LUCIFER'S CRIME

Many people believe Lucifer is not the real name for Satan or the Devil. There is actually only one reference to name or word in the Bible and this can be found in Isaiah 14 v 12;

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning….

The word Lucifer means ‘Light giver’ or ‘Shining one’, it is sometimes translated as ‘shining Star’. It is also the name given to Venus – the brightest object in the sky apart from the sun and moon – when appearing as the morning star. This is by no way a coincidence as in the Bible the Sun is depicted as God and the moon as Jesus or the word, the next brightest object is the morning star or in spiritual terms Lucifer. It has been said that the word Lucifer in the above passage is there in a descriptive sense and not as a name, and is linked with Luke 10 v 18;

And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

It is this connection between light and lightning that lead many to believe Lucifer is a word describing his decent. Others believe the passage in Isaiah refers to Nebuchanezzar, king of Babylon, who in his glory and pomp had aspired to exalt himself to the level of God. I firmly believe that it is Satan being described and as such Lucifer even in a descriptive sense is a good name, and works well. After all when God gives someone a name it is generally because it means something, not because it is fashionable. Why else would he now be called Satan or the Devil.

Another reason why we do not hear of Lucifer is down to the timing of the Bible. We see in the Bible quite a few times where Jesus called someone by a different name once he had become a servant of God, the name had a meaning and from that moment on they would no longer be called by their original name. Lucifer who is now called Satan or the Devil or a few other names, (all depicting him in his present sinful state) was renamed that at some point during the early stages of creation after Adam was on the scene. He is known by his fallen name because this is how he was whilst Adam was alive and we learn about the history of man.

I did believe his fall from favour took place between the formation of Adam and Eve. There are a few verses which put this straight, Eze 28:13; Eze 28:15;

Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God;...

Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

Lucifer was definately in the Garden in his perfect form and also in his fallen form when he engineered the fall of man, therefore it stands that he must have fallen during this period.

When talking about Lucifer many people put verses in the wrong order and make the mistake of putting Lucifer out of the picture. The common belief is that Lucifer made war against God with a third of the angels, and for his actions was cast out of heaven to be exiled on earth. This is not the case, the war is a future event and if you read the study on A war in heaven, you will see this to be the case. God was angry at Lucifer but apparently not enough to banish him completely from heaven or his sight. Lucifer merely lost all his privileges and position in heaven, in the most cherished places. The third of the angelic population generally attributed to him again is a miss-conception although he does have his own angels, the number of which is not known.

If we look at the fall of Lucifer we may begin to throw some light on the terrible deed he did which displeased God so much.

There are certain aspects about Lucifer’s fall that puzzle me and I doubt that I will ever really understand. We know from the scriptures that the punishment for sin is death, this as Christians is clear and there is no escaping it unless you repent. An Angel cannot repent, it is a spirit and is what it is, therefore if it sins it will be punished as it says in 2 Peter 2 v 4;

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast then down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgement.

The word ‘hell’ here refers to Tartarus, a place or hell specific to angels that have sinned. It is described as being ‘the pits of darkness’. Some Jewish stories describe it as caverns of darkness or caves where angels are kept awaiting judgement. To read the passage you would assume that any angel that sinned was cast into this hell and would be chained or bound until the end, never to be freed until judgement. We know this can’t be true from Job 1 6 v 7;

Now there was a day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.

And the Lord said to Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

Are we to believe that the Lord showed favouritism in the case of Lucifer or was his sin not bad enough to warrant being banished to hell. We also have to realise that along with Lucifer were his angels that followed him. Were these too above the law of God. I don’t think so.

We have two possibilities. One, Lucifer did not sin and two, this hell which is specific to angels is not a place but a state of being. The darkness described is not one of a physical nature but spiritual. Another verse, which shows us that angels are not above the law, can be found in Jude v 6;

And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day.

Again the word ‘darkness’ is a word specific to this place or state concerning angels. The word ‘chain’ has been translated to mean bond, which although may seem to be equal in meaning does not denote being fixed to a set location. For example you can bond with someone or be bonded to someone. One is a kind of spiritual connection while the other is physical. I would say this verse in Jude gives us a better understanding of what happened to Lucifer and for that matter any angel that sinned.

