[This is part 1 in a series on “pride in the scriptures.” See part two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight]

Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

What is pride in the Bible? If you asked most people what the sin of “pride” was, they might (as is common to modern Christianity) reduce it to something relatively benign, like telling someone to “not be too full of themselves” as they boast of some talent or skill of theirs or something of the like. They might say that one needs to check their ego and maybe humble themselves a little.

One popular Biblical answers page gives us this sort of downplayed definition. 

“Pride is a high or inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in conduct. Whether craving compliments, fearing our own image, or entertaining an overly critical view of ourselves, pride can be both glaringly obvious and deceptively sneaky.”

It’s hard to say this is wrong; these things—the exaltation of oneself or belief in one’s superiority—are problems too that probably serve as the root-cause of the greater picture of men believing they are so important that they should be considered “presidents,” “legislators,” “law enforcers,” or such. If men avoided these characteristics on a personal level, they would never move on to becoming rulers of the kingdoms of men, or to venerate these men as “heroes” and “saviors” of society. If men sought the counsel of the word of God, rather than to be “right in their own eyes” and believe they have figured out everything on their own, they could never buy into the vain philosophies and ideologies of men, like socialism, democracy, and statism more generally. Men who pridefully believe they can figure it all out without God are likely to chase after the gods of the world, i.e., political rulers (Deut. 29:18-19). When individual men purge themselves of pride and admit their intellectual inferiority in the face of the Lord, they can come to see that the things they sought before (e.g., salvation-by-government) were wicked. As the scriptures say, “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil” (Proverbs 3:7). A man who fears God should never fall into the trap of fearing men, which serves as the basis for setting up governments. ‘Without our military, we’d be ruled by X bad guys overseas.’ God-fearing men, who lack the pride of believing you’ve got it figured out on your own, can avoid the enslaving, man-made philosophy of statism. They know what happens to people who set up “governments” to “save” them.

We should all certainly be humble and admit that we don’t know everything, and seek God—searching the scriptures daily—for our answers to life. If we did so, we would see that “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9), and that whatever ideas and philosophies they might come up with “has already existed in the ages before us” (1:10). We would see, for instance, that many of the fallacious economic ideas that prevailed in the twentieth century—that governments can print money to save us from crisis, that they can cure recessions when they are the cause, that military spending is good for the economy, that consumption spending drives the economy, etc—that were sold to us by “economists” like John Maynard Keynes were really just a resurrection of false ideas that were popular in ages prior. As the “Austrian” economist Murray Rothbard said of Keynes main work, “The General Theory was not truly revolutionary at all but merely old and oft-refuted mercantilist and inflationist fallacies dressed up in shiny new garb, replete with newly constructed and largely incomprehensible jargon” (Rothbard, Keynes the Man, p. 37).

Men are certainly being prideful when they believe they have all the answers and have discovered them autonomously and apart from God, as socialists do when they convince themselves that society could be made better through political central planning and violent intervention into the natural order. For as the scriptures teach, “the LORD gives wisdom [and] from His mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6). When men believe they have it all figured out, but haven’t consulted God and His word, they are more than likely to have adopted great errors, fallacies, and evil man-made ideologies (statism, socialism, communism, fascism, democracy, etc), some of them even bearing the names of men (e.g., Marxism, Keynesianism).

Individual pride is certainly a problem too, especially in regards to intellectual matters, as I’ve mentioned above. Men are certainly being proud too when they think they are more important and special than others and treat others as if they are lesser than them.

But I don’t think this wholly gets to the problem. To make pride out to be an undesirable personality quirk of some individuals, rather than the characteristic mark of those who rule over other people or those who “patriotically” support them, seems to avoid what God is really telling us about the prideful. 

The pride of patriotism, state-worship, and state rule 

The scriptures have a heavily political emphasis that is often ignored, despite it undeniably permeating the pages. God is rarely ever condemning the relatively innocent things that men have made into “sins” or surmised to be what God was talking about, like “craving compliments” or having an ego, though these things may too be the mark of an ungodly man.

