I Will Be Like the Most High, Part 4

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Previously, we talked about Satan’s promises that fueled his passion. Since his fall, he has wanted to be like the Most High. We understand this from Isaiah 14:12-14.

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.

This tells us not only the sin that caused him to fall, but in a nutshell, outlines for us the entire reason that Satan does everything! His goal has been to push God aside by making himself like God. A foolish thought surely, yet one that pushes Satan onward to a future point of its inevitable conclusion.

Has Satan ever won at anything? It only appears so and then only briefly. There has never been a time when Satan has won. There has never been a goal from God that Satan has successfully overturned. It only appears that way to the casual observer and whether or not human beings understand that truth in this realm, Satan is very aware of it. He exists under the constant shadow of failure, failure that keeps him a million steps behind God.

In essence, with each new defeat, Satan is reminded that he was not created to “be” like the Most High. Though his hubris directs him toward that end, he has no capacity to gain that victory. It is not in him. It will never be in him.

But God has chosen to use Satan’s failure as the object lesson for the entire Creation so that no one will ever again doubt God. No one will ever even consider that they – as finite created beings – have what it takes to become equal to God, much less overtake Him or set Him aside.

It is to this end that Satan works though, seemingly undaunted by his increasing number of failures, his inability to out think and outwit God. It’s almost as if God Himself is directing Satan to the foregone conclusion of abject failure on Satan’s part to best God even after Satan is given every opportunity to make his “I will be like the Most High” promise happen.

If we – as Christians – will take the time to observe this big picture – to literally see and understand what God is allowing Satan to accomplish as part of Satan’s demise and ultimate destruction – I fully believe that we will divorce ourselves from those things that serve no purpose and ultimately, cause us to be involved in questionable things, like politics.

If we will but understand that God is allowing Satan the chance to become the ruler of the world – as the Bible reveals – our focus would move from what we think we can change in society to our higher calling, which is focusing on the Great Commission. Don’t misunderstand me. It’s good to study Eschatology (end times). But we should study it to learn and understand what God is doing and how things are moving to their God-ordained conclusion. Instead, we too often study the end times and think that it is our job/obligation to change what we can before things come to pass.

Too many Christians tend to see future things as if they are not written in stone, as though the timelines leading up to those end times events are changeable. Today’s mantra “prayer is a powerful tool” or “prayer changes things” is being used by well-meaning Christians as an attempt to change the big picture plan of God. When it doesn’t appear to be working, Christians become obsessed with trying to figure out why that is the case. The only thing they seem to come up with is that Christians aren’t praying, working, or doing things hard enough, with enough effort.

The problem is that we fail because we are not in tune with what God is doing. We fail to see His big picture because we are focused on the smaller things, the lesser issues that are actually part of the big picture, but not the big picture themselves.

This world – according to Scripture – is moving toward the apocalypse that Jesus, Paul, John and others spoke and wrote about. There is nothing we can do to avert the coming disaster, not one thing.

Someone may argue, “Yeah, but we don’t know when the apocalypse is going to occur. It may be 50 or 100 years before it happens so in the meantime, shouldn’t we do whatever we can to improve society now?”

It’s a fair question. Let me answer that question this way. Throughout history, there have been many highs and lows in society. Certain times were more pleasant than others and very dark times are part of the historical landscape. In many ways, those dark times took care of themselves with a new generation of people who were simply different. They did not value what had been happening and because of that, change occurred. That change brought civilization out of a previous period of darkness.

However, if we look seriously at the whole timeline of events from Creation until now, or at least since the time of Christ until now, what has been the one constant that is to absorb Christians? What one thing are all Christians to be involved in regardless of how good or bad the times are in society? If you answered “the Great Commission,” you would be 100% correct. This should be every Christian’s main push. It is our true calling, our main calling, not our secondary calling.

Instead, too many Christians are mainly involved in trying to change society through politics or other means. They do so because they believe they have some sort of obligation to fight against the evil in society and the best way they think to do that is through the political realm. That really makes no sense at all and we gather that mentality because of what other Christians and Christian leaders tell us as opposed to understanding what the Bible teaches us about it.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Christians should stop voting or do anything in society that could affect a positive outcome. That’s not what I’m saying. I am saying that our involvement in the political arena should not be our primary avocation or calling. We have been given one commission by Jesus Himself and that is to preach the gospel, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The truth is that this commission has no bearing on what is happening in society at any time. It is to be done regardless of the tone or mood of global society.

Seeing and understanding the big picture that God has taken the time to lay out for us in His Word helps us understand not only our true calling as Christians, but what we should avoid wasting our time being involved in. We always need to remember that both Satan and God have highest purposes. God’s purposes always prevail. The things that God allows Satan to achieve are done only because they coincide with God’s highest purposes.

We’ll talk more about this next time.

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective