The Oldest Trick in the Book
- The Wholy Christian
- Jan 16
- 17 min read
Why the First Lie Still Shapes Modern Spirituality
There are lies that come and go, and then there are lies that don’t need to change much because they keep working. They just swap outfits. They learn new vocabulary. They show up with better branding.
And if you zoom out far enough, you’ll notice something sobering: one of the most popular spiritual ideas in the modern world isn’t new at all. It’s ancient. It’s not fresh revelation. It’s recycled temptation.
It’s the oldest trick in the book.
The idea that you are god.
The idea that you can become like God.
The idea that ultimate truth is inside you.
The idea that you don’t need to submit to the Creator, because you are the creator of your reality.
It’s everywhere right now. It’s in “manifestation.” It’s in “the universe told me.” It’s in “my truth.” It’s in “I’m divine.” It’s in “God is within you” (meaning you are your own authority). It’s in “we are all gods.”
And Scripture doesn’t treat that idea as harmless. It treats it as the original deception.
📜 Genesis 3:5
“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
That line isn’t just a moment in a story. It’s a blueprint. It’s the seed of every worldview that tries to crown the self.
So if we’re going to talk about the oldest trick in the book, we’ve got to do what the Bible does: slow down, look at the whole scene, and understand what was actually being offered, what was actually lost, and why the same lie is still so effective today.
The Garden Wasn’t a Fairy Tale Setting, It Was a Throne Room
Genesis 1 and 2 aren’t written as mythology. They’re written as beginnings. They establish categories that everything else depends on: God is God, creation is creation, humans are not the Creator, and life works when the Creator defines reality.
Before the serpent ever speaks, God has already spoken. He creates. He defines. He blesses. He commands. That matters because deception almost always starts by trying to compete with God’s Word.
And right away, Scripture gives humans both dignity and limits.
📜 Genesis 1:27
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Humans are made in God’s image. That’s massive. It means human life has value that nothing in the material world can explain. You don’t have worth because you’re impressive. You have worth because you reflect the One who is.
But being made in His image is not the same as being His equal.
There’s also a command, and the command isn’t cruel. It’s clarity. It’s God teaching His image-bearers how reality is structured: God is the source of life, and obedience is the path of life.
📜 Genesis 2:16–17
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”
Notice the generosity: “every tree… you may surely eat.” The boundary is not stingy. It’s one tree. The limit isn’t oppression; it’s protection. God isn’t trying to keep them small. He’s keeping them alive.
So the garden isn’t just a pretty place. It’s a sacred place where God’s authority is clear, His provision is abundant, and His presence is near.
That’s why the serpent’s strategy matters so much. He doesn’t need to tempt them with ugliness. He tempts them with a different story about God.
The Serpent’s First Move Wasn’t a Claim, It Was a Question
If you want to understand how deception works, pay attention to the opening line. It’s not a lecture. It’s not a direct attack. It’s a question that bends reality just enough to make God look suspicious.
📜 Genesis 3:1
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”?’”
That’s not what God said. God said they could eat of every tree except one. The serpent takes a generous command and makes it sound restrictive.
This is one of the enemy’s favorite moves: exaggerate God’s boundaries until they feel unreasonable. If he can make God look harsh, then disobedience starts to feel justified.
Eve responds, and she mostly repeats God’s command, but you can already see the friction.
📜 Genesis 3:2–3
“And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”’”
God didn’t say “neither shall you touch it.” That addition might seem small, but it matters because it shows the command is already becoming fuzzy. Deception loves fuzziness. Once God’s Word gets blurry, the heart starts negotiating.
Then the serpent goes from bending to denying.
📜 Genesis 3:4
“But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.’”
That’s a direct contradiction of God’s Word. And notice what just happened: two voices have spoken. God said one thing. The serpent said the opposite. The rest of the story is about which voice they’ll treat as authority.
And then we get the temptation itself.
