Chapter 1: Revealing the Oldest Trick in the Book
From the very beginning, people have been tricked by a lie so subtle that it’s still deceiving some of the most devoted followers of God today. It is literally the oldest trick in the book, and sadly, it keeps working again and again.
What was the serpent’s original lie? And why does it still matter now?
The Bible clearly portrays the Fall in the Garden as not only the first, but arguably the most devastating event in all of human and creation history.
That one lie in the Garden had an irrefutable and massive impact on all of humanity; therefore, it deserves serious attention.
Adam and Eve were created in God’s image and placed in a world they were meant to steward—a creation God Himself called “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Before there were nations, covenants, or religious systems—even before temptation—they were God’s people. And yet, they were still vulnerable to deception. That’s why we’ll focus on God’s people: because even those whom God called “very good” were not immune to the serpent’s tactics. If they could fall, how much more should we be watchful? It’s the height of pride to think it couldn’t happen to us.
Some people miss the meaning of John 1:11, which says, “He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him.” At some point, some of His own rejected Him, and when they did, they stopped being His people. In rejecting Him, they left off serving God and chose instead to follow another master. This kind of rejection isn’t new—it goes back to God’s first command about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
“Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, ‘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 of it; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.’” (Genesis 2:16–17)
But the serpent came in with a different message, one that challenged both God’s authority and the truth itself:
“The serpent said to the woman, ‘You won’t surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (Genesis 3:4–5)
The serpent’s lie had two major parts, and they’ve kept showing up in different ways throughout history:
• He got Eve to believe she could decide right and wrong for herself—independently of God. (Notice that she didn’t stop to ask God what He thought.)
• He led her to believe that defining right and wrong for herself would make her more like God—rather than simply following the commands He had already given.
This temptation may not have been as far-fetched to her as we may think. If we assume the serpent was tempting Eve to become a God in the fullest sense, we miss something important—Eve knew she was created, new to life, and didn’t have much experience. So it’s silly to think she believed she could become eternal or all-knowing.
But the temptation makes more sense when we consider God’s mandate to Adam and Eve. He told them to be fruitful, multiply, and take dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:28), placing them in charge of creation and tasking Adam with its care (Genesis 2:15). With that responsibility, perhaps Eve believed that knowing good and evil was part of their role. How could they rule if they didn’t know right from wrong? Maybe she thought God had left them with a big job but hadn’t yet given them all the tools—like it was up to them to figure out their own moral code.
That idea—that God’s Word isn’t complete and needs human improvement—isn’t just an assumption. It’s something we can discern clearly when we look back on that event through the lens of history, because the same attitude has shown up time and again among God’s people. James tells us we are tempted when our own desires lure us away (James 1:14), and in Eve’s case, that desire may have been to rise to a challenge she believed God had left unfinished. That’s the heart of the deception: the serpent made it seem like God’s instructions were lacking, and that stepping in to “complete” them was an act of faithfulness, not rebellion.
This same mindset later drove the Pharisees. Believing they were preserving God’s message, they added rules to the Law (Torah) of Moses—treating God’s Word as a foundation to be built upon. As Abraham Heschel noted, rabbinic tradition openly saw itself as expanding the Torah beyond what was given at Sinai. In their zeal, they acted as though God’s voice wasn’t quite enough—and that it was their job to fill in the gaps.
“The Rabbis maintained that ‘things not revealed to Moses were revealed to Rabbi Akiba and his colleagues.’ The role of the sages in interpreting the word of the Bible and their power to issue new ordinances are basic elements of Jewish belief, and something for which our sages found sanction in Deuteronomy 17:11. The Torah was compared to ‘a fountain which continually sends forth water, giving forth more than it absorbs. In the same sense, you can teach (or say) more Torah than you received at Sinai.’
“In their intention to inspire greater joy and love of God, the Rabbis expanded the scope of the law, imposing more and more restrictions and prohibitions. ‘There is no generation in which the Rabbis do not add to the law.’” —Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1983), 302–303.
Do you see how this reveals an attitude that treats God’s words as not quite enough, giving the so-called experts the sense that it’s their job to fill in the gaps? My proposition is that it’s the same type of tension that Eve was under when the serpent tempted her, and ever since then, it has been a common one for those feeling the call to leadership. It has proven to be an effective strategy for the adversary.