Whatever mistake Lucifer made I believe he made it on his own and at that moment in time there were no other angels involved. If anything they may have been led astray. If God puts you in a position of power, then the punishment for failure is greater. It does not necessarily mean hell will be any worse for you but can mean you lose more of what you have because you were given more to use in the first place. With God there are no fixed penalties. To give an illustration, a certain sin does not warrant a £1000 fine, because to a King it would be nothing, yet to an unemployed person it would be everything and more. God’s justice is more fair, if the King sinned he would lose more because of his position in relation to others. In the spiritual world this is true also. A pastor that sins like a high ranking angel would lose more than just one of the congregation because of the responsibility attached to them by God, in the sight of others.

In Ezekiel 28 we are given two prophetic messages. The first is in the beginning verses 1-10 and are directed at the prince of Tyrus who was lifted up in pride. However in verse 2 we read where God says;

…..yet thou art a man, and not God…

This prince then we are shown was a man and not an angel or heavenly being. The second message was to the King of Tyrus. Kings are totally different to princes and here there are no exceptions. In this case the King refers to a heavenly creature, Lucifer. In verses 11-19 we see God taking about a spiritual power.

In verse 13 we are introduced to who Lucifer was.

Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God…

He was there from the beginning of creation and it would appear was a part of God's future plan for earth. It goes on to say in verses 14 and 16;

Thou art the annointed cherub that covereth….

…. I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God; and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

It clearly states cherub and describes places in heaven. God was speaking about a special angel that was close to God, this could only have been Lucifer. These two messages warn us as to the pitfalls of power and position. No one is safe from temptation and pride, not even the closest to God.

In the second message which talks about the heavenly creature, Lucifer, it clearly states in verse 16;

And thou hast sinned…

So we know that Lucifer has sinned, but rather than any mention of being banished to hell it states in the close of the same verse,

Therefor I will cast thee out of the mountain of God; and will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

If we turn to Isaiah 6 v 2,3,6 and 7we are introduced to Seraphims, six winged heavenly creatures, who occupy a very similar place to what has been described earlier.

Above it stood the seraphims; each one had six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly.

And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.

Then flew one of the seraphims over to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the alter.

And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

In these passages we are shown that the seraphims are close to the alter of God. According to Jewish lore seraphims are the angels of love, light and fire, being the highest order of the hierarchy of choirs, serving God as caretakers of His throne. This account in Isaiah does give this idea some credence. I also believe that these stones that the seraphim carried and placed on Isaiah’s lips are the same stones mentioned in Ezekiel. A place close and special to God.

If by touching Isaiah on the lips with one of these stones took his iniquity away then Lucifer as it says in Ezekiel must have been perfect at one stage, to be able to walk amongst these stones, lets face ir God wouldn't have created him any other way. It also stands to reason that if Lucifer was no longer perfect then he could not abide in this place, or God did not want him there.

Is it possible that he could have had his iniquity removed and his sin cleansed by these stones?

Verse 17 of Ezekiel 28 goes on to say that he was cast to the ground and laid before Kings. I believe that in this verse and the following, God is making an example of Lucifer before the other angels, those who are in a similar high position, hence the word kings and in verse 19 he is shown before all that knew him.

It was a humiliating punishment and one, which Lucifer would not have been able to brush off lightly. For some one with a lot of pride like Lucifer, humiliation was very apt. It would also serve to be a good lesson for any other angels, after all Lucifer being the highest of all the heavenly creatures would have been greatly revered and looked up to.

It was followed by an expulsion from the rank and position he held, also his home in heaven. Though I would point out that it wasn’t a banishment to earth as we saw from the verses in Job, also in Revelation 12 v 10;

…for the accuser of our bretheren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

He still has access to heaven and God. The whole incident with Job proves he can get very close to God and talk to him as friends would talk. Having said that there was no friendship anymore, Lucifer had become God’s adversary. Not his opposite as many would have us believe. This dualistic view of God and the Devil is wrong and not Biblical. Lucifer is a created being with God given powers and is in no way equal to God. Lucifer’s attitude to God proves this, although he takes an argumentative and brash tone he never oversteps the mark.

Lucifer then has lost his ‘job’ and his home, but more importantly his inner peace. This is the darkness to which we were talking about earlier. Every angel lives for God and is fed or renewed by God through his Word or presence. Without God an angel has no meaning or rest, he hungers for that spiritual food. It is this hunger that is the darkness we read about in the punishment of angels. Because they sin God removes his word from them and the light or warmth of his presence is no longer felt in them. It is in this spiritual state that I believe Lucifer is in now. A state of darkness brought about by the removal of Gods word.

