Here's an excerpt from a book that I've read a few years ago, called the Long War Against God, by Dr. Henry Morris. It's an interesting perspective that I've never heard before reading this book. It looks in the part below at the why of Satan believing he could overcome God.
Start of Excerpt
"The Bible teaches that the reason why he wants to do this is simply pride. Lucifer/Satan was created as the highest of all angels, the "covering cherub" (
Ezek28:16) - "full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty" and "perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast, created" (vv. 12, 15). Except for God himself, no being in all the universe was wiser, more powerful, more exalted, and more beautiful than Lucifer. But that was not enough!
Pride is defined in the New testament as "the condemnation of the devil" (1 Tim 3:6), for he was the first sinner and his sin was pride. God said to him: "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground (same word as "earth")..." (Ezek 28:17).
One element of that satanic pride may have been resentment against God's plan for men and women. They had been created in God's own image (Gen 1:26-28). On the other hand, the angels were created specifically to be "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Heb 1:14). In any case, Lucifer's pride led to his fall, and has served as a warning ever since: "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov 16:18).
The more difficult "why" deals not with Lucifer's motive but with his rationale. Why and how could he possibly think that he, as one of God's created beings could ever manage to vanquish his Creator? He was "full of wisdom." so surely he was intelligent enough to realize he could not possibly defeat his Creator.
Unless, that is, he did not believe that God really was his Creator! After all, the only evidence he had was God's word, and he evidently chose not to believe what God had told him. There seems no other possible way to rationalize what seems otherwise to have been an incredibly foolish decision on Satan's part.
But if God had not create him, then who did? And who made God? what could Lucifer have been thinking?
It would seem that the only possible alternate solution that Lucifer could imagine would be evolution! Perhaps-just perhaps-both he and God had somehow evolved out of the primeval chaos, with God just happening to precede him chronologically. If so, they were both really the same kind of being, as were the other angels. Therefore, a well-planned rebellion just might be successful!
This seems like an absurd proposition, but Lucifer was both proud and desperate and there was evidently no other possible way to account for their mutual existence.
Anyway, how can it be so "absurd," when this is essentially what all anti-creationists have always believed? The ancient pantheists believed that the gods created themselves out of the primeval chaos, and modern scientific evolutionists believe that human beings have evolved out of the chaos of the primeval Big Bang. So far as Lucifer knew, all the angels could have evolved along with himself and God, either slowly over long ages or very rapidly. Since they were not able to observe the process, who could know?
Lucifer's first moment of awareness (and the same would apply to all the angels) after God created him was one of waters all around him. The angels were probably created on the first day of creation week, immediately after the creation of the space/matter/time cosmos itself. This is the implication of the remarkable introduction to Psalm 104.
Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverst thyself with light as with a garment; who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the cluds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind: Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire: Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever (Psalm 104:1-5).
That is, God made his angels immediately after he had stretched out the vast space of the heavens and established his own presence in the primeval created waters. This correlates with the revelation at the very earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen 1:1-2).
Without embarking on an exposition of this passage, it is clear that the first experience of God's newly created angels would be one of vast watery, cloudy expanses everywhere. The earth itself was still "without form;" its "foundations" were not "laid" until after the angelic creation. All of this suggests that if Lucifer (soon to become Satan-"the Adversary") desired to find some explanation other than God for his existence, he would be forced to think that he was somehow derived from the vast presence (literal meaning of "on the face" in Gen 1:2) of waters, which he encountered with his first awakening.
This explains the fact that no only the Sumerian cosmogony (the Enuma Elish), but also that of the Egyptians and most of the others that have been handed down b y the various tribes and nations, all began with an eternal watery chaos from which the gods eventually evolved by some unknown process. This was Lucifer's best guess as to his own origin, and so this is what he would have to use to persuade men to join with him in opposing the God of creation.
Since much of this scenario is inferential, it is not presented dogmatically. If there is some better and more realistic way of accounting for Satan's long war with his Creator, we should be open to it, but something like the above is surely strongly implied.
This means, finally, that the very first evolutionist was not Charles Darwin or Lucretius or Thales or Nimrod, but Satan himelf1 He has not only deceived the whole world with the monstrous lie of evolution but has deceived himself most of all. He still thinks he can defeat God because, like modern "scientific" evolutionists, he refuses to believe that God is really God."
End of Excerpt
I took me awhile to get through the book, but it was of interest even to my Physics Professor Brother in Law, who kept talking about marbles (shrug). Some of the science I in truth had to skip, because some of the theories being reviewed in the book were beyond me!
Still, I figured I'd share the above excerpt, because many including myself until I read this, really couldn't imagine what would the Adversary think in trying to over throw his Creator. This is as good explanation as any, and shows the possibility of why Evolution came about.
With the Love of Christ Jesus.
YBIC
Nick
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