US
Declaration of Independence
I have been intending to write a
series of serious articles on the topic equality for some time now. A few
things held me back. 1) I wanted to read some top scholars on the subject
first. 2) I have shared many of my thoughts in various forums at different
times with people, seeking to sharpen my thoughts on this subject. 3) I have
read some other posts written by other people on this topic, and frankly, I
considered their efforts to be quite valuable and knew I did not have to rush
to break new ground…
…Yet for some of you reading this, it
will be a radical idea. Which is kind of funny for a history enthusiast like me
to think about. Historically speaking the idea of complete equality, is so
radical and so new, as to surely show that those of us who have or do hold to
it, are truly the radical ones. But this is also understandable, because we
reflect the pond we grow up in, much more than the ones that preceded ours.
So, I am going to write a series of
articles on this topic, beginning with the biblical perspective on equality,
then we shall answer the question in the next article: Why is the west so
obsessed with equality? Which shall give us our historical perspective. And
then we will explore in a further article: Could equality ever even work?
I'll outline my thesis for you all
very simply: there is no such thing as equality between people in history, in
the Bible, in philosophy, in practice, or anywhere. As Vox Day would say,
"Wishing for equality is like wishing for
a unicorn." This is simply because
equality is like a unicorn, a wonderful idea, but it doesn’t exist. So, let’s now
look at the bible’s take on equality.
God did not create all men equal, this
idea that comes to us from Hobbes and Locke and will be explored in its historical
context more thoroughly, in my second article. But essentially, for this piece,
all we need to note, is that the founders of the US were not quoting the Bible
when they said that all men were created equal, they were quoting Hobbes, as
filtered through Locke. Hobbes invented the idea of political and social
equality, what we call liberal equality, but in his version, everyone was equal
in having no rights at all[1]. But
even Hobbes’ version was purely hypothetical[2].
That is, that in the state of nature all men, and Hobbes’ meant only men, are
equal[3].
Hobbes inspired Locke who wrote this:
"Sec.
4. TO understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we
must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of
perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions
and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without
asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man. A state also of
equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction is reciprocal, no one
having more than another; there being nothing more
evident, than that creatures of the same species and rank, promiscuously born
to all the same advantages of nature, and the use of the same faculties,
should also be equal one amongst another without subordination or subjection,
unless the lord and master of them all should, by any manifest declaration of
his will, set one above another, and confer on him, by an evident and clear
appointment, an undoubted right to dominion and sovereignty"[4] (Emphasis
mine).
Note again, this hypothetical reality,
which he bases equality on is not real. Locke says, “…there being nothing
more evident, than that creatures of the same species and rank, promiscuously
born to all the same advantages of nature, and the use of the same faculties…”
The exact opposite of what Locke says here is true, there is nothing more
evident than that creatures are NOT born to “all the same advantages of nature,
and the use of the same faculties.” Even two men or women born to the same
social rank, or to the same family, have nowhere near the same advantages or
faculties, and certainly the thing which is truly evident among human beings,
is that we are born with an incredible diversity of advantage and faculties. No
one is born with the same faculties. Some are stronger, some are smarter. Some
are born alphas, some are betas, some sigmas, some gammas, some deltas. Some are natural
leaders, others natural servants. Observation shows us the exact opposite of
equal faculties, or equal power. Some people are blessed enough to be born
smart, strong and fast. These people would have dominated in any hypothetical
state of nature. People are self-evidently not born equal, in any way.
Locke inspired the US founders, the Aussie
founders, and the US founders inspired our modern idea of equality, with the
quote written above: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal…”[5].
But this is not taught in scripture,
indeed the Bible rebukes the idea of equality, for example, it says this in Proverbs
30:21-23 - "21 Under three things the earth trembles; under four it cannot
bear up: 22 a slave when he becomes king, and a fool when he is filled with
food; 23 an unloved woman when she gets a husband, and a maidservant when she
displaces her mistress."
