I Will Be Like the Most High, Part 6

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

We are about to wrap this short series called “I Will Be Like the Most High” up and I hope you’ve enjoyed learned about God’s highest purpose, which trumps all other plans. We’ve learned that Satan has his highest purpose, which, according to Isaiah 14:12-15, was to culminate in becoming like the Most High. That has been his entire reason for existing since he first fell because pride was found within him. Certainly, God did not create Satan (Lucifer before his fall) to be someone who thought he could content for God’s throne, but because of the exercise of his free will, this is exactly what he has become.

12 “How you have fallen from heaven,
O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations!
13 “But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit.

Tragic, isn’t it? God creates the most adorned, intelligent creature ever created (as far as we know) and he falls harder than Eve or Adam or anyone else since. There is no redemption for Satan because unlike Adam, God did not create Satan in His (God’s) image. God did not breathe life into Satan as He did with Adam. In that way then, humanity was actually – in my estimation – higher than Satan when first created.

Satan’s sin was in thinking of himself more highly than he ought to have thought of himself. It created within him the desire to become like God, surely a foolhardy desire, yes? However, though Satan sinned and fell from his first estate, God chose to give Satan the opportunities he needed to attempt to fulfill the promises he had made to himself as recorded for us in the above passage.

As we’ve discussed, God knew that the entirety of His Creation would benefit from seeing such an attempt for a created being to attempt to become what he had no capacity to rise to. This became Satan’s huge dilemma. Though he saw himself as someone who could become like the Most High, it will actually never happen. The closest Satan will come is to be able to rise to a level that itself is born of deception and he will rise to that point only because God allows it and provides Satan with the needed opportunities to achieve it.

Satan will reach his zenith during the coming time the Bible calls the Tribulation (Daniel 9:27), also known as the final “week” of the 70 “weeks” spoken of in Daniel. Do you see that everything throughout history from the time of God’s Creation, but more recently, since the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus is God allowing Satan to bring his promises to become like the Most High to fruition? Do you see that it must happen as God reveals it will in order to teach the abject lesson to all of Creation that there is none besides God Himself and as we learn in Isaiah 42:8?

“I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.”

God will not share His glory with any other. That means Satan. By the way, this is only one prooftext that highlights the fact that Jesus is God, but that’s for another series of articles. Satan will have the change to become like the Most High and interestingly enough, the last vestiges of that will be seen during the final seven years of man-centered history. It will be there – as I’ve shown in the chart above – that Satan will do his best to recreate his own “trinity,” though a counterfeit one it will be.

As God the Father is invisible to us, so will Satan remain “invisible” in the shadows, yet he will fully indwell, empower, and control his spiritual “son,” Antichrist. The Antichrist will take on the role of the obedient son, as Jesus did when He walked this earth and as He does now. The False Prophet of the Tribulation period will represent the Holy Spirit in visible form and on earth. He will direct all praise, adoration, and worship to Antichrist, just as the Holy Spirit directs praise, adoration, and worship to Jesus, God the Son.

This unholy trinity will fool most of the people living on the earth at that time, but it will never fool true Christians or the one, true God. It will be such a paltry imitation that it will be clear to all of whom the true Spirit indwells that it is the poorest of imitations, laughable if not for the deadly grip that trinity will have over the people of this earth.

Please understand that all of what is happening in the world through the myriad and powerful forces of evil that motivate fallen individuals is occurring because God has decreed that lesson of created beings craving to be like the Most High is something that can never be achieved. Though Satan certainly believed he had it in him to raise himself up to God’s level, the reality is that he never had the chance.

Yet, consider how many people alive today there are who believe that Satan (Lucifer to them) is the good guy. Contemplate how much evil has been perpetrated by Satan and his evil cohorts since the beginning of time until now and understand that if not for God’s power and timing, the destruction of anything good in the world would have long been destroyed. Only God’s power, timing, and will have kept Satan in check for there is no other than can stand against that evil.

Satan’s attempts to achieve true deity status have failed and even when he will be given all chances during the coming Tribulation, he will only appear to many to be divinity in the flesh. It will be a con at best. Satan will only be able to create the trappings of divinity for his spiritual son Antichrist. It will not be the real thing, not even close.

When Satan is eventually cast into the Lake of Fire, he will exist with the permanent understanding that he was given every opportunity to become like the Most High and even when he controlled all military might on earth and exercised full control of the coming global one-world system, it still was not enough to become like the Most High. Satan will run his plan to the very end and he will still be no closer to God in reality then than he was before he sinned!

Not only will Satan finally and completely understand this truth, but every creature in all of God’s Creation will finally understand it as well. This is what God has decreed to unfold and this is exactly what will unfold in the future.

Understand then that all of our efforts to change the tone of society, to cause America to “repent,” to bring society back to a time when God was allegedly honored, and to reinstall conservative elements in government, will fail. You are most certainly free to argue with me, disagree with, and expend your energy trying to prove me wrong. I would caution you though that before you do, you spend much time searching the Scriptures and seeking God’s counsel through His Word.

There was a time when I thought as many do now. I believed that it was my obligation as a Christian to help change society, to restore it a more conservative, traditional focus, where God was honored and biblical principles were rarely questioned. I even ran for office because of it!

I have come full circle to realize that I believe Christians spend way too much time trying to affect change in society instead of attempting to affect change in people’s hearts. It seems that God has brought me back to the ideology that is found within His Word. That is, the Great Commission. As a Christian, that is my job. It is to preach the good news about Jesus Christ and allow the chips to fall where they might. The gospel changes hearts, but even then, it is clear that though many may yet hear the gospel and believe, the truth is that evil will still be allowed to reign in society because of God’s highest purpose. That purpose involves proving to the entire Creation that no one is like God. No one can achieve that status. No one can help themselves up to that position of infinite wisdom, love, holiness, justice, and everything else that is found within God. It simply cannot be done, but there re those who believe it can be and those must be proven wrong.

There is a time of unadulterated evil that will spill over onto all the earth from hell itself. The powers of evil led by the epitome of evil – Satan – will have their day and that day will afford Satan his last attempt to best God, to make himself like the Most High. It will not only undo Satan completely, but everyone who stands with Satan as well.

Folks, you may be one who needs to find a balance between a Christian’s involvement in the political arena and evangelism. I would hope that you would err on the side of greater evangelism and less on politics. God’s plan is written in stone. It is unchangeable just as His plan to create Israel and bring forth from that nation a Messiah, a Savior was unchangeable. This Savior would make salvation available to all who would come, believing, trusting in the Name that stands alone, rising high above all others, “so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,” (Philippians 2:10).

I hope this short series has made a difference for you. I would implore you to stop focusing on politics or Christian Reconstructionism and focus instead on the mission that Jesus Himself gave to you and me. Preach the gospel to all nations. Make disciples of them. Trying to change the tone of society does not do that at all.

This world will ultimately be destroyed by Jesus Himself. Our job is to pull people out of the fire by presenting them with the truth that changes lives. No amount of politics can do that. No amount of social programs can do that. The only thing that can do that is the truth that Jesus is Savior and Lord and came to offer us life eternal. How can we even think that politics or social programs can compare with that?

We’ll be back with an answer to this question: Is prayer a powerful tool? We’ll also continue our series in Daniel 1 as well. Join me for those.

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective