Problem 1: Diabolical Pride and the Problem of Separateness by Paul S. Waugh

Note – Because Paul has been so unwell, we are writing these articles from the hundreds of thousands of pages of transcripts of our Lighthouse research, in order to share with you—the reader—what Paul has learned and taught over the last twenty one years. In 2021-2022, the BBC unlawfully obtained highly sensitive and personal data through criminally stolen transcripts of personal and group counselling sessions and misrepresented them to the public in their docu-myth. An act of diabolical pride in and of itself! They will never live it down. They tried to decimate the public’s perception of Paul and all of us at Lighthouse Global, and have only succeeded in making us stronger, Glory to God! They know they wilfully deceived the British and global citizens. Repent!

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“There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves… There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.”

— C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Lewis called pride “The Great Sin.” I call it what it truly is: diabolical. Satanic pride. The pride that caused Lucifer’s fall, deceived Adam and Eve, and is destroying humanity today.

But here’s what most miss: pride is not the root problem—it’s the inevitable consequence of the first problem, the primary problem: separateness.

In my upcoming book The Sum of All Problems, I identify separation as Problem #1 in the Primary Problems—the Inside-In Problems that precede and produce all others. Pride doesn’t just lead to separation from God; pride is what happens when we are already separated. It’s the symptom of the deeper disease: the delusion that we exist independently from God.

The First Problem: Separateness

The foundational human problem is the illusion of separateness—the false belief that we are autonomous, independent, self-sufficient beings.

This is the original lie. Genesis 3:5: “You will be like God.” Not “You will be with God” or “You will serve God”—but “You will be God.” Separate. Independent. Self-determining. Sovereign over self.

Adam and Eve believed they could determine good and evil for themselves, independent of God. They thought they could be something apart from Him. That’s the first delusion—the delusion of separateness.

And from that separateness from the interdependent nature God created us in, pride inevitably follows.

From a secular perspective: Even without theological language, human psychology recognizes that the ego develops a false sense of autonomy. We forget our radical dependence on systems beyond our control—oxygen, gravity, ecosystems, social structures. The “separate self” is a cognitive construction that ignores our embeddedness in larger realities.

From a Christian perspective: We are creatures, not the Creator. We exist moment by moment through God’s sustaining power (Colossians 1:17). The breath in your lungs, the beating of your heart, the planetary order—all grace. We are all on this rock, helpless and all utterly dependent that this rock turns and sustains us exactly as God ordained it to. We’re THAT dependent on a rock to keep doing what it has done for millions of years, or however long. We are totally vulnerable to that perfect fine-tuning. 

To reject God, you must be deluded about how small you actually are.

Pride: The Competitive Consequence of Separation

Once you believe you’re separate from God, you need a new way to define yourself. And that’s where competitive, comparative pride takes over.

C.S. Lewis understood this with devastating clarity:

“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man… It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.”

Here’s the test: If everyone in the world had exactly the same wealth, status, and power—to the penny, to the detail—would your sense of pride disappear?

If yes, then what you have is diabolical pride. Because that pride is competitive by nature. It requires inequality to function. It needs someone beneath you to keep you feeling above.

Lewis continues: “Pride is essentially competitive—is competitive by its very nature… The proud man, even when he has got more than he can possibly want, will try to get still more just to assert his power.” I know this. I have been there, lived that and wanted that.

Why is pride competitive? Because when you’re separated from God—your true source of identity, value, and meaning—you must find identity in comparison to others. You must be better than, more than, above, more important, more significant.

This is not healthy self-respect. This is satanic pride—the attempt to establish identity and worth independently from God by positioning yourself perceptively above other humans.

Etymology: “Diabolical Pride”

The term “diabolical” comes from the Greek διάβολος (diabolos), meaning “slanderer” or “accuser.” It is composed of:

• διά (dia) = “through” or “across”
• βάλλω (ballō) = “to throw” or “to cast”

Literally, diabolos means “one who throws across” or “one who casts division”—referring to Satan as the accuser who separates humanity from God through deception.

When we speak of “diabolical pride,” we’re identifying:

• Satanic in origin—the sin that caused Lucifer’s fall
• Divisive in effect—it separates us from God and others
• Accusatory in function—it slanders God’s character
• Destructive in outcome—it leads to death and hell

Diabolical pride is separation in action.

The Original Sin: “I Will Ascend”

Isaiah 14:12-14 records Lucifer’s fall:

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!… You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high… I will make myself like the Most High.'”

Five times: “I will.”

Lucifer believed he could exist and define himself separately from God’s order, God’s authority, God’s reality. He believed in his own autonomous greatness.

That’s not just pride—that’s the delusion of separateness expressed as pride.

And Satan used the same lie on humanity: “You will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Meaning at least you will have sovereignty over self. Not united with God, not submitted to God—separate from God, independent of God.

Adam and Eve fell for the delusion that they could be something apart from God. They thought they were bigger than they were. They forgot their radical dependence.

And we all have it. Every single one of us carries this delusion of separateness, our vulnerability and limitation, and from it flows our diabolical pride.

The Delusion of Size

You’re on a rock hurtling through space around the sun. You didn’t choose to be here. You had no say in your existence. You’re here by God’s grace—completely, utterly, totally dependent on forces beyond your control.

If this rock wasn’t perfectly consistent in how it moves through space, we would all be dead. Any change or variation from those constants and we would all be eviscerated. We are done for. We are that dependent. That beholden to this rock and how it functions. 

And yet somehow, in your diabolical pride and delusion born from the illusion of separateness, you think you’re big. You think you’re independent. You think you’re self-sufficient.

What a delusion. The air, the water, the planetary order, the gravity that holds you to this rock, the sun that warms it, the ecosystem that sustains it—every single thing is a gift, is grace, is dependence.

Yet we walk around saying, “I don’t need God. I’m the master of my own destiny.”

This is Adam and Eve Syndrome—being deluded about how big you actually are, forgetting your absolute dependence, believing in your separateness. 

Pride as Spiritual Cancer

Lewis writes:

“Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.”

Why? Because love requires connection, vulnerability, dependence—the opposite of separateness. Contentment requires gratitude and receiving—the opposite of competitive comparison. Common sense requires acknowledging reality—and the reality is we are not separate, autonomous beings.

Pride makes all of this impossible because it reinforces the lie of separateness.

And here’s the devastating truth: pride is what makes us hate God.

Lewis: “As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

You cannot see God when you’re looking down on others. To see God, you must look up—you must acknowledge your dependence, your smallness, your need. You must shatter the illusion of separateness.

Pride keeps your eyes down, comparing yourself to others, which perpetuates the lie that you’re a separate, autonomous being who needs no one.

The Satanic Definition of Success

From the delusion of separateness comes what I call the satanic definition of success: being better than others, having more than others, being more important than others.

This worldly success is:

• Irrational—it cannot satisfy (there’s always someone with more)
• Diabolical—it mimics Satan’s “I will ascend above”
• Delusional—it mistakes temporary status for ultimate value
• Destructive—it reinforces separateness and leads to destruction

Lewis understood: “We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about.”

That’s the proof. If universal equality would destroy your sense of success, then your success is built on the lie of separateness—on keeping others below you to maintain your illusion of autonomous importance. This is also why a lot of parents do not want to develop their children because they don’t want to not feel proud of themselves if their child turns out to be cleverer, richer or better looking than them. (We will share another article on this soon)

Why God Opposes the Proud

James 4:6:

 “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

The word “opposes” is a military term—God arrays Himself in battle formation against the proud.

Why? Because pride is the active embrace of separateness. It’s saying, “I don’t need You, God. I exist independently. I am my own source.”

This is cosmic treason. This is the lie that fractured paradise. This is the delusion that leads to hell.

Proverbs 16:18:

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Proverbs 6:16-17 lists seven things God hates, and what tops the list? “Haughty eyes”—the look that positions oneself above others, the gaze that reinforces Satanic separateness.

How Diabolical Pride Manifests

When pride—rooted in the delusion of separateness—takes hold, you see these behaviours:

• Keeping others beneath you—actively suppressing, controlling, dominating to maintain position
• Resenting others’ success—feeling threatened when someone else does well
• Cannot admit wrong—defends at all costs, refuses correction
• Using people as objects—treating humans as means to your own ends
• Justifying evil in the name of good—doing something diabolical while claiming to care

This last one is the worst. When you do diabolical things in the name of caring, in the name of helping, in the name of justice—that’s doing wrong in the name of good. And it hates when truth is revealed, because truth exposes both the pride and the Satanic separateness.

This is exactly what the BBC does in the name of journalism, in the name of truth, in the name of care, in the name of impartiality. But it weaponises those virtues to mask a deeper hostility toward truth itself.

The Remedy: Reconnection Through Humility

The answer to pride is not just humility—it’s reconnection. It’s shattering the illusion of separateness by acknowledging reality: you are utterly, completely, joyfully dependent on God.