But Jesus exposed this attitude for what it was. He said to them:
6…“Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 8“For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.” 9He said to them, “Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition… 13making void the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down. You do many things like this.” (Mark 7:7-13)
And again:
“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
It was the lie in the Garden by which the devil indirectly committed murder. What was that original lie? That what God said wasn’t enough. That Eve didn’t know enough. That she needed to take control and finish what God started. The serpent was the original Pharisee—the original rabbi—who believed it was his job to fill in the gaps God’s word had supposedly left behind. I doubt many people have ever taught you that the serpent was the first Pharisee, but in this respect, it’s exactly true. The lie hasn’t changed—it just wears different robes in different generations.
Make no mistake: this was the mindset of the Pharisees, as even one of their own modern spokesmen admitted. They believed they had the authority to add what wasn’t given to Moses. Their experts introduced new teachings, gained respect, and reinforced their own power. In other words, they were, in their estimation, proving themselves worthy of the authority they had already assumed. It’s the same mindset: they claimed the right to be “like God” in the sense of defining good and evil on their own terms—while making it sound as though they were doing so with God’s approval. They would have denied making themselves equal to God—especially in the sense of becoming gods themselves—but they cloaked their supposed “likeness” to God in a presumed delegation: believing that God had left the details of good and evil to be defined by their own reason and supplication.
But was that the case? Of course not. Are we to believe they simply forgot what God Himself had commanded?
“You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you.” (Deuteronomy 4:2)
“Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.” (Deuteronomy 12:32)
Those commandments are as clear and straightforward as can be. In fact, they’re no more difficult to understand than this:
“16Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.’” (Genesis 2:16-17)
So what about the verse the Pharisees use to justify endlessly adding commandments to God’s law? Did that verse somehow override or cancel the clarity of Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32? Let’s read it for ourselves:
“According to the decisions of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do. You shall not turn away from the sentence which they announce to you, to the right hand, nor to the left.” (Deuteronomy 17:11)
Does this verse sound anywhere near as clear or absolute as the repeated command not to add to or take away from God’s word? Again, of course not.
While this verse does give legal weight to Israel’s appointed leaders, Scripture makes it equally clear that their duty was to uphold God’s law, not redefine it. As Paul wrote—speaking of what we’re calling the serpent’s playbook—“we are not ignorant of his schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11). And one of the enemy’s oldest tricks is convincing people that God’s commands need improvement—just enough to make room for their own way of thinking. And that is exactly what disobedience by subtlety looks like. If it were obvious, it wouldn’t be subtle, would it?
In passages like Malachi 2, God rebukes the priests for causing “many to stumble in the law” by turning from His ways and corrupting the covenant. And in Jeremiah 8, He exposes the scribes who claim to teach the law but twist it with the “false pen,” turning God’s truth into a lie. These leaders didn’t lack zeal—they lacked faithfulness to God’s actual words.
Today, we often confuse zeal with faithfulness, whether in ourselves or in those we consider experts—but they’re not the same. Yes, we are taught to respect faithful leaders, but we’re also commanded to beware of false teachers and prophets. The actions of the Pharisees—and the ongoing behavior of false teachers today—make it easy to see how the serpent could have appealed to Eve’s sense of zeal as well. He may have urged her to act out of a sense of purpose or duty, while leading her away from simple trust in God’s word.
Other passages, like Ezekiel 22 and Micah 3, show this pattern again and again: those who were meant to preserve God’s word began replacing it with their own understanding, and in doing so, they canceled out what God had already made clear. This helps us understand why that quote from Rabbi Heschel (above) directly contrasts what Jesus taught. What the rabbis saw as their effort to inspire more love for God, Jesus called ‘making God’s Word empty.’ Instead of adding value, it made worship pointless and hollow. And that is precisely what we must be sensitive to as well.
And by the way, did you catch what Rabbi Heschel said? “There is no generation in which the Rabbis do not add to the law.”
Isn’t it ironic that so many people say the Pharisees were sticklers for the law—yet the law explicitly says not to add to it or take away from it? And here they are, generation after generation, openly claiming the authority to do exactly that—in open defiance and disobedience! Even more shocking, they admit it as if they’re proud of it—even boasting!
