The very first recorded words out of Satan’s mouth set the tone for the rest of history: “Did God indeed say. . . ?”
Never terribly subtle, his meaning is perfectly clear: “Really?!”
Did God say that? – Are you sure you understood it correctly?
Did God say that? – It was actually your imagination, wasn’t it?
Did God say that? – He said that? Huh! Wow! That’s pretty bad!
It’s genius! Because their aims are polar opposites, the best way for Satan to get people to trust him was to make them doubt God.
From the very beginning Satan’s goal has been to put doubt on the Word of God. It was true then, and it’s no different today. Consider the modern attitude regarding God’s Word.
Based on a presupposition that the Bible is not true, skeptics go on to deny that it could be true. Yes, I typed that right. The argument is essentially, it can’t be true so we know it’s not true. The trouble is, that argument is no different than my wife's famous "Stinky Pillow" logic which ran thus:
Her: Your pillow stinks.
Me: How do you know it's my pillow that stinks? (Our pilows were identical.)
Her: Because your pillow is the stinky one.
The problem was she had a presupposition about my stinkiness (which may or may not have been accurate).
Definition Break: What exactly is a presupposition? It's something you assume to be true based on feelings not facts. And presuppositions are often used as the foundation for other opinions, which are then likely to not be true either. For example, if I have a presupposition that the plus sign ("+") means "take away", then no matter how good I am at math my answer to almost every problem will be wrong.
So, with the presupposition that the Bible cannot be true (remember, this is their starting place and everything else builds on it) skeptics construct these leaning towers of logic.
The Bible is only spiritually true (Did God say that?)
This argument confuses Scripture:
It denies the clear meaning of many passages
It denies God the authority to speak plainly
It gives humans the false authority to explain what God "really means”
The Bible is not in any way true (Did God say that?)
This argument minimalizes Scripture:
At the best it’s just fairy tales and myths
At the worst, it’s all lies and fabrications
Either way, it’s a human creation and fully ignorable
The Bible is a barbaric document (Did God say that?)
This argument despises Scripture:
It's full of primitive, ignorant & brutal concepts
It's not worthy of the enlightened modern world
Only fools take it seriously
What began in the Garden continues today, and the goals are exactly the same:
1) to make you doubt God and His promises,
2) to undermine your faith, and
3) to leave you in darkness, without God and without hope.
