In the beginning God. That’s all there was before He created anything. Therefore anything He created was of Him, owned by Him, and existed solely to serve and please Him. The Creator became a King when He created things, and the created became part of His kingdom. And when the Creator had children (the angels) He became their Father.

His children, such as Lucifer, Michael, and Gabriel, are like all children in that they played no part in convincing God to give birth to them because they weren’t even alive until He brought them forth. He brought them forth because He chose to do so. Choosing is part of love. God brought forth His children out of love because that was His choice. God expected the life He gave His children to be used to glorify Him as King because they were subjects in His kingdom – He was their King, their Father, their God. Thus, along with their birth a hierarchy simultaneously came into existence and God became The Authority over and above everything and everyone, and His children became His servants who did His will. God was the one Head and His children were the multiple members of His body. All was good in the Kingdom of God. But that would not last.

God’s choosing to create/give birth to His subjects/children revealed His love for them. In order that they might demonstrate their love for Him, God also created evil (Is 45:7). Evil was an option that would reveal His children’s choice by their fruit/works. If they submitted to His hierarchy with humble obedience, they would be lovingly accepting Him as their Head. This orderly, hierarchical life God provided them was full of happiness and riches, and would continue as long as His servants accepted the foundational truth that He was the Authority over all Who owned all.

Because God is God and nobody else is, His single-headed hierarchy had to be; there was no alternative: the monarchical existence of God as The One Authority automatically made His will the one and only imperative throughout His realm. Contrast God with His servants and it becomes obvious that the function, purpose, and duty of His servants is submissive obedience to His will. A proper servant, therefore, will always 1) find out the will of his Master, and 2) carry out the will of his Master. Those two things are the essence of submissive obedience. That’s where the evil that God created and warned His angels to avoid came into play: The evil He created was equality because without it none of God’s subjects could or would rise up and choose to make either of His prerogatives theirs. His first prerogative comes from His being the one Head – His will is over all and must be consulted and obeyed. And as Creator His second prerogative is ownership of all – including us. He is the King, the Head, the Father, the Authority, the God, the Creator, and the Owner over all. To challenge or to usurp any of those attributes – which are all part of will and ownership – would be to take away from Who and What God is and would make “God” as defined above cease to exist. That would be robbery and murder (and according to Ph 2:6 only Jesus Christ can be equal with God because He is God).

THE KINGDOM DIVIDED

Most of the angels, like Michael and Gabriel, were content with the everlasting life God had given them and with their jobs as servants of His will and caretakers of His kingdom. But not Lucifer. Because he coveted the material riches all around him (Ezek 28:4,5), he partook of the evil (1 Ti 6:10) notion of equality God created as a test. Presto! Something happened to Lucifer’s makeup. He used to be, like his brothers Michael and Gabriel, content to do God’s will and be a caretaker of His things. Lucifer used to want only what God wanted, he used to want only to fit into God’s carefully planned, orderly kingdom. Before he partook of equality he would never have thought, wanted, decided, or done anything without humbly, respectfully, lovingly, and submissively considering the will of God. Those two sentences define what Biblical discernment is. Discernment is an absolute and irrevocable requirement in God’s kingdom. But now Lucifer wanted something on his own with no consideration for the will of God. Whenever we think, want, decide, or do anything on our own without first humbly, respectfully, lovingly, and submissively considering the will of God we are guilty of what the Bible calls carnality. Equality gave Lucifer the ability to abandon discernment in favor of his new carnal mind. By coveting, by wanting to have anything, Lucifer usurped God’s prerogative of ownership. And by wanting on his own, without considering and submitting to what God wanted, Lucifer usurped God’s prerogative of will. In other words, Lucifer suddenly became another head. Before, there had been but one Head and one will – God’s. But now the order, the hierarchy, and the authority established by God were being challenged because the very existence of a carnal mind is an ipso facto declaration of equality with God. Because Lucifer’s actions were so egregious and had such a horrible effect on history, and because it is so important for Christians to understand the event, I’ll briefly put it into perspective.

God’s kingdom was designed and intended to be “of the Head, by the Head, and for the Head” because of Who and What God is. The word carnal, on the other hand, means “originating with the body” and is “of the body, by the body, and for the body.” The intended function of the body and its members is to serve the head by carrying out its will. When a member/servant thinks and/or acts on its own it is doing so independently of the head – which is carnality. By definition, therefore, the member – in practice – becomes another head, another authority, another ruler. And because of something in hierarchies known as the “chain of command” nothing that is thought or done by the carnal servant can possibly glorify God. Therefore, no matter what Lucifer did, thought, or said, it would be effrontery and an abominable, taunting challenge to God. That is true even if the independent action happened to correspond to the will of God, because it still wasn’t God doing the thinking or being what He is – the authority. When viewed from a perspective tainted by equality, Lucifer’s carnality doesn’t seem to be all that bad, but it obviously is so bad to God that He went to war because of it. As Christians who want to please and be in agreement with God, it behooves us to understand the issue of authority.

