Angels As Well As Lucifer Had Free Choice
The angels, at one time, could obey God in everything, or they could disobey God, which, up to a certain point, wouldnt have been sin. Why would God allow angels in Heaven to fail Him? When God gave them free choice, the decision was in their hands, not His. The angels would not have been able to have disobeyed God in any way had God not given them free choice. God created all angels for His own glory He later created man and woman in the beginning to glorify Him, to honor Him and walk with Him. No longer, however, do the angels have that free choice, for they made their final choice when a third were deceived and went willingly with Lucifer while the rest chose to stay with God.
Why does God allow Satan to operate on Earth? So you can have a choice between him and God just as the angels once had a choice. Satan and the angels who chose him are already doomed God is letting Satan run his course which will take him into the lake of fire forever.
The first commandment: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment . Lucifer and the fallen angels failed the test of loving God.
Lucifer had great intelligence, answers. He could tell the other angels much about God, and he built an audience. All the angels at one time admired Lucifer he had so much influence that he was able to lead one third of them to rebel. They were impressed with his beauty, the way the Lord dressed him.
Was Pride His Downfall
Lucifers core sin is that of pride. Unfortunately, that sin is very much a part of the fabric of human existence as well. The funny thing about pride is that, rather than shining the spotlight on our virtues, it actually works to emphasize our character defects.
It can distance you from people who might otherwise care for you or seek your counsel. Nobody wants to go to a know-it-all for advice, nor do they want to associate with someone who thinks and acts like they are better than others.
Pride often springs out of jealousy or envy of others, which is also a sin. We should consider the example of John the Baptist, who when he was informed of the works of Jesus, simply accepted that Jesus would now take the spotlight .
John did not grow jealous, nor in his pride assert his role as a prophet in order to downplay the role of Christ, but simply understood his role in the overall will of the Lord. Martin Hawley, Senior Pastor at South Bay Bible Church writes that any power, prestige, or possessions we have been given to us by God for His glory and benefit.
He explains that power, prestige, and possessions must be understood in the context of stewardship, the temporary nature of these things, and accountability before God and our brothers and sisters,
Proverbs 16:18 warns us of the ultimate price paid by the prideful and the dreadful end for those who permit pride to consume them.
Discontent Can Be Contagious
I see dissatisfaction at work in some of Gods people at times, a spirit that can take them over, cause them to go back into the world. Discouraged, they see wrong in many things. Looking at other people instead of looking to Jesus hurts their faith.
When Lucifer got his eyes off God, self took over and fed a stubborn spirit. He wanted his own way, desired it. Disobedience breeds many problemsarrogance, rebellion, to name just two.
Lucifer, remember, began to feed other angels his discontent. He convinced one third of the angels, millions of them, to look to him instead of God. What a following Lucifer had because of deceit! Lucifer brought about deceit through his own spirit there was no other source for it. The Bible gives no other source but plainly indicates, I say again, that sin began in Lucifer. People have stumbled over this fact, not realizing what the Bible is talking about.
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Satan Is A Liar By Nature
Jesus tells us that lying is second nature to the devil. He doesnt sugarcoat it, either:
He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies .
The apostles tell us that our enemy is a great deceiver, too. When early church member Ananias makes a shady donation, Peter asks, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit ? . And Paul later tells the Corinthian church that the serpent deceived Eve through cunning lies , and goes on to say that Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light .
But Satans deceitfulness doesnt stop with Satan. And his followers arent limited to the unseen realm, either.
Unfortunately, there are others under Satans influence.
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Satan And Mankinds Fall
Pride was the main cause for both Satans and mankinds fall. For that matter, pride seems to be at the center of all sin. After the fall, which we will read about in the next paragraph, Satan was probably jealous that mankind was given dominion over the earth as Genesis 1:26 says let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Satan hatched a plan. He would deceive Eve and make her disobey God by taking to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Adam would do the same. After this, And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever and so the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken . Not only were they banished from the Garden of Eden, they would now receive their wages and that was death and would eventually die because the soul that sins will die . They had lost their chance at eternal life and their only hope would be that they repented but there is no evidence that they ever did. We just dont know for sure if they ever did.
