The Oldest Lie

Perhaps you’ve heard someone say, “That’s the oldest lie in the book.” Can you guess where this expression comes from? Most likely, it refers back to the third chapter of Genesis, where the serpent (a.k.a. Satan) tries to convince Eve that what God promised won’t come to pass.

But God’s Word is true. He was serious when He told Adam, in Genesis 2:16, 17, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 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.” Satan’s lies, found in those first verses of Genesis 3, really are “the oldest lie in the book”—that is, in the Bible.

Yet today, millions and millions of people believe the same thing. They imagine that they can sin and not face eternal death, but rather some kind of continuous life that won’t be all that bad. Inconvenient, sure, but we’ll have plenty of friends in “that other place” to keep us company.

No. A thousand times, no! Only God is immortal. Ever since the first pair believed the lie in Genesis 3, humankind’s immortality—conditioned on accepting, obeying, and following God—was revoked. The fate of those who do not accept Christ, who reject Him and the salvation He offers, will be a permanent, unconscious, eternal separation from God; it will be a true and lasting death, delivered at the judgment seat of Christ.

And between the time our earthly life ends and that final judgment begins, there is, well, nothing. Ecclesiastes 9:5 is unambiguous: “The living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.”

We are not immortal beings—not, that is, without Christ’s sacrifice being received by us as our way to salvation and eternal life. Any other notion is just the oldest lie in the book being repeated.

Apply It:

Be sure to carefully examine what the Bible says about mortal life, eternal life, and what we can expect without Christ—and what awaits those who trust Him!

Dig Deeper:

1 Timothy 6:16; Job 14:2; Colossians 1:16, 17

Key Bible Texts

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: (Genesis 3:4 KJV)