Article 2014-12 - Rebellion in Heaven
Chapter 3: Rebellion in Heaven
Introduction
Long before the creation took place, one of God’s angels rebelled against Him. His motive was jealousy: he wanted to sit on God’s throne himself. When he did not succeed he was thrown out of heaven and in his fall took many angels with him. Their rebellion continued ever since. This angel was originally called Morning Star. We know him from the Bible as Satan, the devil, the serpent, the dragon, the adversary, the accuser, the father of lies, and the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy. He seeks people to join him in his battle against God and His angels. That is useless because he can’t win but he does keep many people from salvation, and therefore sees his battle as useful. Christians who have submitted to God have joined Him in the battle for His Kingdom. Missionaries fight that battle in the frontlines. Together they resist the devil and his demons, until the latter will be defeated. Paul calls this the battle in the heavenlies. In this chapter I elaborate on the first of the ten themes ‘Satan is the origin of sin’.
Scripture reference
How you have fallen from heaven, o morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God…’ (Is. 14:12,13)
‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’ He replied, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven’ (Luke 10:17,18)
The story
After the conversation in heaven between the Persons of the Godhead ended, one of God’s most important angels, Morning Star, made an unholy plan. Since his creation he had been the guardian angel of God’s throne. He was impressed with God’s glory and because he was so close to it, some of it shone from him too. He occupied an important position in heaven, more important than that of others, he thought. Sometimes however, he also thought that it was still not important enough. In secret he would love to sit on that throne himself. At the same time he knew that this was wishful thinking. He knew better than anyone else that there was only one God. Only One, Who deserved the worship of all creation, including his own. Feelings of jealousy rose in his thinking, undetected at first. Feelings can be hidden for a long time before being noticed.
And now there had been that meeting between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father had laid out His plan for the creation of mankind. That was one thing, but mankind to sit on the throne with God Himself?! That was preposterous, Morning Star felt! Wasn’t it his own right, after having been a servant of that throne for countless centuries, to sit on it himself? Why these newly created humans? Would they be better suited for the throne of God than he was himself? He was certain they would be unfit to share rule over the universe. Maybe he could even prove it!
His jealousy turned into an attitude of indignant anger. How could God allow such injustice?, he wondered. He thought about what he could do about it and finally decided that it was time for action. ‘I will make myself like the Most High! I will … I will!’ Carefully he looked for others who had similar feelings. He found more than he thought: one in three of the total host of angels decided to join him.
An attempt at the throne of God failed, however. The result was that all of the rebels were thrown out of heaven. Darkness had crept into the Place of Light and with the same speed had to flee from it. They went away to execute their own dark council and from that time onwards plotted about how they could regain their position in heaven.
Lies and oppression became their tactic. All truth that had once been in Morning Star now disappeared. Their once glorious heavenly appearances became ugly and repulsive. Servanthood became lordship, mercy turned into cruelty, love into hatred. All activity had only one goal: how can we beat the Most High, ruin His creation, and thwart His plans?
The army of darkness became a rigidly ruled organization, a hierarchy based on fear. And because their trademark had become the lie, no truth was believed any longer. Hence the thought that they would eventually still be able to win the war against God.
Although Satan is God’s enemy, he is a created being and therefore no match for God. Should God desire to do so, He could wipe out the whole host of darkness at once, with a glimpse of His eye.
In the next chapter we see why God did not do that. The hostilities that started in heaven long ago still continue today. All who submit to God’s rightful rule find themselves engaged in a battle against the forces of darkness, especially those who work with God for the salvation of others.
Scripture reference
To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne (Rev. 3:21)
And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever (Rev. 20:10)
Comment
We now understand more about the origin of sin. It is our first major theme that we see in the Scriptures. We saw that the rebellion against God started in heaven, by one of His angels whose motive was jealousy. The angel, Morning Star, took other angels with him but their attempt at God’s throne failed and they were thrown out of heaven. They continue their rebellion but will fail and be done away with for ever. God chose the people who obey Him to be His agents to drive back these forces of evil, a task in which they progress continually. This goes for all God’s people, but especially so for missionaries who penetrate Satan’s domains, where the gospel has been preached least, or not at all.
Before man was created, sin had its origin among God’s angels. Morning Star became Satan, the adversary, and is the originator of sin. Eventually he would inject sin into the human race – with man’s approval, as we see in the next chapter. Yet, by choosing to totally eliminate sin in man by Man, God proves to the devil that man is more fit to rule than he is. The first Man to conquer sin was Jesus and in Him the believers will be even more than conquerors over sin and Satan.