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The Devil In The Bible
Although the Devil is present in some form in many religions and can be compared to some mythological gods, hes arguably best known for his role in Christianity. In modern biblical translations, the Devil is the adversary of God and Gods people.
Its commonly thought that the Devil first showed up in the Bible in the book of Genesis as the serpent who convinced Evewho then convinced Adamto eat forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge in the Garden of Eden. As the story goes, after Eve fell for the Devils conniving ways, she and Adam were banished from the Garden of Eden and doomed to mortality.
Many Christians believe the Devil was once a beautiful angel named Lucifer who defied God and fell from grace. This assumption that he is a fallen angel is often based the book of Isaiah in the Bible which says, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations.
Lucifer: Who Is Lucifer In The Bible Story Of The Fallen Angel
Before the biblical God created the world, he first created the heavens and inside the heavens, he created the cherubs, the angels, and archangels.
The Archangels were essentially the highest-ranked of the angels and were the chief messengers of God himself. Amongst these Archangels was the being known as LuciferThe highest Archangel of all.
He was described as being the most beautiful creature that God had ever created, a splendid being that was perfect in every way. Ezekiel 28:15 described him as, Thou perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created.
But Lucifer was so perfect, so handsome, so divine, and so strong when in comparison to his peers, that he grew arrogant. His superior qualities to Gods other creations caused him to become prideful and soon enough, he believed that it was he who should be in Gods place. He wanted to be God himself.
Given that he was deemed worthy to be in the presence of God more than any other and that he arguably understood God better than any other, Lucifer could think of no one better than himself to be the one to overthrow his Lord.
As noted in Isaiah 14:12 and 14, the prophet Isaiah quotes what some suggest is Lucifer, saying, I will ascend to heaven I will raise my throne above the stars of God.
It can even be argued that his ambition is greater than gods, that not only does he want to take Gods place but wants a place even higher than which God sits.
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Dantes Inferno: The Winged Devil
The 14th-century poem Inferno, written by Dante Alighieri as part of his Divine Comedy, recounts a fictional journey through the seven circles that make up hell before the protagonist comes face to face with Satan himself. Dante describes Satan with two mighty wings, such as befitting were so great a bird sails of the sea I never saw so large. No feathers had they, but as of a bat. .
According to Montesano, Satans wings may originate in Babylonian mythology, due to the devils association with the figure of Lilith. Lilith comes from the ancient Babylonian Lilitu demons: Winged females who flew through the night, seducing men and attacking pregnant women and infants, she said.
Dante also introduces elements from Greco-Roman mythology into his traditional Christian lore. He refers to the devil as Dis, which comes from Dis Pater, the Roman god of the underworld. In Inferno Dante writes: Hence in the smallest circle, where the point is Of the Universe, upon which Dis is seated, Whoeer betrays for ever is consumed. .
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Why Would God Who Is Not Evil Allow Evil To Continue To Exist
As with the other questions in this chapter, great theologians have struggledover how to effectively answer this. Paul, in his book to the Christiansin Rome, offers some insight into the overarching perspective that we shouldhave:
And we know that all things work together for good to thosewho love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
All things, including the evil in this world, have a purpose. God is glorifiedthrough the plan of salvation that He worked out from the beginning. From thefirst Adam to the Last Adam, God planned a glorious way to redeem a peoplefor himself through the promise of a Savior who would conquer both sin anddeath.
Jesus was glorified when He conquered Satan, sin, and death through Hisdeath and resurrection . Both God the Son and God the Father were glorified through the resurrection. Everything that happens is for the gloryof God, even when we cant see how God can be glorified from our limitedperspective.
Those who have received the gift of eternal life look forward to the timewhen we join God in heavena place there will be no evil . This 6,000-year-old cursed world is only a blip compared to eternity.This relatively brief time on earth is all the time that evil will be permitted.
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What Does The Devil Look Like
In his poem, Dante portrayed the Devil as a grotesque, winged creature with three faceseach chewing on a devious sinnerwhose wings blew freezing cold winds throughout Hells domain.
The Bible doesnt describe the Devil in detail. Early artistic interpretations of The Divine Comedy featuring shocking images of the Devil and his demons inflicting almost unimaginable human suffering only emboldened peoples thoughts about Hell and the Devil.
