Featured Free-will, Lucifer and God

"God allowed sin (i.e., self-love or iniquity) for a purpose and that purpose was to fully expose [it] for what it is - a deceiver."

"Thus the history of this terrible experiment of rebellion (i.e, "the working out of Satan's rule") was to be a perpetual safeguard all of God's creation, to prevent them from being deceived as to the nature of sin."

 

The working out of Satan's rule
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Using man as his tool, Satan has developed a kingdom (the Bible refers to it as “the kingdom of this world”) that is based entirely on the principle of self and which is in complete opposition and contradiction to the “kingdom of heaven.” Everything, therefore, that goes to make up this worldly system (kosmos) — nationalism, tribalism, politics, education, commerce, recreation, sports, social clubs, technology, etc. — is founded upon the principle of love of self, even though at times this principle may not be obvious. According to 1 John 2:16, “all that is in the world” (i.e., without exception) is based or founded upon lust (i.e., love of self).

 

You are referring to John 8:44 where Jesus said "He was a murderer from the beginning"....

Question: What beginning?

1. From the creation of the "anointed cherub who covers" or
2. From his fall?

If # 1 then God is the originator and creator of sin.

If # 2 then God is not the creator of sin, but rather He created this cherub perfect and then this angel revolted and became God's adversary.

 

# 2 suggests that God created Lucifer perfect in righteousness, but with a free-will. Lucifer chose to rebel....

# 1 suggest that God doesn't allow free-will and created a devil just because He willed it. In this case Lucifer had no will and was doing God's will by being a devil. This is classic Calvinism.

 

Again, God - in His sovereignty - created a sinless cherub knowing that this angel would revolt against His agape love and seek to establish his own type of love, known as self-love.

Some might ask, "what's so bad about self-love?"

First, God's law calls it sin.

Go to Gal 5:14

For the whole law can be summed up in a single commandment, namely, “You must love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

Self-love is a given. We are "born in iniquity" (Ps 51:5), that is, we are born knowing only self-love.

God's law demands that we take this self-love and instead of loving self, love our neighbors instead. That means we are turn our self-love away from ourselves and project it to our neighbors instead.

Can I give some Bible verses to back this up? Yes:

"Let no man seek his own (wealth), but every man another's wealth." 1 Cor 10:24

“If you want to be perfect (righteous), go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor..." Matt 19:21

"Sell your possessions and give to the poor." Luke 12:33

"Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back...if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Luke 6:30,34-35

If I really loved my neighbor as I naturally love myself then my neighbor would have my possessions. That's agape love....

 

God love, agape, ..."is not self-seeking" 1 Cor 13:5

Lucifer took God's "agape" and bent-it-around towards self. His invention was self-love.

Self-love sounds wonderful. In fact there's a song about self-love. Watch the following video; the singer makes it sound like the best thing since sliced bread:

I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be

Everybody's searching for a hero
People need someone to look up to
I never found anyone who fulfilled my needs
A lonely place to be
And so I learned to depend on me

[Chorus:]
I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I'll live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can't take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all

I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be

[Chorus]

And if, by chance, that special place
That you've been dreaming of
Leads you to a lonely place
Find your strength in love
​

 

This is why God allowed "the love of self" (iniquity) to be developed. It sounds wonderful. Learning to love yourself, wow! Sounds great....

Well...on paper it sounds simply wonderful, but when self-love is put into practice what happens? Does it bring peace and stability, does it bring prosperity? No! It produces ruin & misery...

God allowed Lucifer, turned Satan. to develop his principles of self-love so that God's future creation of free-will beings would never, ever be tempted to fall for anything outside God's agape love. He allowed iniquity so that free-will beings in the future would be able to look at the history of what happens when one questions and rebesl against God's agape love, the foundation of His government.

Hence, it is said that unrighteousness will never happen again because all free-will beings, made in God's image and likeness, will never chose to question God's agape ever again...

 

Keep in mind Satan is called "the god of this world"....Therefore the world is based on his love of self.

1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh (the desires of human nature) and the lust of the eyes (what it sees it wants) and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

2 Tim 3:2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.

Paul also tells us that "love (agape)...is not self-seeking" 1 Cor 13:5 Self-seeking is based on self or the principle of self.

 

If you like these lyrics then you need to heed the instruction of John: "Love not the world" because everything in the world is based on self-love and not God's agape.

 

Well no kidding, but he is being compared to Lucifer and then Satan. So Ezekiel gives us insights into the fall of Lucifer.

This is mighty good fiction. Mind if I slip out and get a bag of popcorn and a coke?

The lengths that the Calvinist will go to make non-effect anything that looks like free-will. Wow....

 

I suggest skipping these middle men and going straight to the source, i.e, the Bible.