The Bible tells us that “we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth” (2 Corinthians 13:8 NIV84).

Historically, the word truth has meant that which is in harmony with reality, the actual state of a matter, what is accurate, factual, the way things are, that which is objective and not subject to personal preference. In other words, personal opinion doesn’t change the state of truth.

What I have noticed is that in society today, the concept of truth itself has been eroded. We see all around us the decay of the belief in truth, not in a specific truth, but in the idea that there is truth.

We see this in statements like, “that’s your truth; it’s not my truth,” or, “this is my truth.”

This is an example of what is termed “semantic drift,” the subtle redefinition of words to introduce ideas, concepts, and beliefs that the words did not originally mean, thereby introducing falsehood into people’s minds without them realizing it. This is how Satan and evil work!

Words connote meaning and encode those meanings into our brains, impacting our emotions, spirits, attitudes, and become building blocks that form our belief system, perspectives, values, and framework for understanding life and, thereby, once accepted, become filters through which we interpret and internalize new experiences, evidences, and ideas, including reality-based truths and lies. Satan works to redefine words to mean something they originally did not in order to bring into people’s minds ideas that are not true, to distort their understanding of reality, and to slowly introduce more fiction, fantasy, and false standards that not only mislead but also corrupt and destroy.

This type of deception is much more effective than open falsehood. Lies that are directly and openly opposed to known truth are not effective against those who know the truth. They see the lie for what it is and reject it. Therefore, Satan works to get lies into the minds of truth holders by redefining words that convey truth with subtle alterations that introduce falsehood and turn the mind slightly off target, which opens the mind to another redefined word or idea, further corrupting the mind. Eventually, this leads to actions in harmony with the lie, which then reinforces the falsehood and leads the person to defend the false.

This destructive system of deception works like this:

Step 1: Start with a True Word

Start with a word that is grounded in reality—something observable, testable, or coherent with how things actually function:

• Truth = what corresponds to reality.
• Love = acting for the good of others.
• Freedom = the ability to function in harmony with reality.

Step 2: Introduce a Subtle Redefinition

Keep the true word but without announcing it, alter its meaning:

• “Truth” redefined as: your personal perspective.
• “Love” redefined as: whatever feels good or affirming.
• “Freedom” redefined as: doing whatever you want without constraint.

This step is rarely announced; it’s implied through repetition, culture, and emotional appeal.

Step 3: Normalize the New Meaning

Next, promote the redefined word through repetition in media, education, and conversations, such as:

• “Speak your truth.”
• “Love is love” (undefined and typically associated with warm feelings).
• “Live your truth freely.”

At this stage, people feel familiarity rather than suspicion.

Step 4: Use the Word to Justify Conclusions

Once the corrupted definition is accepted into the mind, use it to build a new basis, logic, and reason for one’s conclusions about life:

• If truth is subjective, then if people disagree, they are being oppressive or abusive.
• If love is a feeling, then actions that hurt feelings are viewed as “harmful.”
• If freedom is unrestricted, then consequences for the abuse of freedom are seen as injustice.

Step 5: Disconnect from Reality (Consequences Follow)

Because the word no longer connects to reality, people live their lives by following their preferred fantasy, like following a false map, and false roadmaps for life always result in harm. Therefore:

• Confusion increases and mental, physical, and relational health worsen.
• Conflict increases as people become intolerant of objective truth.
• Harming others can be justified as good—it’s just defending “their truth” from the “harm” that happens when their feelings get hurt by objective truth.

Those who embrace the lies hate the truth. Those in darkness do not appreciate the light of truth but rage against it, because the truth exposes their fiction and inflames their spirit of fear, guilt, shame, and self-loathing (John 3:19-20).

Understand how reality works: People can choose with their mind to encode their fictions, their fantasies, into their own brain and label these “my truth,” but doing so does not change objective reality. And reality, truth itself, is constantly, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, shining down on them. This means they never have peace, never have rest, never have security, because in their minds, they know they are lying to themselves, and they live in constant fear of truth, of being exposed. Their own internal self-loathing, insecurity, fear—which is the only reality-based state that can exist when lies are the foundation of one’s inner world—is the animating energy that drives them. Rather than embracing truth, humbling self, repenting, and being reborn with a new spirit of love and trust in Jesus, they double down on their fiction, desperately seeking to hide from the truth. They project their hatred of self onto the voices of truth in society and seek to destroy those who carry the truth. We see this in the life of Jesus, the apostles, Christian history, and in the world today.

Such people then congregate together to reinforce their corrupt and distorted fantasies and collectively work with every form of wickedness to gain societal power in order to suppress and destroy the truth.

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God (truth), he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree (truth) that those who do such things deserve death (it is out of harmony with life), they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them (Romans 1:28–32 NIV84, emphasis mine).

Satan is the father of lies, and one of his most potent weapons is to redefine words because if you redefine the word, you redirect the mind.

So when you see words being redefined to mean something they do not, in truth, mean, recognize this as one of Satan’s methods to corrupt and destroy. This is a demonic method to corrupt minds.

I am labeling this method as demonic, not the person saying it!

Innocent people can believe lies and tell them without malice. So when you hear a person using redefined words in a false light, recognize the destructive method, but see the person doing it with compassion, like you would a person suffering from a disease. Recognize what they are saying is like a pathogen—their heart and mind are infected, so don’t allow their redefined and distorted concepts to infect your mind.

But, if you are able, if you have a relationship that allows it, seek to introduce objective truths to help set their minds free.

Satan’s Most Effective Semantic Drift in History

Satan’s most effective form of this corruption—this shifting of meaning to introduce falsehoods about God, about reality, about God’s kingdom into hearts and minds and, thereby, undermining trust in God and obstructing healing—is replacing the meaning of God’s law with that of man’s law.

Essentially, the entire world, and all of Christianity, has accepted the lie that God’s law functions no differently than the laws of sinners. Rather than building our beliefs, understanding, framework, and mental lenses upon the truth that God is Creator and His laws are laws creation is built to exist and operate upon—the laws of health, physics, thermodynamics, but also the laws of love, truth, freedom that, when broken, result in pain, suffering, and death, requiring healing from our Creator—far too many have built their beliefs upon the lie that God’s laws are like human law, imposed rules requiring God to use power to torture and kill His disobedient children.

The acceptance of the human definition of law for God’s law is at the root of the conflict between Christ and Satan. Whenever and wherever it is believed, the mind that believes it is corrupted; its conception of God is perverted; its love and trust in God is undermined; and fear is incited, which shapes the inner world to seek protection from punishment rather than a loving/trusting connection for healing. And this results in the development of false penal/legal theologies, which function to have something done to God to protect us from Him rather than something done to us to heal us and restore us to harmony with Him.

We must come back to reality. We must leave the fantasy land of imperial law behind, and again worship God as Creator (Revelation 14:7), understanding His laws are design law and that sin destroys while God heals and saves. We must do this because of how reality works, God is able to heal and save only those of us who trust Him! And we will trust Him only if we actually know Him, and knowing Him requires we know the truth; thus, the truth will set us free (John 17:3; 8:32).

We must stay vigilant and refuse to go along with redefinitions of words that promote lies. This is why Jesus said,

Simply let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No”; anything beyond this comes from the evil one (Matthew 5:37 NIV84).

Jesus is telling us that our words, our answers, our speaking needs to be clear, direct, accurate, with meanings that are truthful, and that any attempt to subtly change the meaning of words to mean something they do not is evil; it is a form of lying, and when lies are believed, they corrupt hearts and minds.

So I challenge you to be vigilant, to be lovers of truth, for “we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth” (2 Corinthians 13:8 NIV84).