Perfectly Insane

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

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We’ve all heard the saying, Insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting different results. We’d all agree that we know what that means and can likely provide examples of it.

A person who does the same thing over and over and continues to expect different results is honestly either completely stupid or insane. If doing the same thing does not bring about different results and the person continues doing that very same thing repeatedly, it proves they lack wisdom and insight. There is something very clearly wrong with that person.

Satan first awoke to consciousness in the dazzling light of God’s glory, to find himself a mighty prince, perfect in wisdom and beauty. But, having known no other condition, he thought that his power and his splendor proceeded from himself, lost his sense of dependence, and fell without hope. In [humanity’s] case, God’s foresight and mercy prevented this irremediable ruin.[1]

So, if we can take a moment to imagine what that might be like, we can begin to understand how Satan’s hubris developed to the point where he came to believe that God would one day die (or something might hasten His death), and then he (Satan), would gain control over all that was created. The fact that Satan has not nor will ever create anything is something eludes him and is not problematic for him.

Throughout human history, we can clearly look back and pick out diabolical human beings who came to believe they were gods and as such, their complete lack of humanity and compassion became exceedingly evident in the way they treated people over whom they ruled. Too often, this type of despotic individual comes to believe that he/she is god and has the ability to take life (or give it), to anyone he/she wishes.

Due to this, the annals of history include incalculable horrors committed against people by one person in power. We shake our heads at how such a thing could happen yet the fact that history is littered with this same problem repeatedly should tell us that we’ve done nothing to cancel future actions and that we can expect it to happen again. In fact, the Bible clearly tells us in the book of Revelation (as well as other passages), that a final godless dictator will step up and rule the entire world, leaving multitudes dead in his wake for their unwillingness to worship him (Antichrist), as the God.

Satan, a created individual is very likely now fully insane because of own hubris. If it can happen to humans it can happen to angels.

Though Satan was created by God, Satan came to believe his own hype that he was not only not created, but that he has the ability to morph himself into something akin to God the Father and has every plan to replace Him! The absurdity of this belief is difficult for us to fully grasp, yet it is what clearly drives Satan even though he is defeated at every turn. In spite of this, like a good megalomaniac, he believes he is only temporarily defeated and will ultimately gain the full win over God and all Creation.

This is the very definition of true insanity; thinking you are something you are not and actually working toward that end that cannot be achieved. Satan is extremely powerful, but equally insane. Why wouldn’t he be? He has come to think of himself as greater than God and only needs the right set of circumstances (that he’ll never have), in order to bring his own plans to dominate and replace God with himself as God.

Satan’s plan is inordinately elaborate and we would do best to pay attention to it, fully understanding at the same time that God keeps Satan on a leash. Satan cannot do whatever he wants to do and as Christians, we should be well aware of this, not to be haughty about it, but to have accurate knowledge of the fact that Satan can only do what God allows him to do and that is especially true where it concerns Christian lives.

There are some phenomenal lessons to be learned about Satan’s creation and the situation that existed and man’s creation. In understanding this, we gain a far more appreciation of who God is, how He steers His Creation and exactly how much grace is instilled in man’s creation, verses angelic beings.

Satan was created in glory and fell: man is born into a state of weakness and misery, and does not attain to his perfection till the resurrection of the just.[2]

Consider that. Satan had everything. He lacked nothing at all from the very moment he was created. He was powerful to a great degree, with perfect wisdom. He was created to be in charge of certain things and to lead other angelic beings in service to God. His fall from that height was something that he could never regain because of what he was created to be in the first place and his fall from it.

In fact, just as some angels also left their first estate (Jude 1:6), Satan was actually the first to do so. The angelic beings that Jude refers to did something so horrendous that God had no choice but to chain them in gloomy darkness until their day of judgment. He could not let them roam free after what they did (see also Genesis 6:1-5). In both cases, those angels had been created not like human beings, but as beings perfectly fit for the heavenly sphere and in direct communion with God Himself. Humans were not created for that same environment.

Human beings were created in a much lower position than the angels (cf Philippians 2:1-6). In essence, the creation of human beings put them in the position of needing to be tested to see what the result of that testing would be. This was not the case for Satan and the other angels who fell. In their case, it was their own inner desires and hubris that pushed them away from God so that they failed to keep their first estate to which they had been created.