This passage is both a repudiation of
equality, and an observation that the earth cannot bear it. Why that is will
become evident in my later blog posts, but let me say for now, this is simply
because equality is so unnatural, it needs to be enforced to even get off the
ground, and therefore great violence is required to achieve it – in all
societies which have sought to achieve it. Why would we seek to force on the
world, something which the Bible says, it cannot bear?
Indeed, right here, we are told the
idea of a slave ruling over his king, or a maidservant ruling over her
mistress, is an abhorrent thing. Yet it is something we Westerners have been
trained to long for. You can see this entitlement in the way the Western people
act in more traditional cultures. I remember watching an Australian current
affairs news show some years ago, and the reporter, an Australian woman, was
addressing a king of an African community, or village area. She refused to show
him the respect he was due for his station, and was adamant he should respect
her, some foreigner he did not even know, as an equal, even though she had with
no respect or understanding of his culture, or his people’s customs. I never
forgot this encounter, because I always wondered: why does she refuse to
respect him at all? Because one-way people interpret the idea of respecting
everyone, is to respect no one. Like the old joke – “I hate all people
equally.” The Western worldview conditions all of us with a sense of
entitlement other cultures find abhorrent. Indeed, it is a sense of entitlement
those who built the West would have found abhorrent. Deference was once
considered a great virtue.
If you do a word search on the word
equality in the Bible, you will see it is not used, ever, to say we are all
equal. A word search in the ESV brings up twenty results. A search in the NIV
brings up 28.
Most of the uses of the word in the
ESV belong to weights or measurements, for example: Exodus 30:34 – “The Lord
said to Moses, “Take sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum, sweet
spices with pure frankincense (of each shall there be an equal part)…”
The closest to a statement of equality
I found, using that word directly, was Psalm 55:13 - “But it is you, a man, my
equal, my companion, my familiar friend.” This appears to be teaching equality,
at least equality amongst men, but the context shows why this is not so: Psalm
55:12-14 - “12 For it is not an enemy who taunts me—then I could bear it; it is
not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him. 13
But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. 14 We used to
take sweet counsel together; within God's house we walked in the throng.” This
is David, complaining about a man who was his friend, who he considered his equal,
generally how we feel and treat our friends, and comparing him to an enemy or
adversary, the implication being, the adversary is not his equal, his friend.
Who David is talking about we can only guess; he was betrayed by many in his
life. But this passage does not support equality, as we conceive of it today –
equality amongst all people, or even all men. Indeed, it specifically rebukes
that idea, because David is showing us, that an enemy is not his equal. At
least not in his eyes.
Even the NIV, which clearly has a more
modern egalitarian bent in its translation, does not in any way have passages
referring to the equality of all humanity. Because the Bible, Old Testament, or
New does not use this word that way, but nor does it have the concept of human
equality.
Indeed, it pushes us in the opposite
direction. Here are two interesting examples, the least powerful one first.
2 Corinthians 11:12-15 – “12 And I
will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those
who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast
about. 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading
as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an
angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade
as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve”
(NIV).
Paul here is pushing against false
apostles, who have been accepted by the Corinthian church, and are claiming
equality with Paul and his fellow missionaries. Paul explicitly rejects their
idea of equality with his ministry. They fall far short, because they are
false, they are agents of the devil. This comports fully with how we think of
ministries: it is clear not all are equal. Nor are all pastors, teachers,
leaders, musicians, evangelists, or really anyone else involved in ministry or
any career, some lawyers are far better than others. And false teaching is not
equal to true teaching. We should not treat those who push falsehood, equal to
how we treat those who present truth. Paul is rebuking equality here, and he is
doing it harshly, attributing those who falsely claim equality with his
ministry with the devil. Which is not surprising, as this is the original sin
of the devil, thinking himself equal with the Most High God.
The more powerful passage though is Philippians
2:5-7 – “5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing
to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being
born in the likeness of men.”