And by the end of the Middle Ages, the Devil had taken on the appearance of the horned, trident-wielding figure with a tail that has endured to modern times.
Pride Before The Fall
Satan wasnt the only one to fall and there will yet be more in the future. Thats because anyone who is full of pride is at war with God because Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor which is why James wrote Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up . The opposite of that is true as well if you lift yourself up, He will humble you. Either we will humble ourselves before God or He will do it for us and guess which one is more painful? This is because God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble . For those who refuse to voluntarily humble themselves God warns Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall . The word haughty means lifted up or to look down upon others from a lofty position and that position is only for God to have. To be haughty is to be full of pride and God will not tolerate such an attitude, just as He didnt tolerate Lucifers pride.
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When Did Lucifer Fall
Q. Just when did Satan fall? Why did God allow Satan to fall, and why did God even create Satan in the first place?
A.To consider when Satan fell , we must also consider when he was created , and several views exist. One view is that God originally created the heavens and the earth , including angels and even pre-Adam men , prior to a huge span of time that proponents believe existed between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. Many who hold to this gap theory believe that numerous events took place during that vast time, including Satans fall and extinction of creatures such as dinosaurs. Often this theory is used to try to harmonize the facts of Genesis 1 with evolution, geological ages involving millions of years, and the like. People in our theological camp generally reject the gap theory, especially in recent decades.
As to why God created Satan, we simply recognize the sovereignty of God and His ways, which are so often unknown to us. We also need to recognize that God did not create Satan as a fallen being. Angels, like people, were created with volition and thus were completely free to reject Gods will if they chose. Floyd H. Barackman wrote, Since they possessed personhood with its moral self-determination, they were given the choice of remaining loyal to God and serving Him forever or of rebelling against God and serving sin. Revelation 12:4 indicates that a third of the angels chose to go with Satan when he fell. These we refer to as demons.
What Is The First Mention Of Satan Or Evil In The Bible
Prior to the Babylonian Exile, Judaism had no heaven or hell souls of the dead simply went to a place of rest, sheol, regardless of the life that had been led. There was no Satan and no angels. The notion of Satan entered Judaism during the Babylonian Exile, so no biblical Book written before that time contains any reference to Satan. Chronicles was actually written during the Exile, as a revision to the Deuteronomic History, and thus is the first book in the Bible to contain the name Satan. 1 Chronicles 21:1:
And Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel.
Because Kings was written before the Exile, the corresponding passage contains no mention of Satan.
Another post-exilic reference to Satan is in the Book of Job, which introduces Satan, not yet as the adversary of God portrayed in later Christian belief, but as a son of God or angel, whose role was to prove the righteousness of people by tempting them to do wrong. God twice gave Satan a challenge to have Job curse God, first by destroying his family and his property , then by afflicting him with a terrible disease. If Job cursed God, he would be judged as evil.
Also: in the King James Version, Psalms 109:6 refers to Satan, but the Hebrew Masoretic text for Psalm 109:6 refers to an Adversary, rather than Satan.
Evil is mentioned much earlier in Genesis.
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The Devil Is The Source Of All Sin
Nothing was wrong with Lucifer until he became the source, the origin of all sin. He didnt stay in the truth now there is no truth in him. The angels that didnt fail, still live in the truth. Lucifer, deceiving the other angels, led them out of the truth, for he had come out of the truth himself willingly he came out, deceiving his own heart. The Bible says we can deceive our own hearts. We can be deceived about self if the love of truth is lacking. They received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned .
Self is very deceiving, and the way to conquer self is to live in the truth. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free . Know the truth, love it and be free. Jesus said, If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you . You must live in the truth. Lucifer, a liar and the father of all lies, represents his own when he lies.
Again Jesus exposes Lucifer to be the beginning of sin: Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do . Who is the father of righteousness? The Lord God Almighty. Who is the father of unrighteousness? Jesus said it was the devil. Sin had not existed, it had no source until Lucifer became lifted up in his own eyes.
Lust: pleasure, delight, appetite, a desire to gratify the senses. A flash of desire is not lust, but if you keep your mind on that desire, it will turn into lust.