From Satan asking "Has God indeed said.." causing Eve to sin, to the "false teachers" in the early church foretold by Peter, to the evening news--that is how they operate--by subtle lies.
I’ve observed that evil always begins with deception.
A lie is not merely something that is not true; People can be mistaken in search of the truth. It’s knowing what is true but withholding or adding to advance an agenda. Here, is where
metaphysics and
politics are intertwined. (And when I write ‘politics,’ I’m not talking only government but
relationships, manipulation). Your reference to Satan in the Garden follows this pattern.
Journalists say they ‘EDIT’ for brevity. Here, us online Bible scholars know the familiar refrain, CONTEXT IS KING. For brevity sake, we must take Bible verses out of their 66 book context. Fidelity. The question is,
is the excerpt faithfully presented? Did Jesus show his misogyny by calling a woman a dog? Did Jesus show his sadistic nature by telling us to resort to cannibalism and gouging out our eye or cutting off our own hand? Did Abraham intend to murder his son?
It’s one thing to not know the answer to these questions. Perhaps us Christians are too willing to assert that of unbelievers. Otherwise, we have to contend with sin, a deceptive heart.
I once had this experience with a Democrat talking about Global Warming. He repeated something that was not technically accurate. Knowing he didn’t have a technical background, I gave him the benefit of the doubt of not knowing. When I clarified the point, his reaction sent shivers down my spine.
He smiled an evil smile. He knew the truth but choose to speak deceptively and I caught him doing it.