The Devil's Doctrine

The Devil’s Doctrine; Genesis 3:1-13

Did you know that from the beginning of Genesis through Revelation the bible speaks about the two religions of the world? I know there’s Muslim – Hindu – J.W. – Mormon – Jews – Buddhist – Christian – and many more, but they all fall under one of two categories. God’s way or man’s way.

I think it’s interesting to note that these are not only different, but exact opposites. The scripture says, Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” 1 Peter 1:18-19, “you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ.” In John 14:6 Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father except through me.”

All other religions of the world say, “I have to live a good life, be a moral person, go to church, I have to do this or that, in other words, I have to earn my own way to heaven.” All those are good things and we ought to live in such a way that pleases our Father in Heaven but grace saves us not good works.

Every non-Christian religion is based on one major doctrine, “Salvation by works.” The religions of the world are trying to put themselves in a position of equality with God. That’s exactly what Satan attempted to do in his fall, and that is exactly what he got Eve to do in this passage.

I want to share with you some of the devils doctrines. And I believe you will see that these same doctrines are still being preached today and the motive is to deceive mankind.

I. Truth is Relative

You can create your own reality or transform your own consciousness. This doctrine is becoming more & more prevalent in our society today. It is being taught to our children in school, especially college students. It’s being portrayed as truth by Hollywood, it’s being accepted by men and women from all kinds of different backgrounds and walks of life.

This belief says what’s true for you may not be true for me, what true in the U.S. may not be true in other parts of the world, what was true 50 years ago may not be true today… Truth is relative, truth changes… If truth is relative… 1). Nothing is true… 2). Nothing is knowable… 3). Nothing matters – there is no such thing as good & evil, all is good (murder, rape, abuse)… 4). No authority.

In this passage Satan begins his attack on Eve by raising a question, and in doing so he lays doubt at her feet. Vs. 1, there are many trees, and look here is one of them. It is a tree in the garden and God said you may eat of every tree in the garden, so that means you can eat of this tree. Deductive Reasoning begins…

If you try hard enough you can almost reason away your sin. If you try hard enough you can twist God’s word and try to make it say what you want it to. WHY? Because the devil says truth is relative, it’s all in the interpretation. But God says His word is truth.

But we hear what we want to hear. (We have selective hearing). There are parts we don’t like so we ignore them. We like it when the Bible speaks about peace, purpose, joy, Heaven, eternal life, God’s grace, forgiveness of sin and the like. But we don’t like to hear about judgment, death, self-sacrifice, repentance, or hell.

But 2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Rightly divide the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

Truth is truth whether we like or not, whether we believe it or not, whether we accept it or not. What we like, believe or accept does not alter truth. Truth is absolute and we ought to accept it whether we like it or not because it is truth.

Billy Graham, “Truth is timeless. Truth does not change from one age to another, from one people to another, from one geographical location to another. Men’s ideas may differ, men’s custom’s may change, men’s moral codes may vary, but the great all prevailing truth stands for time and eternity.” What we believe to be true may be relative, but the TRUTH is absolute…

II. There Is No Death

Vs. 2-4, Satan said, “You will NOT surely die.” One of the greatest doctrines of a lot of the middle eastern religions and of the new age movement is that of reincarnation. That after you die you will come back again possibly in a better life form or a worse life form depending on how you live this life. But the point is you never really die, you keep on living.