If God created everything good in
creation, where did evil come from?
Before we can tackle the origins of evil, we have to get our thinking
up-to-date on Lucifer.
Everybody knows who Lucifer is, right? The Devil, Satan, mentioned throughout the
Bible as the archangel who formerly led the worship of heaven, but who becomes
jealous of God, leads a revolt against God, gets kicked out of heaven, tempts
Adam and Eve to sin, , and now commands legions of demons to entrap frail
humanity in a battle to the death with God.
Right? Actually, none of these
ideas are found in the pages of the Bible.
It’s a myth spun by medieval religious people under the influence of
Aristotelian cosmology and later reinforced by John Milton in Paradise Lost and John Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress to explain the source
and on-going allure of evil in the world.
Jesus said the devil was a murderer
from the beginning and a liar (John 8:44). The devil has sinned from the
beginning (I John 3:8). So, Lucifer he
was never an archangel in heaven with God. Murderers don’t live with God (I John 3:15). So, that means the first two chapters of the
book of Job in which Satan is supposedly talking to God in the heavenly throne
room is obviously a parable, a story, and not a theological fact. Yes, 2
Corinthians 11:14 says Satan can masquerade as an angel of light, but that’s
not who Lucifer is. So, how do many Bible-believing Christians get the idea
that Lucifer is the fallen cherub?
To begin to answer that question we
go to the only verse in the Bible that actually mentions Lucifer (and that in
only a few translations these days): Isaiah 14:12-15
12 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!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt
my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the
congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of
the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to
hell, to the sides of the pit.
This is from the old King James
Version which was based on the awful Latin Vulgate translation done by Jerome
in the 3rd century. The word Jerome
translated as the name Lucifer is not a name at all. It’s a word that means “bringer of
light.” It’s the same word used to
describe Christ in 2 Peter 1:19 (“…until the Day Star arise in your
hearts.”). Most Biblical scholars today
agree that Isaiah 14:12 is not talking about Satan. Isaiah is speaking to a man, the King of
Babylon, accusing him of having destroyed a wonderful opportunity, just like
another man, this shining one, who wanted to make himself God and was brought
down to death. Isaiah is not talking
about Satan, but Adam, created resplendent in the image of God, but who wished
to exalt himself in the place of God and is then cut down to dirt.
Here’s another Old Testament text
that is thought to pertain to Lucifer: Ezekiel 28: 12-16.
The Lord God
says,
“You were the
signet of perfection,
full of
wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every
precious stone was your covering,
sardius, topaz, and diamond,
beryl, onyx,
and jasper,
sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle;
and crafted
in gold were your settings
and your
engravings.
On the day that you were created
they were
prepared.
14 You were an anointed guardian cherub.
I placed
you; you were on the holy mountain of God;
in the midst
of the stones of fire you walked.
15 You were blameless in your ways
from the day
you were created,
till
unrighteousness was found in you.
Many
evangelical scholars say this describes Satan.
This is where they get the idea of his beauty and supposed favored
status and the fact that he was in Eden.
But there was another in that Garden to whom this text applies in far
more exacting detail. But reading it
through the spectacles of Aristotelian cosmology doesn’t allow him to come
clearly into view.
Adam
was not created a human being like us. What do we know about him from the
Genesis account? He had face-to-face
fellowship with the 2nd person of the Trinity; they walked and
talked in the Garden. Adam was perfect. Now,
follow me carefully here: whatever Jesus is now, that’s what Adam was in the
Garden. The Bible refers to Jesus as the
Second or the Last Adam (see Romans 5:12-21); that is, Jesus comes to live the
life of obedience required by the Father to undo the curse of Adam’s sin upon
us all. Jesus dies, but is resurrected a
new kind of human, called the first-fruits, the first of many brothers and
sisters. Jesus ascends out of our visual
sight, but still operates and reigns over the world from the higher dimensions
of glory. Remember, heaven isn’t up, hell isn’t down, and people’s destiny is
not decided by their ability to blindly believe what ecclesiastical authorities
tell them. Jesus is now reigning as the
king Adam was created to be. Colossians
clearly identifies the image of God as who the risen Christ now is. When Adam was created he existed as Christ
now exists, in a higher plane of existence. Although the Hebrew of Ezekiel
28:12 is uncertain, a literal translation says “You seal up the sum,” or “you
are the finished standard.” Adam was
created in God’s image in ways we can never conceive. He was the same kind of spirit-man that Jesus
now is. The jewels mentioned in verse 13
were the stones that adorned the high priest and the king of Israel. Adam was given dominion as Jesus now reigns
with dominion. The way these jewels
reflect the light and become beautiful was how Adam was to live – reflecting in
his obedience and stewardship the light of the Father for all creation. Because
we’ve been taught to think of Adam as a person like us, we don’t think of him as
a guardian “cherub.” This verse is not
telling us that Satan is an angel, but that Adam was made of spirit-flesh as
Jesus is now and he was the guardian of all creation. I interpret Ezekiel’s description of Adam “moving
between the stones of fire” as a metaphor for Adam’s ability to break the
boundaries of space-time and exist simultaneously in the higher orders of
celestial holy space. The Serpent never
had the glory that was given to Adam.
Satan didn’t fall in Eden, but Adam did.
And that brings us to another text
widely quoted as authenticating the identity of Lucifer with a rebellious
archangel in heaven: Revelation 12:7-9.
Now war
arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the
dragon
and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them
in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan,
the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down
with him.
and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them
in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan,
the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down
with him.
Dispensational interpreters who
make Revelation a roadmap of the end-times think this text describes a vision
of something that took place before
the creation. This is the story of Satan’s
fall, they say. As I said previously, it
is inconceivable that if Jesus is telling the truth that the Devil has always
been a murderer and a liar, then it seems to clearly indicate that Satan was
never in the presence of a holy God and that there never could be a civil war
in the celestial spheres where God the Father is totally sovereign. Aristotelian cosmology is dualistic; that is,
it’s all about good versus evil and a powerful Satan frustrating the plans of
God. But this is not Scriptural and
certainly not rational. However, a
slight shift in cosmology allows us to look at this text in a way that is less mystical.
First, based purely on the text, the
vast majority of the book of Revelation is pre-Christian; it doesn’t mention
Jesus and speaks of the Messiah’s arrival in only abstract visionary terms. There’s nothing in it about the destruction
of Jerusalem in 70 AD, a fact which, if it had been known by someone writing at
the end of the first century as many claim, would have never gone
unmentioned. Second, studies of theology and
computer analysis of language and word patterns used in the visions of
Revelation match only one John from the
first century – John Baptizer. In the
early days of Jesus’ ministry, many were confused about who the Messiah
was. Many thought it was John. In fact, didn’t Jesus say John Baptizer was
the greatest human being who ever lived! (Luke 7:28). We know that Jesus’ first disciples had been
disciples of the John. There had not been a prophet in Israel for 400 years and
this guy shows up proclaiming the need for salvation and getting ready. Ready for what? I believe Revelation chapters 4-19 preserve
the visions and preaching of John Baptizer.
He had come as did the prophets of old to warn about the destruction of
Israel. The version of the book in our
Bibles was compiled after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD to which was
added a preface and epilogue. I know
this short explanation is not enough to convince anyone of what I am saying,
but suffice it to say, everything that occurs in chapters 4-19 can be accounted
for in the events of the Jewish-Roman War as chronicled by the Jewish
historian, Josephus. But let me tell you
what 12:7-9 actually refers to.
There is and only can
be one archangel. Arch-angel means First
or Leading Angel. Throughout the Old
Testament we see the 2nd person of the Trinity referred to as the
Leader of the Heavenly Army, or the Angel of the Yahweh. John Baptizer called him Michael, a title as
well as a name that means “one like God.”
So, what if Michael and his “angels” actually refers to The Messiah and
his messengers (the word angel means messenger)? We
would look in the Gospels to see if this in fact happened. That brings us to Luke 10:18. Jesus sends out the seventy (his “angels”)
and they are casting out spirits and healing the sick. They return to tell Jesus what amazing things
they have witnessed and Jesus says (and here I give a literal translation), “I
was watching Satan fall like lightening.”
Jesus is probably speaking metaphorically about the collapse of Satan’s
grip on mankind at the hands of his anointed messengers. But even if you want to believe that Satan
fell from heaven, according to the verb tense and the simplest meaning of Luke
10:18, it didn’t happen until 28 AD.
Jesus said in the Upper Room, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast
out” (John 12:31). Satan didn’t fall before
the foundation of the world; it’s happening during Messiah’s ministry. Paul understood that demonic power was now
restrained (2 Thessalonians 2:6). I
understand this restraint to refer to The Devil’s inability to move between the
Heavenlies and time-space, but appears trapped here in our world.
My best study of all the texts of
Scripture reveal that Satan was never in heaven with God. (I’ll have much more to say about Satan’s
true identity in the next lesson.) The
Devil was in the Garden as the Serpent.
But Adam was the only one who fell from the beautiful celestial being he
was created to be (spirit-man King of creation) to something cursed and dying
in a mud-body. Genesis 2 says God
breathed into some dust and Adam became a living nephesh (a Hebrew word usually translated soul). Genesis 1:20 says God created animals with
nepesh-life. Nephesh is animal life. Adam was not created homo-sapiens; he
falls to homo-sapiens. When Cain leaves
the garden and takes a wife (Genesis 4:17), she is a species descended from
great apes. DNA research now confirms
that humans intermarried with Neanderthals and that most people descended from
Europeans may have as much as 9% Neanderthal DNA circulating in their
blood. Could this solve the age old
mystery of the sons of God intermarry with the daughters of men (Gen. 6:2)?
Modern skeptics have a tough time
understanding how God can condemn them because of Adam’s sin. Their understanding of sin is limited to
Aristotelian moralism. The mud-body is
the curse because the mud-body dies. Sin
is not primarily moral; it is existential.
It’s what we are, not merely what we do.
Understanding the created God-image that was Adam helps us understand
the magnitude of Christ’s sacrifice. He
walked and talked with Adam among the “trees” of celestial Eden. And when Adam lied and exposed his rebellion,
it was Christ who said, I’ll step into time and redeem the fallen creature to
its true glory.
So, if Lucifer is Adam, who is
Satan? That’s where we turn in our next
lesson.
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