12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! 13 For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ 15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit." (Isaiah 14: 12-15 nkjv)
What was Lucifer thinking when he rebelled against his Creator? How could he do such a thing? Was he being foolish? If so, how can that be seeing he was full of wisdom by his creation? Even if he had the freedom of will to choose to rebel, why would he do that? Surely he knew what the consequences would be, right?
Satan was a rebel. All rebels against legitimate authority follow his example. Satan believed that God was a dictator, a tyrant who ruled autocratically, arbitrarily, and who was unfair because he did not allow his creatures to "be all they can be," or to share his rule.
He could also be called the first one to contend that sovereigns must be chosen by creatures, and the majority vote getter should be ruling sovereign. Since God was a self declared sovereign, and not elected to it by his creatures, by the angels, he therefore had no legitimate right to rule. He was the first insurrectionist, involving himself in treason against the sovereign Lord.
He thought that love for God ought not to be obligatory (as do many theologians), but ought to be freely given and deserved, and that a creature should not be punished for refusing his rule. God must prove that he is the best qualified to rule and his creatures should be the judges. God demands, or commands love, but this is untenable to Satan and many religious minds. God must earn our love. Our love must be freely given, but if love is demanded, it is not love given freely but love given under threat of punishment.
This is the same lie, in essence, which he taught to Eve. It is the same thinking that Satan (via the serpent) attempted to implant in the mind of Eve.
One Satanist wrote (here):
"My hero (Satan) is fearless, proud, resolute, farseeing, self-sacrificing, and profoundly engaged in the struggle against tyranny and oppression."
This has been a popular view of Lucifer or Satan throughout history. Satan is a hero, one who wants man to free himself from the tyranny of the sovereign God, as he has done. He is adored for his "pride," his hubris, by his followers, but his pride is rather his downfall, as the bible teaches. It brings him down to the lowest Hell as the text from Isaiah above affirms. Solomon said "pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. 16: 18). Satan calls his pride "ambition." Milton has Satan confessing - "To reign is worth ambition though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n." (Book I)
He was the first to covet, to lust, to envy, to be vain, to attempt theft, to usurp, to rebel, to disobey law, etc. His "ambition" was to topple the rule of the Almighty. This was the "hazardous enterprise" (Milton), the "vain attempt," in which Lucifer's ambition engaged him. He was brave enough, though foolish, to take on the best, to challenge the undefeated one. He was in a word "brash." However he is not "fearless." He does, in fact, like all the demons fear and tremble before the sovereign God. (James 2: 19) He knows that he can do no more than what the Almighty suffers him to do. This is seen in the story of Job.
Said the Satanist:
"I don’t say he’s perfect. He’s a bit of a snob, somewhat lascivious, and, gravest of all, willing to harm innocent third parties in his battle against injustice."
Satan's followers love the evil character of Satan for they are evil themselves and his spirit is in them and controls them. (Eph. 2: 2) Of this the bible is clear. To them he is heroic for taking on one stronger than he, like an underdog, for whom many feel sympathy for that reason. Satan sees nothing attractive or beautiful in the God who created him. So too do his followers. They rather think that Satan is beautiful as Satan sees himself too. They think he was involved in a good cause in trying to overthrow God, the tyrant. He, as Milton said in Paradise Lost, "put to proof God's supremacy." God claimed to be omnipotent, but Satan questions it, thinking maybe he is not. The only way to find out is to challenge God. A real hero is willing to take on the best in order to test one's own muscle and fighting acumen. We see this in modern boxing matches, and other athletic contests, where the underdog wants to fight the best to prove himself the best. So, Satan's rebellion may be seen as a test of God's omnipotence and reign and a test of the strength of Satan. So, was Satan deluded? What was his sin? What was his crime? Pride? Self love (narcissism)? Unbelief?
The great work by John Milton, "Paradise Lost," attempted to get into the psychology and mind of Lucifer at the time of his rebellion and his ejection from Paradise. Satan says he cannot be blamed for God made him who he is. He says he cannot help being who he is.
The bible teaches that Satan was the first and true Narcissus. He saw his own beauty and powers and he fell in love with himself. Rather than admiring God for making him such, he seeks to rob God of this rightful praise and seeks to take it to himself by proclaiming himself the decider of his own destiny. Satan is the first blasphemer. What is blasphemy? Easton's Bible Dictionary says: "In the sense of speaking evil of God this word is found in Psalm 74:18; Isaiah 52:5; Romans 2:24; Revelation 13:1, 6; 16:9, 11, 21. It denotes also any kind of calumny, or evil-speaking, or abuse (1 Kings 21:10; Acts 13:45; 18:6, etc.)." It means to revile, rail against, to slander.
Satan says in the first book: God “tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall.” Satan is never willing to own up to his own responsibility in this; he wants to figure out a way to make it someone else’s fault. He wants to say it is God's fault, because 1) God made him the way he is, and 2) provoked him to rebel, and 3) God is an unjust tryrant.
