Title: 13
Author: JOEG
Last saved by: Matthew C. Lawson
Company: Auth Co

© 2002 Joe Griffin	                                   ▼                    02-01-13-B.JSH-597 /

The Inscrutable Question: The Dark Side of Morality: Human Good; Characteristics of the Sin Nature; Dr. L. S. Chafer: “Satan’s Method”
The Dark Side of Morality
		A.	Human Good
	1-	Human Good may be defined as: Good deeds produced by the sin nature.  The believer with unconfessed sin in his life is not spiritual but carnal (controlled by the sin nature).  The good deeds of a carnal Christian are indistinguishable from good deeds performed by an unbeliever.
	2-	Although human good occurs in status quo carnality under the influence of the sin nature, human good is different from sin.
	3-	It must be remembered that the sin nature does have an area of weakness that produces personal sins.  However, it also has an area of strength that produces human good.
	4-	In addition, the sin nature possesses two battalions of agent provocateurs: (1) trends toward legalism and asceticism and (2) trends toward antinomianism and licentiousness.
	5-	Human good refers to anything produced by man apart from grace provision.  It finds its motivation from the energy of the flesh, it can usually be identified by its attempts to whitewash the devil’s world, and it is characterized by efforts that completely ignore the grace, the plan, and the integrity of God.
	6-	The concept of human good is born out of the Luciferian Rebellion.  Satan thought he could govern the angels and run the universe better than God.  He engaged in “angelic good” when he issued his Five proclamations, the fifth of which was to become like the Most High God.
	7-	When God created mankind as witnesses for the appeal trial of Satan He inserted them into the perfect environment of Eden with perfect bodies and without a conscience.
	8-	The conscience is designed to determine right from wrong and advise for the former.  However, nothing our original parents decided to do was wrong.  There were no rules and regulations for life in Eden.
	9-	There was one prohibition which was necessary to test their volition since free will is the issue in the angelic conflict and the appeal trial.
	10-	The only way Lucifer could wrest control of Planet Earth away from Adam and Ishah was to solicit them into sin.  
	11-	Shocked to see that God did not terminate the appeal trial, Lucifer soon learned that sin did allow him to maintain control over their souls.  He began to utilize this as a means of influencing them to carry out a plan to restore the earth to its pristine perfection. 
	12-	If successful he could then rule mankind in a perfect environment, or so he thought.  However, it turns out that the sinful nature is genetic and simply cannot be controlled except by the filling of the Holy Spirit and this solution is not a solution for Lucifer.
	13-	Therefore, Lucifer in order to achieve his nefarious objective of global domination must engage in a campaign to prolong the appeal trial by replacing divine good with human good.
	14-	He also invented religion as a method of deluding mankind in to erroneously believing that he is serving God when in fact he is at enmity with God.  His scheme in theory is, through religion, to ultimately eliminate all true believers from history.
	15-	Lucifer’s rationale is that if he can eliminate believers by distorting the Gospel and eliminate the Jew through genocide then he can prevent the Second Advent of Jesus Christ and establish his earthly kingdom by means of human good.
	16-	Probably the most articulate description of the engagement of good versus good was written in 1947 by Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, President and Professor of Systematic Theology of Dallas Theological Seminary, in:
Chafer, Lewis Sperry.  Systematic Theology.  (Dallas: Dallas Theological Seminary, 1947), 2:99-111 passim.
“Satan’s Method.”  Satan’s dominant purpose is not, as the popular impression supposes, one of attempting to be unlike God.  Satan has explicitly asserted concerning himself, as recorded in Isaiah 14:14, that his transcendent objective is to be like the Most High.
The unregenerate masses of humanity are said to be deceived by Satan.  Their delusion is both tragic and pitiable.  They are imposed upon by Satan’s subterfuge, treachery, and fraud.  Speaking of the future of fallen men, it is written: “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13).  In the light of all this disclosure, the dreams of religious guides who predict a transformed, regenerated cosmos as a result of human effort in Christian service are seen to be without foundation.
When God declares that the cosmos diabolicus is to continue with increasing deception and to continue to the embodiment of the lie until it is crushed by the infinite power of the returning King, there is little ground for any attempts to save it or to transform it.  Indeed, Christians are exhorted to be instant in season and out of season in the saving of individuals; but that is far removed as an objective from the attempted rescue of that which God has doomed to destruction and that which by its very nature is antigod.
Next to the lie itself, the greatest delusion Satan imposes—reaching to all unsaved and a large portion of Christians—is the supposition that only such things as society considers evil could originate with the devil—if, indeed, there be any devil to originate anything.  It is not the reason of man, but the revelation of God, which points out that governments, morals, education, art, commercialism, vast enterprises and organizations, and much of religious activity are included in the cosmos diabolicus.  That is, the system which Satan has constructed includes all the good which he can incorporate into it and be consistent in the thing he aims to accomplish.
A serious question arises whether the presence of gross evil in the world is due to Satan’s intention to have it so, or whether it indicates Satan’s inability to execute all he has designed.  The probability is great that Satan’s ambition has led him to undertake more than any creature could ever administer.  Revelation declares that the whole cosmos-system must be annihilated—not its evil alone, but all that is in it, both good and bad.  [See R. B. Thieme, Jr.  Divine Good vs. Human Good.  (Houston: R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, 1970), 36-37.]
The present relation of God to the cosmos, beyond His sovereign permission and restraint of it, is to save out of it an elect people for His heavenly glory.  On the other hand, Satan’s twofold objective—to exalt self, and to oppose God—is the key by which much may be known that otherwise would be unknown.  It is still further disclosed that the enmity of Satan is not only toward the Person of God from whom he has everything to fear, but also toward every true child of God.  Too much emphasis cannot be placed on this fact.  Satan has no controversy or warfare with his own, unregenerate people, but there is abundant Scripture to prove that he makes unceasing effort to mar the life and service of the Christian.

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