That was the title that the German philospher, Friedrich Nietzsche used for his paean to the imagined next evolution of man, the Übermensch or superman/overman. For Nietzsche, God was dead, Christianity was an abomination, and the future belonged to those who were willing to embrace the “will to power.” He said:
With [Thus Spoke Zarathustra] I have given mankind the greatest present that has ever been made to it so far. This book, with a voice bridging centuries, is not only the highest book there is, the book that is truly characterized by the air of the heightsthe whole fact of man lies beneath it at a tremendous distanceit is also the deepest, born out of the innermost wealth of truth, an inexhaustible well to which no pail descends without coming up again filled with gold and goodness. Ecce Homo, Preface, §4, trans. Walter Kaufmann [Wikipedia]
Humble, he was not, but then humility was not a virtue to the superman. Yet within all his bluster about being the deepest and highest writer/thinker man has produced, there is this poem.
O man, take care!
What does the deep midnight declare?
“I was asleep
From a deep dream I woke and swear:
The world is deep,
Deeper than day had been aware.
Deep is its woe
Joydeeper yet than agony:
Woe implores: Go!
But all joy wants eternity
Wants deep, wants deep eternity.”
[Emphasis added.]
Even within the soul of the man who epitomized the rejection of God, whose will to power mirrored that of Lucifer, there is the realization that at the root of his desire, his seeking of joy, was the unquenchable desire for eternity.
Sadly for Satan and Nietzsche and others who follow the same path (atheists, agnostics, worshipers of gods other than Yahweh), eternity is found only in one place, in the heart of the Most High God, the Alpha and the Omega, who was, is , and ever will be.
I always wondered what Satan expected to accomplish with his rebellion, how he expected to sustain himself, since he was in effect cutting himself off from the source of all life and existence. As for men like Nietzsche, where do they expect their “will to power” to ultimately lead them? It seems like a lot of cutting off your nose to spite your face to me, but then most philosophy beyond the basics just gives me a headache, so what do I know?
I guess there is little I lay claim to beyond my faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Nehemiah, John the Baptist, Peter, James, John, Paul, and all the others who down through the centuries placed their trust, faith, and eternal destinies in the hands of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Eternity will tell the tale and we will all eventually find out who has chosen rightly. As for me, I stand with the Apostles who responded to Jesus when asked if they would desert him also:
Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. John 6:68b
That pretty much says it, don’t you think?