Wrote one author (here emphasis mine):
"Milton through Satan also raises the question about whether or not choice itself, freedom, is about having lots of possibilities. Does Satan think he had a choice, or does he think he was set up? He seems to oscillate wildly between these two extremes. When he thinks about his own condition, he blames God—“God set me up for this”—but when he thinks about his own ambitions, he thinks of himself as doing it himself, as wholly unsponsored."
That is quite insightful and well stated. I believe it is true of the mindset and psychology of Satan. Said the same writer further:
"Milton tries in his poetry to represent Satan’s thinking as he does this. How can Satan do this? What is the motive for Satan’s sinning? What is Satan’s inner life like? We get some of this when Satan tries to talk to other people, to the other fallen devils and especially sometimes to, say, Adam and Eve."
We could ask the same question of why the other angels sinned, and why Adam and Eve sinned.
I find it interesting that Satan says this about the power of his will and self determination:
"All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield." (Book I, pages 305-308)
This is the word of the leader of the fallen angels after they have been cast out of heaven and lay knocked out in the fiery regions of Tartarus.
What is the thinking of Satan? Why did he choose to rebel against God? If he was being stupid, how could that be such seeing God made him perfect?
John Milton in "Paradise Lost" attempted to explain the thinking of Satan and did a fairly good job, as we have seen. In the movie "The Devil's Advocate" (with Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino) we have Satan existing as a man, the head of a New York law firm, and his name is "John Milton." The speech he gives to Reeves (his son), an attorney from the South, is given below. Let me give the speech and then make some comments about his diatribe against God.
John Milton: Who are you carrying all those bricks for anyway? (guilt - SG)
God? Is that it?
God? Well, I tell ya, let me give you a little inside information about God.
God likes to watch. He’s a prankster. Think about it.
He gives man instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift and then what does He do? I swear, for his own amusement, his own private cosmic gag reel, he sets the rules in opposition. It’s the goof of all time. Look, but don’t touch. Touch, but don’t taste. Taste, don’t swallow. *laughter* And while you’re jumping from one foot to the next, what is He doing? He’s laughing his sick, f-ing ass off. He’s a tight-ass. He’s a sadist. He’s an absentee landlord. Worship that? Never!
Kevin Lomax: Better reign in hell than to serve in heaven, is that it?
John Milton: Why not? I’m here on the ground with my nose in it since the whole thing began! I’ve nurtured every sensation man has been inspired to have! I cared about what he wanted and I never judged him. Why? Because I never rejected him, in spite of all his imperfections! I’m a fan of man! I’m a humanist. Maybe the last humanist. Who, in their right mind, Kevin, could possibly deny the 20th century was entirely mine? All of it, Kevin! All of it! Mine! I’m peaking, Kevin. It’s my time now. It’s our time.
Th' infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile,
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceivedThe mother of mankind, what time his pride
Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host
Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring
To set himself in glory above his peers,
He trusted to have equalled the Most High,
If he opposed, and with ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God,
Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud,
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.
Milton then gives the words of Satan to Beelzebub
One next himself in power, and next in crime,Long after known in Palestine, and named
Beelzebub. To whom th' Arch-Enemy,
And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words
Breaking the horrid silence, thus began:--
"If thou beest he--but O how fallen! how changed
From him who, in the happy realms of light
Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine
Myriads, though bright!--if he whom mutual league,
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope
And hazard in the glorious enterprise
Joined with me once, now misery hath joined
In equal ruin; into what pit thou seest
From what height fallen: so much the stronger proved
He with his thunder; and till then who knew
The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those,
Nor what the potent Victor in his rage
Can else inflict, do I repent, or change,
Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind,
And high disdain from sense of injured merit,
That with the Mightiest raised me to contend,
And to the fierce contentions brought along
Innumerable force of Spirits armed,
That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring,
His utmost power with adverse power opposed
In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven,
And shook his throne. What though the field be lost?
All is not lost--the unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else not to be overcome?
That glory never shall his wrath or might
Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace
With suppliant knee, and deify his power
Who, from the terror of this arm, so late
Doubted his empire--that were low indeed;
That were an ignominy and shame beneath
This downfall; since, by fate, the strength of Gods,
And this empyreal sybstance, cannot fail;
Since, through experience of this great event,
In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced,
We may with more successful hope resolve
To wage by force or guile eternal war,
Irreconcilable to our grand Foe,
Who now triumphs, and in th' excess of joy
Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven."
So spake th' apostate Angel, though in pain,
Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair;
“Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,”
Said then the lost Arch Angel, “this the seat
That we must change for Heav’n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he
Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid
What shall be right: farthest from him is best
Whom reason hath equall’d, force hath made supreme
Above his equals. Farewell happy Fields
Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrors, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings
A mind not to be chang’d by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less than he
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th’Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
Th’associates and co-partners of our loss
Live thus astonish on th’oblivious Pool,
And call then not to share with us their part
In this unhappy Mansion, or once more
With rallied arms to try what may be yet
Regain’d in Heav’n, or what more lost in Hell?”
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