Article August 21, 1902 Issue

Was Satan Ever in Heaven?

James Weller with contributions from Roger Ascham

Westminster Review

We may search in vain throughout the whole of the Bible for any safe foundation on which to rest the theory that Satan was ever in heaven. He is called an angel—and probably this has afforded the ground upon which Milton built his theory—but we must distinguish between angels of light and angels of darkness; between angels of life and angels of death. There exists, it is true, a few passages which at first sight appear to account for this singular misrepresentation; but these need but slight examination in order to show how incapable they are of affording ground for such a proposition. The first is Isaiah, 14:12: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the Morning." This has no reference whatever to Satan, but applies to the King of Babylon, whose power and dignity are represented as having exalted him to heaven, and when that power was overthrown he is spoken of as being thrust down to the ground.

The next passage already alluded to, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven," is no more conclusive than the former. The original Greek runs: "I beheld Satan fall as lightning from heaven." It is true that Satan is here spoken, of, and so speedy was to be his fall from power that our Lord compared it to lightning from heaven. This fall, Christ told his disciples, was to be the effect of their mission. The fall of Satan was to be from the position of power and influence over men because a greater power was about to make itself felt in the world—the power of God over Satan. In the same chapter the same figurative language is applied to Capernaum: "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell." And we know that the fall of Capernaum was from power and influence to degradation and ruin. This passage, therefore, refuses to countenance the theory of the expulsion of Satan from the habitation of the world of spirits and the immediate presence of God. The passage, however, which is most generally quoted in support of this theory is to be found in the Revelation of St. John (Revelation, 12:7): "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, . . . . and the great dragon was cast out, the old serpent called the Devil and Satan." But this quotation is, if possible, less available than either of the others, not only because it is purely figurative, but because it refers neither to the present not to the past, but to the distant future. "Come up hither and I will show thee things which must be hereafter." There was no promise of a representation of anything which took place before the existence of the first man upon the earth; but a vision of the hereafter, in which picture Satan is overcome—the great triumph of truth over error, of virtue over vice. With regard to the passage in St. Jude (verse 6) and that in St. Peter (2 Peter, 2:4), no mention of heaven is made, so that neither of these can have any bearing upon the subject. With the notion therefore of peace and harmony with which we associate a life to come, we gladly banish, once and forever, this Miltonic theory that sin and the father of sin had their origin in a world where evil cannot possibly exist.

Rev. James Weller
In Westminster Review.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Was Satan Ever in Heaven?

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access