Reading: Video Transcript: Where It All Began

Thank you for sticking with me through some of that philosophical stuff.

We’re going to turn now to the Bible to say where it all began. Where did this battle start, and how did it start?

This is an important section of Scripture—these passages that we’re going to look at—because they give us some insight into who our enemy is and what he might be like, because we have some misconceptions there too.

And so we’re going to look today at where it all began.

In order to look at where it all began, we have to go back to some Old Testament Scriptures. In fact, they’re rather fascinating ones, and we’ll find that the battle started with war in heaven.

And I love that picture there. That’s of an angel with a sword in his hand, and he is—yeah—looking around, and there are all these symbols of evil. And in comes the good.

Well, this all started in heaven. And these are rather obscure passages that we’re going to consider. But as we look at them, be aware that these are all passages where we’re given insight—at least, scholars believe these refer to our enemy. He goes by various names—but he’s the devil. Satan.

We’re going to look at his names after we’re done with these passages in a few sessions. But it begins with war in heaven.

Look at this passage. This is from Ezekiel 28, and again, look at these words. It is assumed that these were words to describe Satan, the devil, our enemy. And God is saying:

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. Through your widespread trade, you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. By your many sins and dishonest trade, you have desecrated your sanctuaries. So I made a fire come out of you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching.

Now—okay—if we look at that and we say, “Yeah, that sounds like something.” There’s an angel—this is a cherub—and something happened up in heaven, and that resulted in something happening on earth.

Now, that’s the first passage.

Here’s the second one. This is from Isaiah 14:

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.

Now, a couple of things to notice there.

First of all, notice that this being has several “I” statements—kind of an egocentrist here, right? He’s stuck on himself:

• “I will ascend to heaven.”

• “I will raise my throne above the stars of God.”

• “I will sit on the mount of the assembly.”

Now, the stars of God represent creation—the idea that God was above the creation. So he’s saying, I’m going to go above the creation. I’m going to go to the mount of assembly—that’s where, apparently, God would gather and rule from, where the angels would assemble.

We get a glimpse of it in Job, chapters 1 and 2, where Satan comes into the assembly room, and God asks him, “Where have you been?” We’re going to look at that passage a little bit later.

But:

• “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.”

• “I will make myself like the Most High.”

Now—does that sound like anybody you know?

Some things we learn about our enemy here that we should be aware of:

First of all, he is a beautiful, created being.

This is an angel. So, God created the angels and apparently gave them free will, much as He gave free will to the beings created in His image.

And this creature—and, you know, approximately one-third of the angels of heaven—chose to disobey God, to leave God, to rebel against Him, to try to take over from Him.

But he was a beautiful, created being. Did you catch some of those descriptions of him?

People followed you because of your splendor.
You are a morning star.

Consider that first burst of light to be so, so incredible.

Now, that’s not the way we often picture Satan in our culture—here in the United States, and probably in yours.

I mean, this is more of the typical view of Satan, right?

And I began to look this week—How did we get this? Because he’s Satan. He’s this beautiful creature when God creates him. And Paul says he’s going to come like an angel of light.

We’ll talk more about the process of temptation later. But he doesn’t come as this ugly, repulsive being.

So I began to look: Where do we get this idea of him?

And part of it is, you know, describing the devils in some classic poetry. Dante, in his Inferno—his vision of hell—he’s describing the creatures there.

So this is where we think that some of this came from:

• The large tail, the long tail of a reptile, is a symbol connected to the book of Revelation, where John writes:

  A great red dragon, and his tail swept a third of the stars from heaven and cast them to the earth.

So, you know, this is something that comes out of the picture in that rather troubling and confusing—sometimes—book of Revelation.

• The pitchfork, known as a trident, or sometimes a bident (with two prongs), was something that was used by the Greek god of the underworld—a god named Hades.
  So it represented sovereignty over the dead. Since Satan is viewed as the lord of hell, he’s frequently pictured with that pitchfork.

• Red tights—interesting. The wearing of red tights is a more recent invention, apparently highly influenced by—you know—Walt Disney and others trying to picture devils.
  And so they put him in red. At the same time, it’s also something that goes back to the medieval morality plays.

Back in the Middle Ages, they would do these plays about morality. And some of it would be kind of like the devil on one side, speaking—as we have in cartoons—and on the other side is an angel, trying to convince somebody to do good.

These kinds of plays pictured the devil in red tights.

Now, C.S. Lewis—we’re going to quote him occasionally. He’s a great Christian author from the middle of the 20th century, and somebody who was an atheist who became a believer. Anyway, C.S. Lewis wrote marvelous books after he became a Christian. As an atheist, he gradually became a believer as he read the works of some of the great Christian minds in England at the time.

