Please allow me a moment of clarification regarding the sermon I gave Sunday morning, April 16th entitled “Answering Questions About Satan.”
I stated something to the effect of, “The Bible never identifies Satan as an angel and Isaiah 14:12 is not a reference to Satan being thrown down.”
That is absolutely correct. What led to some confusion was the fact the Bible does refer to Satan being “thrown down to the earth.” That does not change what was said in reference to Isaiah 14:12 but let’s take a look to clarify.
1. There is no passage of Scripture which refers to Satan as an angel.
2. Isaiah 14:12 refers to the king of Babylon as, “O Day Star, son of Dawn!” The King James Version uses the word Lucifer instead of “Day Star.” This is a vestige of the original Hebrew being translated into Latin. The Hebrew word, helel is translated as lucifer in Latin. The Latin phrase was associated with the planet Venus and Roman mythology. When the KJV translators produced their version of the Bible (which borrowed heavily from the Latin Vulgate) they left the Latin word lucifer which had become a proper name for Satan during the Middle Ages.
Isaiah 14:12 is not a reference to Satan, “falling from heaven.”
3. I referenced Luke 10:17-20 in passing. Jesus sent the apostles to preach the gospel to the lost sheep of Israel, and he gave the apostles power to cast out demons. When they returned to tell Jesus how successful they have been, our Lord says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”-v18. There are at least two valid interpretations here:
A. Jesus sees the demonstration of God’s power over satanic spirits as evidence Satan is overcome and will be overcome by the resurrection, ascension, and lordship of the Christ. It will soon occur but to God it is accomplished.
B. Jesus literally saw Satan fall from heaven.
4. Revelation 12:7-17 depicts Satan and his angels as losing a war with Michael and his angels. As a result, Satan is, “thrown down to the earth,”-v9.
Let’s recap: No verse of Scripture refers to Satan as an angel. Isaiah 14 is not referring to Satan. Jesus is most likely being metaphoric or prophetic of Satan’s eventual fall in Luke 10. Revelation 12 is referring to Satan being “thrown down.” As a matter of common sense, “Would Satan need to be ‘thrown out of heaven’ three different times?”
Isaiah 14 is about the king of Babylon.
Luke 10 is a metaphor or a prophecy of what did happen in…
Revelation 12 where Satan (still not an angel) is “thrown down” from heaven.-JS
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