Cast down

Cast down

You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you. – Ezekiel 28:15

Isaiah 14:12-14

 12 How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the world’s nations.

 13 For you said to yourself, “I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north.

 14 I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.”

A story has circulated on the Internet; as to its veracity, who can know for sure. But it’s helpful when we consider the issue of darkness and evil. A university professor loved to challenge his students with questions that were often non-sequiturs, which are logical fallacies that could not be deduced from the available information. This time one of his students turned the tables on him.

The student asked the professor, “Does darkness exist?”

The professor responded, “Of course it does.”

The student replied, “You are wrong, sir; darkness does not exist. Darkness is, in reality, the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness.”

“Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”

According to the Internet, that student was Albert Einstein.

The point of the story is that darkness does not exist in itself alone. Darkness describes the absence of light. Darkness results from the subtraction of light. Complete darkness is the total absence of light. Light was the first thing that God created (Genesis 1:3).

When the Father created everything through the Lord Jesus Christ, everything created was very good.

Colossians 1:16 Through [Christ], God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see – such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.

Genesis 1:31 God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!

If everything was very good, where does evil come from? Evil does not exist in and of itself. In much the same way that darkness is the absence of light, evil does not exist in and of itself. Evil is the absence of goodness. When goodness is removed, evil is what is left. The existence of evil is not an addition. It is a subtraction.

The Scriptures do not explicitly address the origin of Satan or evil spirits. Instead, they are far more concerned about the fact of their existence rather than speculating about how or when they rebelled against God (E. F. Murphy, Handbook for Spiritual Warfare).

Both angels and humans were created with the ability to choose – Free Will. The Fall of Adam and Eve occurred when they decided to disobey God, rebel, and sin (Genesis 2:16,17; 3:1-7). Their innocence and goodness were lost. They became sinful, fallen creatures.

Ezekiel 28:12-18 and Isaiah 14:12-14 depict the Fall of Lucifer. The events in view transcend the earthly kings described at the beginning of each chapter. Lucifer’s rebellion and consequent punishment, ejection from heaven, are set forth. He no longer lives in heaven, but he still has access (Job 1:5-6).

Ezekiel provides a glimpse of Lucifer as an “anointed cherub” of great beauty. Lucifer was originally an angel of God, an archangel, an anointed cherub. He was perfect until sin was found in him. Then he became utterly corrupt [Observe, he had been in Eden].

When did Lucifer fall? The Scriptures do not say explicitly. When the enemy appears in Genesis 3, he is already a fallen, sinful creature. Thus we can conclude that he rebelled sometime between his creation and his visit to the garden.

REFLECT & PRAY

Prone to wander, Lord; I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.

Father I am a fallen person prone to evil and darkness. Thank you for transferring me from the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of Light. Thank you for exchanging my evil for Your goodness.

INSIGHT

The Scriptures predict that there will be a time of terrible suffering and tribulation in the future. This period is also referred to as the 70th week of Daniel. But the 70th week of Daniel will be discussed another day. The critical thing to realize is that this event is future. It has not yet occurred. At that time, Satan will be ejected from heaven once and for all and cast down to the earth (Revelations 12:7-9).

Revelation 12:7-10

 7 Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels.

 8 And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven.

 9 This great dragon – the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world – was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.

 10 For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth . . ..

A bit of clarity is needed. The Scriptures state that some of the Father’s holy angels aligned with Satan and switched their allegiance. The Scriptures did not explicitly say when the angels rebelled and aligned with Satan. Nor do they refer to them as “fallen angels.” The Scriptures do not expressly state that one-third of the holy angels rebelled and submitted to Satan’s authority.

Revelation 12:3-4 provides a modicum of support for the idea that Satan took one-third of the angels with him when he rebelled.

Revelation 12:3-4

 3 Then, I witnessed in heaven another significant event. I saw a large red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns on his heads.

 4 His tail swept away one-third of the stars in the sky, and he threw to the earth. He stood in front of the woman as she was about to give birth, ready to devour her baby as soon as it was born.

The red dragon is identified as Lucifer.

Revelation 12:9 This great dragon – the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world – was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.

The conclusion drawn is that the angels expelled from heaven are the same as a “third of the stars” swept from heaven by the red dragon’s tail (Revelation 12:4).

These angels came to be called fallen angels, also known as demons, evil spirits, or unclean spirits. This all sounds entirely plausible. However, there is one rather colossal drawback. If Revelation 12 refers to a future time, predicted events have not occurred.

Yet, children of the King routinely refer to fallen angels. Further, they assume that one-third of the holy angels became fallen angels. Why is this so?

These ideas are not overtly stated in the Scriptures themselves. Still, they have been enshrined in the Western Christian tradition through the magnificent epic poem Paradise Lost, written in 1667 by John Milton.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 4-18-2

© Dr. H 2022