The pride that God is really concerned with, I would argue, is the audacity of men to claim authority for themselves and believe they have the moral right and ability to rule over other people (as well as the patriotic pride that comes from the non-rulers who have been duped into supporting their masters). Pride is all about the arrogance that men have who believe they have a right to extort others because they are wearing badges or call themselves “the government.” Pride is often connected to the state plunderers. As one verse reads, “In pride the wicked pursue the needy” (Psalm 10:2). Such is the essential nature of the men who rule over us. “Pride is their necklace; a garment of violence covers them” (Psalm 73:6). These are the men who “with arrogance threaten oppression” (Psalm 73:8).

Even if we want to class an elevated sense-of-self in with the Biblical understanding of pride, seeking political power is one of the most dangerous manifestations of pride that seems worthy of emphasis. The guy who is full of himself, but is guilty only of parading around in his bathroom looking in the mirror all day, is relatively harmless compared to the men calling themselves “the government” who, in their pride, launch military invasions against whole groups of people (or those who cheer the warmongers on in their military adventures), perpetuate global scamdemics against billions of people, seek legislative action against the population, etc.

Biblical pride is best explained as the pride of state rulers, who are so full of themselves that they have taken seats of power and ruled over other people and their property. God sends the prophet Ezekiel to preach against the King of Tyre precisely for this reason. He is to tell him, reminding him that he’s a mere mortal, 

“Your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea.’ Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god” (Ezekiel 28:2).

A proud heart very much has something to do with those who think they may rule over other men, so long as they set up a “government” and call their criminal actions “legal.” Though we could suggest as much from merely seeking to be a king, the scriptures tell us that it was after plundering the people and gaining riches for himself that his “heart had grown proud” (Ezekiel 28:5). 

When the scriptures then speak of tearing down the proud, they are not merely speaking of egotistical teenagers who may think they’re special, as many seem to water-down the issue into being, but precisely the political rulers who sought to be “as gods” (Gen. 3:5), which is really the satanic offer bound up with political godhead. (What we see, I think, in Ezekiel 28:12-19, is a dual-prophecy of human kingship and the fall of satan, which demonstrates just how much States, and their quest for godhead, are animated and operated by spiritual evil). When we read that “the Lord will destroy the house of the proud” (Proverbs 15:25), He isn’t talking about teenage girls who gathered at a house party to put makeup on each other and remark about how beautiful they are. Tearing down the proud is to tear down those men who have raised themselves up into positions of power, who use the political apparatus to rob people. As one verse says, “[God] shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands” (Isaiah 25:11). It is the state plunderers who are “the proud.”

The prophet continues, explaining this judgment on the “proud” political rulers, 

“Because you regard your heart as the heart of a god, behold, I will bring foreigners against you, the most ruthless of nations. They will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and will defile your splendor. They will bring you down to the Pit, and you will die a violent death in the heart of the seas. Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who slay you? You will be only a man, not a god, in the hands of those who wound you. You will die the death of the uncircumcised at the hands of foreigners” (Ezekiel 28:6-10).

We get virtually the same story of the prideful, Satanic-statist godhead of Ezekiel 28 from the prophet Isaiah, who proposes this as a song to sing after He has torn down the king of Babylon from power.

“How the oppressor has ceased, and how his fury has ended! The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers. It struck the peoples in anger with unceasing blows; it subdued the nations in rage with relentless persecution. All the earth is at peace and at rest; they break out in song. Even the cypresses and cedars of Lebanon exult over you: ‘Since you have been laid low, no woodcutter comes against us.’ Sheol beneath is eager to meet you upon your arrival. It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you— all the rulers of the earth. It makes all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones. They will all respond to you, saying, ‘You too have become weak, as we are; you have become like us!’ Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are your bed and worms your blanket. How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations. You said in your heart: ‘I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north.I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High'” (Isaiah 14:4-14).

