Posted on 04/11/2021 3:52:03 AM PDT by inpajamas
When asking what the opposite of love is, a common response to the question would be that the answer is hate. However, hate is not the answer. It can only be part of the answer, being that it is more like a symptom and must have a catalyst. At the crux of all evil is selfishness. The opposite of love is selfishness.
God is love; yet, God hates evil. King Solomon said, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” His father King David says in Psalms, “Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.” The love of God is to hate evil. There is a Godly hatred; but it only exists because of evil.
Hatred is evil only in a context that would make it evil. Selfishness is that context. An evil hatred springs from selfishness. At the heart of every evil lies selfishness. Therefore, it is not hate, but selfishness that is the opposite of love.
It was selfishness that that overcame Lucifer; it filled him with pride, jealousy, envy, and hatred against God. It drove him to covet the throne of God. This is evident in the account given in Isaiah wherein Lucifer rebels seeking to overthrow God and take the throne of the Most High for himself.
In chapter 14 of the Book of Isaiah, Lucifer, being lifted up with pride, speaks in his 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”. The very first word of each sentence, Lucifer begins with the self centered word, “I”. (Now I know that may sound like part of an Obama speech; but trust me, it wasn’t; it was Lucifer).
Spreading accusations and gathering others unto his rebellion, Lucifer made an attempt to overthrow God by accusing God of being selfish. Lucifer demanded equality. He went among the angels sowing discord and gathered other disgruntled angels to his rebellion, (ALM?). This is where the war between good and evil began. Lucifer was a Marxist before Karl Marx, thus, making Marxism a misnomer. It might more properly be called Luciferism. Lucifer preached the first communistic message of class-warfare against inequality and hierarchy. it is here Lucifer became Satan, the first “social justice warrior”.
Heaven had become polluted by evil. But God is holy. And evil cannot abide his presence. For this reason, Satan was cast out and a place set apart from Heaven was prepared for the Devil and his angles—a “holding cell” until The Great Day of Judgment. He and his fallen angels were cast out.
How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! - Isaiah 14:12
“The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”- Revelation 12:9
He [Jesus] replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. - Luke 10:18
Although God could have justly destroyed Lucifer and his followers utterly and eternally at that moment, he did not. But why? May it have been that the many accusations Satan had hurled at God needed to be answered before he was destroyed? If Satan was destroyed immediately, was there any means whereby all the angels whom God had created could know and see if there was any truth in what Satan had declared? Might it be wondered if all should indeed be equal? Would the question remain if it were possible that the All Mighty had set himself up unfairly above all? Would the remaining angels who fell not, serve God out of terror rather than love? Did the conception of evil create the necessity for the maturity of evil before judgment and the fulfillment of all righteousness?
To resolve all questions, doubts, and to make the truth manifest there was need for a trial. But first, before Judgment Day, all the evidence must be gathered; for who goes to trial without evidence? And not only so, but there would be other co-conspirators to the rebellion, yet to be created, who would later join the ranks of evil. They too must be rounded up before the Final Judgment. As it is written, the tares must be allowed to grow together with the wheat. At the end the tares will be gathered and burned to make an end of all evil, once and for ever.
Lucifer being cast out is henceforth referred to as Satan (Adversary), and expressed by darkness. God speaks his Word, “Let there be Light”, It is the Day. “And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness”. Only the light God called good.
Remember, the sun, moon, stars, all heavenly luminaries are not yet created until the Forth Day. Notwithstanding, God, on the First Day, creates Light in the Darkness. He exposes Darkness, He judges Darkness. Satan and his followers are indicted, arrested, incarcerated, and held in “chains of darkness” awaiting trial.
It is therefore, we can find in the very first verses of Scripture, that God reveals the mystery of a physical creation unto us. For this purpose God’s creation from the beginning to the end, is that those things that are not seen, may be seen by those things that are. By this, ignorance is dispelled by knowledge, Darkness by Light, and falsehoods by The Word of God.
The Light has come: the Word made flesh; darkness is divided out by the Word. The evidence of truth is made manifest by our creation and our world, and it is recorded as evidence for the Final Judgment.
God divided his Heavenly realm above, from the realm where Satan is in holding until the Final Judgment of all things.
“And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. “And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day”
Again, remember in Scripture there is metaphoric usage and allegory. The physical corresponds to the spiritual after which it was patterned. Waters often are used to demonstrate, Word and Spirit, and particularity in Revelations, there is also usage as “many peoples” and “many spirits”, or voices of many waters.
Might we then consider that the Godly spirits were divided from other spirits that are ungodly? And this is the division between God’s Kingdom above and the realms below. For Satan and his angels were cast out of heaven, and there is an impenetrable barrier (a great gulf) fixed between the Most Holy Place and all others that no one can crossover but he that is sent; as was Christ. Christ the selfless one who sought not his own nor did not his own will, but the will of his Father. So then the opposite of selfishness is Christ, and the opposite of Christ is Satan. Therein lies the decision that ultimately everyone must make.
Later.
Selfishness is a virtue. This is very misleading.
Disagree. You say,”he crux of all evil is selfishness.” I think many theologians would say the crux of all evil is covetousness.
I believe the opposite of love is indifference.
Is it wrong to hate evil? Or to hate love that results in immorality? Or to hate tyranny?
“Rebellion to Tyranny is Obedience to God”
In a word, no.
Thanks. A reflective read.
Why covet if you are not selfish?
There are other wo disagree.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves. Philippians 2:3
No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. 1 Corinthians 10:24
For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. James 3:16
Would apathy and indifference inspire Lucifer and his angels to violently rebel against Heaven? I think not, anymore than indifference drives Antifa and BLM which are of the same spirit.
Selfish means you have it all. Covetousness means you want it all and lies at the heart of all sin.
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