Genesis 3:1-4 Corrupting God’s Word CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

The devil showed up to destroy the beautiful earth and creatures that God had made. He appeared as a serpent, the subtlest beast (Rev. 12:9), which didn’t look like a snake until after it was cursed (Gen. 3:14). The only weapon that he used to cause Eve to sin was his mouth. As God only had to speak to create the heaven and earth, the devil only had to speak to destroy it.

He used subtlety to deceive Eve (2 Cor. 11:3). The word subtle means, “So slight as to be difficult to detect or analyze; elusive.” (American Heritage Dictionary). Very cleverly, the devil caused Eve to doubt what God had said. Then they committed four more sins against God’s words. The devil still uses this exact method today to attack God’s words; just check out a modern bible.

DOUBT

The devil asked, “Yea, hath God said…?” Since faith comes from the word of God (Rom 10:17), if the devil can get a man to doubt God’s words, he can destroy his faith. Doubt is the opposite of faith (Matt. 14:31; 21:21). In the NIV, for example, we see that doubt is raised by such words as “The earliest and most reliable manuscripts and other ancient witnesses do not have Jn. 7:53-8:11.” This is just one of many examples of how the devil gets men to ask, “Is that really what God said?”

SUBTRACTION

Eve said, “We may eat of the fruit…” She left out the most important word, “freely” (Gen. 2:16). Compare Rev. 21:6 and 22:17 for the importance of that word. There are commands in the Bible against subtracting from God’s words (Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:19). Yet the NIV leaves out 18 whole or partial verses and over 64,000 words. Check Acts 8:37 and 1 Jn. 5:7 for just 2 examples.

ADDITION

Eve then added, “neither shall ye touch it” to what God had said (Gen. 2:17). There are specific prohibitions against adding to God’s words (Prov. 30:5-6; Rev. 22:18; Deut. 4:2). The NIV adds, “godliness is a means of financial gain,” and “a root of all kinds of evil,” in 1 Tim. 6:5,10, thus limiting what God said. These are just 2 examples of many.

CHANGE

Then Eve changed “… thou shalt surely die,” (Gen. 2:17) to “… lest ye die,” thus, denying the severity of God. The NIV makes thousands of changes. One example is in Acts 7:45, where “Jesus” is changed to “Joshua” when every Greek manuscript has “Iesous” in the text. 

LIE

Finally, the devil lied to Eve, “Thou shalt not surely die.” Following all of this, she was “ripe for the picking.” Professors and preachers are excellent at passing off lies (1 Ki. 13:18) with modern bibles. The NIV, for example, blatantly lies about Goliath’s killer in 2 Sam. 21:19. Supposedly, according to the NIV, Elhanan killed him. That’s a lie.