The challenge of knowledge

He: It’s a lack of logic to be told that 2000 years ago someone died for me. Honestly, the preaching of the cross for me is utter madness.

I don’t understand what do I have to do with Adam and Eve, and their sin?

All in all, it would have been easier if the tree was not placed in their path. The ‘apple of discord’ would have been avoided.

She: Yes, quite so. Do you know what I also don’t understand?

If Lucifer was so wise as they say he was, how come he didn’t realise he had no chance against God?

Did he not know that the Almighty has everyone wrapped around His little pinkie?

He even knows our very own thoughts!

He: What did he need more?

He reached the highest rank of promotion. He was full of wisdom and perfectly beautiful. They say he was a ‘music director, ‘In other words, he set the tone as some kind of divine superstar.

She: Yes. My Grandmother told me he was proud, uplifted, and he acted out as if he were God. This tells me that he was crossing the line!

He: Indeed, he had big ideas, he set his mind to be above God. He was either gusty or he knew what he wanted. By the way, I wonder when he had his horns and tail?

I think, that if the orthodox church’s sacred drawings would have shown him as a shining paragon, we would have more problems now with you girls!

She: Eh, don’t fuss! I believe, you boys have the same issue. I heard that the devil himself makes the rules on the earth, since the falling of the angels, he is trafficking among earthlings as he did among the heavenly angels.

He: Yes, I wonder how the earth would look today without the account of the Adam and Eve story?

She: Right, I’ll ask the teacher about all this, since we’re sitting theology classes next year.

He: I heard they removed theology from schools?

She: Well then, all we have left is to go to the source. It is said that God answers prayers, or better still we can explore the Bible. How about that experience?

Wouldn’t it be cool she said with a smile while she rose an eyebrow and looked at her classmate?

He: You can tell you’ve got Eve’s seed in you. You’ve got very witty and you forgot we have the internet too.

She: No, son of Adam, I only see things much clearer than you.

…………………………………………………………………………

These kinds of questions and attitudes we already recognise. Each one of us could add a long list of piercing questions that can unveil the torments of the soul in search of desires to know more about this subject, to understand, if it may be possible that there is a deeper knowledge of the world we live in today. Humanity ponders, some souls find themselves aggrieved at why they are involved in a personal conflict started long before they were conceived.

A conflict between the One who is sovereign overall and the one, who wishes to be an even bigger ruler, but who in the meantime, became ‘persona non grata’ in the heavens. We may stop and consider if Lucifer never thought things through properly believing he was a match for God, or that he could directly face God.

Then why did God let him be? All in all, who was the Creator facing? A creature, a cherub, with ‘ranks on his shoulders’, with ‘awards on his chest’, gifted with a shiny glow, who did not know his boundaries. Couldn’t God have set him on a better course in a blink of an eye?

It’s interesting how the Bible describes him: ‘Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub 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.’

He was well perceived in heaven. He was honored with uprightness. He possessed a high rank and was gifted with many artistic talents. It was almost expected for him to be grateful to God. Maybe it would have been wiser not to overstep his abilities, even more so, not to start a riot that conquered a third of the angels. What more could he possibly ask for? Actually, he said it himself and to everyone. He goaded Jesus as well his number one enemy, whom he tried to lure promising Him: ‘All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.’

So, he was desperately lacking one thing, he wanted to be worshipped!

Lucifer tempted all three persons of the Trinity so we must wonder who is this infamous character?

Imagine a company employee who would lure his own boss into giving his company to him, I mean, the exact company that the proprietor established?

As if logic wasn’t enough to be able to understand this reasoning it makes you speechless. You can only say: now, that’s cheeky… It must be said that there is no question that Satan did not know who Jesus was. All the fallen angels are now under the rule of Lucifer, who was given a new name by God called Satan, recognised his identity and authority even on the earth. But as it’s written in the Bible, it turns out that things went exactly in the right direction planned by God. Lucifer controlled a third of the number of angles and they were kicked out of their natural habitat to the earth. It was a strike, in other words, Lucifer took a shortcut and ended up being the little god of this world or the power prince of the heavens. He has slithered out to all humans since millennia ago. He spares no one conquering a great majority. He fashioned a world of his own, a kingdom, after his own image, and on top of that he is worshipped which was his desire all along. You are justified to wonder in this equation with many unknown facts, what mattered the most?

Lucifer’s audacity was much like Prometheus’s from Greek mythology, who stole fire from the heavens. Meanwhile, one thing is certain, although he possessed angelic common sense as well as gratitude, he lacked morality and holiness. Let us imagine this: what would we have done in God’s shoes to be confronted with a rather gone astray angel?

Possibly we would have nipped it in the bud fast, would it have been that hard?

I don’t think it would have been.

But overall, we may feel that something else is going on. Something way more than just a simple riot leading to catastrophic cosmic consequences. Nowadays scholars who study the Bible can only be troubled by a feeling of discomfort, regarding the playful thought at the beginning of their path through faith. They may even say after years of walking through faith: ‘What good is God He is nothing like us!

This affirmation leads our thoughts to the beginning of time during creation when God planned to establish man in His own image and likeness. He made him with a body, soul and spirit. With no further a due we will only mention the soul. From the Bible’s point of view, the soul includes all of the intellect, affection, and will. God would not like us to be robots, but (persons) or (personalities) who would relate to Him like the ‘two peas in the pod’ principle, or beings who would be body and soul for God. He took a great risk in looking towards mankind for the answer.

There were many times when God openly said he felt sorry forever creating man. But still, the Bible teaches about Lucifer’s idea to stir human interest with the perception that they could ‘be like God’ in the way of knowing good and evil, or even to add to the knowledge of good and evil. This idea was indeed presented to man by the deceiver Satan, in a way not just merely for appearance.

Even from the beginning, Satan turned out to be quite inventive wishing to provide for the people, which in fact, God had already given them namely the great blessing to be like Him. Throughout history, God’s adversary showed his true colours to be cunning and to show intention. Still, the human wish for better knowledge of good and evil and to finally be like God, could not be contained and affected all human evolution. It’s not an easy job to taste disappointment, not even for God himself, who cannot be surprised. As we know, He does not do things with no meaning, we may ask ourselves, why then did He create man knowing from the start that this would happen?

At first, glance reading the Holy Bible, especially the New Testament, you can memorize these words: disobedience, sacrifice, redemption, plan, price, value, laws, violation of laws, warnings, and many of the sort. There is a juristic and moral code, an entire market economy, with earthly and heavenly shade intertwined. There are true politics, a full multi-millennial plan, tactical and strategic battle plans, which was about to hold heaven and earth captive through time and term.

The Bible itself reveals that God indeed had a master plan ‘purposed by Himself’, which He would ‘put into immediate effect when the times reach their fulfilment, with ancestral means, of universal proportions- ‘to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth. (Ephesians 1: v9,10)

The will to unite everything once again reveals that there is an intermediary phase, characterised by the lack of unity in the heavens, realms and on earth. There is a time when things remain separated. A crack in the heavenly fabric which has spread to all the ends of the earth.

What’s marvellous is that God made known to us the mystery of his will with the notion that he should make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God’. (Ephesians 3: v9).

We know the development of things, on a horizontal plane. We acknowledge the effects of this situation within our own bodies. But there are more aspects of this heavenly and earthy puzzle still to grasp with both hands. The spiritual cracks had a cause and appeared at a certain moment in time. The Bible provides mankind with a series of clues: ‘For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.’ (Isaiah 14: v13,14) ‘Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor.’ ‘You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.’ (Ezekiel 28: v15,17)

As we can see it was a heavenly ‘coup d’état’, a direct assault regarding God’s authority and competence and an overall incitement to riot! Serious accusations indeed. A small amount of logic would help us to accept the existence of disharmony which hid the seeds of discontent. Lucifer desired to be something else, thus opening Pandora’s box for a new ‘elective perspective’, unknown before. Lucifers mark was to put in place a new universal order which could counterbalance the pre-existing state of the spirit realm. A new political party was emerging and gaining power. It sounds so familiar, just like that, a new counter candidate to ‘God’s function’ appeared.

A new ‘god’ of the heavens and earth, a new master of the universe, now the stakes were high. Lucifer was beautiful, he knew what he was after, he wielded all his elective promises. All he had to do is earn the trust of the target audience to be convincing. For this, he must bring to the table all his issues, and what God as Lord is and does daily. We cannot know Lucifer’s exact speech, the charges and the arguments to start a rebellion. One thing is certain, he did not praise God, on the contrary. We can surely say he questioned the Creators integrity by opposing His character, order and His Laws, which are unbreakable. He redefined, in his own terms, goodness, the truth, justice, judgment and God’s love for creation. What’s an interesting fact is that he managed his elective techniques with finesse?

He increased his odds with a heavenly ‘door to door campaign. Because Lucifer managed to convince a third of the heavenly angels, we can confidently say, he proved his leadership qualities in deception. The now infamous ‘thou shall not eat’ ban, from the forbidden tree and the dramatic message ‘you will certainly die,’ had created opportunity. Lucifer had aired conjectural promises never heard of before. If he would produce banners with his creed, his life principles and his elective promises, they would sound something like this: ‘Be strong and contrive to fashion your own laws. True power lies in your hands no one else. Unlimited access to information, he who wields it has power. Freedom is everything, ‘Do what thou wilt.’ Your way of life is beautiful so live without boundaries and limits. You own the whole world so be set free and seize the moment. Shine like the ‘Morning Star’ and be out of the box. He busied himself with full electoral potential creating the premises of a winning campaign, with all the available tactics and the ‘lucifer trademark’. First of all, he tried his best for God not to be recognized as who he really was.

The Bible says: ‘This is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.’ (John 17: v3)

He painted God as a Master who imposes totalitarian order, a military regime, in which in the name of the Law, you are doomed for eternity if you break one no matter how insignificant it would be. An unjust authoritarian, with no mercy, for whom love was narrowed and freedom was enclosed with an iron fist. His battle plan was quite simple to defeat God in His own territory. He prepared very deceptive tactics intending to win. If God had tried to intervene from the beginning this rebel upstart with action, he would have confirmed the exact accusation that He was a despot, an unmerciful God. If He would have relaxed the Law, tolerate unrighteousness, or closed an eye in the name of goodness and love, he would immediately recognize the existence of one or more cracks in His own principles, in His system of values, and imposing universal governing strategy. This assumed the abdication from the absolute truth of His Word, form, his good intended values, beautiful, truth, justice, and in the end from harmony as He required it.

The Creator would implicitly and explicitly recognize that all His system of values is not perfect and that He, as Sovereign Master, has weaknesses and imperfections. By the logic of all things, God was placed in a terrible situation in which he must accept one of these variants. This was in fact a game of chess and He had been checkmated. In this context, the earth became a real-life chessboard, especially because the man was made in God’s own image and likeness.

Many ponder why Satan hates mankind so much?

The answer is quite simple because he lost his place, his privileges, and his lofty position. Mankind is privileged in the eyes of God. Satan could not overlook man’s privileges, especially as he once held the tools with which he praised God, and the man received in his heart the grace to sing for an eternity ‘the praises of His grace.’

In addition, neither him nor his fallen angels had the privilege of being named ‘children of God: children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God.’ (John 1: v13)

Also, the Creator only wanted people to be: ‘priests of the living God’, and also ‘temples of his Holy Spirit. The man was to be heirs of His Kingdom, with every aspect that this implies.

Thus, humanity became Satan’s favourite target and foe and required them bending the knee to him, and his ‘devoted’ worshipers, exactly the ones in which God invested His ‘own image, after His likeness’ and placing His Holy Spirit, inside them whom he had the most expectations of. God’s adversary set in motion a real live spiritual war.

He proved to be an expert in all kinds of subversive techniques which snare and manipulate the human interest to venerate God.

He raised doubt in the very fabric of science and through technology he has made an instrument with which to entrap and enslave mankind when the time is right. Knowledge would be altered and misshaped to discredit the Creator, hiding His existence under the very fabric of time. Jesus Christ was also a top target by denying His identity and authority through confusion and falsity.

He changed the equation of Agape love to Cupid love and the terms of freedom. He converted into relative coins God’s whole basic system of values from His economy, making ‘good, truth, justice and beautiful’, as God intended them to be slipping further from sight to the backstage of human history.

He raised ‘pride’ to the rank of virtue, making it flow like honey from the lips of most of the people and from its fruits, meaning bragging, gossip, defamation, etc became the standard of the day.

He added fear, fatality, duplicity and others transforming them into pretexts to hide from God and also from God’s truth.

He manipulated the food chain over time and the very life-giving water so we are what we eat.

He handpicked the cream of the most beautiful women and men who have physical potential, who are intellectual, have sex appeal, is charismatic, and strong in will and character, Satan promised them that he would place the entire world at their feet and they would shine. On top of that, he strongly marched on satisfying our physiological needs, especially sexual desires and self-accomplishment.

Lucifer had but one requirement, worship me based on obedience. Or, in other words, he demanded that he should be recognized as the master of the intellect, affection, free will, of time, of our whole human existence, what we are, even what we possess, stealing the things we might have accomplished in the future.

Most of the time mankind chases after money, fame, career, love, sex and other ways to make ends meet.

We are openly manipulated in the twentieth century by the media and the internet.

Today the bounty on the human soul is at a fever pitch and children are the number one goal. God, on the other hand: chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast in His presence. (1 Corinthians 1: v27.28,29)

Because the world in its wisdom, had not met God, in His wisdom, He through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe’. (1 Corinthians 1: v21b)

This alone was the cause of great stumbling for the Jews and madness to the gentiles. But, for those that were called, it represents ‘the power and the wisdom of God.

In the course of thousands of years, God accepted to be questioned, forsaken, mocked, judged, condemned, and even killed by His own creation on a cross. In such circumstances, the knowledge of good and evil grew steadily together as wheat grows with the tares. Often, it’s hard to separate good and evil as they can blur the lines.

On too many occasions mankind acknowledges the bad instead of the good and experience it first-hand. The good side out of all of this should be learning to choose wisely in any situation. The whole process of familiarising ourselves with the truth of the human race will be revealed in its entirety in the end.

The fact is we will eventually see the truth, namely that evil is not good and not wanted, as Eve thought in the beginning. Having reached this point, we could be tempted to say: ‘it’s more than meets the eye!

to be continued

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