HATH GOD SAID?

By Jeannette Haley

“Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of

 every tree of the garden?” – Genesis 3:1b

The unmistakable hiss of that old serpent, Satan, can still be heard covering the whole earth, yet every generation of mankind automatically listens to his flood of unceasing lies. Few ever stop to think, discern or pray about the barrage of falsehoods that are behind everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of the Most High God and His Word. Instead, like sheep going to the slaughter, most of us have a natural tendency to believe everything that can be seen or heard as being true. Few ever stop long enough to “listen” with “spiritual ears” and “see” with “spiritual eyes” to consider that just perhaps that beguiling “hiss” behind it is a lie. 

When we are young and innocent, we start out believing everything we are told, but soon enough we learn that, even though we may have been soundly taught (as I was) to never lie, we find it difficult to believe that other people do lie. Then, as we go through life, the great river of lies that Satan spews over the world seeks to draw us deeper into the dark undertow of it’s current. Tragically, for the multitudes entrapped by the enticements, lusts and lies of the world, it all seems to be perfectly normal. In other words, to those who are spiritually deaf and blind, believing lies, deceptions, and cleverly contrived tales is not darkness, but “light.” In 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4 it says “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” 

This is where we find ourselves today. We are living in a world that has embraced so many lies from the deceiver that those who are lost and believe not despise the remnant that believes, loves and shines with the light of Truth and Life that exposes the works of darkness. John 3:19 tells us that “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”  We read in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 of the false light, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”   

These so-called “ministers of righteousness” can be compared to insidious parasites and leaches in the Body of Christ who worm their way in through any weak, worldly, wanton or unwatched opening they can find, and then patiently and methodically “transform themselves” into something that may sound or look “real” but in truth they are “ministers” of Satan. You don’t have to look far to find them; after all, at the flip of a switch or button, click of your mouse, or tap of just one finger and you can hear and see any one of the numberless false “apostles,” false “prophets,” false “Bible teachers,” or false “preachers of the Word” wresting the truth of God’s Words with the promise of some new revelation, new prophetic word, new understanding of a “mystery” that’s been “hidden from the church,” or some new vision of “what God wants you to know” and so forth. All these hissing enticements originate with the first question found in the Bible, “Hath God said?” (Or, does God ‘really mean’ what He says?)

Christians need to keep in mind that Satan knows what God has said, and he knows it well. He also knows how to cause doubt and confusion concerning what God has said by misquoting the Word, speaking half-truths, re-interpreting what God’s Words mean, taking verses out of context, along with asking clever questions in order to throw a “shadow of doubt” on God’s Word so as to cause confusion, weaken our faith and alter our knowledge or perception of God and destroy our faith, hope and love for Him. Satan is forever working to be believed, worshipped and adored. Never forget that his goal is to be as God, see Psalm 2, Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:12-19. 

“Hath God said?” worked in the beginning, it’s worked through the ages, and it’s working in these latter days. The cults use it to trip up undiscerning and undiscipled people, such as, for example, some of the following (keep in mind that Jesus is God Incarnate): “Has God said that Christians do not have to keep the Sabbath?” “Has God really said that Jesus is the only “way, truth and life?” “Has God really said that tithing is only for the Levitical Priesthood?” “Has God said that we must repent to be saved?” “Has God said, “the soul that sinneth, it shall die?’” “Has God said that hell is real?” “Has God said that in the last days there will be false prophets?” “Has God said that the way to life is narrow, and few find it?” “Has God said we must be holy as He is holy?” “Has God said that man must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God?” “Has God said that you’re foolish if you try to go back under the Law?” This could apply to the entire Bible, from cover to cover. Unstable and skeptical people can easily fall into the enemy’s pit of doubt because their curiosity, desire for extrabiblical “knowledge,” craving for power makes them feel “special” and “superior” and fulfills a desire for independence from sound doctrine. Bottom line, they want to become a god, even if it’s just a “little god of their own life.” No wonder Jesus asked in Luke 18:8b, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” 

Casting doubt upon the Word of God, and what it tells us about God Almighty is the first spark of false light a deceitful worker puts forth, and it works upon the unwary just as successfully as Satan’s question to Eve which created doubt on God and His Word. The great lie, “Hath God said?” has cast a vail over all the world, but praise the Lord, He is coming to remove it as we read in Isaiah 25:7, “And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations”. 

