FOURTH QUARTER 2022
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #1
OCTOBER 1, 2022
“REBELLION IN A PERFECT UNIVERSE”

 

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" Isaiah 14:12

 

The NASB version of this text (as listed in the quarterly) omits the name Lucifer, which is derived from the Hebrew hêlēl, meaning shining one or star of the morning. This is the only place in Scripture where Lucifer's name appears.

The sad history of sin which originated in this most majestic of all created beings is without explanation. Sin has no reason for existence. Nevertheless, the record of Lucifer's fall is left for us as a beacon of warning. Moreover, as sons and daughters of Adam, we are genetically predisposed to follow in Satan's footsteps. It behooves us to understand where our feet naturally tend.

In this Insights we will draw heavily from A. T. Jones' extensive commentary on the topic of Lucifer's fall as recorded in "The Spirit of the Papacy," chapter 21, of his book, Ecclesiastical Empire; and we will draw parallels to what is happening in our church and in our world today. It's no secret that both are in crisis.

The lesson begins with an introduction of God: "God is agape" (1 John 4:8, 16). "His nature, His law, is love. It ever has been; it ever will be. Every manifestation of creative power is an expression of infinite love. The history of the great conflict between good and evil from the time it first began in heaven is also a demonstration of God's unchanging love" (From Eternity Past, p. 9).

The entrance of sin has brought to view a richer, deeper view of the self-sacrificing nature of God's agape love to our struggling race, however, for the angels that fell there were "no new new and wonderful exhibitions of God's exalted power that could impress them so deeply as those they had already experienced. If they could rebel in the very presence of glory inexpressible, they could not be placed in a more favorable condition to be proved. There was no reserve force of power, nor were there any greater heights and depths of infinite glory to overpower their jealous doubts and rebellious murmuring" (Confrontation, 21).

On earth Satan has enshrined his sadistic, me-first philosophy into a system of faith that appeals to the natural heart.

On this topic Jones states, "There can not possibly be any fair denying that the whole course of the papacy is the display of sheer selfishness -- selfishness supreme, and self-exaltation absolute. But Christianity is the direct and extreme opposite of selfishness. It is the complete emptying of self. It is self-renunciation absolute.

"To all people in the world it is spoken by the Word of God: 'Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but emptied himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.'

"The idea conveyed in the term translated 'robbery' may be more clearly discerned by noting the different translations. The 'Emphatic Diaglott' remarks that the original -- 'harpagmon' -- being a word of very rare occurrence, a great variety of translations have been given, and cites as examples: 'Did not think it a matter to be earnestly desired.' -- Clarke. 'Did not earnestly affect.' -- Cyprian. 'Did not think of eagerly retaining.' -- Wakefield. 'Did not regard -- as an object of solicitous desire.' -- Stuart. 'Thought it not a thing to be seized.' -- Sharpe. 'Did not earnestly grasp.' -- Kneeland. 'Did not violently strive.' -- Dickinson. 'Did not meditate a usurpation. -- Trumbull. To these may be added: 'Counted it not a prize.' -- R. V., with margin, or 'a thing to be grasped.' 'Deemed it no trespass.' -- Murdock's Syriac. In the 'Emphatic Diaglott' itself the translation is the same as Trumbull's: 'Who [Christ Jesus] being in God's form, yet did not meditate a usurpation to be like God.' And this, it will be seen, more nearly expresses the intended thought of the Scripture than any other; as where the idea of government is involved a robber of government is a usurper.

