We continue with the subject of,

The Millennium and the End of Sin

Adventist state:

“Before the earth was created, sin had its origins in the angel Lucifer’s heart. He became jealous of God’s sovereignty and he questioned God’s judgement. He even started a war in heaven (Revelation 12) when he indulged the thought that he could be better than God. Lucifer, now called Satan, started the Great Controversy—a spiritual war of good versus evil.”

In our previous post we mentioned that there were three particular views as to when this supposed war is (was) to take place, with some saying it took place in the past and some that it has yet to have happened. We took a look at the first view point of its having taken place at the beginning of man’s creation and now would like to take a look at the second view. This one also considers this war in the past but this time it is believed to have taken place on the morning of our Lord’s resurrection in A.D. 33.

This next view reads like a fictional story with various scriptural citations some taken out of context and used to supposedly support this view point. Understand this is only one account of this particular viewpoint there are probably many similar to it be found on the internet.

It is called “The Untold Story of Jesus – The War in Heaven – Chapter 7” written by Larry W. Wilson

He states:

“Many Christians do not realize God cast Lucifer and his angels out of heaven twice! They were cast out before Earth was created and on Resurrection Sunday. The Bible does not mention any war when Lucifer and his followers were cast out the first time; the Father simply cast them out by the power of His word. Their exit happened so fast they had no time to respond.”

The underlined part here is wholly false especially the part about Lucifer and the rest of the fallen angels being cast out of heaven before the earth was created. Although it’s possible that Lucifer’s pride and ambition was already stirring in his heart prior to this, neither he nor any of the other angels had committed any sin yet. It was not until after Adam and Eve were created that Lucifer committed actual sin when he lied to Eve and deceived her. As for the rest of the fallen angels they had not yet sinned either until after man’s fall when they chose to leave their proper domain or habitation, their nature as spirit beings, and assume human bodies, which they had been privileged to do for the purpose of assisting mankind. Unfortunately, they chose to misused those bodies, to live amongst men, as men taking wives as they chose and fathering and illegitimate race of beings, the nephilim. (Jude 6; 2 Pet 2:4; Gen 6:1-2, 4)

“Jude 6 and 7 clearly shows the nature of the sin of these angels when, after mentioning them, it says: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah … in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh.”

“After Adam and Eve sinned, Lucifer became the prince of this world. As such, he and some of his angels were permitted to attend administrative meetings in heaven concerning Earth.”

Here our friend cites Job 1:6,7, which we have already discussed in Part 60 of this study, as was stated, there is no evidence that this meeting took place in heaven.

“Under the circumstances of Satan’s rebellion, it is utterly unthinkable that the Adversary has had any contact whatever with the heavenly court. For as God Himself is holy and His dwelling place holy, it would be entirely incompatible with reason to think that God would allow an unholy and depraved being to have any occupancy in His presence.”

Both Lucifer and the rest of the fallen angels were banned from heaven following their sin, and confined to tartaroo, the dark abyss or prison, the earth’s atmosphere, as so stated in 2 Pet 2:4 and Jude 6.

He goes on to state:

“When the loyal angels saw Lucifer’s attempt to kill baby Jesus at birth, they knew Jesus was on a dangerous mission. Later, when the devil offered the world to Jesus if He would bow down and worship him, the heavenly angels realized Lucifer coveted the worship that belonged to Jesus. They immediately recognized his lies and the arguments he had used to conceal his true motive. After the holy angels witnessed the cruelty Lucifer inflicted on Jesus before going to the cross, outrageous indignation filled heaven! If there had been an ounce of sympathy remaining among heaven’s angels for Lucifer and their fallen friends, it vanished at the cross.”

We will not go any further into this outline of events, as you can read it here for yourself if you wish, but rather jump ahead in the discourse following the adversary’s having been charged with treason, and he and his followers banished from heaven, which of course they resisted and as such it is implied that “war broke out in heaven”.

Note: as was stated above they were already banned from heaven long before this when first they committed sin.

“The Bible indicates that the war described in Revelation 12:7-9 occurred on Resurrection Sunday. Many Christians erroneously think this war occurred before Adam and Eve sinned, but according to Scripture, this is not possible.”

Our friend then goes on to expound upon how Revelation Chapter 12 proves his theory, unfortunately as is common among most of the professing Church he has totally misunderstood and misinterpreted this whole Chapter. Revelation is a symbolic prophecy, attempting to force a literal interpretation upon it has led to most of confusion and errors being propagated throughout the nominal church.

For a more thorough examination of Chapter 12 of Revelation please see our blog post entitled, “Revelation Chapter 12, Part 1”

In our next post we will take a look at the third view which describes this war in heaven as a future event.