ARROGANCE
Definition
1. Arrogance is a mental attitude
sin of lofty thinking that rises above submission to God.
2. Arrogance exalts self above
God, and thus pretends to be God (Ezek 28:2).
3. Arrogance was the original
sin of Satan, who wanted to be the Most High (Isa 14:13-14).
4. The arrogant one makes his
own law and sets himself up as God (2 Thess 2:4).
5. Arrogance is a component of Hardness
of the Heart (Ps 73:7-9; Prov 16:18; 1 Jn 2:16). It is tied to
jealousy and the other sins of the Old Sin Nature.
The Arrogance Complex
1. Arrogance is a complex of
sins that rejects the authority of God and promotes self as supreme.
a.
The arrogance
complex includes pride, conceit, presumption, haughtiness, insolence,
superciliousness, and narcissism.
b.
Arrogance can link with jealousy
to incite rebellion, envy, covetousness, and selfish ambition (Prov 24:1;
Jas 3:16).
c.
Arrogance can lead to judging (Jas 4:11-12).
d. Arrogance can link
with jealousy to fuel sins of the tongue associated with self-righteousness,
bitterness, and worry, such as boasting, gossip, slander, maligning, complaining
(Prov 20:19; 21:23; 1 Tim 5:13; Jas 3:2-12).
2. Arrogance can link with
the emotion and lust.
a.
Arrogance + emotion -> puffed up (1 Cor 8:1)
b.
Arrogance + lust -> power lust, approbation lust, lust of the eye, lust
of the flesh (OSN), lust
for sexual attention (Isa 3:16)
3. Arrogance produces confusion
relative to the truth of Bible Doctrine.
a.
Gen 11:9 cf. 10:10, Babel, meaning gate of God, also means to confound.
b.
Arrogance is spiritually blind (Matt 15:14; 23:16-26; Rom 2:19; Isa 3:12;
9:16; 42:19; 56:10; Hos 4:12).
c. Apostasy is full of
arrogance (Jer 8:5; 2 Pet 2:18; Jude 1:16).
4. Arrogance rejects the Filling
of the Holy Spirit and produces affinity for the Old Sin Nature (OSN)
internally and the Cosmic System externally (1 Jn 2:15-16).
a. The believer who is
filled with the Holy Spirit cannot sin (ref. 1
Jn 3:9). The Holy Spirit ("His seed") protects him from the Old
Sin Nature. To sin the believer must first choose to reject the Filling
of the Holy Spirit. Then he can sin from arrogance.
b. The Prostitute of Babylon
influences the person in the Cosmic System with bitter-opposition on the
one hand (1 Ki 18:4; 19:2; Jas 5:6; 1 Pet 5:8) and arrogant temptation
on the other (Ezek 16:49; Hos 4:12; 5:4; Luk 8:2; 16:19; 1 Tim 5:6; Jas
5:5; 2 Pet 2:13; ref. Rev
18:7, 9).
c. Satan and his demons
attack and possess children (Matt 15:21-28; Mk 7:24-30). If parents
are arrogant and blind to this, the children will become slaves of Satan
and doomed to a life of oppression (Eph 2:3; 1 Jn 3:12).
5. Arrogance can lead to Scar
Tissue of the Soul, Reversionism,
and result in severe punishment from God, including the Sin
Leading to Death (Prov 16:18; Eph 4:17-19; Phil 3:18-19; Jas
4:6; 2 Pet 2:17).
a.
National arrogance leads to the Fifth
Cycle of Discipline (Hos 4:6; Isa 2:11-12).
b.
Sexual arrogance is self gratification without the covering of love in
the soul. This leads to Reverse
Process Reversionism (RPR), adultery, insatiable lust (ref. Eph
4:19; ref. Col 3:5;
2 Pet 2:14), and phallic reversionism with a host of perversions (Gen 4:23-24;
Rom 1:26-27; 2 Pet 2:12-22).
6. Arrogance can be associated
with Cosmic, Political, and Ecumenical Babylon (Phil 3:19).
a. Idolatry
– worship of Satan and his demons (Judg 10:6; Jer 7:18; 8:2).
b.
Slavery to the Cosmic System including the Evil
King (2 Cor 11:14; 1 Jn 2:18, 22) and Prostitute
of Babylon (Rev 2:14, 21-23).
c. Snare
of the devil (2 Tim 2:26; 1 Tim 3:7; 6:9).
d. The Prostitute of Babylon
overpowers legitimate authority and fills the soul and spiritual body with
darkness. This disrupts the love of Right Man and Right Woman as
sin did in the Garden
(Prov 5:3, 9-10; 6:26; 29:3; 31:3).
7. Arrogance prevents learning
Bible Doctrine (2 Tim 3:6).
a.
Learning requires humility (Prov 11:2).
b.
False teachers are puffed up with arrogance (1 Cor 8:1; Col 2:18).
c.
Arrogance rejects Bible teaching, which is the only solution to the Arrogance
Complex (Heb 10:25; 2 Tim 4:3; 2 Jn 10-11).
8. Arrogance thwarts Grace
(Prov 3:34; Jas 4:6).
9. Arrogance destroys Love
(1 Cor 13:4).
