forgiven and receive your gift of eternal life. Thank you, too, for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

NOTE: If you haven't received God's forgiveness and accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, for help read the article, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian" at" www.actsweb.org/christian.

1. Genesis 3:1-5 (NKJV).

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