The Oldest Trick In the Book: “You’ll Be Like God”
The serpent’s promise isn’t primarily about fruit. It’s about status. It’s about authority. It’s about becoming something you were never designed to be.
📜 Genesis 3:5
“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
There are two layers to this temptation.
First, it accuses God’s motives: “God knows…” The implication is that God is keeping something from you. He’s withholding. He’s threatened. He’s limiting you.
Second, it offers independence: “you will be like God.” Not by walking with Him, but by stepping out from under Him.
And the phrase “knowing good and evil” is not just about becoming smarter. In the Bible, good and evil are moral categories that God defines. If you “know” good and evil in the way the serpent is selling it, you don’t just perceive morality. You claim the right to decide morality.
That’s why this is the oldest trick. The lie isn’t simply “sin is fun.” The deeper lie is “you should be the one who decides what sin is.”
And if you’re thinking, “That sounds exactly like today,” you’re not imagining it.
When people say “my truth,” what they often mean is “my authority.”
When people say “I decide what’s right for me,” what they often mean is “I decide what’s right.”
When people say “don’t judge me,” what they often mean is “don’t apply any moral standard outside of my feelings.”
That’s Genesis 3 in modern clothing.
What They Actually Got Wasn’t Enlightenment, It Was Shame
The temptation promised opened eyes. And their eyes did open. But not the way they expected.
📜 Genesis 3:7
“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”
Their first “spiritual awakening” produced shame.
Not peace.
Not power.
Not clarity.
Not union with God.
Shame, scrambling, and covering.
Then they hide.
📜 Genesis 3:8
“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
This is one of the most revealing verses in Scripture. The presence of God used to be joy. Now it’s terror. That’s what sin does. It doesn’t just break rules; it breaks relationship.
And when God calls out, Adam’s response shows what entered the human experience.
📜 Genesis 3:10
“And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’”
Fear enters where trust used to live.
And then blame enters where unity used to live.
📜 Genesis 3:12
“The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’”
It’s not just “she did it.” It’s “the woman you gave me.” That’s a jab at God’s goodness. The lie is already working its way deeper: God is the problem.
This is why the oldest trick is so destructive. It doesn’t just tempt you to do something wrong. It tempts you to redefine God as the obstacle and self as the authority.
The Bible’s Diagnosis of the Human Heart Explains the Modern Moment
If someone tells you, “Just follow your heart,” Scripture doesn’t nod along. Scripture warns you.
That’s not because God hates you. It’s because God knows the condition of the fallen human heart. The heart isn’t a neutral compass. It’s not a clean oracle. It’s a mixed, messy, self-justifying place that needs redemption.
📜 Jeremiah 17:9
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
That verse is not saying you have no emotions or desires worth anything. It’s saying your inner life is not a trustworthy replacement for God’s Word.
And Scripture repeats the point in another way.
📜 Proverbs 14:12
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”
That’s a terrifying verse because it tells you something about sincerity: you can be sincere and still be wrong. You can feel peace and still be deceived. You can be confident and still be headed toward death.
So when modern spirituality says, “Your inner voice is your highest guide,” the Bible says, “That’s exactly how people get lost.”
And it’s not theoretical. It plays out every day.
People “follow their truth” into broken families.
People “follow their heart” into addiction.
People “manifest” their desires into obsession.
People chase “self-love” into self-worship.
And then they’re shocked that they don’t feel free. Because the oldest trick never delivers what it sells.
“You Are Divine” Is Just Genesis 3 With Better Marketing
A lot of modern spirituality can be summarized like this: you are not a sinner who needs a Savior; you are a god who needs to awaken.
That message sounds empowering, but it requires you to ignore the entire biblical storyline.
The Bible doesn’t say humans are basically divine and slightly confused. It says humans are created, fallen, and unable to rescue themselves.
📜 Romans 3:10–12
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
That’s not an insult. That’s a diagnosis. It’s God telling the truth about our condition so we’ll stop chasing fake solutions.
