CJ Counts

The Fall of Satan – question from a reader

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In today’s post, our reader asks a question that should be answered in two parts for the sake of topical clarity. My readers question was answered directly by me in one email, however I am splitting the answer into two posts because there are two topics addressed here. Some of my original email has been edited for the sake of clarity when I split this answer into two posts. 

It is as follows.

 

Q) If the earth was formed, and then Satan and the demons were cast down and destroyed the earth, would it would explain the age of the earth being billions of years old and man only going back 6000 years?

 

A)

This is a good question, and it requires our research to deal with two different concepts. Both of the two positions are loosely understood in scripture. 
 
For one, we are dealing with the theology of the fall of Satan and the demons, which the Bible only vaguely addresses. Where the theology of these matters are supposed to be addressed are places that scholars tend to differ on interpretation, because the text does not clearly state these things. These things are inferred from the text. 
 
For the other matter, the age of the earth is another point that scholars tend to differ on. 
 
So I will address both here as best I can. 
 
As regards the fall of Satan and the demons.  There is no verse that says that Satan was kicked out of heaven in our past, or that “a third of the angels fell from heaven,” or that those angels are his demons. We do see in Job 1 that Satan is still roaming between heaven and earth. We do know that there are demons who are allianced with Satan, because of a number of examples in the Gospel letters. Over time some verses, when put together, lead us to these conclusions. Sometime after the creation, and most certainly after the sixth day when everything was declared “very good” (Genesis 1:31), Satan rebelled. “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!” (Isaiah 14:12), is a verse that many scholars point to in order to demonstrate this. However, when reading Isaiah 14 as a whole, we see the context of this text refers to the kings of Assyria and Babylon. Therefore, there are three primary interpretations of this text among scholars. 
 
1) The Morning Star is Satan, because the person described here is to powerful to be any human king. But this is shaky because while Satan fits verses 12-14, he does not fit well with the rest of the chapter.
2) This could be Sennacherib or Nebuchadnezzar, who were kings with supreme power. Their people looked upon them as if they were gods, and those kings wanted to rule the world. 
3) This could refer to both Satan and a human king, possibly Nebuchadnezzar, because Babylon is pictured as the seat of evil in Revelation 17-18
 
Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18), and in the book of the Revelation Satan is seen as “a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth” (Revelation 9:1). But remember, Revelation is picturing future events. Not the past. 


We read of one third of an “innumerable company of angels” in (Hebrews 12:22), but not all scholars agree that this text means these angels rebelled with Satan. 

 

John saw this great wonder in heaven, “…an enormous red dragon…His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth…the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him” (Revelation 12:3–9). But again, these are future events. 

Since Satan is referred to as a star which fell or was cast down to earth, and Revelation 12:4 says a third of the stars were cast out with him, in the future, then the conclusion is that the stars in Revelation 12 refer to fallen angels, fully one third of the heavenly host. If the one-third number is in fact accurate, what assurance that is! Two thirds of the angels are still on God’s side, and for followers of Christ, they are on our side as well.

 
But suffice to say that much is inferred from these texts, and nothing is clearly stated about what happened between Satan and God, nor when it happened.
(Please see my next week’s post for the rest of this conversation)

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