p. 4 | Our Imperishable Inheritance by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 15, 1909

Our Imperishable Inheritance

By C. M. S.

“Like the Most High”

THERE is no little significance in the fact that the same temptation to which Satan yielded in heaven and to which he induced a multitude of the heavenly host to yield, was used by him to accomplish the downfall of the human race, and was later used in a disguised form in an effort to entrap the Son of God himself. It shows one fixed and continuous purpose. It shows that upon that one line of operation Satan formulated a campaign, and staked all upon its success. He did not abandon it because of its failure to overthrow Jesus in the wilderness of temptation; instead, it has been elaborately drawn out into a religious system that to-day holds millions in its

toils; and even outside of that system the same temptation is set before men in new cults that teach the divinity of man.

In the previous article was quoted the purpose of Satan (Lucifer) to “ascend into heaven,” to exalt his throne “above the stars of God,” and to make himself “like the Most High.” It was shown that his attempt to consummate that purpose resulted in his expulsion from heaven. His great inducement to man for disobeying God was: “Ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.”

The difference between Lucifer and the Son of God—also the difference between the first Adam and the second Adam (Christ)—is shown in this: the Son of God, the second Adam, although possessing equality with God, was willing to lay it aside and become a sacrifice for sin and a Redeemer of men, and “counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped;” whereas Lucifer was willing to risk all if only he might grasp it. He risked all, and lost all. He promised by that same process to lift man into the realm of divinity. Man “grasped” at the prize, and fell—fell from the throne he had by divine right, and Satan took possession of it. The fact of that early transfer of dominion is incidentally referred to in this scripture: “And thou, O tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, yea, the former dominion shall come.” Micah 4:8. The “tower of the flock” and “hill,” or stronghold, “of the daughter of Zion,” is none other than the Messiah himself, who, through destroying “the works of the devil,” brings back to man again the dominion and inheritance lost in the fall of man.

Satan knew that the purpose of the Son of God in coming to this earth to be born into the human family was that all the terrible results of sin might be swept out of the universe, and all things be restored as before that tempest of ruin entered. “When all things have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all.” 1 Cor. 15:28. The same purpose is outlined in the following scriptures: “To sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in him, I say, in whom also we were made a heritage.” Eph. 1:10, 11. “For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell; and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.” Col. 1:19, 20.

Satan, remembering what he had accomplished in heaven through that conspiracy of exaltation, and what he had accomplished in Eden by the same means, and knowing full well that the purpose of the Son of God in coming to this earth was to destroy and eradicate all that he (Satan) had accomplished in both heaven and earth, determined to frustrate the purpose of heaven by one of two plans. He would bring about the death of the child Jesus, or through his great temptation, overthrow the man Jesus as soon as he should enter upon his ministry. The first plan was frustrated by the direct interposition of heavenly agencies; the second, Satan was permitted to attempt, and the new head of the human race, weakened by his long fast, must endure what the “first man Adam” failed to endure. First came the temptation upon the point of appetite—where Adam had failed. It did not succeed. Then came the temptation to presumption—a temptation to which Satan himself had yielded, and which wrought his ruin. It likewise failed. The third was to be his master effort. Christ had come to win back, through the sacrifice of himself, all that was lost through sin. Satan would give it to him, but upon a condition which would make certain the overthrow of God’s purpose and the eternal death of the Son of God himself. The tempter “showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall all be thine.” Luke 4:5-7. Here is a subtle plan, a scheme by which all that Christ came to do can be accomplished, and that, too, without the sacrifice upon Calvary. Christ will then be the ruler of the realm; the glory and dominion will be his. He had laid down his glory in heaven to become man; he can take it up again and become like God. But Jesus saw in it the sting of death, the poison of the dragon. Therefore he said: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Had Christ yielded to that suggestion of the adversary, he would have broken the law of God, and involved the whole race, with himself, in irreparable ruin.

Foiled in his attempt to destroy the Saviour of the race, Satan determined to destroy the church established by the Redeemer, and to make of it an organization for thwarting the purpose of him who founded it. Man in Eden had yielded to the temptation to be like God; the second Adam had borne the temptation unscathed; but would his followers prove invulnerable? The record shows that the great majority did not. The same course which Satan pursued toward Jesus he followed in his dealings with the “body” which Jesus left to reveal him upon the earth. First he stirred up heathen emperors to exterminate the entire church; but, like her divine Master, she survived in spite of persecution. Then, when the church had grown strong, Satan placed before her, as he had before her Master, a vision of world power and earthly glory. Individuals, like their Master, turned their backs upon the temptation; but the great organization yielded, lost its hold on God, joined itself to the state, and set at work with all its power utterly to exterminate those who would not yield to its domination. That body, organized to reveal God on earth, to teach his truth, and win the souls of men from perdition, set itself squarely across the path to heaven, to turn men out of the way by sophistry, by persecution, and by threat of death. There was continually held before that apostatizing organization the age-old enticement to ruin—“Ye shall be as God.”

Whether that organization has yielded to the temptation may be readily determined by the nature of the titles applied to him who is chosen to stand at its head. Some of these are, “Our Lord the Pope,” “Lord God the Pope,” “God on Earth,” “Vicar of Christ,” “Holy Father,” etc.; and these do in truth identify the “man of sin,” who was to oppose and exalt himself “against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.” 2 Thess. 2:4. As Satan sought to disrupt the rule of God in heaven, so does this power seek to do on earth, claiming the right to alter the very law of God. It does not cease there, but in the last crisis of its history demands of the whole world (Rev. 13:7, 8) the very thing that Satan demanded of Christ—worship; and its one unchangeable purpose is ultimately to bring the entire world to the feet of the pope, recognizing him as the one and only sovereign of the world. In the following language does Pope Nicholas I put himself in the place of God: “Jesus Christ hath appointed us with his own mouth absolute judges of all men; and kings themselves are submitted to our authority.”—Cormenin, “History of the Popes,” Vol. I, page 244. “The popes can neither be bound nor unbound by any earthly power, nor even by that of the apostle [Peter] if he should return upon the earth; since Constantine the Great has recognized that the pontiffs held the place of God upon earth, the divinity not being able to be judged by any living man. We are, then, infallible, and whatever may be our acts, we are not accountable for them but to ourselves.”—Ibid., page 248. Such language is a

complete fulfilment of all that Inspiration declared the “man of sin” would do. This is the human leader of a fallen church making on his own behalf in the earth the same blasphemous claims that Satan made on his own behalf in heaven.

C. M. S.