"The thought, therefore, which is conveyed in the text is this: 'Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God thought it NOT a thing to be seized upon, to be violently striven for, and eagerly retained, -- thought it not a usurpation to be meditated, -- to be equal with God.' This is Christianity. But it is not in any sense the papacy. From the inception of the papacy even in the days of the apostles ('The mystery of iniquity doth already work;' 2 Thess. 2:7) until the proclamation of the essential divinity of the papacy by Pope Pius IX, every step of the way is but a manifestation of the mind that has thought it a thing to be earnestly desired, a prize to be seized upon, to be violently striven for, and eagerly retained, a usurpation to be meditated, to be equal with God. If that word and thought expressing the mind that was NOT in Christ, had been written since 1870, instead of before A. D. 70, it could not have more fitly defined the essential spirit of the papacy than it does. And that for eighteen hundred years, throughout the blackest record in the whole world, there should be a succession of men perpetually actuated by this one spirit of violently striving for, seizing, and eagerly retaining, equality with God, is a matter of sufficient interest to demand inquiry as to its origin.

"The key to this inquiry, the key that unlocks this mystery, is the word of God in the text here cited: 'Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it NOT a thing to be seized upon, to be violently striven for, and eagerly retained, -- thought it not a usurpation to be meditated, -- to be equal with God; but emptied himself and took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross'" (1901 ATJ, ECE, p. 566).

One of the disciples' last exhibitions before Christ's crucifixion was a contentious quarrel over who would sit in the highest place in Christ's new kingdom. This same struggle is seen in our church today. Robed in garments of equality, this movement challenges the order of family and church leadership as set forth in the Scripture and implicitly makes Christ Himself a law-breaker of the new egalitarian moral code through the selection of his 12 disciples. If we cannot be happy in our respective (but not identical) roles within the home and church in this world, what is to prevent us from being dissatisfied with our role as the bride of Christ in heaven? The same desire to be equal with God would again assert itself and the sin problem would be with us for eternity.

 

Creation, an Expression of Love and Free Will, the Basis for Love

Monday's lesson asks a question: If God knew that Lucifer would rebel, why did God create him?

Our immediate answer is free will. God created us with the ability to choose whether to abide in His will or go our own way. But that answer doesn't completely satisfy the question.

I once had the opportunity of studying the Bible with a Buddhist from an Asian country. Her heart was warmed by the story of the cross. She felt drawn to fellowship with our church. But this question -- Why did God create Lucifer? -- caused her great distress. In her mind God was responsible for creating evil, and she could not surrender to Jesus while casting blame upon Him for allowing evil and suffering in our world. "Couldn't God have just not created Lucifer?" she wondered.

The lesson quarterly acknowledges, "That can be a very difficult question to speculate about" but provides no answers.

So we need to answer that question, because a lot of people are hung up on that.

And here is the answer:

"Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me" (Isaiah 45:21).

God is agape. And God is just. Imagine for a moment that God had preselected only those whom He foreknew would abide by His law of love. Those He would create. The rest He would, well, He would just neglect to bring them into existence. No one would ever know. It would be His secret. Furthermore, knowing Lucifer would fall because of his beauty and talent, He could have decided to create Lucifer a lesser being, thus removing a stumbling block and perhaps he would have never fallen.

Would that have been fair? Would you like it if God, foreseeing that you would someday be lost, just decided to bypass you in the human family tree? No one would have known otherwise. But the Scripture declares that one day all will understand "that their exclusion from heaven is just. By their lives they have declared: 'We will not have this Man [Jesus] to reign over us' " (Great Controversy, 668).

Out of love and fairness (because that is who He is), God chose to create all the angels -- both those whom He foreknew would be faithful and those who would not. The same is true for mankind. Could He have made a different set of parents and skipped over the idea of Adam and Eve, knowing what their choice would be? Then we have, not God, but Hitler as god. No, this could never be in a universe founded upon God's law of love and supported by justice.

 

Mysterious Ingratitude

" 'Thou art the anointed cherub ['a cherub with outspread covering wings'] that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.'

"But what caused iniquity to appear in one of these? What was the origin of his ambition to be equal with God? Here is the answer: 'Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.'

"Being 'perfect in beauty' he looked at himself instead of to Him who gave him this perfect beauty; and began to contemplate himself, and to admire himself. Then, as the consequence, he grew proud of himself, and began to think that the place which he occupied was too narrow for the proper, profitable, and full display of the ability which he now gave himself the credit of possessing. He concluded that the place which he occupied was not fully worthy of the dignity which now in his own estimation merged in him.