And when he was converted, he said this:

“You’ve got to picture me that night in Magdalene [College], always feeling the approach of God,”
“Yet,” he said, “I was dragged kicking and screaming into the Kingdom, as the most reluctant convert in all of England.”

But then he asked, “Who can rightly adore a God who does that?”

Still, Lewis turned his powerful mind to the subject of devils, and he wrote a remarkable book called The Screwtape Letters. If you can get it, it’s a marvelous read.

It’s a collection of fictional letters from a senior devil (Screwtape) to his nephew (Wormwood), a junior tempter, advising him on how to keep a human “patient” from finding faith and staying true to God.

This is what Lewis writes in one section—it's a critique of how the devil is portrayed in culture:

“That devils are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you.
If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind,
suggest to him a picture of something in red tights,
and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that,
he therefore cannot believe in you.”

Now, this is from The Screwtape Letters, where the senior devil is giving advice to keep the human confused and spiritually blind. The point is: if you can reduce the devil to a cartoon figure, people will stop believing in him altogether.

Let’s explore some of the elements of that modern comic image:

• The horns likely come from Revelation, where John describes a great beast—often associated with Satan—and says:

  It had two horns like a lamb but spoke like a dragon.

  This leads into the infamous number 666, also mentioned in that context. That’s a symbolic element we won’t cover in detail in this class.

• The cloven hooves and general appearance of Satan are inspired by the Greek god Pan, who was known as the god of the wilderness.
  Many stories also associate Pan with lust and debauchery.
  His image—with goat legs and hooves—was adopted into how people began to imagine Satan in later centuries.

So this image of Satan—as a red-suited, cartoonish devil—is meant to make him seem ridiculous, less threatening, even laughable.
That makes it easier to dismiss him as unreal or harmless.

But the Bible tells us a very different story.

He was created as a being of light—a splendid creature.

This is who he was.
An honored angel.
A guardian cherub.
One who held a position of influence, power, and might in serving God Almighty—his Creator.

And yet—he chose to rebel.
And he persuaded others to rebel with him.

Here’s one incredibly powerful section of Scripture, from the book of Revelation:

Then war broke out in heaven.
Michael the archangel—a ruling angel—and his angels fought against the dragon.
And the dragon and his angels fought back.
But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.
The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.
He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

So now the question becomes:

Where are they?

They went from being unlimited—in a creation so vast, so broad—to being confined here. And now, here on Earth, they continue to work against the purposes of God, continuing to challenge the building of His Kingdom.

Then we hear these powerful words from Revelation:

“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
‘Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.’”

We’re going to come back to this verse when we explore the names of Satan, including this one: the Accuser—the one who stands before God and accuses us constantly.

But notice again: it all starts in heaven, before it ever came to Earth.
Before there were creatures made in the image of God, a battle was already underway.

So—who is Satan?

He’s a created being.
He’s a being of great power and great splendor.
He’s not grotesque in appearance—quite the opposite.

As Paul says, he appears as an angel of light.

Something attractive. Something that seems good. Something delightful.

So take a moment and ask yourself:
How do you respond to that?
Does it fill you with fear?
Or does it fill you with faith?

This is not mythology.
This is our reality.

It’s like that illustration of the elephant again.
You have six blindfolded people, each touching a different part—each one says something different based on their limited experience.

And yet, they’re all describing something real.

In the same way, when we look at the world around us, ask yourself:

Where do you see his presence?
Where do you see the fingerprints of the one who said,
“I will make myself like the Most High”?
“I… I… I…”

Where is that I-centered rebellion still alive?

In the next session, we’re going to look at how this battle—once in heaven—moves to Earth.
It moves among us, especially those created in God’s image, who are the special targets of Satan’s attacks.

Because we are the ones who reflect God’s nature.
And he is the sworn enemy of that image.

This was a shorter class, but I wanted to end here and prepare us for what’s next.

So let’s close in prayer:

Prayer:

Lord, we confess that too often we picture Satan as a joke—
a cartoon figure with horns and a tail.
But Your Word tells us he is much more dangerous than that.
He is beautiful. He is persuasive. He is powerful.
He is not repulsive—but tempting.

Lord, open our eyes and our minds.
Help us to recognize the deception.
Remind us that You are greater than our enemy.
That You reign.
That You have already defeated him once through Michael and the angels.
And that You empower us now, through Christ, to stand firm.

Teach us, Lord, how to live as people who are alert,
people who know the reality of spiritual warfare—
but who also walk in victory through Jesus.

We pray this in His powerful name.
Amen.