man over him, which he looked upon as unnatural, irrational, an insult to his exalted position, Satan put his own rationality in place of God’s decree. It began as a rational reticence, but the more Satan thought about everything (outside the context of what God actually was saying about it), the more offensive it all became to him. In this argument, in this rebellion, in this rejection of divine sovereignty (and particularly the divine sovereignty expressed within the covenant of redemption to save