The Origination of Satan

Courtesy of Stockvault.net

When Adam made a freewill choice, the iniquity that was placed in Lucifer, activated Satan and made the God of this world.

The preceding was a comment made by someone on another blog during a discussion we were having on the “Big Bad Guy.” It took me aback as I’d never heard this particular interpretation of how Satan originated.  In fact, my immediate reaction was “Huh?”

As many of you know, I researched the idea of Satan fairly extensively for my book and nowhere did I come across anything even remotely similar to this person’s statement. And I essentially told him that.

He responded by pointing out to me that Ezekiel wrote in Chapter 28, verse 13, “You were in Eden, the garden of God …”

Oh, O.K. Now it made sense. Sorta’. Let me explain.

A large number of Christians teach that Satan originated as an angel who used to possess great piety and beauty, but fell because of pride. They believe this angel’s name was Lucifer.

To substantiate this belief, they use Ezekiel 28:12-15, where they are convinced (have been taught) that Ezekiel is writing about a “fallen angel.”  Yet when we look at context, we see in Verse 12 that Ezekiel has been instructed by the “word of the LORD“ to “raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre.” Nowhere in this passage does the “word of the LORD” redirect Ezekiel to address someone else.

Nevertheless, believers cling to the teaching that Ezekiel is writing about Lucifer.

Another portion of text which Christians are certain refers to Lucifer can be found in Isaiah 14:12-17:

How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?” (KJV)

As they do in Ezekiel, they completely ignore Verse 4 of the chapter where it clearly states Isaiah is directing his comments to the king of Babylon.

Nevertheless, try to convince a believer of any of this.

The simple truth is this. Contrary to common belief, there is no “fallen angel” by the name of Lucifer. And to take it a step further, the entity known as “Satan” is not this “fallen angel.” In fact, there is no “Satan.” He is a construct of imaginative writers … but that’s a topic for another time.

To close this “lesson,” I offer the following from Wikipedia:

The name Lucifer is the King James Version rendering of the Hebrew word הֵילֵל in Isaiah (Isaiah 14:12). The Vulgate translation uses the Latin word lucifer, but with a lower-case initial. The Hebrew word, transliterated Hêlêl or Heylel (pron. as HAY-lale), occurs once in the Hebrew Bible and according to the KJV-based Strong’s Concordance means “shining one, light-bearer”. The Septuagint renders הֵילֵל in Greek as ἑωσφόρος (heōsphoros), a name, literally “bringer of dawn”, for the morning star. The word Lucifer is taken from the Latin Vulgate, which translates הֵילֵל as lucifer, meaning “the morning star, the planet Venus”, or, as an adjective, “light-bringing”. 

Later Christian tradition came to use the Latin word for “morning star”, lucifer, as a proper name (“Lucifer”) for the devil; as he was before his fall. As a result, “‘Lucifer’ has become a by-word for Satan / the Devil in the church and in popular literature.”

Hope that clears things up relating to Lucifer/Satan and the “fallen angel.”