What are we being told here? We are
being commanded, to have this “mind among yourselves” that is to imitate Jesus,
who though being God did not see his equality with God the Father as something
to be grasped, but rather took on the form of a servant. In other words, Paul
here, again is directly rebuking our modern focus on equality, and instead
telling us to focus on being servants, just like Jesus did. The one who served
humanity in the best way possible by making a way for us all to be saved by
dying on the cross.
In other word’s a rejection of the
concept of equality is integral to the foundational ethic of the Christian life.
It’s not a side issue, it’s not a debateable issue, it’s not an unclear issue.
It is abundantly clear that rejecting equality is Christlike, and hence mandatory
for a Christian worldview, and commanded of all of us. As Christians we should
be seeking to be servants, and as Paul says earlier in this passage: “Do
nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more
significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). The natural bent of the
arrogant mind is for us to think we are our superior’s equals, or superior to
our equals. Christ would tell us to repent of such thinking, as would Paul.
More could be said on the usage of the
language of equality in the scriptures, but I now want to turn to the concept
of equality. Just because a word is not used, does not mean the concept is not
present, and so I wish to address some of the more common arguments for the
concept of equality being found in the Bible.
So, first, and
genuinely, the most significant one, the Image of God
It’s common to hear people say, we are
all equal, because we all have the divine spark. Or, we are all equal, because
we are all created in the image of God. But how does the Bible itself handle
this?
Being created in the image of God is
about dignity, and capacity, not equality. After the fall this image was
broken, but not completely lost. We know it was not completely lost, and
contains the idea of dignity, because we read this in Genesis 9:5-6 –
“5
And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will
require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the
life of man. 6 ‘Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be
shed, for God made man in his own image.’” (Emphasis mine).
God is requiring something more for
the taking of the life of a human, than he requires for the life of an animal.
All death is against the plan. But a human death is breaking that which
contains God’s image. Therefore, the murder of a human must be punished with
the life of the murderer. Now putting aside the arguments about the death
penalty for today, that is for another article, this passage is clearly pointing
to a higher dignity for mankind than of animal kind. Therefore, to have the
image of God brings a certain level of dignity.
Indeed Psalm 8:3-8 picks up on the
same idea:
“3
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the
son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than
the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour. 6 You
have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have
put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the
beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.” (Emphasis mine).
In worshipping God, David here thinks of
the curiosity that God could be mindful of such small creatures as man. But
then he recalls, “5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly
beings and crowned him with glory and honour.” What makes man so special? He
has a dignity that the other creatures do not have, therefore they are under
the dominion of mankind. Though the term, “image of God”, is not used in this
Psalm, David is harkening back to Genesis 1 and expanding on the themes
contained within it. He clearly sees in Genesis the idea of dignity and
capacity being contained in man’s creation. God has crowned humanity with
“glory and honour”, dignity, and given him “dominion”, hence capacity also.
These ideas are certainly implied in Genesis 1 and 2, but David’s reframing of
them lends authority to this particular interpretation.
Indeed, the idea of the image of God,
which is implied by the quote from the Declaration of Independence, being about
equality, cannot be true, for this reason: people do not reflect the
image of God equally.
We are told this about Jesus of
Nazareth in Colossians 1:13-15: “13 He has delivered us from the domain of
darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we
have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of all creation.” Jesus is the “image of the invisible God”,
the one who most truly and accurately reflects God’s image. Hebrews 1:3 tells
us the same thing: “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact
imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the
Majesty on high.” So, Jesus has the image of God, as he is God the Son, the
Logos, the true one, and we are not equal to him, and no Christian would ever
claim that we are.
But nor do we all equally reflect the image of Christ, which is the image of God, “29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). We need to be conformed more to the image of Christ, the image of God. We do not fully reflect it like he does, and this being conformed to his image only begins once we become believers and trust in him. It’s only those who are being justified, i.e., those who have repented of their sins and trusted in Jesus, and have been declared righteous in his sight, who are being conformed to his image. So, there is a sense in which believers reflect the image of God in a way that non-believers don’t. And there is a sense in which more mature believers reflect it in a way that less mature believers don’t.
So, to look to the image of God for equality is not supported by how the Bible handles the idea of the image of God. Therefore, the American founders, as great as they were, imported a meaning which does not belong there.
