THE COSMIC SYSTEM
The Cosmic System is Satan’s orderly, cohesive, and multifaceted system of power and thinking, which includes a purpose, strategy, and structure of authority designed to subvert the human race and control the world he now rules.
The Cosmic System is Satan’s alternative to the perfect plan of God, designed to exploit man’s bad decisions and trap him in a web of deception. When the Bible declares that someone loves the world (2 Timothy 4:10; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15) or lives according to the standards of the world (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 2:2), that individual resides in the cosmic system. He is under the control of the sin nature and in a position of weakness, enslaved to Satan’s authority and fulfilling Satan’s purpose. Residents include anyone—believer or unbeliever—who uses his volitional freedom to reject divine truth (the laws of divine establishment, the Gospel of salvation, or Bible doctrine). Toward those who have personally believed in Jesus Christ, the devil administers the cosmic system to prevent, impede, and reverse their spiritual growth.
The Cosmic System is composed of two spheres of power, or dynaspheres. In COSMIC ONE, the ARROGANCE complex, a person is self-centered and neglectful of the spiritual life. In COSMIC TWO, the HATRED complex, that person rebels against God and is hostile toward anything identified with grace and truth. Gates of the ARROGANCE and HATRED complexes interlock in myriad combinations, attacking personal weaknesses and areas of blindness. The believer may enter by any one of the gates, but once inside, if he does not immediately escape [exit the cosmic system] by REBOUND (acknowledging his sins to God) and application of doctrine, he develops new weaknesses and succumbs to new sins that never before tempted him. Eventually, involvement in many gates pulls him down until he is thoroughly entangled in the cosmic system.
COSMIC ONE AND COSMIC TWO OF THE COSMIC SYSTEM
COSMIC ONE AND COSMIC TWO are alternative titles for the two spheres of Satan’s cosmic system—the ARROGANCE complex and the HATRED complex— both of which exploit man’s innate weaknesses and bad decisions and imprison him in a labyrinth of satanic deceit.
COSMIC ONE—THE ARROGANCE COMPLEX
The first sphere of satanic influence entangles man in sinful attitudes related to preoccupation with self and apathy toward Bible doctrine. The believer who exaggerates his own importance to the exclusion of God cannot appreciate divine grace or enjoy the blessings God has for his individual life. He becomes his own worst enemy, enslaved to himself and his bad decisions.
Gate 1, ATTITUDE ARROGANCE. The thinking of the person consumed with mental attitude sins such as pride, jealousy, vindictiveness, fear, bitterness, anger, implacability, self-pity, or guilt. Because mental attitude sins motivate all other evils of the cosmic system, no other category of sin is as destructive to the believer’s spiritual growth, for as a man “thinks within himself, so he is” (Proverbs 23:7a).
Gate 2, NEGATIVE VOLITION. Preoccupation with self to the point of indifference toward Bible doctrine. While not denying that doctrine is truth, this believer is distracted by wrong priorities, ignores the study of the Word of God, and renders himself defenseless against false doctrine.
Gate 3, AUTHORITY ARROGANCE. Behavior that duplicates Satan’s original rebellion against God. When under authority, the person immersed in this type of arrogance despises his leaders and seeks to undermine or overthrow them. When in a position of authority, this person abuses his power and becomes a tyrant to those under his leadership.
Gate 4, SELF-RIGHTEOUS ARROGANCE. Describes the distortion of true morality and the spiritual life into a legalistic mode of operation that elevates self and judges others. This insidious mental attitude easily links with the impulsive desire to impose those standards on others through religious fanaticism and activism.
Gate 5, SEXUAL ARROGANCE. Describes the distortion of normal sexual desire into an uncontrollable lust that destroys the capacity for legitimate romantic love and distracts from the spiritual life.
Gate 6, CRIMINAL ARROGANCE. The thinking and behavior of a person who presumes himself to be above the law and superior to the rights, privacy, and property of others. Such a person uses and harms others to demonstrate control, alleviate boredom, or attempt to prove his own worth.
