Problems of the Lucifer Rebellion

54:1.1Of all the per­plex­ing prob­lems grow­ing out of the Lu­cifer re­bel­lion, none has oc­ca­sioned more dif­fi­culty than the fail­ure of im­ma­ture evo­lu­tion­ary mor­tals to dis­tin­guish be­tween true and false lib­erty.

54:1.2True lib­erty is the quest of the ages and the re­ward of evo­lu­tion­ary prog­ress. False lib­erty is the sub­tle de­cep­tion of the er­ror of time and the evil of space. En­dur­ing lib­erty is pred­i­cated on the re­al­ity of jus­tice—in­tel­li­gence, ma­tu­rity, fra­ter­nity, and eq­uity.

54:1.3Lib­erty is a self-de­stroy­ing tech­nique of cos­mic ex­is­tence when its mo­ti­va­tion is un­in­tel­li­gent, un­con­di­tioned, and un­con­trolled. True lib­erty is pro­gres­sively re­lated to re­al­ity and is ever re­gard­ful of so­cial eq­uity, cos­mic fair­ness, uni­verse fra­ter­nity, and di­vine obli­ga­tions.

54:1.4Lib­erty is sui­ci­dal when di­vorced from ma­te­rial jus­tice, in­tel­lec­tual fair­ness, so­cial for­bear­ance, moral duty, and spir­i­tual val­ues. Lib­erty is nonex­is­tent apart from cos­mic re­al­ity, and all per­son­al­ity re­al­ity is pro­por­tional to its di­vin­ity re­la­tion­ships.

54:1.5Un­bri­dled self-will and un­reg­u­lated self-ex­pres­sion equal un­mit­i­gated self­ish­ness, the acme of un­god­li­ness. Lib­erty with­out the as­so­ci­ated and ever-in­creas­ing con­quest of self is a fig­ment of ego­is­tic mor­tal imag­i­na­tion. Self-mo­ti­vated lib­erty is a con­cep­tual il­lu­sion, a cruel de­cep­tion. Li­cense mas­querad­ing in the gar­ments of lib­erty is the fore­run­ner of ab­ject bond­age.

54:1.6True lib­erty is the as­so­ciate of gen­uine self-re­spect; false lib­erty is the con­sort of self-ad­mi­ra­tion. True lib­erty is the fruit of self-con­trol; false lib­erty, the as­sump­tion of self-as­ser­tion. Self-con­trol leads to al­tru­is­tic ser­vice; self-ad­mi­ra­tion tends to­wards the ex­ploita­tion of oth­ers for the self­ish ag­gran­dize­ment of such a mis­taken in­di­vid­ual as is will­ing to sac­ri­fice righ­teous at­tain­ment for the sake of pos­sess­ing un­just power over his fel­low be­ings.

54:1.7Even wis­dom is di­vine and safe only when it is cos­mic in scope and spir­i­tual in mo­ti­va­tion.

54:1.8There is no er­ror greater than that species of self-de­cep­tion which leads in­tel­li­gent be­ings to crave the ex­er­cise of power over other be­ings for the pur­pose of de­priv­ing these per­sons of their nat­u­ral lib­er­ties. The golden rule of hu­man fair­ness cries out against all such fraud, un­fair­ness, self­ish­ness, and un­righ­teous­ness. Only true and gen­uine lib­erty is com­pat­i­ble with the reign of love and the min­istry of mercy.

54:1.9How dare the self-willed crea­ture en­croach upon the rights of his fel­lows in the name of per­sonal lib­erty when the Su­preme Rulers of the uni­verse stand back in mer­ci­ful re­spect for these pre­rog­a­tives of will and po­ten­tials of per­son­al­ity! No be­ing, in the ex­er­cise of his sup­posed per­sonal lib­erty, has a right to de­prive any other be­ing of those priv­i­leges of ex­is­tence con­ferred by the Cre­ators and duly re­spected by all their loyal as­so­ciates, sub­or­di­nates, and sub­jects.

54:1.10Evo­lu­tion­ary man may have to con­tend for his ma­te­rial lib­er­ties with tyrants and op­pres­sors on a world of sin and in­iq­uity or dur­ing the early times of a prim­i­tive evolv­ing sphere, but not so on the mor­ontia worlds or on the spirit spheres. War is the her­itage of early evo­lu­tion­ary man, but on worlds of nor­mal ad­vanc­ing civ­i­liza­tion phys­i­cal com­bat as a tech­nique of ad­just­ing racial mis­un­der­stand­ings has long since fallen into dis­re­pute.