SUNDAY STUDY: Revisionist History, Satan’s Original Trick
By Ken Ham @answersingenesis.org
As our culture actively suppresses historical memories, they are acting out the devil’s original trick to revise history.
Did God actually say . . .?
We live at a time when one event in history after another is being revised, looked at differently, ignored, or we’re told to delete it entirely from our memory. This has resulted in the renaming of educational institutions, removal of statues, rewriting of history books, and labeling of people with certain external features as dangerous.
But revisionist history is happening in the church in a way that is much more devastating.
God’s Word Is Completed
God has given us a completed written history book. Remember,
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16)
God’s Word Does Not Change
Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. (Psalm 119:89)
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. (Isaiah 40:8)
Warning Not to Change God’s Word
We are warned not to change God’s Word:
Every word of God proves true . . . Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar. (Proverbs 30:5–6)
Despite what God’s Word instructs us, there are many in the church who are revising God’s Word in various ways.
For instance, there are those in the church who now support the LGBTQIA+ movement, claiming the church needs to change because the culture has changed in its attitudes toward such a group. They reinterpret God’s Word to fit with the changing views of the world. There are also those in the church who support abortion, again reinterpreting God’s Word to fit with the culture of our day.
Actually, revisionist history is a major tool of the devil. He used it on Eve 6,000 years ago as recorded in Genesis 3:1, asking, “Did God actually say . . .?” Paul warns us in 2 Corinthians 11:3 that the devil will use the same method (revisionist history) on us. In other words, there will always be pressure to reinterpret God’s clear words to fit with what the devil wants us to believe. Such revisionist history has happened in different ways down through time. The Reformation was a movement to overcome a particular type of revisionist history and return to God’s Word.
Our modern era of revisionist history really began in the 1800s when church leaders began compromising to fit millions of years and evolution into God’s Word. This unlocked a door to teach younger generations that they could take man’s ideas and reinterpret God’s Word.
This revisionist history in Genesis has now permeated much of Scripture, as many in the younger generations—though brought up in the church—now reinterpret God’s Word in regard to marriage and many other issues.
The devil has always used revisionist history to undermine God’s Word. Take heed of God’s warning:
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. (2 Corinthians 11:3)