Adam and Eve were in a completely different situation and for that, we can offer thorough and unending praise to our God! To understand the way in which God created and placed us helps us to begin to understand exactly what God was doing in that creative process.

…our [creation] begins in darkness, far from the light and joy of His presence: we are no princes, but slaves to those horrible despots sin and corruption: our beauty is faulty and evanescent: our wisdom is foolishness: our purposes are continually broken off: our bodies date their tendency to dissolution from the day of our birth. Yet there is a hand stretched out to lead us through the night: and if we grasp it, giving up our own ideas of the right way, it will guide us along a road, rough toilsome and perilous indeed, but which will at length bring us safely to the home of our Father.[3]

In a very real and outrageous way, human beings are so different in creation from Satan or the angels. Though they were created to be far above us, their fall results in something seriously heinous that does not allow them to come back via repentance. They walked deliberately into sin knowing full well the consequences of their actions.

Eve was deceived into sinning, though Adam understood that what he was doing he did deliberately against God’s wishes, though the full ramifications of it eluded him. However, the testing that Eve and Adam underwent, though caused their failure, was not a failure to eternal death. Instead, it opened up another avenue prepared by God that offered them the very chance to return to God through One who would Himself be clothed with humanity. This opportunity prevailed and against all odds, Jesus succeeded in pursuing God the Father’s will at every detail, thus paving a way for all people who would, to enter into the narrow gate and onto the difficult path that leads to eternal life (Matthew 7:13–14).

As I contemplate this, I sit in abject awe of God. I’ve wondered how – if God is all-knowing – He could go through with Creation if He knew what the results would be? Yet, in this I find that I am overwhelmed with a fascination with God and His love for His Creation. He created human beings deliberately lower than the angels so that when we fell, He would be able to provide a way back to Him that would ultimately result in putting off our innate corruption and putting on the incorruptible for eternity!

This life, from start to finish, is the testing; the battlefield as it were. It was always to be designed to be such! Why? Because in the end and even throughout, God’s love, persistence, and faithfulness toward us would always be on display and become more and more pronounced throughout our lives.

If, as we traveled the narrow road of faith, we fall and are even tempted to turn away in apostasy, God is there to help us (if we will), and guide us back to that path that leads to eternal life.

…when, after having borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly: when we shall rest, no longer in hope, but in abundant and never failing satisfaction after awaking in God’s likeness: then at length shall we have attained the goal of our being, the position for which He created us, nay, to which He ordained us before the foundation of the world. Then shall we know why He bade us consider ourselves strangers and pilgrims upon earth: then shall we feel His meaning when He told us that while in the flesh we are but in a state of death, our real life being hid with Christ in God: then, when the heavenly treasure is unlocked before our wondering gaze, shall we understand to the full His dark saying; – “And if ye have not been faithful in that which is Another’s, who shall give you that which is your own (Luke 16:12)?[4]

The author’s point in all this is to say that after we have lived this life in full, with all its pitfalls, foibles, problems, sin and darkness, we will come out at the other end of it in glory, with the full realization that we will never ever want to stray from Him again…ever.

With such a retrospect we shall not be tempted to think that our glory and beauty are an inseparable part of ourselves. And not only shall we have learnt by a fearful experience the dependence of creatures, but our whole being will be penetrated with a burning and unquenchable love of our Creator.[5]

Brothers and sisters, take time to dwell on this please, for your sake and for God’s glory. His plan is remarkably perfect, resilient and will be accomplished! What we suffer in this life will be nothing compared to what we will live and enjoy in the afterlife with our Father. There is nothing that can keep us from that. Not Satan, not this life, not anything. God has ordained for those who love Him and are drawn into fellowship with Him through the only salvation that is offered, that we will finish this course! We will become like Him in our wants and goals. We will come to the point of always doing what is right, always thinking what is right, and always saying what is right!

This is a done deal as far as God is concerned. He will not fail. Ah, can you see more clearly now? Does this help you to grasp more of the Father’s love for us and His immutable ways? Does knowing this help you to understand that God is always for us and offers no condemnation against us now or ever (Romans 8)?

Let this truth dwell in you richly. Grow in His love. Gain more of an appreciation for who God is and what He is doing in your life! May God be praised!

[1] Earth’s Earliest Ages, G H Pember, p67

[2] Ibid

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid, p68

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective