be as wise and as powerful as God, is wrong, because that is virtually to wish to be God. The desire to be like God even in goodness becomes a source of evil, if the thought is to make ourselves like Him; for that implies a disposition to assume the power of God. The evil lies in thinking of self, and seeking self. If we allow God to work in us, that which is good, in His own way, He will make us like Himself in holiness; but this is far different from the motive that actuated Satan, and which he has put into mankind. That was a selfish ambition to make self equal with God.
Notice how Satan proceeded to work Eve up to this unlawful desire. Instead of the words, “Yea, hath God said,” etc., the first verse is better rendered, as by Young, “Is it true that God hath said,” etc. Even this does not fully convey the sense of the Hebrew, which implies a sneer. Satan would first induce them to believe that God was unjust in His requirements. This is what was involved in his question: “Can it be possible that God would do so unjust a thing as to forbid you to eat of all the trees of the garden? I have heard so, but it is so monstrous, so tyrannical a requirement, that I can scarcely believe it.” Thus with feigned words, under the cover of pretended interest in the good name of God, he sowed the seeds of distrust.
Then when Eve replied that they were allowed to eat of every tree but the one, he said, “Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be like God.” He had instilled so much of his own spirit into her, that he could now openly charge God with gross injustice. He made her believe that they were really equal with God, but that God did not want them to know it, because He wanted to exalt Himself at their expense; that the forbidden fruit would open their eyes to their high estate, of which God was unjustly depriving them; that instead of being subject to God, they were entitled to rule equally with Him. He flattered her till, like himself before his fall, her heart was lifted up because of her beauty, and she thought herself worthy of the highest dignity. In short, Satan led her to think of herself instead of God.
THE COURSE OF THIS WORLD
We are now giving a simple outline of the subject, and cannot at this time follow out the details, that will be done later, but now we wish to go on to show how the spirit that was in Lucifer, which caused him to become the destroyer, and which, being instilled into the minds of our first parents, caused their fall, has been perpetuated through their descendants, so that the course of this world is according to the mind of Satan, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
In the first chapter of Romans we have a picture of the heathen world, and of the process by which they fell from the knowledge of God to their low estate. At present we care only for the story of their fall. Here it is: —
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse, because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves; who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.” Romans 1:18-25
Satan fell because his heart was lifted up on account of his beauty. He thought that nothing in the universe was above his merits, or beyond his capacity. Having fallen, he put the same spirit into the hearts of our first parents, inducing them to think that they were in themselves as good as God, and worthy of as high a place as He had. They reached out for everything, and lost everything. The same spirit has continued in men until the present day, except where men have allowed the Spirit of Christ to expel it. The heathen reached their low position because they professed themselves to be wise, and thus cut themselves off from God, the only source of wisdom.
In looking over these typical cases, it will not be difficult to see that love of self is the cause of all the trouble. Lucifer was perfect in heaven until iniquity was found in him, and that iniquity was all wrapped up in the first thought of self. It was his thinking of and admiring self, and his consequent seeking for the advancement of self, that made him the dragon, “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan.” Therefore we are justified in saying that the spirit of antichrist is simply the spirit of self.
Wherever self predominates, there Satan rules. The Spirit that works in the children of disobedience is the spirit of self. It cannot be too fully learned that self is Satan. Every manifestation of self is nothing but the manifestation of the working of Satan in man. Every sin among men has sprung from selfishness; and the perilous times of the last days will be due to the fact that “men shall be lovers of their own selves.” 2 Timothy 3.1, 2
On the other hand, “Christ pleased not Himself.” Romans 15.3. Whoever will be His disciple must deny Himself. As Christ emptied Himself, and allowed God to appear in His fullness, so the disciples of Christ must allow Him to come into their hearts, driving away self by the same power by which He emptied Himself, that they may be “filled with all the fullness of God.”
We have now before us in outline the two spirits, —that of Christ, and that of antichrist. In the next paper, if the Lord will, we shall begin to consider some of the special lines in which the spirit of antichrist—self—has developed, in opposition to the Spirit of Christ.