But nor do we all equally reflect the image of Christ, which is the image of God, “29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). We need to be conformed more to the image of Christ, the image of God. We do not fully reflect it like he does, and this being conformed to his image only begins once we become believers and trust in him. It’s only those who are being justified, i.e., those who have repented of their sins and trusted in Jesus, and have been declared righteous in his sight, who are being conformed to his image. So, there is a sense in which believers reflect the image of God in a way that non-believers don’t. And there is a sense in which more mature believers reflect it in a way that less mature believers don’t.
So, to look to the image of God for equality is not supported by how the Bible handles the idea of the image of God. Therefore, the American founders, as great as they were, imported a meaning which does not belong there.
The next most
powerful argument that egalitarians have is Galatians 3:28. Let’s read it in context, Galatians 3:25-29 -
“25
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in
Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as
were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all
one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's
offspring, heirs according to promise.”
Ok, so this passage has been used like
a battering ram to push equality, indeed when I typed in the word equality in
Biblegateway.com, to do a word search on a couple of different translations, this
passage came up as a suggested result. But this passage cannot be viewed as a
support for the concept of equality of all people, because the verse clearly
rebukes the idea of equality, because there is no Jew or Greek, slave or free,
male nor female IN Christ. Only those who have faith, have that access,
so it breaks humanity in two: believers and non-believers. So, no equality! In
fact, again, this passage rebukes the idea of equality, because it creates two
classes of people, the saved as opposed to the unsaved. Galatians 3:28 is
simply about who can access Christ, all who believe, no matter their ethnicity,
or gender.
To take Galatians 3:28 as talking
about equality in the structure of the church or Christian relationships is not
correct either, because many passages teach a hierarchical nature of
relationships. Indeed, there is a brother verse of this one, in Colossians
3:11, which says, “11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and
uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in
all.” And just a few verses down from this one Paul then tells wives to submit
to husbands, children to obey parents, and bondservants to obey their masters
(Col. 3:18-22).
To take a passage about there being no
racial, gendered, or tribal barriers to faith in Christ, and twisting it to say
that all people are equal, or there is to be a destruction of the hierarchy in
the church or the home, is to harm the word of God, and go against a whole
array of passages, which clearly do not support the idea of equality. Some of
which have been explored above. Others you can look at are Numbers 30, 1
Corinthians 11:1-3, Ephesians 5:22-33, 1 Peter 3:1-7, among many more.
There is no basis for egalitarianism
in Christianity, or Mosaic law.
Indeed, various
sayings of Jesus highlight this.
For example, the parable of the
talents, Matthew 25:14-15, speaking of the kingdom of God, Jesus tells us, “14
For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and
entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two,
to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.” The
master does not equally delegate to his servants, because his servants are not
equally capable of handling the master’s resources. Any employer in history has
observed this phenomenon, indeed even if the employees are their own children,
they will see this. We are not all born equal. Indeed, I often am amazed at the
inherent capability in some people I know. It is a marvel to behold at times.
Similar concepts can be drawn from other
parables of Jesus. For instance, the sheep and the goats – “31 When the Son of
Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his
glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will
separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the
goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left”
(Matthew 25:31-33). The sheep and the goats do not get considered
equally or treated equally, nor do the wheat and the tares, “Let both grow
together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers,
‘Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the
wheat into my barn’” (Matthew 13:30). Inequality is built into the Christian
faith. Indeed, it is part of the message of the evangelist: submit to the one
who is Lord, so he treats you as a subject, rather than as an enemy.
The first shall be last, and the last
shall be first (Matt. 20:16), Esau God hated Jacob he loved (Rom. 9:13), and many
other passages drive home the same point. God does not consider everyone equal;
he does not ask us to consider ourselves equal to each other, and his word does
not push for equality. As has been already mentioned, the Bible pushes us to
not consider ourselves as more than we are, but seek to be servants, as Jesus
said, “…and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all” (Mark
10:44). Equality is not the ethos of Christianity, and it is not surprising
that Christianity has continued to go further and further off the rails in the
West, as it is more and more driven by anti-Christian ideologies.
