Salvation Is Jesus

The Origin of Pride

Pride sure is a weird thing. I think that the original sin of the universe was pride. Satan is the father of sin, and his sin was wanting to be exhaled above the Most High. He ignored the boundaries that God had set because he thought he knew better than the God that created him. He thought he could run the universe better than God and wanted to be in God’s place.

Note: for the purposes of this post, pride is defined as: a high or inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc. I’m NOT referring to the simple pride of taking pleasure in something that has been well done or satisfaction from accomplishment, job well done, etc.

Satan led a rebellion, along with a third of the angels, all of whom were cast out of Heaven forever. (For a more complete account, see Ezek. 28:12-17) From an outsider’s point of view, this makes Satan look foolish. How does one think that he can overthrow the omnipotent power of God? The God that creates out of nothing, that simply wills things into existence. The God that can create the entire Galaxy in six days. The God that knows how every electron, proton, and neutron, in every atom build every molecule in every substance.

Blinding Pride

But like I said, pride is a weird thing. It can well up, slowly inside a person, usually blinding it’s victim to the dangers of its destructive force. The outside observer can see that it makes no sense that the created Satan could overcome and destroy the Eternal God that created him. But pride can creep into the mind and obscure simple objectivity. Satan truly believed, and perhaps still does believe that he will eventually overpower God.

That may be why Satan is continually fighting so hard against God and His people, leading a rebellion on Earth that has continued since the world was created. Or maybe Satan continues in hate against God and those that follow God because pride is often followed by its cousin, selfishness. If Satan can no longer enjoy the presence of God, then he doesn’t want others to enjoy it either.

Really, no one knows why Satan is so persistent, but it is very clear that he is relentless and is on a mission to take as many souls to eternal damnation as possible. He started with Eve, using the same sin that cast him out, telling her, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of [the forbidden fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Pride appeared in her heart, blinding her to the fact that God had only given her good things and a perfect peaceful existence. But she was deceived by Satan and pride and thought that she would know better than God. Maybe the Creator of the Universe was mistaken about knowing evil. Surely knowledge could not be a bad thing. So after finally deciding that she knew better than God, she went against Gods command and ate the fruit. Then her husband, Adam, who was watching the whole thing take place decided to do the same.

Deceiving Pride

So the first two earliest examples of sin that we have record of, had to do with pride. Once pride gets a hold of a person’s heart refuses to let go. It can lay dormant for periods of time, but then spring up and show its ugly face to the world and almost everyone can see it except for the person it resides in.

I by no means am excluded from its lure. When I look back at my own life, at my attitudes and actions, I can see many areas where pride was my motivator. At the time of course, I was completely in the right and being very reasonable. But in reality, when I’m able to sand back and look more objectively, I can see that pride was motivating those actions/thoughts.

The most terrible effect of pride that I see among my personal friends and family is that blinding effect that it has on people’s thoughts about God and sin. Pride makes people create weird sayings like “relative truth”, “my truth”, “your truth”. All these are contradicting statements in their very nature, but pride will not allow the believers in such things to see it that way. It is powerfully deceptive, and Satan continues to use it to deceive the world, just like he did with Adam and Eve.

Overcoming Pride

There is hope though. God has given us his Word in the Bible. By using the scriptures, you have a solid foundation to base your beliefs and actions on. It gives a clear beacon that shines through the blinding fog of pride. It saddens me though that many people ignore the light and are content in their fog. I know that many would object the the validity of the Bible. What makes it better than or “more true” than the Koran, The Book of Mormon, the teachings of Buddha, etc? What about the so called contradictions with science involving creation and evolution? What about translation issues?

All of those are great questions that I have asked myself, researched, and come to the conclusion that the Bible is “THE Truth”. And there have been many people, much smarter than I that asked those questions and wrote really good books on their findings (such as Lee Stroble, C.S. Lewis). But I have found that most people just don’t seem to care to take the energy and time to actually look into what they believe or why they believe it? God encourages us to reason with Him and to work out your salvation with far and trembling. God has given us the freedom to choose, but we can’t just choose to believe our own opinions, based on nothing but yourself, without consequences. Don’t become the one of the people that the Bible prophecies about in 2 Timothy 4:3-4. Don’t let your pride deceive you any further.