The Deception of the Self-Proclaimed God

Having established himself, he flattered others in order to persuade them that he himself was a god, the one who gathers others.he is prone to play god through domestic insolence, Isaiah, acting as a representative, reproaches him with prophetic preaching: 'But you say in your heart: I will ascend to heaven, I will set my throne above the stars, I will sit in a high mountain over the high mountains toward the north, I will ascend above the clouds, I will be like the Most High' (Isa 14:13-14). And Ezekiel, speaking through the prophet, testifies to this same thing, the Lord Himself opposing him: 'Because your heart was lifted up, and you said: I am God, I dwell in the heart of the sea, but you are a man and not a god' (Ezek 28:2). Instead of the many punishments threatened to him, it is easy to see from the subjects: that for such people, always flattering with empty words, divinity has been revealed by a vote.

Therefore, if the demon was such that he could make those called gods into kings, is it not necessary to realize that the leader is greater than those led? And if this one precedes the holy ones, follow the assumption that he himself is again the arch-demon. If anyone were to demonstrate these things, he establishes by irrefutable power that he is the god of gods, giving such authority to his own servants, so that they might convey spirits and souls from Hades for the righteous. But none of those who think this way yet perceive the whole, lest he be judged against the holy writings by testimonies.

Since the deceiver had already learned the second thing and, having grasped it, said to the woman, 'What did you see?', I immediately reflected on the question and she said: 'I saw a man standing upright, ascending from the earth, and this one, having been cast up, was double-clad.' Having seen nothing else, as he became an ear to the words, he 'knew' according to his own understanding that this man was 'Samuel,' just as he was being besieged from within by the demon; but as he was joined to the naming of the signs, he immediately bowed his face to the ground and 'worshipped him.'

First, one could most rightly say that if it were Samuel, but the wily serpent not having been transformed, he would have resisted with a pious mind, saying, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and Him alone' (Deut 6:13).

Second, I would say again: how much Samuel was chosen as a prophet and leader of all the people, while Saul, still a private person searching even for his father's donkeys, went away to ask him as if for a prophet because of the lost yokes, yet nowhere does he seem to have worshipped him, even though he needed him and was clearly subject to him as one guiding the people. How then, he who then did not worship as a private person a ruler, now, in opposition, the king worships a private person? Third, I have to say this: why, having heard of gods descending, did he worship none of them, but when he heard the man standing upright, he immediately bowed down and worshipped?

And indeed, as Origen boldly declared, if any of these were angels or choirs of prophets, it was necessary for them to fall down first to the greater and more excellent, rather than healing one and leaving the many to be abandoned to the folly of pride. For it should be noted how the flame-like ones among the angels are always far more beautiful than men; indeed, it is easy to see from all their works that Saul, being driven by a demon, was being blinded in mind by the leader, while the devil was driving himself into diverse appearances, negotiating to be worshipped by the Potent One, so that he might more many people, having forgotten, bow down to him.

And what strange thing is it to say, where even having seen the face of Christ—seeing Him inwardly in deed and having performed God and, by the nature of God, a genuine Son, but outwardly observing a man pure, spotless, and unblemished surrounding Him, and a temple-treasure, consecrated and inviolable, testing Him in no small way—he without delay approached, having been accustomed to warring against God? And how, having first called up the first and second arguments against himself, he was miserably defeated, then changing to another character, he attempted to show him the whole description of this world and its kingdoms, but emboldened by folly and false speech, he boasted, 'I will give you all these things, if, falling down, you worship me' (Matt 4:9). Such voices, then, the impious has burst forth here, thinking to call forth into anger the qualities of unevilness, and through this...