They say the finest trick the Devil ever played was convincing you that he does not exist. Of late, it seems to me that the Church has been complicit in this ‘finest trick’. Like other ‘problematic’ verses in the bible, references to the Devil are quietly glossed over. Any mention of the Devil, hell and damnation is seen as hopelessly old-fashioned and counterproductive. But remember that Christ did not come to remove one Jot or tittle of the Law and we ignore any passage of the bible at our peril — especially those we see as unsettling.
What do I mean by the Devil? In his brilliant Screwtape Letters CS Lewis has the demon Screwtape tell his protégé that if the patient begins to suspect his existence: “Suggest something to him in red tights.” The Devil is real and much more subtle and frightening. He has many names, but two I think give a real clue to his nature, I will deal with one today: Lucifer.
In Chapter 14 verse 12, Isiah says. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!”
It is not clear if Isiah refers to the Devil, or to Babylon, but the image of the devil as Lucifer is a persistent one.
The word Lucifer means ‘light bearer’, which might seem a strange name for the devil. In Luke 10 verse 18, however, Christ says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning.” This suggests something bright, after all, why not say “like a stone”? Religious Jew and Biblical Scholar Dennis Prager makes the interesting suggestion that evil, far from being dark, is bright. “You can look into the dark as long as you like,” he says, “but not into bright light. People who look at evil look away as if from a bright light.”
In Paradise Lost, Milton explores the idea that the devil was once the brightest star in God’s firmament but was cast down when he became jealous of Christ and tried to usurp his place. Terms like ‘bright’, ‘shedding light on’, ‘enlightenment’ and so on all refer to intellect, and to me this is one of the main ways I see the devil at work today.
There is nothing wrong with intellect as such; but when not informed by wisdom, grace, mercy, or humility it can become truly satanic. Pride was the besetting sin of Milton’s Lucifer, who would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven. It is also the besetting sin of the intellectual. The evil intellectual has been a trope for centuries, from the Grand Vizier of the Arabian Nights to Doctor Faustus to Doctor Frankenstein — and with good reason. A violent man, a serial killer for example, may kill people by tens, but an evil (or overly prideful) intellectual can kill people in the tens of thousands or even millions. Like Milton’s Lucifer, secular intellectuals try to usurp the place of God. In their pride they think can improve the world and society by reforming them according to their own philosophy. In reality, the natural world and human beings are far more complex than the mind of any man can comprehend, but in their pride, intellectuals think they know and understand it all. They try to create Heaven on earth (utopia), but instead create something resembling hell. Karl Marx never, to my knowledge, personally shed a drop of blood, yet his philosophy has killed well over a hundred million people and is likely to kill more. Some, like Stalin, Mao or Hitler don’t care if they create hell, provided they get to rule over it.
For many years the archetypal mad scientist was Victor Frankenstein, the modern Prometheus trying to create life, I believe a better model is Philippe Moreau from H G Wells The Island of Dr Moreau. If you haven’t found this gem of classic science fiction, I highly recommend it. Dr Moreau is concerned with the plasticity of living things, and how they can be changed to suit the needs or whims of men like himself. Moreau is, in a sense as much a brilliant but unhinged artist as a scientist. As a scientist, I can tell you that art and science have more in common than most people believe. He surgically alters animals into a semblance of humanity, sometimes blending animals of differing species, but he has no real compassion for his creations. He performs his surgeries with little or no anesthetic, causing them appalling pain, then sets aside each creation like a completed work, eager to get on with the next one. Although the beast men are forming their own society, Moreau does not concern himself with them except in giving them a set of laws so that they will not bother him. He plays at being God, but without the sense of obligation that God has to the world he created. Moreau’s basic premise is false: he believes that living things are infinitely plastic, but they are not. As he himself says:
But somehow the things drift back again: the stubborn beast-flesh grows day by day back again.
True scientists are trained not to trust their theories, to always test their cherished beliefs by diligently looking for evidence to disprove them. Unfortunately, scientists are human and like Moreau, all too often, in their pride, they ignore the mounting evidence.
Socialist societies collapse as the will of humans to improve their lot reasserts itself, increasing numbers of ‘detransitioners’ arise to challenge notions of ‘gender fluidity’. Humans have a nature that cannot be denied and day by day the stubborn flesh grows back again.
Intelligence is one of God’s greatest gifts to man, but also the most dangerous. Many today believe that you can’t be a scientist and a Christian. I believe this is a mistake. Scientists and philosophers have great potential to improve the lot of humanity provided they retain their humility and the grace of God.
Pride is the cause of so much pain in the world. How many wars are caused or prolonged by injured pride? The common view is that World War Two was caused by the excessive demands placed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. Certainly, the humiliation of Germany was part of it, but historian Victor Davis Hanson suggests that another factor was that the Germans did not consider themselves to have been defeated after World War One. It was pride, especially injured pride, that made them follow Hitler into a second war.
Once they had been defeated, the Germans were able to accept their defeat, shoulder the blame and go on to becoming the responsible nation they are today despite an even harsher judgement.
Imagine how many lives would have been saved and how much misery could have been averted if, after the Yom Kippur war, the Palestinians had said to the Israelis “All right, the war is over, and you won. You have proven the right to your own land. You take that land; we will take this and we’ll live side by side in peace and prosperity.” Pride made them demand all the land between the river and the sea, and to say that they would rather die than give up one inch of it.
Pride makes us reject responsibility for whatever befalls us because we are beyond reproach. It is pride that makes us say that we can’t be wrong, that if the facts conflict with our feelings or cherished beliefs, then the facts must be changed or suppressed. But truth is relentless; the world refuses to comply with our misconceptions, day by day, the stubborn flesh grows back.
I wonder if this is what Christ meant when he said:
Blessed are those who can admit when they are wrong and learn from their mistakes. Blessed are they who understand that anyone, whether a university professor, a janitor, or even a little child may have something to teach them. Blessed are they on whom pride can gain no foothold. They will inherit the earth because they are the ones who will succeed in the end.
When we are humble enough to admit our mistakes and learn from others, we move closer to the truth and to God. When we lose our humility, rely only on ourselves and turn away from God, the Devil laughs!
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