Mills Hogue is a lawyer, writer, and teacher with a doctorate in theology and an appointment with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

His new book is Politics, Law, and Disorder in the Garden of Eden, The Quest for Identity.

That's our topic today. Welcome, Dr. Hogue.

Thank you very much, Mark. Thank you for having me.

So the Garden of Eden with this innocent Adam and Eve, it does have a politics of some kind.

Is this because of the presence of the serpent?

Well, politics starts wherever there's an authority and there's people subject to that authority.

And yes, the serpent who obviously we're not exactly sure whether he's the alter ego,

an imitation or a representative or Satan and another guy's.

But whatever the case, Satan, Lucifer, is vicariously

responsible for the actions of the serpent.

So yes, you have that situation.

And of course, Satan's deep agenda is to take the place of the Creator himself.

Since he was kicked out of heaven for his rebellion, for his pride, he has tried to usurp

the deity in the highest strategies of heaven. And he uses to do this, he uses his useful agents.

In this case, Adam and Eve, the first couple. And until their arrival, obviously,

Satan was the pinnacle of creation. He was the most beautiful thing that God had created. Now, with

the arrival of Adam and Eve, they are the pinnacle of creation. And this drove him even further

to distraction. So he had this, he's got this multifaceted agenda to destroy anything that connects to God, to deprive God of the glory

that is due to him. He is the one who wants to be worshipped. So that is the start of this

whole thing. This is the battle, the eternal battle that will last until the end of time

between darkness and light.

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