Podcast: Satan's Awful Idea
Recently our fellow blogger, Austin Brown, self-published a book entitled Satan's Awful Idea with the subtitle A Biblical Theology of Satan's Fall and Its Implication on the Unfolding Human Drama. Combining his knowledge gleaned from years of listening to reformed podcasts on his mail route, his love of reading theological tomes, and his vivid imagination, in this work Austin addresses the question of how it is that Satan, originally an archangel in heaven, could convince himself and legions of other angels that rebelling against God would be a good idea. Clearly the record shows it was not!
Knowing for a few years that Austin was working on this project, and aware that the Biblical record is scant on this particular subject, I was intrigued with how he could develop this topic. He did so using a speculative theology approach, which takes subjects clouded in mystery (other examples would be the decrees of God or the theodicy question) and addresses them philosophically using inferences from Scripture and insights from other theologians. Though I have told Austin I'd like to see a shorter version (it's nearly 300 pages long!), some more editing, and I lean a bit more toward an Edwardian approach than he does (you'll have to listen and/or read an appendix in the book to understand), still this work is fascinating and thought-provoking.
Recently Jared and I interviewed Austin, and we had an invigorating time discussing this heavy topic. As much of Austin's work depends on extrapolating back from Satan's work in this world to draw conclusions about his heavenly rebellion, this subject is not akin to discussing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Rather, it causes you to be more aware of how the evil one is still at work in his rebellion to tempt you to think like he does, and how wondrous is the victory that Christ has won over him.
So we hope you'll listen along. Then, if you would like to read the book, Austin is making the book available as inexpensively as possible in a Kindle edition at Amazon or, if you prefer, for free in PDF form at the link below.
