When did
Satan fall from heaven?
Answer:
I
believe the Genesis account is to be taken literally just as it was written. It
teaches the world was created in six, twenty-four hour days about 6000 years
ago; there was no gap. There was no period of time before the original
creation. There was actually no time. God made time as well as matter and
space. I do not think that Satan fell from heaven until about one hundred years
after the creation. He could not have fallen before the creation because he was
spoken about in the book of Ezekiel as being good while in the garden. Look at
Ezekiel 28:13-15, "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every
precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the
beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle,
and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee
in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth;
and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast
walked up and don in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy
ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in
thee." He was Lucifer, a good angel, or cherub, and he was in the Garden.
The Garden of Eden wasn't made until day six, so that shoots the Gap Theory
full of holes right there. Not only that, but Jesus said in Matthew 19:4 that
the creation of Adam and Eve was the beginning. Read what it says: "And he
answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning
made them male and female." Romans 5:12 says that there was no death until
Adam sinned, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."
Those who say that Satan fell from heaven and wiped out the preadamic
civilization are placing death before sin. They have just eliminated the need
for Christ to die on the cross. There was no death until sin came into the
world. Exodus 20:11 states, "For in six days the LORD made heaven and
earth and all that in them is..." This is found in the middle of the ten
commandments.
God made the whole universe in
six, literal twenty-four hour days, including time, including the angels, and
everything that is. What day He made the angels is not known since the Genesis
story is mainly telling events on the earth. The angels were probably made on
the first day, before God laid the foundations of the earth (see Job 38:4-7).
Genesis 1:31tells us everything was very good at the end of the creation week,
so Satan had not fallen yet. Satan did not fall until after the creation, maybe
even one hundred or so years later. All that we know is Adam was one hundred
thirty when Seth was born. That is the first date given in Scripture. Before
Seth, they had Cain and Abel, but dates are not given. Before he had Cain and
Abel, they were removed from the garden. Therefore, it would have been
somewhere around a hundred years during which time Satan may have become
jealous of the fellowship that Adam and Eve enjoyed with God. Satan may have
observed their relationship for one hundred years, and said, "Hey, I want
them to worship me! I want to rule humanity. I want to walk with them in the
garden. I will ascend unto the high heavens. I will take over the seat of the
Most High. I will, I will, I will." ( See Isaiah 14)
My theory is, and I cannot prove
it, but I am pretty convinced that Satan did not fall until one hundred years
after the creation. The fall could not have been in the original creation
because he was still the light bearer in the Garden of Eden.