What do You do When God is Gaslighting You?
When Milton wrote Paradise Lost, he stated it would explain the ways of God to man. He failed to explicitly explain the reasoning behinds God’s decisions, but he excelled in conveying the envy of God’s obedience, God’s laws. Milton centers his epic around the relationship between freedom and freewill. Obedience to God plays into the restrictions of freewill. In other words, laws established by God impede total free will. It may seem that God has given man freewill, but he has not granted freedom. The characters crafted by Milton display a conundrum with topics of freewill and obedience. Throughout the text, Satan, Eve, Adam, and other demons question their place and decisions in tandem with God’s laws. In context, the presence of obedience is a ploy for control but given an attractive name. In Paradise Lost, Milton intricately explores obedience, defined by God, through language, order, and placement among varying character perspectives. Milton establishes a nuanced interplay between freedom and bondage within these characters.
The Satan
Firstly, it is valuable to understand the distinct differences between free will and freedom within the text. Milton defines freedom and free will ambiguously; yet there are many situations in the text that explicitly define the relationship among them. In this case, one should consider that for a subject to have free will he or she must have freedom and vice versa. For instance, Satan claims “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n “(1.263). He is announcing his proclamation of freedom. Now that he is beyond the reach of God, he can think as he wants without restraint. Moreover, no longer must Satan question his actions qualifying whether they are in line with the obedience that God demands. As a result, he has the ability to act on his own discretion: free will. Yet, Satan must still be obedient to God. God has placed him in hell and sees to the fact that he stays where God has ordained. When Satan attempts to leave hell, he is faced with a goblin that then replies:
“And they outcast from God, and here condemned / to waste eternal days in woe and pain? / And reckon’st thou thyself with Spirts of Heav’n / Hell-doomed, and breath’s defiance here and scorn, / Where I reign king, and to enrage thee more, / Thy king and lord? Back to thy punishment, / False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings” (2.694-700).
Now outcasted out of heaven, Satan’s freedom holds static. Yet, his free will is restricted by the bounds set by God. He is not able to commit this act he desires without resistance.
The Angel and The Adam
Through Raphael, Milton introduces the reader to the complex macrocosmos that separates man from angel. In Raphael’s conversation with Adam, the glass ceiling of knowledge is clear. Language and order play a significant role in their conversation. Raphael clarifies “The secrets of another world, perhaps / Not lawful to reveal? Yet for thy good / This is dispensed, and what surmounts the reach / Of human sense, I shall delineate so, / By lik’ning spiritual to corporal forms, / As may express them best…” (5.569-74). Raphael describes the immediate understanding and communion among angels, stating that they communicate through direct thoughts and shared knowledge rather than relying on spoken language. There is a barrier to entry in the knowledge Raphael can reveal to Adam in answering his questions about God and his place in the world. The limits of his bounds are strictly confined by what he can say. He explains “Immediate are the acts of God, more swift / than time or motion, but to human ears / Cannot without process of speech be told, / So told as earthly notion can receive” (7.176-79). Due to the status of Adam’s position in the macrocosmos, there is insight he will not be able to understand no matter how explicitly Raphael explains it. The knowledge he is seeking is reserved to creatures of high order status as defined by God, a status he simply does not possess. Higher knowledge is reserved. Even so, Raphael questions the lawfulness of his response,“Not lawful to reveal?” (5.570). He is careful in the way he expresses his speech. Higher order creatures, such as Angels, have restricted freedom. Although Raphael alludes to how Adam may ascend to angel status: “Improved by tract of time, and winged ascend / Ethereal as we, or may at choice / Here or in heav’nly paradises dwell; / If ye be found obedient, and retain / Unalterably firm his love entire” (5.498-502). Adam’s desire to be obedient is strengthened through this interaction. Yet, Raphael states “As nearer to him placed or nearer tending / Each in their several active spheres assigned, / Till body up to spirit work, in bounds / Proportioned to each kind….” (5.476-79). For a subject to ascend, their moral choices matter. Moral choices that are guided by what? God’s obedience! Before a subject makes a decision, they must first consider the implication of God. In such circumstances, one’s free will is based off of God’s judgement: how uneasy one feels in committing their desires.There is no freedom when a subject cannot act without constraint. The acts of a subject are bound in accordance with God’s obedience.
