The Rebellion of Angels
(This article provides excerpts from the book “Journey Through the Bible and Your Story”
which will be available on Amazon books later in the summer.)
As mentioned in the previous article on angels, angels are created beings, subject to temptations and flaws. Angels, while given approach to God, are not perfect beings, for only God is perfect. Angels do not share in God's sovereignty and attributes. They are not omnipresent (everywhere present), omniscient (all knowing), or omnipotent (all powerful).
Ezekiel 28:14-15 describes that God placed Lucifer, a created angel, in a high position. “You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.”
Pride is what affected Lucifer, a created and imperfect angel. Ezekiel 28:17 reveals his pride, "Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor." Lucifer apparently became so impressed with his own beauty, intelligence, power, and position that he began to desire for himself the honor and glory that belonged to God alone. The sin that corrupted Lucifer was self-generated pride.
Apparently, this represents the actual beginning of sin in the universe—preceding the fall of the human Adam by an indeterminate time. Sin originated in the free will of Lucifer in which—with a full understanding of the issues involved—he chose to rebel against the Creator. Jesus told His disciples in Luke 10:18, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.”
Lucifer, referred to as Satan, the Devil, and the Dragon after his fall, is not what men like to picture him as being. He was a powerful, supremely intelligent, beautiful free-moral angel. But because he could not control his thoughts in making comparisons and evaluations, his intellect, authority, and his beauty led him to feel superior to others, to misuse them and circumstances solely for his benefit.
The almost unbelievable thing about Satan is his uncanny ability to convince created beings to follow him. He is the master of distorting the truth; in John 8:44 Jesus called the Devil,” the father of lies”. Revelation 12:4 informs us that when Satan fell, he convinced one third of the angels to go with him; obviously through his lying and deception. In their role as lackeys of Satan, they are committed to carrying out his unholy purposes. Their goal is to suppress the truth of God, to exchange the truth for a lie, and to deny all that God says is true and best. As we will see in future articles, Satan uses the same tactics to convince millions of created humans to follow him. Satan wants control of humans and tried to enact it in the Garden of Eden through the distortion of truth, and he still seeks control, now as in seeking humans to devour. In our world today we see that Satan is being successful with his tactics of distorting the truth.
