The Cake Is a Lie
My son, the self-professed video game geek, has been playing a video game called Portal in which the player is trying to solve various puzzles to escape from a testing facility. Throughout the game there is a computer named Glados who talks to the player and tells him he is testing a portal gun, a device that creates a portal in a wall leading to another room somewhere else in the facility. Glados seems to be very friendly and promises that at the end of the tests there will be cake and a party in the player’s honor.
As play progresses, the player encounters rooms called the Ratman’s dens where there is written on the walls “The cake is a lie,” referring to the cake that Glados has promised. Eventually, the player discovers that Glados intends to kill him after the testing of the portal gun is complete and before he can escape from the facility. He discovers that the cake is, indeed, a lie, a false promise to try to prevent the player from realizing Glados’ real intentions.
My son and I were talking about this game the other day and he commented that “The cake is a lie” reminded him of Satan and his promises. Just as Glados promises cake at the end of the testing, Satan promises great things. But just as the cake is a lie, the promises of the devil are a lie. He promises that happiness is found in fame and fortune, in partying and drugs, in business success, or in any one of a number of worldly options. Satan makes promises to try to keep us from even trying to escape his grasp and to prevent us from realizing his real intentions of claiming our souls as his own. Just as Glados tries to distract the player from his true purpose of escaping the testing facility, Satan tries to distract us from our true purpose and goal in this life, which is to seek freedom in Christ.
As I thought about this, I realized that the apostles who came before us are like the Ratman who came before the current player in Portal and wrote the warning “The cake is a lie” on the wall. The apostles wrote the Gospels and epistles of the New Testament to warn us that “The cake is a lie.”
Speaking of the devil, Jesus said, “He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44 (NLT). As part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned of liars who would come: “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.” Matthew 7:15 (NLT).
Paul warned that “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness.” 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 (NIV). He also warned about those who had believed the devil. “They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.” Romans 1:25 (NLT).
Peter also warned of false teachers. “These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed.”
John, the beloved disciple, warned that some who claim to speak for God would nonetheless be liars. “Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.” 1 John 4:1 (NLT).
Finally, Jude warned of those who would perpetrate a great lie upon the church itself, leading many astray:
Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people. I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Jude 1:3-4 (NLT).
We have seen the warnings. The cake that Satan and those who have been deceived by him offer is a lie. Just as the player of Portal would be well to heed the warnings of the Ratman and disbelieve anything Glados says, we would be well to heed the warnings of the apostles and disbelieve the lies of the devil.
It is possible to escape the Portal testing facility, though the player must dodge the attempts of Glados to kill them and must ultimately destroy Glados to do so. Thankfully, we do not have to destroy Satan in order to escape his grasp. Jesus has already done that for us when He died on the cross in full payment for our sins, and rose again defeating death. Once we understand that all Satan’s promises are lies, and trust in Jesus only, we are home free.
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Sin is still sin. We will still sin as long as we have the flesh to contend with, but it should never be our ambition to sin…or to call what God has called sin “an alternate lifestyle”. Great post.
Blessings,
Theresa
Theresa, So true. Peace, Linda
Very good.
2 Corinthians 2:11 Lest satan should get advantage of us, for we are NOT IGNORANT of his devices.
The devil IS a defeated foe when we allow Christ to be in control, but he is cunning and will use all manner of devices to creep in unawares and ensnare us. I believe one of his main weapons these days is camouflage. He is a master artist who paints dangerous and evil attractions and activities in such a way as to deceive many. We need to be on our guard at all times .
Thank you for adding this 2 Corinthians verse. It’s a wonderful addition to the post. Peace, Linda
Thank you, Linda!!
Praying for your son!!
Who would have thought the Easter message lived in a video game? Wow! 🙂 Please say thank you for letting us in on revelation.
I tried for years to get to that cake. Moving target. Sometimes I felt it would have been great if Adam and Eve had caught on but put me in her shoes and the story would have been about Adam and Ann …. same ending 🙂
God bless you for sharing this. Redemption is still available to those who choose to accept Him. Praying God’s direction will always be clear to this young mind and that he will live a life sold-out for our King. Keeping you and your beloved in prayer as you co-parent with Papa.
Blessings,
ann
Ann, I like to think that if it had been me instead of Eve I wouldn’t have been fooled, but I know that is not true. If it was Adam and Linda, the story would have been the same, too. Thank you for the prayer for my son, his dad, and me. 🙂 Peace, Linda
I really love analogies and seeing Jesus in whatever is going on around us. 🙂 This is a great one . . .and now you have to give your son another hug from me. 😉 Something that keeps coming up in my time listening to Jesus, is that there are lies that are so subtle that I can buy into them. I feel so extreme sometimes, but often can do little else other than read my bible and pray, take care of my family and home, and not listen to or watch or read much else. (except safe blogs, like yours. 😉 ) I have to stay really close to Him or I get to believing the lie about cake. And you know I love cake . . . love you too! God bless you and yours, Linda!
Deb, There are many lies that are subtle and pervasive. Some have, as the apostles warned, even creeped into the church. I think your “extreme” option is a good one. Stay in the Word and prayer. Pray for wisdom and discernment. Peace, Linda
Wonderful posts! Timely too! In bible study this morning we were sharing what advice you would give to the HS graduate. One of the things shared was to encourage them to stay true to the faith that they have been raised in and don’t buy all the lies that people will try to sell them when they enter the world on their own.
Blessings to you my friend! April
April, Thank you. That is definitely good advice for HS graduates. My son still has two more years of HS, but I’m praying already that the Lord will keep his faith strong. Now I just need to get him into God’s Word more. He’s not much of a reader and has hardly cracked the Bible we gave him for confirmation. I’m thinking of getting him the New Testament read by Johnny Cash on MP3 for his iPod. Peace, Linda
Ooooo . . .that would be a cool idea, Linda! Love how you think!
Linda,
This was very well put and such a great comparison… Give your son a hug for seeing the similarity…. So many these days prefer to mar and destroy that message on the wall…. People see the message…. It’s even written in our conscience, but we choose to defy it…. We choose to believe a lie, even when we’re told outright that it’s a lie….. That is arrogance and defiance, which is a part of our sinful natures.
We need our Savior, who has promised to save us from all this as we learn to lean on Him for all our needs…. Thank you for a great post.
Margaret
Margaret, Thanks. After I told my son I had posted this, he said there was another analogy in the game and that I should add it to the post, but I didn’t have time. The Ratman also includes arrows telling the player which way to go to escape. This, my son said, is like Jesus telling us the Way back to God. He’s a pretty bright kid and I pray his faith will stay strong. Peace, Linda
Be a ★ !