And it gets even more personal:
📜 Romans 3:23
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
If we are “all gods,” the cross makes no sense. If we’re divine, why would God the Son take on flesh, suffer, and die? Why would resurrection be necessary? Why would forgiveness be a gift?
The gospel only makes sense if the Bible is telling the truth about us: we are not gods. We are sinners in need of grace.
The Bible Does Teach God Dwells in Believers, But It Doesn’t Mean What People Think It Means
This is where a lot of confusion happens, and it’s worth slowing down because we don’t want to strawman anybody. Some people say “God is within you” and mean it in a vaguely encouraging way. But others mean something very specific: that you are divine, that God is an impersonal force inside you, and that your inner voice is basically God talking.
Scripture is clear that God indwells believers, but it frames that truth in a way that destroys self-deification.
📜 1 Corinthians 6:19–20
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
The Spirit within you does not mean you are God. It means God owns you. You are not your own. That’s the opposite of the serpent’s message.
And the Spirit’s indwelling is not universal in the way modern spirituality often claims. The New Testament ties the gift of the Spirit to belonging to Christ.
📜 Romans 8:9
“Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”
So the Bible isn’t saying, “Every human has divinity within.” It’s saying, “Those who are in Christ are given His Spirit as a gift of adoption and transformation.”
And what does that indwelling produce? Not self-worship. It produces worship of God and growing holiness.
📜 Galatians 5:22–23
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
The Spirit doesn’t come to crown your ego. He comes to crucify your flesh.
📜 Galatians 5:24
“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
That’s not “discover your inner god.” That’s “put your old self to death.”
The Bible’s Vision Is Adoption, Not Apotheosis
One reason the “we are gods” lie feels attractive is because people want closeness with God. They want meaning. They want identity. They want to be more than random matter in a cold universe.
The Bible offers all of that, but not through self-deification. Through adoption.
📜 Ephesians 1:5
“He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”
Adoption means you become a child of God, not God. It means you belong, not that you rule. It means you’re brought in by grace, not that you rise by inner power.
And adoption leads to intimacy, not independence.
📜 Romans 8:15–16
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
That’s the real “God is near” story. It’s not “God is me.” It’s “God is my Father through Christ.” That’s better. It’s holy and secure and real.
“Knowing Good and Evil” Shows Up Today as Moral Self-Definition
Let’s connect this directly to modern life, because people need to see how Genesis 3 isn’t just ancient history.
When the serpent says, “you’ll be like God, knowing good and evil,” he’s offering the right to define morality from the self outward. And you can see that exact move everywhere.
People don’t just say, “I did something wrong.” They say, “Who’s to say it’s wrong?”
They don’t just say, “I’m struggling.” They say, “This is who I am.”
They don’t just say, “I disagree.” They say, “Truth is relative.”
The Bible speaks directly to this human impulse.
📜 Judges 21:25
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
That verse is not describing freedom. It’s describing collapse. The book of Judges is basically a spiral of “doing what’s right in your own eyes” turning into violence, corruption, exploitation, and devastation.
And Isaiah gives a warning that fits our time almost too well.
📜 Isaiah 5:20
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
When humans claim the right to redefine good and evil, everything flips. And it always feels moral while it’s happening. That’s the scary part. People don’t usually say, “I want darkness.” They say, “This is light.” That’s exactly what Isaiah is warning about.
The Enemy Still Uses the Same Tactics: Twist God’s Word, Then Sell Autonomy
If you want to recognize deception when it shows up today, Scripture gives you a clear pattern to look for. Genesis 3 isn’t just the story of the fall. It’s a case study in how deception works.
The tactic hasn’t changed. The language might. The packaging might. But the steps are the same.
First, question God’s Word.
Second, deny God’s warning.
Third, accuse God’s motives.
Fourth, promise independence and elevation.
That pattern didn’t stay in Eden. The New Testament explicitly warns that the same strategy is still being used.