Gate 7, PSYCHOPATHIC ARROGANCE. Describes a person who, through habitual bad decisions, rejects reality and moves into a state of psychosis. Distorted thinking from a position of subjectivity creates intolerance, insecurity, selfdestructiveness, possibly violence, and can also lead to suicide.
Gate 8, ARROGANCE OF UNHAPPINESS. The subjective preoccupation with self that expects circumstances, possessions, and other people to provide one’s happiness.
Gate 9, ICONOCLASTIC ARROGANCE. The subjective attitude that inordinately exalts another person then attacks him for failing to meet fantasized expectations.
Gate 10, RATIONAL AND IRRATIONAL (EMOTIONAL) ARROGANCE. Rational arrogance describes those who dispute or superficially interpret the Bible. Irrational arrogance is emotional revolt, uncontrolled emotion taking over the mentality of the soul.
Gate 11, ARROGANCE OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE. The thinking of the believer who performs biblically mandated activities while motivated by the sinful desire to earn approbation or stave off divine discipline.
Gate 12, CLIENT NATION ARROGANCE. The state of a client nation in which the majority of believers have succumbed to self-centered, worldly thinking and rejected both divine establishment and Bible doctrine.
COSMIC TWO—THE HATRED COMPLEX
The second sphere of satanic influence entangles man in antagonistic attitudes toward God’s authority, Word, and plan. The hatred complex takes apathy toward Bible doctrine and parlays it into outright opposition. As a full-fledged ally and slave of the devil, the believer in the hatred complex is an “enemy of God” (James 4:4b), one who justifies evil, despises divine good, and relentlessly attacks divine viewpoint with human viewpoint. Antagonism toward God only increases as the various gates of the hatred complex interlock with one another.
Gate 1, THE SIN NATURE. Satan’s inside agent through which he executes his sinister policies of hatred and antagonism within the human race. Succumbing to the temptations of the sin nature means automatic entrance into the cosmic system.
Gate 2, NEGATIVE VOLITION. Outright rejection of and antagonism toward the plan of God and Bible doctrine.
Gate 3, DEGENERATION. Progressive deterioration of thoughts and behavior. In the believer, this is the decline from the superior standards of God’s plan to inferior, worldly standards.
Gate 4, ANTIESTABLISHMENT. Describes the behavior of the citizen whose desire is to dispute, reject, and even destroy the legitimate authorities under which he lives.
Gate 5, DEMONISM. Refers to the influence of demons on the human soul, an influence through which Satan increases his control over the world.
Gate 6, COSMIC PANACEAS. Philosophies and agendas inspired by Satan’s cosmic policy and upheld as cure-all remedies to the problems of mankind.
Gate 7, RELIGION. Antigrace systems of human works and worship rituals used to seek salvation, spirituality, or the approbation of God.
Gate 8, ANTHROPOCENTRIC ACADEMIC SPECULATION. Man-centered ideologies and scientific assertions that explain life through human intellect and experience and produce antagonism toward divine viewpoint. Persons afflicted with intellectual arrogance enter this gate by trying to reconcile academic speculations with God’s Word. They end up using humanistic theories to deny spiritual truth.
Gate 9, EVIL. The policy and modus operandi through which Satan seeks to capture the human soul, establish his own millennial kingdom, and become the victor in the angelic conflict.
The believer in Jesus Christ has a choice between palace living (residence inside God’s divine dynasphere) or dungeon living (residence inside the cosmic system). The conflict of the divine dynasphere versus the cosmic system is a battle of thought versus thought, an ongoing warfare waged in the soul. Divine viewpoint is pitted against cosmic-influenced human viewpoint, and Satan’s evil counterfeits attack the reality of God’s plan. Although the power of God is greater than the power of Satan, the devil can lure any believer out of fellowship into arrogance or hatred so that spiritual strength is never attained. Despite eternal security, life on earth for the cosmic believer is meaningless, filled with subjectivity, instability, and unsolvable frustration.