There is much hostility in the world and there are many ‘enemies’ around us. Sometimes we may feel as if the whole world is against us. The truth is that there is only one God-ordained enemy of mankind, and that is the serpent (one of the names of the devil) and his followers, the fallen angels. God put enmity between the human race and this group of fallen angels. They are the real enemies and have inspired all enmity between humans. God never meant there to be enmity between humans. But since so much enmity does exist between them (about differences in race, wealth, status, power, gender etc.) it is as if humans are their own worst enemies.
One of the tactics of the devil has always been to initiate evil, and then to hide and do as if he doesn’t exist. He appears almost nowhere openly in the books of the Old Testament, and not until Jesus ministered on earth were the devil’s works exposed and broken.
Scripture reference
And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers (Gen. 3:15)
… say to the ruler of Tyre, This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ’In the pride of your heart you say, “I am a god, I sit on the throne of a god …” ’You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden … You were blameless … till wickedness was found in you …’ (Ez. 28:2,12,13,15)
When we take closer looks at Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 we see glimpses of what happened in heaven. In Isaiah we read about the king of Babylon, who is a representation of Satan. Several things, written in this passage, cannot possibly apply to an earthly king, and therefore it has more significance when we apply it to another ‘king’: one who was given a certain authority and responsibility in the heavenly kingdom. However, he abused these God-given privileges for selfish ends.
In Ezekiel we see an even more apt description of the devil, this time represented by the king of Tyre, of who Satan was before his fall. He was covered with unimaginable heavenly splendor and glory, and God even called him a guardian cherub. Before his fall, this cherub found himself at the centre of the rule of the universe.
Discussion & dialogue
Discuss the difference between Godly enmity and satanic enmity; give examples of each
It has been said: ‘If the devil cannot scare you, he will make you believe that he does not exist’. Discuss this statement and find examples for both
THEME 1: SATAN IS THE ORIGINATOR OF SIN |
Discussion & dialogue
Discuss why Satan rebelled against God: Why was he not content with his position? What was his motive, when he regarded man whom God had destined for the throne? Why is his battle useless, except in his own opinion? Why is Satan, although His enemy, ‘no match for God’? How does God intend to prove that man is fit to rule?
A look ahead: corruption permeates humanity
Now that we looked briefly at the origin and the originator of sin, we must see how this corruption spread further through the human race. Now that Satan had been cursed and a Savior was promised, the devil developed his next strategy, namely to corrupt humanity so that it would become unable to bring forth that Savior. God counteracted this by shortening man’s life span, in order to limit his capacity for sin and his subsequent suffering under its burden.
Today, for the same reason, we see this happening again. In most parts of the world man’s life-expectation becomes lower and lower, due to poverty, sickness, wars, famines, earthquakes, floods that lead to death – all because of sin. People are now dying at an earlier age then before. Where sin increases, life-expectation decreases. It is one of the laws of humanity that was put in place by God in Genesis – not a law of punishment but one of mercy rather: earthly human suffering (which is terrible in the eyes of the Lord) is thus limited to a lesser number of years.
Scripture reference
Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.’ … The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of … his heart was only evil all the time (Gen. 6:3,5 italics added)
A look ahead, continued
This wording is very strong: ‘great wickedness … every inclination … was only evil all the time’. Just before the Lord started to speak about the necessity of a judgment, He explained how humanity had sinned beyond recovery. It was an all-encompassing corruption.
The outcome was horrible. God needed to send the Flood. This has considerable significance for today, because Jesus compared the behavior of the generation at the time prior to His return with that of Noah’s generation. Moral decay and crime are increasing. Environmental pollution gets worse. Bad behavior and attitudes are seen at all levels of society. Occultism spreads like wildfire, also among children and youth. This situation is not going to improve, so let’s try to save what can be saved before total indifference and unbelief captures unsaved humanity. Saving people is what world missions is all about.
Some wonder why God said that He would punish the children for the sins of their fathers to the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him. We may feel pity on those children, but God is righteous and just. We must understand that fathers instill patterns of behavior in the lives of their children by example as well as by words. These children will make choices to either accept or reject the behavior of their fathers. If children reject the God-fearing life style of their parents they will be counted as sinners in their own right. If, on the other hand, children reject the sinful behavior of their parents, and turn to the Lord they will be saved of their sins and their past, and be counted as righteous by the Lord. The crux of the matter is repentance. God has never turned anyone down who came to Him in the humble attitude of a sinner and invariably, where judgment takes place, repentance has lacked.
