Falsification began in the garden of Eden. "Thou shalt surely die" was the truth, originally spoken in the world's original language, recorded in ancient Hebrew, and thereafter rendered into English and many other tongues.
Paraphrased, that truth was: "Adam, if you ignore this emblematic prohibition, given to you within the context of a glorious freedom that has no other boundary, you will become guilty of all the emblem represents–you will have high handedly defied the good and just authority of your infinitely majestic Creator and will incur a debt you can never repay, a penalty you cannot bear."
"Thou shalt NOT surely die" was the brazen deception, and the serpentine spin proceeded from there. The tempter accosted his wife as Adam, who should have protected her stood by. The evil one continued. "Rather, you will become like gods! You see how good for food this fruit is, how pleasant to your eyes–don’t you know that the Gardener is determined to keep you downtrodden? How wise and knowledgeable you will become if you eat from this one fine tree!"
And thus did that ancient dragon, the deceiver of the nations, begin a criminal career which presently has a rap sheet longer than any human arm. That first fabrication begot every false religion, all a-Theism, all folly, all lies. The hoodwinking endures to this day as that first pair's descendants swallow all the swill and slurp up the devil concoctions.
And make no mistake, he has the help of many hapless tools, some useful idiots dead in trespasses and sins, and a few willing accomplices like the son of perdition of whom the Son of God spoke and by whom He was betrayed. And so this saying is attributed to Athanasius, hero of orthodoxy at the Council of Nicaea, A.D. 325: "The floor of hell is paved with the skulls of unfaithful bishops."
But there is good news for sinners, whether they be whitewashed "religious leaders" with their concealed apostasty or those who wallow shamelessly in their irreverence and profanity. This news report has its origin in a breathtakingly unmerited promise made to guilty Adam and Eve in Eden itself.
The grandeur and scope of the divine purpose contained in that promise, declared to them in brief, was foreshadowed, explained, and ratified over about fifteen centuries by various servants of the Promise Maker. Three slightly more recent journalists of impeccable integrity by the name of Matthew, Mark, John provide many eyewitness accounts of the its essential accomplishment; a fourth by the name of Luke does the same and adds a helpful follow up chronicle.
A panel of equally reliable - in fact divinely inspired - commentators give us solid analysis in the form of communications formerly called epistles, now commonly known as letters. A concluding document depicts the promise’s final glorious fulfillment.
That's the good news. Accept no substitutes.