It must be understood that when God went to war He wasn’t starting the war. The Bible says the carnal mind is enmity against God (Ro 8:7), and because enmity is not merely “hatred” but is “violent hatred”, we realize Lucifer started the war against God the second he allowed himself to be carnal by thinking independently from God.

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Equality has a dangerous appeal to all of us that must be deliberately suppressed. Many angels did not suppress it and they, too, became leavened, became carnal, and supported Lucifer in his war for independence from the dictatorial tyranny of the single-headed form of arbitrary government (also called monarchy, patriarchy, paternalism, male hegemony, and autocracy) ordained by God. Why did they join him? Because they agreed with Lucifer. All carnal minds are in basic agreement with each other because they all share the foundational evil that God created – the belief in equality. For example, even when carnal minds disagree they generally agree to disagree because their equality gives them a “right” to their opinions. Because of what authority means, God never permits disagreement; the only way to walk with Him is to learn His will and accept it completely and unequivocally. That’s not just the way He is – it’s Who He is. At any rate, God dealt with His rebellious children by casting them out. Never again would all angels be His – the carnal ones became devils.

The devils wanted God to accept democracy – a government that was the antithesis of Godly order because it would free God’s subjects and give them autonomy. And if God’s subjects achieved equality they’d cease being subjects and become citizens. And if everybody were equal the laws would be determined by majority opinion, by majority consent. If the majority ruled, the Almighty God would become just one of the gods. The King’s power and authority would pass to the people. That’s why any person in a democracy charged with administering a realm ceases being a true head of state and becomes merely a public servant. God was so enraged by all of this He designated everlasting fire for the devil and his angels (Mt 25:41; 2 Pe 2:4).

Michael and Gabriel, on the other hand, were content to live their lives serving under God’s rule, which tells us something about salvation. Michael, Lucifer, and Gabriel were all possessors (not merely professors) of everlasting life because it was a gift to them from God. It was a “free” gift – they did nothing to earn it. However, they were expected to demonstrate their love for God by choosing to serve Him rather than self. Their love and their choice would not be determined by their words but by their works because all of them had access to the corrupting evil of equality. Whether or not they partook of that evil would be evident by their works. Gabriel and Michael, like all proper Christians, had BELIEF, FAITH, WORKS, LOVE, HOPE, FEAR, OBEDIENCE, FRUIT, REPENTANCE, MERCY, ENDURANCE because they were HEARERS and DOERS. Lucifer lacked those qualities and therefore earned God’s displeasure. It is doctrinally important to note that God treats all of those words as synonyms by using them interchangeably in the Bible: SYNONYMS: Ro 4:9,13; 4:3; 4:5,11; 10:17; Ja 1:22/Mt 7:20-26/Lk 11:28; Ro 9:31,32; 10:2,3,4; Jn 12:42,43/Ja 2:19; 2:14,17; 1 Co 13:2; Ja 2:15,16; Ga 5:6; 1 Th 1:3; He 11:1; 11:7,8; Mt 7:16; 3:8; Jn 14:15/1 Jn 2:5; 5:2,3/2 Jn 6; Ro 1:5/1 Pe 1:2; Ps 106:3,30,31/Ro 4:3,9; Pv 21:3/1 Sa 15:22/Ho 6:6; Mt 9:13/Mt 12:7. Hence, properly and Biblically speaking, none of those qualities can exist in a person in the absence of all the others. Works, for example, are not Scriptural works unless love, obedience, faith, belief, etc. are also present.

God is fighting the war for purely ideological reasons because of how completely and inseparably the concept of authority – and its attendant prerogatives of will and ownership – has to do with Who He is. God couldn’t care less about material goods or real estate because He can create whatever He wants in whatever amount He wants. Lucifer, however, grew quite fond of the material things God created when He made the heaven and the earth as the living environment of His subjects. His covetousness made him want what belonged to God. It can be assumed, therefore, that no matter how much rhetoric he and the other carnal angels may have spouted about “liberty”, “freedom from tyranny”, the “right” to “private” property, their “right” to their opinions, etc., greed was definitely involved. We learn two things: First, in spite of the fact that we live in a physical world, we must learn to elevate Biblical ideologies, principles, and concepts over and above anything physical. Second, we must be very careful not to allow our natural attraction for things physical to blind us to the governing ideologies, principles, and concepts of the Bible.