So, if Christ explicitly did not see
his equality as something to be grasped, and if Christianity does not teach it,
why are we obsessed with it?
Simple, we too often follow Lucifer…wait
what?...where am I coming from here…? Well what did Satan, the accuser, the
deceiver, the Son of the Dawn offer to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? You
guessed it equality:
“3
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord
God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat
of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat
of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of
the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you
touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not
surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and
you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1-5).
What is the devil offering Adam and
Eve here? Well one way to look at this is he is offering them equality with
God. Which is how the ESV renders it here. No Bible believing egalitarian would
think that a human should be this presumptuous. So egalitarians and
patriarchists are on the same page here; to reach for equality with God, is
evil. But there is another way to look at it, which is captured by the King
James Version translation, and fits better within the context of certain other
passages, and the modus operandi of the devil himself. The KJV renders verse 5:
“For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Emphasis mine).
The differences in these renderings
simply come down to how to handle the Hebrew. As this is not an exegetical
essay, I will not go into details about why this is the case, it is sufficient
to show that KJV rendering is not inaccurate, it is just showing a different
summation of the grammar. As Hartley[6]
says, the devil is seeking to argue that “God was protecting himself by keeping
them from knowledge that would raise their status to that of gods, or heavenly
beings.” The devil was lying to them and arguing that eating the fruit “would
bring them divine, esoteric knowledge”[7].
I prefer the KJV rendering because it
stands to reason that it was much more likely that the devil was offering that
they should become gods (little g) rather than like the creator. Adam and Eve
were created perfect, they would not have been idiots. If Satan is however
saying, “You can be like me, one of the heavenly beings, or the benoy Elohim
(sons of God)”, then this makes a lot more sense of why they fell into temptation.
This was a reachable goal, and it was also a tempting offer. The devil
specializes in offering more power, indeed he has the gumption to offer something
similar to Jesus, while he was in the wilderness being tempted (Matt 4:8-10). But even a
conman must be believable for the con to have any success. But why is this significant?
Well an exploration of who the sons of God are helps with answering this.
(For a more in-depth view, read
Michael S. Heiser’s Unseen Realm). The “sons of God” were there when God
made the world, they are created beings, angels, though more accurately called
arch-angels. Job 38:4-7 tells us:
“4
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have
understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who
stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its
cornerstone, 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons
of God shouted for joy?” (Emphasis mine).
The sons of God, or morning stars as
they are also called here, are the heavenly court, the divine council, as Psalm
82 explains to us; “1 God has taken his place in the divine council; in the
midst of the gods he holds judgment…6 I said, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most
High, all of you; 7 nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any
prince.’” The word translated gods here is simply ‘elohim’, it can be variously
translated ‘God’, ‘gods’, ‘mighty ones’, ‘heavenly beings’, depending on the
context. Some of these glorious ones (Jude 1:8), had set themselves up as gods,
and had therefore stepped out of their proper place and were punished. As Jude 1:6
tells us: “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of
authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under
gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.”
These morning stars reflect, to a
lesser degree, the glory of God. We see a description of such an angel in
Revelation 10:1-3 -
“1
Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud,
with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like
pillars of fire. 2 He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his
right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, 3 and called out with a
loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders
sounded.”
The angel described here reflects the glory
of Jesus described in Revelation 1:12-16. That which worships in the presence
of Christ, becomes more like Christ (2 Cor. 3:18, 1 John 3:1-3). Which is amazing to think about.
I say all this, to highlight this,
Satan was counted amongst these sons of God – Job 1:6 - “Now there was a day
when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan
also came among them.” And Job 2:1 - “Again there was a day when the
sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also
came among them to present himself before the Lord.” (Emphasis mine).