The darkness is a covering, all-encompassing darkness, which God places over the angel. It is like putting something in a vacuum. It is there in front of you but totally separate. This is why Lucifer can be in the presence of God, as the light from God is just that a light, the warmth and regeneration of his love can not be felt by him at all.

For an angel this is truly hell.

What was Lucifer?

Just as a brief introduction to Lucifer, we will use the scriptures to form some kind of description of who he really was and what he was before we move onto what he did. Most of the text is from Ezekiel 28 and describes him from the dressing down he was getting from God when he first became sinful. We learn from verse 14 what he was;

Thou art the annointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so….

We also learn from verse 15 that;

Thou wast perfect in they ways from the day thou wast created,….

As for his appearance we must look at verse 13 which talks about him being very beautiful and musical, to the point of maybe having musical instruments built into him or it may mean he had the ability or gift to play such instruments.

…..every precious stone was thy covering, the sardis, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the emerald and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy taberets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

It paints a very beautiful picture so far, an angel that God really created better than any of the other angels. Probably for good reason as this one was to be the most favoured and closest to God. It was as if God had created a companion, putting in him all the best attributes, beauty, wisdom and talent. We know he was beautiful not only from the description but from verse 17, which also tells us he was wise.

Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness….

It is the beginning of verse 13 and the end of 14 which tells us the places Lucifer was privy to and the closeness to God.

Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God…

…thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

This Eden must have been the same Eden that Adam was in charge of but we are not given any clues as to the timing of his presence. We read very early after Woman was created that Lucifer in the form of Satan and the Devil sought to bring man down. If Lucifer would have been in his original perfect state I am sure he would have been present in the garden with Adam and God would have shared company with them both. Adam must certainly have known of Lucifer but we are not told anything to sugest he knew about his sin. But we could conclude that if they knew each other it would be pointless Lucifer trying to tempt Adam.

So did Lucifer sin during the point between Adam being formed and the subsequent formation of Eve, was it the idea of Eve which promted his sin. We just don't know, for what ever reason God left the details out.

From Jude 1 v 9 we learn that Lucifer is not a force to be taken lightly, even in his sinful state. Here we see that Michael, an arch angel who probably took over from Lucifer does not presume to be better, which shows that he must have had some power. If you then take this back to a point before his sinful state then he trully must have been a powerful angel.

Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said the Lord rebuke thee.

It took the word of God to bring Lucifer under control, Michael did not have the authority or power in his own body.

From Revelation 12 we know that Lucifer has his own army of angels, the number of which we do not know and has set up after his fall a throne like that of God. Unlike God if he wants something doing he has to do it himself. He is not omnipresent. Revelation 2 v 13 tells us of Lucifer’s seat or throne as it is correctly translated.

I know thy works and where thy dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is;…

Before his fall he would have enjoyed the best heaven and God had to offer, access to all the highest realms of heaven and probably the secrets of God. He was around and maybe instrumental in the creation of the earth and Eden. It is this wisdom he is using know to destroy mankind. Nowhere in the bible does it say that God removed any of the abilities or power from Lucifer just because he sinned. All he lost was his position with God and the ability to use God’s word with authority. His power although greatly diminished without the backing of the Word, or God he still has the God given gifts and power created in him from the beginning.

Lucifer as we see was by modern standards a very complex creature. Having a God like status with the other angels by his connection and standing with God and the obvious love of God, shown in his meticulous creation of Lucifer. All these put together led Lucifer to gradually get boots that were far to big for him!

1 Timothy 3 v 6

…lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the Devil.

The crime

What then was the actual crime Lucifer committed, the thing that made him go this way. A better question to ask would be what was the temptation that he succumbed to.

To answer this question we must delve into the murky depths of speculation, but not wanting to stay here long I will endeavour to use scripture to back up the framework to the idea, the details, being common sense guesses based on the evidence.

We first have to realise that Lucifer Fell twice, first from favour and then from heaven. The final fall from heaven is yet to happen and will result in him being imprisoned within the confines of earth at the end times. At this point he is already in his sinful state. The first fall, was the fall from favour or grace, when Lucifer initially became sinful and decided not to follow God’s will. The two falls are completely different and happen at the two ends of the Bible.

The first fall, the fall from favour is recorded in Ezekiel 28 v 16

…I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and will destroy thee O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

The second fall, the one to earth before the final conflict is seen in Revelation 12 v 9

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast with him.

If you look at the context in which they are written you can see they are two separate events. One were God is showing sorrow at a friend losing his was and the other where God is destroying an enemy during a battle.