Dependence and Independence

      I love the various paradoxes. Am I the first to write of "the paradox of independence?" Scripture is inundated with instances of that paradox. "Paradoxes" are absurdities or contradictions. For instance, Popper's Paradox of Tolerance is essentially that it acceptable to be intolerant of the intolerant. The paradox of independence is that independence leads to dependence. Scripture says it more adeptly: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other" (Luke 6:24).
     That passage relates the transition from independence from God to dependence on Satan. Mankind has always sought emancipation from God, but unwittingly become dependent on His adversary. Christians serve God but sinners are slaves to Satan. "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31-32). God will set sinners free from whom? The subtle Serpent - Satan. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Gal 5:1).
     Man was created servile to God - to dress and keep His Garden (people). (Gen 2:15). There were only three people in the Garden: God, Adam, and Eve. Lucifer was there as well, but he is not people! He is an angel who entered the serpent and used an innocent animal to deceive. Can demonic beings do that? In Christ's time, they entered a herd of pigs and ran off a cliff (Mat 8:29:31). Not only did the spirit of Lucifer go into a snake, but sin is contagious; the spirit of Lucifer entered into Adam and Eve as well. That's how sin works. Did they realize that the spirit of Lucifer made them die? They surely did because they immediately felt differently, as  they covered their shame with an apron of fig leaves.
     What happened back there in the Garden? The first two humans were servants to God but were soon emanicpated; doing what they thought was their own will. Ever since, the desire of mankind is to do what is right in their own eyes (Jud 17:6). Adam and Eve were seditious against their King. They gained their independence and became children of the Devil (John 8:44). They became depraved; they sought self-satisfaction, no longer desiring to tend to the Doctrine of God. 
     Before they were emanicpated from God, they could serve Him or not. That was the purpose of the Serpent - to test their devotion to God and His authority. They failed the test, and God released them. They became two independent people. Adam was freed from God, and as Eve's example, Eve was freed from Adam and God. Eve was the first independent-minded woman. 
     Eve ate and didn't seem to die so Adam ate. They both died that day; they immediately began to die physically, going from immortal to mortal, and spiritually they died immediately. The demonic spirit in the Serpent was transferred into them, and for all practical purposes, Adam and Eve ran off a cliff. Although, they soon found that to be the case, they could do nothing about it. They had no power to keep themselves alive. Blessed were they when they found out that God did when God in Person - Jesus - killed an animal and covered their sin (Gen 3:21). Although they still had the propensity to sin within, God adopted them as His own again (Ephes 1:5). 
     Originally mankind was designed dependent on God, but they sought independence from His authority. They relinquished their sonship with God to do as they willed to do. Ever since, there is an instinctual desire for everyone to do their own will. Rememember, the Serpent was cunning (Gen 3:1). They, thinking that they were doing their own will, was doing Satan's. They transitioned from serving God to serving Satan and God to serving Satan. God made the sacrifice and redeemed them from two things: eternal death, although they retained their mortality, and from serving Satan. They lived in a sort of safety until their former master is retired by Jesus for perpetuity. Jesus's (God's) death on the cross was the vicarious death of Satan. The promise is that the Serpent of old will die; Christians see him liveless on his own tree (John 3:14).
    Christians, Adam and Eve, regained their status, endeavoring to serve God but that demonic presence once inside Adam left a mark. Everyone has sinned because they are born iniquitous (Psalm 51:5). The demon, although gone, left an imprint on the soul of all men. As soon as anyone is born, their soul is inundated with sin. When it gets to the point of rupture, pious people seek relief from the guilt just as our forebears did. Then God has mercy, and relieves the guilt for all that would return to the Father. "Born again" (John 3:7) is adoption back into the household of the Father as regenerated sinners see their old master dead on his "tree" (the pole of Moses), instead of alive and cunning on the forbidden tree.
     Between the time anyone is born until they are reborn, they are dependent on Satan. Rebirth asserts safety but Satan can still remind them of the pleasure of his company, and people may look back! (Lot's wife did that!). Sinners fail to recognize that they are indeed dependent on God. They feel as if they are independent but are bound in chains to Satan. They are independant of God but dependent on Satan. Every sin is doing Satan's will, and Satanists don't even deny that. Their creed is, Do what thy wilt; that is the whole of the law, without regard that is doing what Satan wills!
     I remember the freedom I had to drink alcoholic beverages upon reaching the age of "maturity." I had consumed it on occasion before, but on my twenty-first birthday I made a commitment to remain sober (tee-totally) for my life. I never became dependent on alcohol and despise the use of cunning alcohol and her twin, Mary Jane. They enslave people even as they relish their freedom to imbibe. I will never become an addict - dependent on addictives - because I never enter into those temptations. Is that not what we pray to God for? "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Mat 6:13), then most enter into temptation. How foolish can self-destructive people be?
     People seek solace from stress and pleasure in life by inebriants. That's what God provides! People's gods become alcohol and trashy plants of all sorts. They do what they wilt while ignoring God and His precepts. They think they are pleasuring themseves, but its just the Serpent feeding them the apple or perhaps the fig. All the while, they believe they are acting on their own! As indpendently minded people doing as they please, they are emancipating themselves from God and indenturing their souls to Satan. They chance trading their souls to the Devil in exchange for inebriants. Guess who is laughing at you, the drunk or pothead, and tries to bully God because of your quest for indepedence? Satan is overjoyed at your perceived independence because you are dependent on him for pleasure!  We all kill God... our weapons of destruction are merely different. God sheds tears at our stupidity; sinners or sinning Christians "know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
     What are stupid people doing? The Paradox of Independence! As Jonathan Gruber said about Obamacare, "We depended on the stupidity of the voter," Satan depends on the foolishness of those who think they are independent.