"True, he did have the perfection of beauty, fullness of wisdom, and height of dignity. But he had received it all from God through Jesus Christ who had created him. He had nothing, to his very existence itself, which he had not received. And when he would boast of it as if he had not received it; when he grew proud of his beauty, and gave himself credit for it as if it were inherently of himself; this, in itself, was but to ignore his Creator, and put himself in His place. Yea more, when he boasted of that which he had received as if he had not received it; when he exalted himself because of that which he was, as if it were inherently of himself; this was only to argue for himself, self-existence. And this was, in itself, only to make himself, in his own estimation EQUAL WITH GOD.

"When he had thus 'corrupted his wisdom,' it is not strange that he should follow, and even be charmed with, a line of false reasoning. Being only a creature, he could not fathom at once 'the eternal purpose' which God had 'purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:' and he now began to measure all things by his own perverted conceptions, and to reason only from what he could see. And, having separated from God, all that he could see was only in the perverted light, through the gloom, of his own corrupted wisdom. Thus again, in the nature of things as they now were, all his reasonings were altogether from himself; and so, measuring all things by his own confused conceptions, beginning and ending all things in himself, this was still to put himself in the place of God, and to make himself equal with God" (1901 ATJ, ECE, pp. 572, 573).

 

The Price of Pride

"When Lucifer began thus to admire himself, and so to exalt himself in his own estimation to such a pitch that nothing but to be equal with God would satisfy his ambition, and nothing but to be in the very place of God could furnish a theater sufficient for a proper display of the abilities which resided in him, it again followed in the nature of things as they now were that the old order of things would not any longer satisfy. New conditions would demand a new order of things, and therefore there must necessarily be a change. As certainly as his purposes and propositions should be complied with and carried out, so certainly there would have to be a change in the order and government of God. And he did specifically demand that his views should be adopted, that he should be exalted to the place of dominion and power, and that his plans and purposes should be adopted and carried out. And just so certainly, therefore, he did demand that there should be a change in the order of things. And all, of course, in the interest of 'progress, of 'freedom,' and of 'moral and intellectual advancement.' In short, he proposed to 'reform' the government of God.

"But in order to change the order of things in the government of God there would of necessity have to be a change of the law of God. But the law of God is only the transcript of the character of God; it is but the reflection of himself. To call for a change of His law is to call upon God himself to change. And for God to consent to any conceivable change in His law, would be only Himself to change. And further, it is written, and we have read it that the justice and judgment -- the righteousness -- that is expressed in the law of God which abides in the throne of God, are the habitation, the prop, the stay, the foundation of that throne; and therefore are the foundation of the government of God. Consequently, to propose a change in the law of God, which in itself was proposed in the proposition to change the government of God, was only to propose to remove the foundation of the government of God. But this would be only to destroy the government of God, and set up another, independent of God, and founded, NOT upon righteousness, justice, and judgment, mercy, and truth; but upon self and selfish ambition only. 

"As only righteousness and justice are the foundation of the throne and government of God; as only mercy and truth go before the face of Him who sits upon that throne and administers the government; it is evident that this throne and government exist only for the highest good, the chiefest blessing, and the most perfect happiness of all in the universe of God -- all expressed in the one word, LOVE.

"Then if this order of government must go, to give place to one whose foundation abides only in self and selfish ambition, -- every one for himself, and that self supreme; pride and love of supremacy characterizing all who are in any place of power of influence, and envious aspiration all who are not; begetting universal suspicion and distrust, -- this would be but to establish an order of government that could be maintained only by a system of everlasting suppression, and oppression, -- in short, a universal and unmitigated tyranny, all expressed in the one word, FORCE" (1901 ATJ, ECE, pp. 574 - 576).

This brings us squarely to where we are today. Satan has been sharpening his enforcement tools the past couple of years. We can see where this is headed (Revelation 13:11-17). 