When Lucifer and his freedom fighters warred against Michael and his army, God allowed Lucifer to win this opening battle. Knowing His kingdom divided against itself could not stand, He wanted Lucifer to have his own kingdom in the war. That meant the war wouldn’t be an internal and destructive civil war; it would be a war between two different kingdoms – with King Satan’s kingdom absorbing all the damage. By letting Lucifer win that which he coveted – the physical realm, God was then able (or obligated) to recreate the destroyed earth and make it part of King Satan’s new realm. That meant any “contamination” would be contained in Satan’s kingdom – not God’s; Satan’s kingdom would provide a perfect location for the rest of the war.

During the seven-day creation week when God put together the Devil’s new kingdom, He and Satan may have sat down to discuss the rules of engagement. After all, Satan wasn’t stupid; he knew there was no way he could defeat God in an all-out war. There had to be rules to which both sides adhered. God would create mortal humans to do His fighting for Him. They would be created of the earth with earthy, weak bodies plagued with a variety of lusts and fears that Satan could use to ensnare them. Satan liked that idea. Satan would have seven thousand years in which to prevail over the church. The issue in the war would be authority. God would win if His human saints did as Michael and Gabriel did – humble self by being submissively obedient to authority and resist the temptation to exalt self by doing that which was right in their own eyes. For Satan to win the war he had to get the church to be just like him in two stages. First he would have to lure mankind into partaking of the evil leaven of equality, as manifested by eating the forbidden fruit on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Once mankind was infected, Satan would then have to get people to live in accordance with their carnal natures and become independent thinkers, to use their opinions as the basis for what was good and evil.

Because Lucifer cannot prevail over something that doesn’t exist, he has never tried to prevent God from giving birth, and everlasting life, to His saints, whether angels in heaven or humans on earth. In the beginning he needed the bad angels to help him start the war against God, now he needs the church to help him win the war. In order to prevail/win over the church he must get us to be carnal/Satanic like he is so we, too, will live according to what we think is right and good, rather than by every word of God. Lucifer’s goal is not the disappearance of the church; it’s the disobedience of the church.

MORTALITY: DEATH ENTERS BY ADAM

God created Adam as a type of Himself: At first there was Adam. And that’s all there was until out of Adam came his servant, his bride, his body, his “church.” If God didn’t think Adam needed a servant He never would have made Eve. That’s why the Bible says twice that God wanted “an help meet for him” (Ge 2:18,20). (Many Christians, who spend their time scrounging around in Hebrew and Greek dictionaries, do not know the definition of meet. They ignorantly think it means mate, as in shipmate and teammate. Therefore they run around mindlessly saying things like, “Hi! You must be Jim’s help meet!” and “Hi! You must be Jim’s help mate!” as if they think the two words are synonyms. They aren’t. The definition of meet is suitable. God was looking for “an help [who was] suitable” for man. Therefore, rather than looking ignorant by saying, “Hi! You must be Jim’s help meet!” they should just say, “Hi! You must be Jim’s help/helper/servant!” Again, using the common but ignorant, “Hi! You must be Jim’s help meet!” is the same as saying, “Hi! You must be Jim’s help suitable!” – which makes no sense.)

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Because Adam was the first human member of the church, and because God needed more members to fight the war, He issued the Old Commission by telling Adam to be fruitful and multiply and repopulate the now empty earth (Ge 1:28). Adam and Eve’s children would be God’s people. Satan didn’t object to the Old Commission, and therefore did not try to prevent Adam from populating the globe. But Satan’s ears pricked up when he heard God issue His next instructions to Adam.

God’s instructions to Adam were simple and unambiguous: Do not, under penalty of death, partake of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Period. The Authority had spoken. Nothing else was bad and nothing else was prohibited. Just don’t eat the forbidden fruit. Satan got Eve (type of God’s body of saints) to convince Adam (type of God) to go along with her. Her decision to eat the fruit was an independent action, it was carnal, and it was rebellion against both Adam’s authority and God’s. When she asked Adam to submit to her leadership, even though he knew God chose war rather than accept the democratic will of His angels, he yielded to his subject/servant by hearkening to the voice of his wife (Ge 3:17). This was the second democratic rebellion against Godly authority in history – and Satan was just getting started. Note: Biblically speaking, the term “democratic rebellion” is redundant because the two words are the same in God’s eyes. Scriptural order is head rules body. Democracy is rebellion against that order – body rules head. Therefore any rebellion (subject resists authority) is a democratic act because the principles of carnality/independence are present. Because Satan’s ideology/religion promotes rebellion/democracy it is not surprising to find that the Bible defines rebellion as witchcraft (1 Sa 15:23). Satan’s ideology must permeate the church if he is to win. He doesn’t mind if the saints think they are worshipping Jesus – as long as they are ideological witches.

