“Prometheus was in Greek Mythology, one of the Titans, the supreme trickster, and a god of fire. His intellectual side was emphasized by the apparent meaning of his name, Forethinker. In common belief he developed into a master craftsman, and in this connection he was associated with fire and the creation of mortals” [1].

As it predates Christianity by about 8 hundred years [2], we can discuss something that many, many Christians (in fact all of us due to our fallen nature) struggle with in life. Something that, as one believes, could only be resolved by The Spirit Himself. Therefore, I believe I’ve been given authority to welcome you; as The Holy Spirit is undoubtedly responsible for directing you to read this far and certainly to be agreeable to continue.

The difference between Authority and Control

Throughout my career, it’s been thematic for parents to confuse these two definitions. Rather than search for a contemporary definition, I like to illustrate the difference using this example.

Control is when you play a video game and when moving your joystick (or other input device) forward and your onscreen representative moves forward. As you release the control, the representative stops moving. If you push left it moves left, etc. Authority is when you tell your child to go to the corner and wait for you to get there before crossing the street and they listen. They may spin around, pick up some leaves and do a little dance for example, but they listen to and respect your authority. Here is why.

What we’ve been given over our children, any employee that works for us, any student under our tutelage, or any autonomous thing (including plants) that lives/breathes is Authority. We have not been given control. In the case of animals, for example, the practice of fencing them in using electric fences, etc. speaks to authority, and furthermore it speaks to our lack of control (even dogs are trained or respond to our authority based on our relationship with them individually, they can choose not to respond in kind if they had no good relation to us). In my belief and experience this is the source of much frustration when parenting. In fairness this is better understood in other venues such as employment, however.

What we’ve been given regarding our lives

As one believes, we as Christians can do well to understand that rather than fencing us in (because God will not compromise free will) he teaches us to surrender Authority over our lives. It’s important to remember that he allows us control over our bodies (Galatians 5:22-23); this is so we can be able to exercise that free will to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ at any given time. This is what creates the freedom in at least one way: we’ve been given Authority over the Earth, Sin, unclean spirits, and our children but the only thing we have control over is decision making over our corporal selves [3]. This brings us to Prometheus.

What is Prometheus Doing Here?

Based on the above, you can conclude, as one believes, we’ve been given extraordinary power/authority (as in the authorization from heaven to request an intervention from God, so long as it is inside of His Will). Upon understanding (or coming to understand) that we’ve been given so much, we often say to ourselves, “okay, cool. I got it from here, thanks God” with an air of ‘this is awesome’. This is beyond a dangerous way to think because we cannot control what happens in the future i.e., in our lives and most importantly the consequences of sin. Interestingly enough, in Greek mythology the punishment for humanity upon receiving the Fire that Prometheus stole was him sending to earth Pandora, presumably along with her box [4]. I don’t believe this should be looked at as a parallel but rather a testament to God’s presence all along. Once we start to think ahead in this way (I got it from here!), no matter how innocent, we are of trying to ‘do it by ourselves’. You can try this as a thought exercise yourself now where the spiritual meets the temporal. If you think about your future life (in particular involving sin) you really are running off by yourself and inadvertently inviting sin into your life in such a way as you believe you can anticipate and handle it; sin is handled for you and this can be looked at as a sign of impatience. In other words, worrying about future sin is not looking forward, it’s looking backwards in to the graveyard of darkness/ignorance (I mean, do you want to sin? It shouldn’t be on the table in the first place!)

A God of Right Now

I believe this can be avoided by thinking of The Law Vs. Faith as described by the apostle Paul in The Book of Romans Chapters 6, 7 & 8. As I was once directed, I strongly suggest taking a seven-day week and reading these 3 chapters every day for 7 days straight. The idea is that The Law cannot do what it is meant to do for us because we can’t follow it based on the letter. Such as a child who’s told not to eat the candy on the table. Even if they can avoid it now, they can only be so sure that they won’t want it in the future unless they organically don’t want it (basically it’s one thing to resist because you are told and another to resist because you just don’t want it and the enemy is trying to force it on to you due to his coercive nature). This is what brings us to a functional, active Faith (‘today Faith’) by disregarding tomorrow [5], since tomorrow never comes; it’s always ‘today’. Therefore, rejoice, relax, and always remember that Jesus already said that he gave us Peace [6], and if we’ve come to him, also rest.

For now, take care.

Gregory Longmore, LMHC is an online-only Christian Professional Mental Health therapist based in NYC.

1. Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2022, August 26). Prometheus. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Prometheus-Greek-god 2. Hesiod. The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Hes. Th. 506-616). Theogony. Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. 3. KJV Super Giant Print Reference Bible. (Genesis 1:26; Genesis 4:7; Proverbs 22:6 & Ephesians 6:4, respectively), 1996, Holman Bible Publishers. Copyright 1996 by Holman Bible Publishers 4. Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2022, August 26). Prometheus. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Prometheus-Greek-god 5. KJV Super Giant Print Reference Bible. (Matthew 6:34; John 14:27; Matthew 25-30), 1996, Holman Bible Publishers. Copyright 1996 by Holman Bible Publishers