But wait a minute—God is the one who determines what is good and evil. And He had already commanded these same Jews that adding to or subtracting from His words was evil. Imagine if this same rabbi had boasted that they had found a legal loophole—one that allowed them to justify adultery—and that they had expanded on that transgression with each new generation. Can you see how that would sound in the ears of God? Or in the ears of the serpent—knowing his playbook had once again replaced God’s standard?
So now, who’s right? The Jews who believed they had the authority to add to the law? Or the Christians who claim the Jews kept the law too strictly and still weren’t right with God—implying that being too careful to obey God’s Word doesn’t work?
That’s what a false dilemma looks like.
The real answer is Jesus. He clarified that the Pharisees did not keep the law—they just claimed to. In reality, they rejected it by treating it as if it wasn’t enough. They weren’t “sticklers” for God’s law—they despised it (Psalm 10:13) as it was, and that is why they kept replacing it with their own tweaks. But to justify adding their own traditions, they first had to negate the very commandment that told them not to add to or subtract from the words of the law.
And here’s where it gets serious: Christians today often make the very same mistake, just under the banner of grace. When they reject the commandments of Jesus under the assumption that obedience equals Old Testament legalism, they’re falling for the same old lying playbook. The problem isn’t that people were too committed to keeping God’s commands under the Old Covenant—and now, under the New, we’re free from all obedience. That’s not the picture Scripture gives. The real problem is thinking that any of God’s commandments under the New Covenant are optional. This is what justifies the so-called “experts” to come up with imaginary additions and subtractions to what the New Testament teaches, matching the same attitude they had in the Old Testament.
Do you see how that works? The Jews broke God’s Old Covenant by adding to it—treating it as if it were incomplete. And many Christians today break the New Covenant in the same way—by both adding to it and subtracting from it. They treat what Jesus and the apostles commanded as not quite enough and pile on things the Bible never commands at all. (We’ll get to those in due time.) In both cases, the core issue is the same: not trusting that God’s Word is sufficient.
A Recipe for Deception
The same kind of wrong thinking led early Christian leaders to create teachings that weren’t found in the Bible, but that they believed should have been—as if God’s message needed fixing or improving. This is how Paul’s “Big Three” falsehoods replaced the originals.
In every case, the outcome was the same: people replacing God’s truth with human ideas under the guise of anointed inspiration and direction.
These examples—the Pharisees, the rabbis, and early church leaders—all followed the serpent’s playbook, just like Eve did. That’s why Jesus called the Pharisees “children of the devil”—because they had accepted the same type of lie: that they could reinterpret God’s commandments to mean something other than what God spoke.
We can’t miss the pattern here: God’s people keep falling for a twisted version of the truth—one that puts human thinking above God’s Word. Sometimes it’s done without realizing it, sometimes with good intentions. But it always ends the same way: people start acting like they decide what’s right and wrong, instead of letting God do so and accepting His decrees.
This book is about uncovering that pattern—and showing how much damage these so-called “improvements” have done to the clear and simple truth God gave us, and to our ability to understand it.
Everything we’ve been unpacking so far helps us understand what’s happening in what I call…
The Serpent’s Playbook
Each tactic—and the tragic result—is drawn directly from Genesis 3:1–6, where the serpent deceived Eve. These aren’t just general strategies—they are the exact moves the serpent used to undermine trust in God’s word. And he still uses them today.
Assume something is missing from God’s words.
“Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1)
The serpent implies there’s confusion or a lack in what God said—as if it wasn’t clear or sufficient. People follow in his steps when they suggest that God didn’t say enough, or that what He said needs more explanation. It’s shocking how common this attitude toward Scripture remains even today. But once we learn to recognize it, we can begin returning to what God originally meant.
Twist what God said or mix in personal assumptions.
“You shall not surely die.” (Genesis 3:4)
Flat-out contradiction. God said they would die. The serpent adds his own spin. People follow in his steps when they take what God said and change it to some extent—or add human ideas that weren’t there.
Offer a different interpretation that seems more helpful or clear.
“For God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5)
He offers an alternate motive for God’s command—one that makes God look selfish, and the serpent look like the truth-teller, the liberator, even the savior who’s rescuing her from ignorance. When people suggest that God left things vague on purpose, and that a new explanation is simply helping us understand better, that should be a red flag. They may unknowingly be assuming God’s place in your life. That is, after all, exactly what the serpent intended. Remember how the Pharisees added new laws with every generation, giving themselves veto power over God’s commands? It would be naive to think that it still doesn’t happen today.