After Adam ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God asked him why he was hiding from Him. Adam replied that it is good to hide yourself when you are naked because it is bad to be seen naked. God asked, “What authority told you what is good and what is bad? Have you become your own authority on what’s good and evil by eating what I ordered you to avoid? Get out here where I can see you! What’s that you’ve got on?” “Lord, I made this apron out of fig leaves so I wouldn’t be naked.” “Adam, I’m going to teach you an important lesson about Christian doctrine: Whenever contradictions exist there is something doctrinally wrong somewhere because I never mess things up. Take your doctrines for example: You think it is bad to be seen naked. And you think that apron makes you no longer naked. Yet you still hide from Me! The carnal mind will always screw up the Bible because the carnal mind is the antithesis of submission to My authority. Therefore, the only way you can possibly please Me is by humbly accepting and doing every word I give you.”

Thank God for recording Adam and Eve’s carnal invention of “fig leaf morality” at the very beginning of His Holy Bible so we could know they angered Him by declaring nudity to be “bad.” Because of this incident one of the earliest lessons in the Bible for God’s people for thousands of years has been that we should beware of the sinfulness of morality. Morality is a human-based standard of right and wrong, which angers God because it directly competes against Him as the sole authority in all matters of faith and practice. Adam and Eve did not offend God by wearing clothes; they offended Him by thinking clothes were necessary in order to cover “sinful” nudity. Morality is one of the things we’ll observe in this historical section: how it was introduced to the educated parts of Christian society during the early Middle Ages, its slow and gradual acceptance by Christians, and the zenith of its influence during the Victorian era (circa 1900). If you were ever taught that nudity is a sinful condition that should be covered with fig leaves or other more modern types of clothing, you are seeing your first example of how tradition makes the word of God of none effect (Mk 7:13). The Pharisees hated Christ because He openly attacked their traditions and embarrassed them by quoting plainly-worded verses in the Bible. They reacted not with humble submission to the words of God, but with pride-based defensive anger. They knew He was wrong – just as Adam and Eve knew it was wrong to be naked. You must realize the Pharisees were not an anomaly in Christianity; we all have a Natural tendency to be just like them because we have all inherited the same self-based knowledge of good and evil from Adam and Eve – the very knowledge God warned us to avoid in the second chapter of His Book!

Most people don’t realize these early events in the Bible involved democratic principles. So let’s look at the second curse God put on Adam and the reason behind it. The first curse, and the one most Christians focus on, is, “thou shalt surely die if you disobey me and eat the forbidden fruit.” And yet Adam’s democratic act in Ge 3:17 so angered God that He hurled another curse, hard labor (Ge 3:17-19), at him: Adam (the head, the ruler) hearkened (yielded) to the voice of his wife (the subject). By surrendering his authority to his servant, Adam made a mockery of Godly order by turning it on its head. That is exactly what Satan wants. We’ll see later that Adam wasn’t the only Christian who angered God by democratically surrendering to the will of the people. God is very serious about maintaining authority, hierarchy, order, and obedience.

NOAH: MANKIND’S SECOND CHANCE

People gradually ignored the lesson (the wages of sin is death) in the fact that everybody from Adam to Noah died from the curse of mortality; and eventually only Noah was righteous in his generations. The other Christians were carnal so God decided to kill ‘em all and start over by making Noah the second patriarch of His people. In order to ensure that His church grew and produced more soldiers for the war, God gave Noah and his sons the Old Commission to be fruitful and multiply and repopulate the now empty earth (Ge 9:1). And just as with Adam’s descendants, God made every one of their children also a child of His.

Earlier, Adam had yielded his sovereignty by allowing his body (Eve) to get him into trouble, which resulted in his being cursed by God. Noah also surrendered control over his body by getting drunk (Ge 9:21). The head should never democratically surrender control to its body because the head is supposed to be a monarch. Noah’s drunkenness was bad because his head became incapacitated and surrendered control to his body. These episodes would later result in laws against fornication (but not against intercourse) and laws against drunkenness (but not against intoxicating beverages). Interestingly enough, when fornication and drunkenness became sins, gluttony also became a sin (but not eating)…because fornication, drunkenness, and gluttony share the same foundational evil: The sinful principle behind all three is yielding control to the body, which is the same principle behind democracy (!), which is the antithesis of Godly order and is an abomination to God.