Satan & Demons Fell before Humankind 

Satan & Demons Fell before Humankind 

John 10:18 – “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.” [JHK Note: This power to delegate authority is also emphasized in Luke 9:1 – “He called his twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases.” Furthermore, Jesus says in what we call “The Great Commission in Matthew 28:18 – “All authority has been given to me in Heaven and on Earth,” but it is also clear that he did not have to die to be granted that authority by God the Father. So, too, with judgment. “The Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the son.” (John 5:22) Nor did Jesus have to die to forgive sin, as is made clear in the incident of Jesus healing the paralytic in Matthew 9:1-8 -- “Know that the Son of Man has power on Earth to forgive sins.” Jesus helps Pilate understand that delegated power comes from God in John 19:10-11.] 

Revelation 12:7-9 – “War broke out in Heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the Dragon. The Dragon and his angels also fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in Heaven any longer. So the Great Dragon was cast out, that Serpent of Old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the Earth and his angels [whom we call “demons”] were cast out with him.” * [JHK Note: The relationship between Lucifer, the fallen Archangel, and the snake or serpent found in Genesis 3 is suggested in John 10:18, supra, and is further confirmed in Revelation 12:3-4 – “Another sign appeared in Heaven. Behold, a great, fiery Red Dragon .. His tail drew a third of the stars of Heaven and threw them to the Earth.” If we think about these passages, we realize that two-thirds of the angels remained loyal to God, the Lord of Hosts, along with Michael, His commander, whom we first meet in the story of Balaam, his donkey, and the angel in Numbers 22:22-40, again as Joshua is about to attack Jericho in Joshua 5:13-15, and yet again as Gideon is summoned to become a warrior in Judges 6. The awesome power of this Angel of the Lord is confirmed in the overnight slaughter of 185,000 Assyrian troops in Isaiah 37:36 and in the overwhelming might of the heavenly hosts as revealed to the terrified servant of Elisha in 2 Kings 6:8-23 – “The Lord opened the [spiritual] eyes of the young man, and behold: he saw the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”] 

Luke 4:5-8 – “The Devil took Jesus up a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him: ‘All this authority and their glory I will give to you, for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship me, all will be yours.” [JHK Note: This Second Temptation in Luke appears in a shorter version as the Third Temptation in Matthew 4:8-10 and is a key indication of the usurpation of power originally granted by God to humankind in the Three Great Blessings found in Genesis 1:18 – “(1) Become fruitful, (2) multiply, fill the Earth, and subdue it, (3) and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the Earth.” * Humankind surrendered this authority of dominion upon succumbing to sin – abandoning the Word and Will of God the Father to follow the word and will of the Serpent, whom we now have identified as the Tempter, the Great Dragon, the fallen Archangel Lucifer. Jesus calls Satan “the ruler of this world” in John 14:30.]