There is nothing more prideful than the satanic quest for political godhead, represented in all the state rulers of the world, in history and at present. This is the evil effort to lift oneself up as a god and pretend to be the “sovereign” ruler (as States claim to be). 

It is the rulers who mostly represent the “pride” that God is always getting at. The kingdom of Moab, we read, was full of  “pomposity,” “exceeding pride and conceit,” and “overflowing arrogance” (Isaiah 16:6; cf. Jer. 48:29). When God talks about tearing down the exalted and says that “his pride will be brought low” (Isaiah 25:11), this is almost always in reference to rulers. When God talks about exalting Himself again, He is speaking of Himself in terms of the state rulers in the world who have made themselves into gods and tried to compete with His sovereignty.

Kings and their minions believe they are “gods.” They have set themselves above the rest of the population and believe they have a “right” to rule over other people. They believe they know how to centrally plan economies (e.g. Marxism), that they know just the right interest rate or amount of money to create to make an economy work or how much to adjust the supply of money (e.g., Keynesianism), that they know what’s best for “public health” (e.g., Faucism), etc. (For the most part, however, these are more so pseudo-scientific excuses for seizing power and enriching the ruling elites than they are the real beliefs of their practitioners. Nevertheless, these men proudly believe that they should be in control of these systems).

These statists, whether the rulers themselves or their supporters, best resemble the Biblical meaning of pride. This is seen in many places in the Bible, such as when God speaks on numerous occasions of tearing down the prideful or cautioning us against “dividing the spoil with the proud” (Proverbs 16:19), suggesting easily that “the proud” are the rulers who plunder people for a living; or when the prophets speak of “the mighty man boasting in his might” (Jeremiah 9:23); or when the prophets speak of a proud spirit that overcomes man-kings (Daniel 5:20). 

In the scriptures, we read all about kings being prideful (2 Chronicles 26:16), the kings’ hearts being full of pride from their strength (2 Chronicles 32:25), them boasting of having built great empires (Daniel 4:30), believing they are gods (Daniel 5:23), the people who have chosen kings for themselves (Jeremiah 13:9). kings thinking they know better than God (Exodus 5:2), etc. 

As we see, it is state rulers—more so than some relatively harmless individual narcissist—who are fully encompassed with pride. As one scripture speaks of these types of men, “Pride is their necklace; the garment of violence covers them” (Psalm 73:6). 

Pride and politics

The real pride is not simply any old man loving his own excellence, but more specifically—the scriptures are not vague here—the arrogance that men have when they believe they have the “expertise” or “authority” to manage, control, or plan society from above, in the high offices of political power. One scripture even directly refers to pride as the “pride of power” (Leviticus 26:19).

The pride of the scriptures is not just about some teenage girl remarking about how pretty she looks, but the attitude of men who imagine themselves as gods in their pretend-game of organizing society by means of political violence (as well as the ignorant statists below who believe they are gods). “The proud” are the kings, presidents, and politicians who believe they have a right to rule over others. “The proud” are those (police) who enforce the “laws” of the king and set themselves up as honorable and heroic figures when they’re nothing more than plunderers. “The proud” are those who serve Pharaoh’s military and think they are making society “safe” and “free” by building up chariots and horsemen in “the best and most powerful military in the world.”

True pride is the idea that you can rule over men, or that the rulers are great people who work wonders for society. Those who exalt themselves pridefully in the scriptures are the evil rulers and those who trust in them (Dan. 11:36; Hos. 5:1-5, 7:3-10). 

The ignorance of statism as a form of pride

The rulers themselves are not the only “proud” people. “The proud” also includes those foolish statists and “patriots” who worship them — those people who say “America is the best country ever and our military keeps us safe and free.” The “proud” are also those men stupidly and foolishly seeking human-gods (e.g., presidents) to rule over them, rather than the Lord. God gives us everything we could need to live, and yet men are too prideful to be grateful for what the Lord has given, and they want more.  