10. Iconoclastic
arrogance seeks to destroy the image or reputation of another by exposing
the feet of clay (1 Cor 13:7). This may involve gossip or maligning.
In romance a lover may put another on a pedestal to worship him.
Then when the feet of clay are discovered the lover may try to destroy
the image he himself created.
11. Infirmities associated with arrogance include:
a. Headaches from authority
arrogance.
b. Mental illnesses.
c. Feet problems.
Arrogance in Hardness
of the Heart
1. Arrogance in Hardness of the Heart is an accumulation
of arrogant habits, attitudes, and hang-ups that have resulted from arrogant
sins and Divine punishment over the years. Hardness of the Heart
intensifies the expression of arrogance in the soul.
2. Arrogance in Hardness of the Heart is combined
with other sins to produce new varieties of sin. For example, jealousy
can combine with arrogance to add intensity to the arrogance or arrogant
influence in a jealous desire.
3. Arrogance in Hardness of the Heart includes:
a. Fatheaded (Deut 32:15;
Ps 73:7-9; 119:70), hardheaded, bullheaded (Judg 14:2-3), pigheaded (2
Tim 2:22), mule headed (Ps 32:9; Prov 26:3), set in ways, intractable,
headstrong (1 Tim 5:6; Jude 1:11), willful (Heb 10:26), supercilious (Ps
10:4-6; 73:8), bold, brash
b. Bad habits, lifestyle
(Prov 16:18; Jas 5:5; 1 Jn 2:16); accumulated arrogance (1 Cor 5:6; 2 Tim
2:16; 3:13); make believe (1 Tim 4:7; 2 Tim 2:16), illusion (Isa 30:10;
Ezek 13:7; Col 2:18), fantasy (2 Tim 4:4; Tit 1:14), false prophets (Jer
5:12-13; 2 Pet 2:1)
c. Unteachable (Jer 44:16;
2 Tim 4:3), unwilling to learn (2 Tim 3:7), foolish (Prov 3:35; 10:8; 12:23;
15:2; Tit 3:3), jokers (Job 12:4; Prov 26:19), stupid, senseless (insensitive)
(Ps 17:10; Jer 5:28), vain (Eccl 1:2, 14; 2:11-26; Eph 5:6; 2 Pet 2:18),
blasphemers (Nu 15:30; Ps 73:9; Rev 13:6); boasters (Deut 29:19), braggarts
(1 Cor 13:4), mockers (Gen 21:9; 2 Ki 2:23; Ps 1:1; Prov 14:9; 17:5; 30:17)
Arrogance from
Satanic Influence
1. Arrogance or pride can come from Satan or the Old
Sin Nature in a person.
2. Those under Satanic influence will behave like
Satan, such as with pride and arrogance.
a. What appears to be
pride and arrogance in people may actually be Satan in disguise.
b. People under Satanic
influence include: Everyone in the world (Rev 12:9); Job; Joshua
(Zech 3:1); David (1 Chron 21:1); Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 4:33); Judas (Lk
22:3; Jn 6:70; 13:27); Peter (Matt 16:23; Lk 22:31; Mk 8:33); Ananias (Acts
5:3); Paul (2 Cor 12:7; 1 Thess 2:18).
3. People indoctrinated in the Cosmic System may
become Cosmic Evangelists, like the woman in the Garden (2 Cor 11:3-4).
4. Pride was the sin of Satan in rejection of Creation,
and it is the sin of people under the power of Satan (Isa 14:13-14; 47:8;
2 Thess 2:4).
5. Pride (arrogance) is the lifestyle of those
in the devil's world (1 Jn 2:16; Jas 4:16).
a. They are spiritually
dead and separated from God (Rev 3:1).
b. They are friends of
the world and enemies of God (Phil 3:18-19; Jas 4:4; 1 Jn 3:10).
c. Those who will not
turn loose of the world will not recover their Spiritual life (2 Tim 4:10).
5. Pride (arrogance) begins in early childhood
and is tied to every facet of life (Ps 58:3). Pride inspires human
viewpoint and illusions plus affinity to lies and cosmic panaceas.
a. Those under Satan's
power serve him (Matt 13:38; Jn 8:44).
b. Even those who try
to serve God, often do it with pride (Jn 18:10).
c. Arrogance is blind
(Matt 15:14; Rev 3:17).
d. Satan blinds minds
(2 Cor 4:4).
6. Arrogance must be overcome to live by Grace
(Jas 4:6).
a. God punishes believers
severely to break the bond of pride (Lam 3:27; Ps 119:71; Heb 12:6).
b. Humility is required
to learn Bible Doctrine and execute the Spiritual life (Prov 11:2).
c. The bonds of pride
(arrogance) must be overcome through Spiritual growth (Rom 12:2; 1 Cor
14:20; Heb 12:11; Jas 3:17-18).
7. Known sins of pride (Arrogance Complex) can
be confessed, but pride from the power of Satan requires overcoming Satan.
a. Rebound is not enough
to overcome Satanic influence.
b. God gives tests which
must be passed to stop Satan.
c. Passing the test yields
greater Grace and promotion (Jas 4:6).
Author: Larry Wood, Released December
30, 2010 - Revised June 23, 2017