📜 2 Corinthians 11:3
“But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”
Paul isn’t treating Genesis as ancient history with no present relevance. He’s warning believers that the serpent’s deception is ongoing and that the battleground is the mind. The goal isn’t always outright rebellion. Often, it’s distraction, distortion, and gradual drift away from devotion to Christ.
Deception rarely begins with “God is wrong.” It usually begins with “Did God really mean that?” or “Is that really what God wants for you?” The enemy still twists God’s Word just enough to make autonomy feel reasonable.
That’s why Scripture is careful to ground human worth in God’s creative work, not in self-exaltation.
📜 Psalm 139:14
“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”
This verse is often quoted, but it’s frequently misunderstood. It does not say you are wonderful because you are divine. It says you are wonderful because God’s works are wonderful. The praise is directed upward, not inward.
Your value is real, but it is derivative, not inherent. It flows from the Creator to the creation, not from the self outward. Scripture celebrates human worth while simultaneously refusing to blur the line between God and humanity.
And that distinction is reinforced clearly and simply elsewhere.
📜 Psalm 100:3
“Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”
That verse is gentle, but it’s also corrective. It draws a clear line between Creator and creature. God is God. We are His. Identity flows from belonging, not from autonomy. Worth comes from being made and known by God, not from self-definition.
This is exactly where modern spirituality quietly flips the story.
Instead of saying, “I belong to God,” it says, “God belongs to me.”
Instead of “I was made,” it says, “I self-create.”
Instead of “I submit,” it says, “I manifest.”
What looks like empowerment is actually the resurrection of the original temptation. It’s autonomy dressed up as enlightenment.
And Scripture consistently warns that when humans attempt to take God’s place, things don’t improve. They fracture.
📜 Isaiah 42:8
“I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”
This verse isn’t limited to statues or ancient pagan worship. It’s about glory and authority. God does not share His divine status, His moral authority, or His ultimate sovereignty. When humans claim those things for themselves, they aren’t evolving spiritually. They’re repeating the oldest mistake in the book.
The serpent’s offer was never harmless. And it still isn’t.
Pride Isn’t Just a Sin, It’s the Soil the Lie Grows In
If you want to know why the oldest trick keeps working, Scripture gives a blunt answer: pride.
Pride isn’t just arrogance. It’s self-exaltation. It’s the instinct to place yourself at the center. And it’s woven into the original temptation.
📜 Proverbs 16:18
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
That verse isn’t poetic exaggeration. It’s descriptive. Pride always leads somewhere, and that somewhere is destruction. It might take time. It might feel empowering at first. But it never ends in life.
Paul describes the same dynamic in Romans when he talks about humanity rejecting God’s authority.
📜 Romans 1:21–22
“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.”
That phrase “claiming to be wise” should stop us. This isn’t ignorance. It’s confidence. It’s the belief that we see clearly enough to replace God. That’s Genesis 3 again. Wisdom without submission turns into darkness, not light.
Paul keeps going and makes the connection explicit.
📜 Romans 1:23
“and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”
That exchange still happens today, even if the images aren’t carved statues. Sometimes the image is the self. Sometimes it’s desire. Sometimes it’s identity. Sometimes it’s emotion. But the trade is the same: God’s glory exchanged for something created.
And when that exchange happens, Scripture says God allows people to experience the consequences of their choice.
📜 Romans 1:24–25
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”
That phrase “the truth about God for a lie” is crucial. There is a specific lie in view. It’s the lie that creation can take the place of the Creator. That the creature can be central. That’s the oldest trick in the book playing out on a cultural scale.
Why Autonomy Feels Like Freedom But Produces Slavery
One of the reasons modern self-centered spirituality is so convincing is because autonomy feels like freedom. At first.
If I decide what’s right, no one can correct me.
If I define truth, no one can confront me.
If I’m my own authority, I don’t have to answer to anyone.
That feels liberating. But Scripture consistently shows that autonomy doesn’t free us. It enslaves us.
Jesus Himself addressed this directly.
