f2PointEight

This essay is best read alongside “What Belief Owed Love” which reflects on the ethical questions that shaped it.

There is a theme to the Bible that many Christians tend to take for granted, a theme so great that its unfolding drama becomes the lens through which every chapter can be read. In the opening pages of Genesis, we meet a perfect people in a perfect world, living in unbroken communion with a perfect God. Almost immediately, that communion fractures. Sin enters, trust disintegrates, and separation follows. Yet the final pages of Revelation return us to what was lost: a restored people in restored relationship with their Maker. On the surface, everything in between seems to be the story of how fallen humanity is brought back into that fellowship.

But a closer look suggests something deeper. Genesis does not merely introduce a conflict; it reveals humanity stepping into a conflict already in motion. Adam and Eve do not ignite the war. They become its latest casualties.

If so, where did the war begin? Revelation 12:7–9 portrays a conflict in heaven itself, with a host of angels aligning in opposition to God under the leadership of Satan. How could rebellion be conceived in a holy place? Isaiah 14:12–14 describes the abition of Lucifer, the being who would come to be known as Satan: “I will ascend… I will exalt my throne… I will be like the most High.” The absurdity is startling: a created being entertaining the right to receive what belongs to the Creator. And yet the question grows sharper still. How could so many be persuaded?

Continued on Substack. Click here to read the rest…