Many are beginning to see, in spite of this evil covering, the lies that have been ever so cleverly crafted and “fed” to unsuspecting humanity.

Because this evil covering is fabricated from lies, the mighty weapon of truth helps to dispel them and set us free. God has always had a remnant, and today there is a scattered remnant of people who know, love and live in the light of truth and who are trying to preach the truth to others. The battle for truth is great because of the vastness of the evil covering that involves not only cleverly crafted lies concerning matters of the soul and spirit of man, but the physical body as well. All of our major Babylonian global institutions are made up of religion, economics, and government which are rapidly becoming condensed into a one-world control system as the Bible foretells. Satan is the master deceiver and planner, but those who know their God, and know Jesus Christ, and who are filled with the Holy Spirit and know the Word will overcome. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” Revelation 12:11. Please note that “overcoming” doesn’t necessarily mean that a person will be spared a martyr’s death. It does mean standing firm in the faith “once delivered to the saints” (see Jude 3). The Apostle Paul said, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” Philippians 1:21; “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” 2 Corinthians 5:8; “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”  

Satan doesn’t stop with asking if God really said something, or if He really means it, but, just as he did with Eve in the Garden, Jesus in the wilderness, and others, he likes to spread his lies through much verbiage. Today we hear his “hiss” in the myriad of false prophets, heretics, Gnostics, workers of iniquity, satanists, witches, and mediums, along with different religions and cults (many of which wave their version of the Bible and pose as being “Christians.”) Paul warned, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him” 2 Corinthians 11:3, 4.    

We need to seriously heed the words of Jesus who said to the Pharisees, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of I” John 8:44. The question is, how can we tell the difference between a lie and the truth? How do you know that the person you meet on the Internet, or Facebook, or listen to on YouTube, or watch on TV, or whose “inspirations” or “insights” in popular books, or who “prophecies” daily on their website, or the “great teacher” you send money to for their “Bible lessons,” or the guest speakers at your church, group or retreat are telling the truth? How do you know if that sought-after motivational speaker that gives you the warm fuzzies from head to toe has the right spirit? 

Let me just say, if you are not familiar with the whole counsel of the Word of God and if you have not diligently studied the Bible for yourself, praying to the Holy Ghost for discernment, wisdom and understanding, and if you are not skilled in using the Word which is the “sword of the Spirit” against the lies of the enemy, then you are as vulnerable as a newborn lamb in the midst of a pack of hungry wolves. “For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe” Hebrews 5:13. Thus, when the stranger on your porch says, (in so many words) “Hath God said?” will you be able to stand, withstand, and continue to stand on the truth? The Holy Bible is God’s most precious, priceless letter to each and every one of us, and it is what Satan, demons and evil spirits fear. God’s Word will never pass away, even though heaven and earth will. (See Matthew 24:35.) Always keep in mind that Jesus overcame the temptation of Satan in the wilderness by quoting the Word of God. Your Bible is the most valuable and wonderful thing you have because it is the written Word of God, and the truth. If it was not so, then why have popes, kings and dictators, despots, and tyrants, governments and educators through the centuries worked so hard to destroy it? 

Because we live in the end times where there is much religious rhetoric, but very little life-sustaining “meat” of the Word, it is up to each one of us to read, study and search the Scriptures for ourselves, praying that the Holy Spirit will reveal Jesus Christ and God’s will for us in every book, chapter, and verse, because our very lives and eternal welfare depends on it.