Milton explains the intricacies of God’s granting free will. God explains, “All he could have; I made him just and right, / Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.” (3.98-9). God expresses the concept of free will, emphasizing that He created humans with the ability to choose their own actions: free will that God has granted to all his creations. Raphael tells Adam “This Paradise I gave thee, count it thine / to till and keep, and of the fruit to eat: / of every tree that in the garden grows / eat freely tree with glad heart; fear here no dearth:” (8.319-25). Here, the archangel Raphael highlights Adam’s dominion over the earth and the creatures. Raphael fails to mention the bounds God has established in this world ordained by freedom. The angel continues “That thou continu’st such, owe to thyself, / that is, to thy obedience; therein stand. / This was that caution giv’n thee; be advised. / God made thee perfect, not immutable; / And good he made thee, but to preserve / he left it in thy power, ordained thy will / by nature free, not overruled by fate / inextricable, or strict necessity” (5.519-27). Raphael explicitly defines freewill. Yet, if God made thee perfect, then how can one still sin under God? Why would God give a subject freedom if he or she were never to deviate permitting complete freewill? God creates the conditions that allow for freedoms but through freewill fulfilling ones’ desires are constrained. Essentially the notion of acting on impulse is foreign to God.
The Eve and The One with A Valid Point (aka The Serpent)
With every decision that a subject, makes he or she is moved to consider the morality of his or her decision. The subject is confronted with whether their decision is right or wrong in the eyes of God. Eve negotiates with the serpent whether or not she should eat the forbidden fruit: “But God left free the will, for what obeys / Reason, is free, and reason he made right, / But bid her will beware, and still erect, / Least by dome fair appearing good surprised / She dictate false, and misinform the will / to do what God expressly hath forbid” (9.351-6). Her choice is directly influenced by God’s rationale rather than her own. The false sense lies that she is in control of freewill: Satan states “…in such abundance lies our choice” (9.620). He poses the point that if God hath truly granted freewill onto man then man should be able to act on their desire without requisite. Eve counters stating, “But if this tree we may not taste nor touch; / God so commanded, and left that command / Sole daughter of his voice; the rest, we live / Law to ourselves, our reason is our law.” (9.651-4). Again, her decision is controlled by the stipulation of God’s law. She defends her stance with tenacity: “With thy permission then, and thus forewarned” (9.378). Eve must consult the permission of God; importantly, she must confirm if God’s permission supports her conceptualization.
The Demons
The Demons in hell consider their freewill in a conversation where they discuss their newfound freedom after being cast out of heaven. Book I, lines 155-158, conveys Satan’s awareness that God is always watching them, even in their exile. They are under constant surveillance by the divine presence. They are made aware that any motion they make in hell God will know. How can God punish them beyond their current banishment? In their fall they have obtained freedom, liberated from the constraints of God. In their response freewill is not present, the behaviors they exhibit is not independent of God. Their fight and rebellion could not free them from God’s hold. Beelzebub reminds his fellow demons the reality of the situation they are in, “Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt / from Heav’n’s high jurisdiction, in new league / Banded against his throne, but to remain / In strictest bondage, though this far removed” (2.318-21). Beelzebub conjures up the idea that they may seem free but are still bound to the dominion of God. God’s resolution led him to place the demons below his domain, a decision that was not contingent. This action displays the precision God takes in lessons of disobedience.
The Gaslighter
God commands grace and faith from his creations. In order to obtain such, he manipulates his creation in following his notion of morality through obedience. Obedience is a show of faith; therein, the problem lies when disobedience is a show of poor faith. If a subject is disobedient in the eyes of God, it is confirmed that their faith in God is challenged. There is a limit to how much freewill subjects have. Archangel Gabriel's response to Satan's rebellion states, “They trespass, authors to themselves in all / Both what they judge and what they choose; for so / I formed them free, and free they must remain,” (3.122-4). Gabriel asserts that the angels' loyalty to God is unwavering, even in the face of Satan's attempts to corrupt them. Gabriel claim is false. Satan confirms “As great might have aspired, and me though mean / Drawn to his part; but other Powers as great / Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within / Of from without, to all temptations armed. / Hadst thou the same free will and power to stand? / Thou hadst: whom hast thou then or what to accuse,” (4.62-66). Satan takes credit for leading the rebellion and convincing other angels to join him, ultimately causing their fall from grace. In the light of freewill, even angels fall.
Conclusion
God’s requirement of obedience is a form of divine gaslighting. He declares subjects have freewill, autonomy, in the constraints of the conditions he places them. Freewill is restricted by the reins that come with conforming to the obedience of God. Language maintains the order established by God. The realm a subject is positioned in is indefinite but movement down the hierarchy is flexible. Altogether, God essentially grants absolute freedoms to subjects within the confines of language and order. It is the context of morality and the influence of God that leads a subject to reconsider his or her actions forbidding their freewill. Therein lies, is God gaslighting you?