Matthew 23:12:

“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Philippians 2:5-8 shows us Jesus—who actually was God incarnate and is God—and what did He do?

“Though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

This is the exact opposite of Satan’s “I will ascend.” Jesus, who was and is God, descended—all the way to the cross.

And the result? “Therefore God has highly exalted him” (v. 9).

The way up is down. Through humility. Through acknowledging dependence. Through embracing our connection to God rather than our separateness from Him.

The Cross: Where Separateness Dies

The cross destroys the illusion of separateness and all grounds for pride.

At the cross, we see:

1. We’re sinners—so wicked that only the death of God’s Son could save us
2. We’re loved—so valuable that God gave His Son for us
3. We’re helpless—we cannot save ourselves
4. We’re dependent—we must receive salvation as a gift

Galatians 6:14:

“Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

At the foot of the cross, the ground is level. We all come as beggars. We all come with nothing. We all come utterly dependent.

The cross reconnects us to God. It shatters the lie of separateness. It destroys competitive pride.

And here’s the paradox: when we acknowledge our dependence, when we embrace our connection to God rather than our separateness, we find true dignity, true worth, true identity—not from being “better than” others, but from being loved by God, redeemed by Christ, and being conformed to His image.

A Kingdom Reset

Following Christ requires a complete reset of identity—moving from separateness to connection.

The diabolical worldview (rooted in separateness) says:

• Success = being above others
• Value = what I accomplish independently
• Goal = recognition, power, control
• Method = competition, self-promotion, domination

The Kingdom view (rooted in reconnection) says:

• Success = faithfulness to God’s call
• Value = being God’s image-bearer and Christ’s beloved
• Goal = God’s glory and others’ good
• Method = service, self-giving, sacrifice, interdependence

This is not lowering ambition—it’s redirecting it from maintaining the illusion of separateness to building in joyful dependence on God, together with others.

When our vision is corrected and aligned with God’s reality of our dependence and connection, we can build something with eternal materials—love, character, righteousness, truth.

Practical Steps to Kill Diabolical Pride and Embrace Dependence In Its Interdependence Frame

1. Confess Satanic separateness and diabolical pride ruthlessly—acknowledge the lie you’ve believed
2. Meditate on the cross—remember what it took to connect you to God
3. Practice dependence—ask for help, receive from others, acknowledge needs
4. Serve others—especially those who can’t repay you
5. Receive correction gladly—welcome input as a gift of connection
6. Give God the glory—actively attribute all gifts and successes to Him
7. Practice gratitude—thank God for everything, recognizing Him as source
8. Pursue community—we are not meant for independence but interdependence

Conclusion: Reconnection is Life

Diabolical pride is the great sin because it’s the active embrace of the primary problem: separateness.

It’s the delusion that we exist independently. It’s the lie that we are autonomous. It’s the false belief that we can determine our own value through comparison and competition.

But the truth is this: you are not separate, you are dependent and interdependent simultaneously. You never have been separate. You never will be. You exist moment by moment through God’s grace. Every breath is a gift. Every heartbeat is dependence. Every good thing is from above.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

The choice is yours: Will you continue in the delusion of separateness, grasping at pride, comparing yourself to others, trying to be “better than”?

Or will you embrace the truth of your dependence, humble yourself under God’s mighty hand, acknowledge your need, and find your identity not in separateness but in connection to the One who made you, sustains you, and loves you?

Pride goes before destruction. The way of separateness leads to death.

But humility—acknowledging dependence, embracing connection, receiving grace—leads to life.

Choose reconnection today. Choose humility today. Choose Christ (redemption) today. Choose life.

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Scripture References

• Genesis 3:1-7 (The lie of separateness and fall of humanity)
• Isaiah 14:12-14 (Fall of Lucifer—”I will ascend”)
• Colossians 1:17 (Christ sustains all things)
• Romans 12:3 (Sober judgment of self)
• Proverbs 16:18; 6:16-17 (Warnings against pride)
• James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5-6 (God opposes the proud)
• Philippians 2:3-8 (Christ’s humility—the way down)
• Matthew 23:12 (Whoever humbles himself will be exalted)
• Galatians 6:14 (Boasting in the cross)

Further Reading

• Paul S. Waugh, The Sum of All Problems: The Alchemy of Turning Problems Into Value — thesumofallproblems.com
• C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book III, Chapter 8: “The Great Sin”