 

The Spread of Unbelief

"But, behold! when they found that their choice and the course which they had taken involved their leaving heaven, involved really and indeed their leaving their own habitation, they were not willing to go. They were willing to make their choice, and were willing to confirm themselves in that choice; but they were not willing to accept the consequences of their choice. They resisted. 'And there was war in heaven: Michael [Christ] and His angels fought against the dragon [the devil]; and the dragon [Satan] fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.'

"Than this, nothing could possibly show more plainly the essentially selfish nature of Lucifer and those who chose to go with him. Nothing could show more plainly that the complete usurpation of the place and government of God was involved in the controversy that had been thus raised. They were not only determined to have their own way, but they were determined to have their own way in their own way. They would have their own way, and have it in heaven, too. And they would even drive out Christ and God from heaven that they might have their own way in their own way, in the place of God. This demonstrates conclusively that the mind that was in Lucifer, -- the mind that was not in Christ, -- the mind that caused Lucifer to exalt himself, was a mind, that in its very essence would be content with nothing less than 'to be equal with God' in the place of God. It would exalt self above God, and put Him out of His place, that self alone might be supreme. 

"But he prevailed not. He was cast out of heaven, and his angels were cast out with him. They were 'cast down to hell, and delivered into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.' 

"'Into chains of darkness' -- into the bondage of darkness. The Greek word here translated 'hell' is raprapwoas tartarosas, from raprapos Tarturus, and is defined as meaning 'the hard, impenetrable darkness that surrounds the material universe.' It seems, from the definition that the lexicographers give the word, that the Greek idea of 'the material universe,' whatever may have been included in their idea of the term, was that around it like a shell lay a solid mass of material darkness so perfectly "hard" that it was impenetrable.'

"Now the Lord adopts the Greek word, but not the Greek idea, to convey to us the idea of the condition of 'the angels that sinned.' As the Greek word is expressive of a material darkness that is impenetrable, so by this word the Lord would convey to us the idea and the truth that the spiritual darkness into which were cast, or given over, the angels that sinned, is absolutely impenetrable ever to a single ray of light or hope from God. 

"They have persistently chosen their own way, which is only the way of darkness. They have rejected every offer of light and hope that God could possibly make. He has consequently given them up to their own way. And as they have rejected every possible offer that the Lord could make, they have put themselves completely beyond recovery. And therefore they have also decided their own cases, and have fixed upon themselves the judgment of destruction, which now only awaits them. So it is written: 'The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day' " (1901 ATJ, ECE, pp. 583, 584).

Space does not permit the retelling of the whole story, but we note here that when Satan and his angels revolted and were given the sentence that they must leave heaven, they did not want to leave. War broke out in heaven. Angels fought with angels, strength for strength, until the rebellious ones were cast out.

A telling sign of the times today is the disrespect that is shown for lawful boundaries. First, people are disregarding God's law while expecting to still be saved and ushered through the gates of the New Jerusalem. Second, people are disregarding the laws of the land regarding respect of property. And this is now (seemingly) okay.

What we have yet to witness is what it will be like to live in a world fully under the control of Satan's government, where everyone does what is right in their own eyes. Anarchy will reign. Nowhere will be safe except those abiding under the shadow of the Almighty. It will yet be revealed that Satan's utopian freedom brings the utmost bondage.

Therefore, we "have a sacred message to bear to the world. The Third Angel's Message is not a theory of man's inventing, a speculation of the imagination; but it is the solemn truth of God for these last days. It is the final warning to the perishing souls of men. It is not a system of truth simply to gratify and please the intellect; it means diligent and sacrificing labor to all who accept its holy teaching. The commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus must be brought to the attention of the world. The tidings of the coming of the Saviour just be proclaimed. The judgment scenes must be portrayed before the unenlightened minds of men, and hearts must be aroused to realize the solemnity of the closing hours of probation, and prepare to meet their God" (RH, March 13, 1888).

 

~Patti Guthrie