📜 John 8:34
“Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”
That’s not how sin markets itself. Sin promises control. It promises empowerment. It promises choice. But Jesus tells the truth: when you reject God’s authority, you don’t become free. You just come under a different master.
And the Bible is clear that there are only two options.
📜 Romans 6:16
“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?”
The serpent sold independence. God offers freedom through obedience. Those sound opposite to modern ears, but Scripture insists they’re not.
📝 True freedom isn’t the absence of authority. It’s being under the right authority.
Jesus Didn’t Affirm the Lie, He Exposed It
If the “you are divine” idea were true, Jesus would have reinforced it. He didn’t.
Jesus consistently confronted human pride, self-reliance, and self-exaltation. And He did it without cruelty, but also without compromise.
📜 Matthew 16:24
“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’”
That command makes no sense if the self is divine. You don’t deny God. You don’t crucify God. You don’t submit God to anyone. But Jesus says the path to life begins with self-denial.
He goes further.
📜 Matthew 23:12
“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
That’s the opposite of the serpent’s promise. The serpent said, “Exalt yourself and you’ll rise.” Jesus says, “Exalt yourself and you’ll fall.”
And when Jesus talks about truth, He never points people inward.
📜 John 14:6
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
Truth isn’t discovered by self-exploration. It’s revealed in a Person. That alone dismantles the core claim of modern self-deifying spirituality.
Salvation Is Not Self-Realization, It’s Rescue
A lot of contemporary spiritual language frames salvation as awakening. As remembering who you “really are.” As unlocking your hidden power.
The Bible frames salvation as rescue.
📜 Colossians 1:13–14
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Delivered. Transferred. Redeemed. Forgiven.
Those are not words you use for someone discovering their own divinity. Those are words you use for someone who was trapped and needed help from outside themselves.
And Paul makes the source of salvation explicit.
📜 Ephesians 2:8–9
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
If salvation were self-activation, there would be room for boasting. But grace removes boasting entirely. You didn’t climb. You were carried.
📝 The gospel humbles us because it tells the truth about us and the truth about God at the same time.
Adoption, Not Ascension, Is God’s Plan for Humanity
The Bible’s answer to the human desire for closeness with God is not “become God.” It’s “become His child.”
📜 John 1:12–13
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Children don’t rule the household. They belong in it. They’re loved. They’re protected. They’re disciplined. They grow under authority, not above it.
And that’s the relationship God offers.
📜 2 Corinthians 6:18
“And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
That’s intimacy without idolatry. Nearness without replacing God. Love without rebellion.
The Oldest Trick Always Ends the Same Way
Genesis 3 didn’t just introduce sin. It introduced a pattern. Every time humans reach for God’s role, the result is fragmentation.
Confusion replaces clarity.
Shame replaces peace.
Control replaces trust.
Fear replaces joy.
And Scripture doesn’t hide that outcome.
📜 James 3:15–16
“This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”
That’s what self-exalting “wisdom” produces. Disorder. Not harmony. Not enlightenment.
By contrast, God’s wisdom looks very different.
📜 James 3:17
“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.”
Notice where it comes from: above, not within.
Final Thought
The oldest trick in the book is still being used because it still flatters the human heart. It tells us we’re enough. That we’re central. That we’re sovereign.
But Scripture tells a better story.
You are not God. And that’s not an insult. It’s a relief.
You don’t have to carry the weight of defining reality.
You don’t have to create your own truth.
You don’t have to save yourself.
You were made to know God, trust God, and walk with God.
The serpent promised elevation.
God offers redemption.
Ask Yourself:
Where do I feel the pull to define truth or morality for myself rather than submitting to God’s Word?
What modern ideas have I absorbed that sound spiritual but subtly replace God’s authority?
How does recognizing myself as a created, redeemed child of God change how I live?
Join the Discussion:
Which modern beliefs most clearly echo the original temptation in Genesis 3, and how can Christians address them with both clarity and compassion?
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