“They and our fathers became arrogant and stiff-necked and did not obey Your commandments. They refused to listen and failed to remember the wonders You performed among them. They stiffened their necks and appointed a leader to return them to their bondage in Egypt” (Nehemiah 9:16-17).

Pride is very much about the hard-headedness of man to obey God’s law and seek God’s protection, which leaves them searching for political “salvation” instead. 

“You admonished them to turn back to Your law, but they were arrogant and disobeyed Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he practices them. They stubbornly shrugged their shoulders; they stiffened their necks and would not obey” (Nehemiah 9:29). 

Thus, in another sense, “pride” encompasses those statists who think “our country is the best country ever” and that they have no problems that need to be fixed and no judgment that will ever come upon them.

It has been amazing that so many people can say “pride is a sin” and yet so few of them can point out the pride of statism. The repeated pride and sin in the scriptures is the idea that one is fit to rule over other people, whether you’re the one who believes they can do the ruling or just an average fool who believes “we” need rulers. It is the sin of state-worshiping and of chasing after false god-kings that is most often the subject of God’s anger and wrath in the scriptures. 

These ‘days of reckonings’ aren’t just about God pouring out His wrath on egotistical teenagers, but of the Lord crushing these prideful, plunderous statist systems that have exalted themselves as gods. 

“Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD. For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east; they are soothsayers like the Philistines; they strike hands with the children of foreigners. Their land is full of silver and gold, with no limit to their treasures; their land is full of horses, with no limit to their chariots. Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made. So mankind is brought low, and man is humbled— do not forgive them! Go into the rocks and hide in the dust from the terror of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty. The proud look of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. For the Day of the LORD of Hosts will come against all the proud and lofty, against all that is exalted— it will be humbled— against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan, against all the tall mountains, against all the high hills, against every high tower, against every fortified wall, against every ship of Tarshish, and against every stately vessel. So the pride of man will be brought low, and the loftiness of men will be humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will vanish completely. Men will flee to caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, away from the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth” (Isaiah 2:5-19). 

Conclusion

Egotism, self-esteem, and elevated self-importance are all apparent in men who believe they have a right to rule over other people. But if we state these characteristics alone and present them on a personal level, so as to criticize the narcissist who’s “too full of himself” or the parent who puts a “my kid is an honor roll student” sticker on their bumper, it doesn’t quite encapsulate the worst and most dangerous manifestation of pride: When men exalt themselves as the “authorities” and when people worship these false gods. 

There’s a good case for making the argument that the pride of statism—the arrogance and audacity that accompanies people who rule over others, as well as the patriotic support of them by people who are fooled by these elites—is very often what “pride” in the scriptures is all about. It is the statism in men—the desire to rule people or the idolatrous worship of the State—that better explains pride than to simply water it down to a boastful individual. 

And it is not just a better explanation. Statism—setting up violent systems of political domination and pretending to be gods—is arguably the main sin in the scriptures: Idolatry for human rulers claiming to be gods, and the god-like loftiness of those who pretend to be gods. It was this, not obsessing over one’s face in the mirror, that God pointed out as turning away from Him (1 Samuel 8:7-8). It was this that preceded God’s judgment upon the Biblical cities He left wasted and desolate, not a society of teenage girls who were too caught up in their self-image. It was these things—men setting themselves up as kings and the ignorant godless people worshiping them—that always stirred God’s anger. 

The pride of statism, I would argue, is the essence of pride in God’s eyes. That this isn’t popularly taught goes to show just how many “Christians” are still prideful in the main ways that God hates: the worship of state systems and their rulers. As even atheists are well-aware, most American “Christians” have embarrassingly conflated “God and country.” It’s time we show that there is nearly nothing more antithetical to God than statism.