The traditional view of the church,
and Judaism, is that Satan was one of the most glorious angels. You can read a description
of him in Ezekiel 28:11-19. Just like these other “heavenly beings” Satan was
created to serve God, and worship God. All that was created, was created for
this purpose. But instead, Satan wanted to be the Most High, as Isaiah 14:12
says,
“12
How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down
to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13
You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will
set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches
of the north…”
Another translation for ‘day star’ is ‘morning
star’, some translations follow the ancient Latin, and translate it Lucifer, hence
where that particular name for Satan comes from, “12 How art thou fallen from
heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” (Isaiah 14:12, KJV).
So, what was Lucifers crime? What was
his sin? He wanted to be equal with the Most High God: “13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to
heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the
mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north…” (Isaiah 14:13). To sit in
the highest reaches of the north, is to sit on the highest seat, to be the
greatest divinity. The gall of Satan, to think he could be God. This truly is pride at its worst.
We have seen already that the angels
can be biblically called morning stars, as this was a term of glory in the
ancient near East. And angels do emit glory, only to a much lesser degree than
God himself. But, and this is key, there is only one “bright morning star”: Revelation
22:16 - “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for
the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning
star.” (Emphasis mine). Jesus is the bright morning star. The glory an
angel displays, is simply the reflection of the great and truly glorious one,
God himself. Indeed, the glory that man reflects, is again is simply a reflection of God's glory in lesser degree. Hence why we are said to have the image of God, we are smaller,
lesser, mortal reflections of the divine. We were created to mirror him in this
world.
Lucifer’s sin then was as a morning
star, to seek to exalt himself up to be as great as THE bright morning star. He
literally was so full of his own glory that he thought he could outshine his
creator. Pride of self-exaltation was his sin. And pride of self-exaltation is
at the heart of sin. And Isaiah is using an ancient understanding of the fall
of the devil, to describe also the wicked pride of the King of Babylon, because
many kings have thought the same way Lucifer does. Indeed, even we ordinary,
run of the mill humans, want to lift up ourselves as more than we are: this is why
equality is so attractive for us. And if we can’t lift ourselves to up to be on
the same level of some others, we are often content to get equality by bringing
others down. We Australians call this tall-poppy syndrome. It’s also behind the
ethos of Socialism, but more of that in a later article.
What we can clearly see, though, is that whichever
way you look at it, equality is Satanic in the strict sense of that word, therefore
egalitarianism is evil. And it is no surprise that the church continues to go
hard off track, the more it goes down egalitarian route.
As we conclude,
let’s compare Christ to Lucifer:
Lucifer being not God, saw equality
with God as something to presumptuously reach for, and hence fell, and became
demonic.
Jesus “though he was in the form of
God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied
himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
Which is more Christian? The answer is
so obvious I shouldn’t really have to ask the question. Except for the fact
that we have made a Luciferian ideal a Christian one. Hence, I need to ask this
question as well: why have we done this, and why has it over taken our faith so
thoroughly? I will explore this in my next two articles on this topic.
For now, let me say this, what does
the Bible teach about equality? That we should reject it as a Christian ideal.
Because it stands against what the Bible teaches. As long as Christians
continue to interpret Christianity through the lens of a Luciferian ideal, we will
bring harm to our understanding of God’s word, the nature of his church, the
nature of human relationships, and we will continue to harm wider society as a
result. It’s time for a massive reset. Equality has done enough harm, let’s lay
the idea to rest.
[1]
Martin Van Creveld, 2015, Equality the Impossible Quest, Castalia House,
Finland, Kindle Edition: Introduction.
[2] Ibid:
Chapter 11.
[3] Ibid:
Chapter 5.
[4]
John Locke, 1689, “Two Treatises on Government” in 7 Works, Kindle
Edition, Chapter 2: The State Of Nature.
[5] US
Declaration of Independence, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript,
accessed 10/04/2020.
[6]
John E. Hartley, 2000, New International Biblical Commentary: Genesis,
Hendrickson Publishers, Massachusetts: p66.
[7] Ibid:
p66.
All Bible references are from the ESV translation, unless specified otherwise.
Special thanks to my brother Adam, for a quick edit and comments.
