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The Lord Jesus placed heavy emphasis on the
deceitful nature of the devil. In a confrontation with the Pharisees,
He declared that their inability to recognize the truth was due to
the fact that they were allied with the devil.
You belong to your father, the devil, and you
want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the
beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.
When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the
father of lies (John 8:44, NIV).
Dr. William Hendriksen made this comment: The
devil, then, is the very wellspring of lies, the creator of
falsehoods . . . . When he lies, he is the original. When he does not
lie (Acts 16:16,17), he quotes or even plagiarizes; but even then he
gives the borrowed words a false setting in order to create an illusion.
He ever strives to lie and to deceive, and this he does in order to
murder (The Gospel of John, Baker, p.61).
It is the devil's very nature to lie because
he began his career in an act of self-delusion. "You have said
in your heart: . . . I will exalt my throne above the stars of God .
. . I will be like the Most High" (Is. 14:13,14).
By deluding himself into believing that he
could claim a position of equality with the Most High, Satan fell
from his position of high honor. He became the "father of
lies," depending on a web of self-deceit and illusion to
maintain his fantasy of equality with God.
By claiming equality with God, the devil is
forced to lie to himself about every aspect of reality. His rebellion
has locked him into an irrational posture in which he desperately
denies the evidence of his own hopelessness and meaninglessness.
The devil's position is the same as that of an
extremely self-centered person who clings to an unrealistic view of
himself. For example, a self-centered person who thinks he is a great
singer will not accept any criticism that implies the contrary. Rather
than admitting the possibility that he might be wrong in his estimate
of himself, he will associate only with people who encourage him in
his self-delusion. He may continue to believe that he is a wonderful
singer even if he can find no one else who agrees.
The psychological term for such irrational
willfulness is narcissism, and we are all aware of people who to a
greater or lesser degree exhibit this tendency. Such people
eventually accept reality (however painful it may be) or they defy it
by either withdrawing into their own inner world or attempting to
reconstruct reality so that it fits their false ideas. (Adolf Hitler
and Joseph Stalin are two individuals who took the second approach.)
The devil is the ultimate narcissist. He is powerful and willful
enough to attempt to restructure all of God's created reality in
order to keep his false sense of self-importance.
Satan does not deceive others in the manner of
one who knows the truth and merely seeks to mislead. Satan lies
because his own intelligence has been darkened by his perverted will.
He is the "father of lies" because he has deluded himself
and willfully persists in his self-delusion.
Satan, the self-deceived one has been
aggressively deceiving mankind from the very beginning of human history.
The basic elements of Satan's lie are recorded
in Genesis 3:1-8. His words seem to have been chosen carefully to
cause Eve to question God's trustworthiness: "Has God indeed
said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the Garden'?" He
wanted Eve to perceive God from his own diabolic perspective,
questioning God's motives and intentions. He wanted her to fear that
God's plans for her would violate her individuality and run contrary
to her deepest needs and desires.
The devil next denied the truth of God's
warning. He said, "You will not surely die." Having planted
doubt in Eve's mind concerning God's goodness, he wanted her to
believe that no consequences would result from her disobedience.
He continued: "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" (v.5). These words were a direct attack
on God's goodness and an appeal to Eve's pride. Satan portrayed the
Lord as denying Adam and Eve the one thing that would bring them ultimate
fulfillment--equality with God. These perverse words came straight
from the devil's heart, reflecting his own view of God.
When Adam and Eve acted in accordance with the
lie, they became the helpless pawns of Satan's rebellion. His lie
remains unchanged today.
The story of the fall shows us that when
people believe Satan's lie that God cannot be fully trusted, they
fall into the fear of self-exposure. After Adam and Eve had eaten
from the forbidden tree, they became conscious of their nakedness,
made a feeble attempt to cover their shame with fig leaves, and tried
to hide from God (Gen. 3:7-10).
Christian psychologist Larry Crabb says that
the primary motivation for all of our social behavior is a fear that
if others really knew us as we are, they would reject us in disgust.
This fear of exposure is rooted in our sense of the ugliness of our
fallen natures as they have been perverted and corrupted by sin.
Satan delights in inflaming this fear until we, like the Pharisees,
transform ourselves into "whitewashed tombs" (Matt 23:27)
of self-deceit and self-righteousness.
M. Scott Peck has observed that the central
defect of evil people lies not in the fact that they sin but in the
fact "that they refuse to acknowledge [their sin]" (People
of the Lie, p.69). He also points out that evil people are the people
of the lie, "deceiving others as they also build layer upon
layer of self-deception" (p.66).
This fear of self-exposure drives people into
relativism, mysticism, and legalism. Often they find themselves
confronted with intense experiences and "counterfeit gods"
so compelling that they become convinced that they are on the right
track. When this happens, they fall helplessly into the clutches of
that self-deluded serpent who is masquerading as the source of truth.
Being deceitful in nature, Satan always uses a
disguise. Paul warns us that Satan transforms himself into an angel
of light (2 Cor. 11:14). This is necessarily so, since anyone would
flee from him if they sensed his true nature. A master of disguise,
Satan appears in many forms to conceal the truth of the incarnation.
The New Age movement gives us many examples of
how this happens. While it denies the reality of a separate creator
and claims a form of deity for man, this current cosmic charade is
replete with accounts of encounters with "guides,"
"spirits," "entities," and figures from pagan
mythology. Carlos Castenada's books on Yacqui Sorcery contain
hair-raising accounts of his meetings with demonic figures. Shirley
MacLaine's popularization of the practices of "channeling"
and "astral projection" is just a resurfacing of occultic
practices that have long been widespread. Carl Jung, the brilliant
founder of the Jungian School of Psychology, was noted for his occult
interests. While he vehemently denied the truth of the incarnation,
he embraced the theory of reincarnation on the authority of figures
who spoke to him in his visions and dreams.
Satan's kingdom works through sinister figures
like the Nazi leaders (all of whom were deeply involved with
occultism). But he also deceives people through innocent-appearing
means. Reports that the wife of an American president relied on
astrology for advice on important decisions are deeply disturbing.
The kingdom of darkness also tempts us with many things that are not
evil in themselves. Wealth, property, fame, power, family, friends,
science, art, and even religion can become false gods if they
distract us from an understanding of our loving Creator as He has
revealed Himself in Christ.
When we believe what God says in His Word
about Christ, we will be delivered from doubt about His goodness. We
will also be freed from the fear that He in His holiness will condemn
us. Instead of trying to flee from Him into philosophies that deny
His existence, we can approach Him. We can be realistic about our
sinfulness and yet be confident in His forgiving grace.
Curtis
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