Set up a false dilemma.
“You will be like God…” (Genesis 3:5)
Eve was made to feel like she had to choose between staying “limited” or gaining enlightenment. The serpent presents disobedience as the only path to fullness—as if God’s way is incomplete. Watch out for people who make it seem like there are only two or three available options—and that the expert teacher is the only one who can guide people to the right answer. Meanwhile, the truth God established for us gets ignored, dismissed, or even mocked.
Persuade people that the new idea is best.
“For God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5)
I mean, who wants to go through life thinking they are blind? Her trust in God’s word gave way to her own reasoning and senses, and she allowed herself to believe in her heart that “the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise…” (Genesis 3:6). The serpent’s framing shifted her value system—away from faith and into fleshly logic. She sought to satisfy her own desires rather than listen to God’s immutable moral standards.
Replace God’s truth with human reasoning.
“…she took some of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.” (Genesis 3:6)
The final step: God’s words are overridden entirely. Reason, desire, and peer influence win. Truth is replaced with a lie—and the consequences begin. As James put it, “Then lust, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.” (James 1:15). This was what God was warning of when He commanded not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil lest they die (literally, “in dying you shall die”).
Look to the Creation Instead of the Creator
This is what I see as the “elephant in the room”—a problem few people want to acknowledge or talk about. The serpent was supposed to be one of Adam and Eve’s subjects that they had dominion over, but he tricked them into submitting to him instead. Paul captured what happened in the Garden when Eve yielded to the counterfeit authority of the serpent:
“24Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves; 25who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 1:24-25)
Adam and Eve had been given authority over all the earth, including the serpent. But when she, along with Adam, yielded to it, they both became its slaves and brought the rest of us with them.
“Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16)
The key point in item 7 is that Eve didn’t just yield to “someone”—she yielded to a creature, part of the creation they were meant to steward, not be ruled by. In that moment, the created thing became the authority. The moral world was turned upside down.
The apostle John would later write—surely with the corruption of the world in mind:
“15Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him. 16For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s. 17The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever.” (1 John 2:15-17)
He would also write:
“3For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous. 4For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith. 5Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:3-5)
This idea of “overcoming the world” makes it all the more shocking that well-meaning Christians often miss the danger of going to the world for understanding—adopting its words, concepts, and worldviews as substitutes for God’s words in the New Covenant, which plainly says the Scriptures thoroughly equip us for every good work:
“15…the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, 17that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:15-17)
Conclusion: Two Standards—Only One Is from God
This same pattern we see in the serpent’s playbook didn’t just trick Eve—it also led Israel to redefine Yahweh at Sinai, caused King Saul to trust his own reasoning over God’s command, drove the Pharisees to treat tradition like law, pushed early Christian thinkers to mix Greek philosophy with Scripture, and pulled the Galatians back into legalism. And every time, the result has been the same: confusion, division, and people leaving the true faith for an imitation— “holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power.” (2 Timothy 3:5)
The serpent’s playbook thrives when people forget God’s standard, and more so when they are deceived into thinking that interpreting by the serpent’s playbook is God’s intention. But those who love the truth will hold to it no matter what. And by the way, this list isn’t meant to be all-inclusive. The Bible has a lot to say, and our growth into the image of God’s character will never end in this lifetime. So please don’t come away from this chapter thinking you’ve been given all you need to know. That’s not what I’m saying at all.
In the chapters ahead, we’ll keep coming back to this playbook, looking at how this general pattern has been used to mislead God’s people. It’s shocking how often these same steps have been repeated—over and over again—to pull people away from the faith that was originally given to the saints.
“8‘These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9And they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine rules made by men.’” (Matthew 15:8-9)
“Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, think this way. If in anything you think otherwise, God will also reveal that to you.” (Philippians 3:13-15, WEB)
Rather than falling for the serpent’s playbook and ending up adopting worldly wisdom, we need to learn what God’s standards actually are—so we aren’t so easily led astray by every wind of doctrine. In the next chapter, we’ll look at some of the biblical standards God has given us.